Mobile Phones

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Nowadays, a mobile phone has become a part of one’s life.

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:24:30 +0000

Nowadays, a mobile phone has become a part of ones life. It is something without which it is difficult to imagine life, both in terms of necessity and in terms of making a fashion statement, such as the Nokia 5800. People cannot leave their homes without taking the mobile casino with them. Parents are gifting the children too with mobile phones for many reasons, the major reason being concern for the safety of children. The use of mobile phones has, no doubt, made communication easier and faster. They allow one to stay connected with the world and with the near and dear ones, whenever and wherever possible. Besides providing normal telephonic communication and SMS facility, they also offer the facility of phone book storage, organizing of dates and time, etc. They also work as calculators. With the advancement in digital technology, these facilities have become more advanced with lots of newly added features such as camera, video, video games, music FM radio, etc. Many of them are provided with Bluetooth and infra-red technology. Now one can utilise the mobile phone for checking e-mails and using the internet. It can even be used as a mini laptop, with more or less, all the essential features of a computer. Mobile phones, surely, have a bright future ahead.

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Review: Sony Ericsson Aino

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:15:15 +0000

Review: Sony Ericsson Aino
The Sony Ericsson Aino is the phone that finally brings PS3 connectivity to a mobile – bringing the best of Sony’s brands to beat the multimedia prowess of the iPhone and Samsung i8910HD.It’s a mid-range effort, following just behind the Sony Ericsson Satio in the recent slew of releases from the brand, but it still tries to pack a wealth of functionality into its chassis.The main talking point is the PS3 connectivity – but don’t get too excited as it’s not the PSP phone we’ve all been waiting for, more a device to make use of the considerable multimedia prowess of the PS3.Beyond that, the phone is similar to the Sony Ericsson W995 in terms of specs – 8GB memory card, BBC iPlayer support, standard SE interface and so on.But the shape is entirely different – it’s a long device with a 3-inch screen and a slide out physical keyboard. Sadly it’s only widescreen QVGA, meaning it won’t give the best resolution for watching movies or viewing web pages.The slide action is solid with a pleasant feeling both up and down – given that the likes of the Palm Pre and the Motorola Dext haven’t managed to achieve such a thing with recent high-end devices, this is good to see.The solid black chassis is a lot less button-full than the Satio, with a camera shutter and a volume/zoom rocker switch on the right-hand side. The left merely houses the standard Sony Ericsson port for power, USB and headphones (sadly no 3.5mm headphone jack here, despite SE debuting it on the W995).The top of the phone hides the lock switch for when the phone slider is shut – because this phone has an odd double life. By day/when slid up, it’s a meek Sony Ericsson phone with a slightly long screen – physical keyboard and the normal interface.But by night/when closed, it morphs into a multimedia marvel, with a touchscreen activated by a slide up arrow. It’s an odd scenario, and one we’ll go into later in the review.The physical keyboard is well laid out, with the important buttons all necessary. We’re enjoying the rubberised and compact yet easy-to-hit layout, with the two softkeys flanking a circular D-pad and enter button, as well as a clear and running applications/notifications key below.The rear of the phone houses the camera, an 8.1MP effort, with a single LED flash for both video and photography.The battery is hidden below the snap on cover, which is a little tricky to replace and requires a user to push it harder than they’d probably like – we felt like we were going to break it.The SIM and battery compartments are well laid-out, with the microSD slot at the top easy to use and the battery simple to remove to access the SIM card.The design of the phone is interesting – with the lock key in a little bit of a hard to reach place and the phone not quite sitting as snugly in the hand as the Sony Ericsson W995. However, it feels solid and is impressive enough for the market SE is likely to be aiming for with it.In the boxThere’s the usual fodder in the Sony Ericsson box for the Aino, with a couple of notable exceptions. There’s, of course, the USB lead and charger (both proprietary) and some quick start literature.It’s devoid of a start up CD, and that’s because Sony Ericsson has included the relevant software on the memory card. And for a phone that’s supposed to be a media handset, SE has decided to give it a whopping 8GB card right out of the box, which we’re very impressed with.But the thing we love the most is the MH100 Bluetooth headset, which houses a 3.5mm headphone jack to allow you to use your favourite cans wirelessly (well, sort of).This is a teeny tube with multiple LEDs on the front to show activity, with a touch sensitive slider on the side to control the volume. There are also track skipping and play/pause keys included, as well as a call/terminate button on the bottom, as the MH100 can also be used as a hands free kit.You may have noticed we nabbed this for use when reviewing the Satio – it’s a great addition to the package and makes the Aino a much more attractive proposition in our eyes.The box also includes a charging stand – it allows you to watch movies without having to hold the phone, as well as including two charging ports so you can power up your phone and Bluetooth kit at the same time, which is another neat touch.The talk about the interface will be divided into two sections, as the Sony Ericsson Aino technically is running two user interfaces, if not two OSes. Non touch (keypad slid open)Those of you familiar with the standard Sony Ericsson UI will either groan or squeak with delight when you power on the Aino for the first time, as it’s the same interface that the company has been using for nearly eight or nine years.This means a home screen with customisable softkeys and D-pad to use different shortcuts, and a grid/list menu system for delving deeper into the phone.One interesting addition to the Aino is Facebook however – it has a customised portal in the applications menu, and a mini-mode that sits on the home screen.This smaller option basically cycles through your Facebook friends’ profile pictures, with new status updates shown in little speech bubbles. You can also go up and down to see notifications, such as pokes and requests, or look at and change your status.Other than that, the Aino’s home screen is leagues away from the heavily customised Symbian offering on the Satio, with things like the quick launcher (giving options on running applications, bookmarks and messages) giving a familiar, if functional, feel to the proceedings.The media listings are slightly different though, using Sony’s Xross Media Bar system (yes, we hate that spelling too – it’s like renaming a packet of Walker’s into Xrisps), which gives easy and well laid-out access to your tunes/video/radio.It’s a little hidden down the menu, as are a lot of cool applications, like remote play. We’ve already touched on how being able to connect to the PS3 is a fundamental part of why people will buy this phone, but you have to hit Menu > Entertainment > Remote Play to even start it, which seems a little odd to us.We’re also questioning the wisdom of switching off the touchscreen functionality when the slide-out keypad is used – what’s the point in that? We know people would rather use a physical keyboard and the touchscreen is a little redundant at this point, but unless not using it saves huge amounts of power, we see no problem with it staying on.Let’s be honest – using elements like the internet browser are much easier when you can just poke the screen, so we hope this is something that might be changed in the future with a firmware update – especially as Sony Ericsson tells us that it is possible, it just chose not to do it.Touch interface (keyboard closed)The touch interface when the phone is closed is a whole new ball game. You shut the phone, and you’re presented with a handset exclusively to be used in landscape mode. Dragging up an eject-style icon will give you access to a similar array of options to the Xross Media Bar, except this time you can touch the elements you want instead.Each press will open a new range of icons in front of the former, so you can interact with the content chosen. The touchscreen on the Aino is bizarrely a capacitive effort, which is a little more expensive that a resistive choice – we can’t see why you’d need to be accurate with this screen when the icons are so large, as accuracy is usually the reason for not going with a resistive screen.When using media, there are limited options compared to the standard mode – you can set the Aino to shuffle and repeat, but you can’t, for instance, edit or add items to a playlist. We don’t see why there’s not a small icon at the bottom to call up some basic options and settings – but this landscape media mode seems to be set up to be simple to use.We’ve also got a couple of real problems with it – the lock key will shut off the screen, but it can be easily reactivated in the pocket and somehow the screen can be slid open, with all the icons easily pressed.Twice in our tests the phone spontaneously fired up when sitting in the pocket – we have no idea how as we weren’t even moving that much, but it’s a poor showing that this is possible.The memory card accessing is also terrible – the first time you put it in the phone will update itself, but after that it keeps re-updating for no reason when you fire up the media browser. This means you can’t access your tunes for up to a minute – which can get very irritating.The touchscreen also spontaneously kept shutting off when we were trying to use the media mode – this meant restarting the phone, which takes an age when all you want to do is listen to your tracks.And both modes suffer horribly from lag when running multiple applications. Try using the music player and receiving a message – not only will the music stop for the message, only to restart a few moments later, but the phone will more often than not grind to a halt in order to have a think about all the tasks it needs to do.We don’t know if it’s a substandard processor or just poor optimisation – either way it needs to be sorted if the Aino is to be seen as a true multimedia option.Calling on Sony Ericsson handsets has always been fairly easy, and that hasn’t changed on the Aino.The caller lists are laid out in a simple to use and set up way – it’s easy to scroll through and with the physical keyboard you can simply input the person’s name and off you go.A problem we’ve always had with Sony Ericsson handsets is entering text this way isn’t displayed easily, so you can’t always be sure which name you’ve entered. It is also very slow to react, so you can easily input the wrong letter than have to wait a second or two to change it.That said, we’re fans of simplicity when it comes to elements like this – touchscreens suffer with long lists, and being able to simply switch to the name you’re after, or see a list of calls made, received and missed is a nice touch.Adding a contact is as simple as can be too – simply type the number, select ‘New Contact’ and then put in all the information you need – you can go from just a picture to company details to voice command for automated calling. It might not sound like much, but in today’s complex smartphone days it can be very easy to make even entering a new contact a very difficult experience.Grouping is on offer too – pre-made groups such as family or business are available or you can make your own. It’s a bit redundant as you have to negotiate a number of menu screens to access the group, but if you regularly send group messages, you’ll be pleased to see this on offer.There are two options for calling – video and voice calls, with the former only activated from within a sub menu of the contact. There’s a reason for this – no front facing camera means video calling is more about showing your friend something from the main camera, or sharing a video or picture clip over the call.Voice call quality is average, as in we sometimes struggled to hear people over the handset – it’s not a deal breaker by any means, but we could have done with a little more clarity to make the Aino perfect in this respect.The reception wasn’t as good though – mainly with regards to 3G coverage, with the phone defaulting to GPRS or even GSM connections far too often. Not a major problem, but trying to call when on a moving train was a veritable nightmare. We’re used to better from Sony Ericsson, which makes it odd that the Aino doesn’t fare as well.Similar to calling on the Sony Ericsson Aino, the messaging experience is simple and easy to use.The main texting option is as simple to use as you’d expect, and Sony Ericsson is also using an updated text input system to make things easier. It basically apes the simplicity of Nokia’s Symbian OS, meaning the space key now lives on the ‘0′ button, and the cycling through words is possible with the ‘*’ key rather than just the down button.Text messages are arranged into two options – the normal inbox/sent message format and conversations, which are thankfully under the messaging icon and not stuffed away in the applications section (we’re looking at you, Satio).Changing a message from a simple SMS to an MMS is an easy process as well, something Sony Ericsson has traditionally done well. You can simply add a picture, GIF animation, sound or video, with the Aino updating the message accordingly. It can cost more to send a message this way, so make sure you check your contract or PAYG deal to see if it will incur extra charges.There’s also a direct link to Facebook from within the messaging menu, but it’s sadly not as good as on the INQ1, where FB messages are as easy to send as a text. You have to access the Facebook portal on the Aino, meaning an internet connection and even if you have that, you’ll be waiting a while before you can update your messages.Email support is also included on the Aino, but like many other devices, it doesn’t play well with webmail. We used Gmail, as many others will we imagine, and went for a POP3 connection, as this gives a more instant update for emails in the absence of push.The Aino asked for all our details, but unlike the Nokia 6300 Classic, the phone couldn’t download the necessary Googlemail settings. This means that most users will probably give up at the thought of having to input the correct POP server, and those that don’t will have to track down the relevant Google page (which is here, if you’re looking for it).Email also doesn’t synchronise to the most recent mail either, and only a vast amount of playing and deleting will bring things up to date. While we like the option to have webmail on the phone, we recommend downloading the Google Mail Java application instead of relying on the inbuilt system.We mentioned a serious amount of lag caused by an incoming message earlier – another problem is sending one too. After sending, the phone pauses for an interminable amount of time until the message is sent – it’s been years since this issue has afflicted mobiles and it’s very annoying.The internet experience on the Sony Ericsson Aino is a little disappointing too – the browser is pretty basic and seemingly can’t render sites with any kind of aplomb.Well, that’s not strictly true – it can, but Sony Ericsson has made a big play about the fact you can search on Google either right from the home screen or via the bookmarked home page. But on this handset, Google strips all the picture functionality away, leaving users with a basic text only version of the sites.As far as we can tell full HTML is only a very last resort on the Sony Ericsson Aino – we were constantly redirected to mobile versions of sites, which is annoying when you need some functionality from a full site version.One problem that had us truly stumped for a while is the lack of internet options or settings on the Aino. A touch on the softkey to open the toolbar gave only a few basic bookmarking options – it was only after hunting through nearly every menu on the Aino did we realise a secondary menu became available once the toolbar was enabled.Perhaps that was just us being slightly slow on the uptake, but it’s hardly the most user friendly option and placement.GOOGLE’S CHOICE: How the search engine renders web pages on the AinoWeb feeds, such a great part of the Satio, have weirdly been integrated into the Xross Media Bar, rather than in the browser itself. We actually prefer them there, as more often than not we use RSS feeds to ignore the browser, not as a reason to use it.Finding the feeds and adding them in is a little harder, but it’s the same on most feature phones – and once you get them up and running it’s a great little feature.BACK AGAIN: And in ‘normal’ HTML modeOne problem, and one we touched on earlier, is connectivity to data is pretty slow on the Aino – both over 3G and Wi-Fi in fact. From two separate routers and the local 3G coverage we were left hanging waiting for websites to load on countless occasions – we’re not sure why as once they render, the pages actually load pretty quickly.The internet browser is pretty basic on the Aino. Most people will be used to the mobile internet on their phone, and will simply have a bog standard list of mobile friendly sites they like to bookmark.But that’s no excuse, and with the nice long widescreen, plus the media-centric nature of the Aino, we just expected slightly more from it in terms of web browsing – and not being able to use the touchscreen makes it all the more annoying.Sony Ericsson has actually been placing some pretty decent cameras on its phones these days, and the Aino is no exception. 8.1MP, an LED flash and video light as well as some decent photography options – that’s the top end of what nearly everyone will need. And those that yearn for 12MP and above – well, you’re just being greedy, aren’t you?The camera has a range of functions, from being able to divide the screen into thirds for better pictures to a touchscreen focus mode, which will take a picture based around the point you’ve touched on.This is a great way to work around the problems of not being able to focus on the elements you want simply by using the built-in hardware, and something we think should be integrated into all cameras.The time taken from one picture to another is absolutely ridiculous though – we’re talking up to 14 seconds to take another picture, and that’s only with the camera on 6MP setting. We’ve no idea why it takes that long to save a photo, but it does.The touchscreen borders on appalling in this mode as well – we lost count of the amount of times we tried to hit a pop up icon on the camera screen only for it to register no input – we assume this is down to the icons being too close to the edge of the display.However, there are some nice tweaks like touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, image stabiliser, smart contrast and red-eye reduction, all of which work well and do the job they’re supposed to, which is what you’d expect from a camera using Sony tech.Here’s how the Aino stood up to the Olympus SP-565UZ prosumer camera. The Sony Ericsson Aino takes pictures in 16:9 format at 6MP, which we’ve used here to show how much more photograph you can get:Sony Ericsson Aino – colours look a little washed out on the Aino, but overall reproduction is good:Olympus SP-565UZ: Sony Ericsson Aino:Olympus SP-565UZ: Sony Ericsson Aino – the macro mode is excellent at sharpening edges, but the Olympus is much more able to pick out detail:Olympus SP-565UZ: Sony Ericsson Aino – both cameras are decent in direct sunlight – the Aino certainly holds its own and picks out a good amount of detail:Olympus SP-565UZ: Sony Ericsson Aino – Face detection works well on the Aino, instantly bringing it into focus:Olympus SP-565UZ: Sony Ericsson Aino – the LED flash on the Aino is better used as a torch – it’s very poor in darkness, losing a lot of detail and colour compared to a Xenon:Olympus SP-565UZ: Video recordingVideo is recorded in VGA and at 30fps on the Aino – which is very good indeed. It takes a lot less time to start up than the camera, and will save video files faster too.And we were delighted to see NearHD video recording included as well – this allows users to record video that will actually look pretty decent on a large screen.Video detail is satisfactory, and although boot up time is a little slow, leaving us all too often asking someone to wait while we started up the camera, it’s passable for run-of-the-mill movie making.Media on the Sony Ericsson Aino is pretty darn good, as you can imagine. Well, it’s not as good as the Satio, but the ability to listen to music in two different ways (when the phone is open and closed) is a pretty nifty feature. We found ourselves mostly using the media player when the phone is shut, simply because we prefer touchscreens for this application. The capacitive screen was far from being as responsive as we’d hoped, but it was still slick enough when needed.MusicThe music player was a good effort on the Sony Ericsson Aino, with easy to use controls and the MH100 Bluetooth headset making the experience very nice to work with.The music interface was slow to react in portrait mode, although tunes sounded excellent over the wireless connection, and the whole thing sped along nicely on the touchscreen.One major flaw was the inability to search for music to use on a playlist – we had to copy all the songs to a certain folder on the memory card in order to set them up to play continuously.VideoDue to the low resolution of the screen, the Sony Ericsson Aino isn’t capable of playing a huge number of our videos we’ve encoded specifically for mobile phone use.The only way through was to resize and convert them all using the PC software, meaning a couple of overnight jobs just to watch a movie on the 3-inch screen. The experience was again enhanced by the MH100, but not supported by an average resolution. We could understand these characteristics in a cheaper phone, but for something that’s fairly pricey we’re a little perturbed.Video access was OK, especially in touch mode, and scrolling through and all the usual options worked well. We wouldn’t use the Aino as a PMP regularly, but if you’re willing to convert the files then you might enjoy the experience.FM radioWitchcraft-alert – somehow the Sony Ericsson Aino asks you to connect wired headphones to act as an antenna for the FM radio, but pull out the Bluetooth headset and it will work fine. We can only assume that the MH100 unit sends the signal back for the FM radio to pick up – either way, it’s clever and very much unexpected.The radio is simple enough to use, and once again makes good use of the touchscreen for manual tuning (even if it did keep switching itself off).YouTube and BBC iPlayerYou know how these work by now – we like the way Sony Ericsson packages them in the Xross Media Bar for easy viewing, and we imagine finding BBC iPlayer on board is a great surprise for some people.SMILEY MILEY: Yes, that’s a grainy Miley Cyrus. She’s rapping about not being on Twitter any more. Kids these days, eh… back in our time, we’d have to phone people to tell themWe won’t go into great depth, as both do what they’re supposed to – YouTube mobile needs a wider range of videos, but BBC iPlayer brings a very solid mobile experience.PS3 connectivityAs we mentioned before, one of the big draws of the Aino is PS3 connectivity – offered both over 3G and Wi-Fi networks.The set-up process is pretty convoluted, with codes having to be issued by the base unit to be synchronised with the Aino. It then asks for your PlaySation network user name and password, and the whole thing begins searching.The first time we tried it over Wi-Fi it worked pretty well – OK it was very slow, but the movie did play OK. However, get a text or a call or anything else other than the connection and the whole thing starts to go awry, and the phone slows down so much you’re forced to pull out the PS3 connection.And it gets worse – it would not work for us over 3G no matter how many times we tried (and that was nothing to do with the poor reception this time). And when we tried to use it over Wi-Fi again, it didn’t work.We’d advise if you’re really after remote play from your PS3, pick up a PSP Go – at least they work more often than not.Media HomeBut weirdly, Media Home does work. Install the software to your PC, make sure it’s switched on and let the phone find the content you’ve dubbed as share-worthy from your computer.It’s neat, and as long as you have Wi-Fi turned on (and the settings turned to auto-update) users can get easy and automatic access to their favourite content without having to mess about with connecting up the phone.Why this is hidden in ‘Entertainment’ and not on the media menu we’re not sure, but it’s a decent application nonetheless.The range of applications on the Sony Ericsson Aino is bewildering, simply because it seems the company has lumped every single one it could think of in there.We’ll take you through some of our personal favourites, although the likes of the torch (which turns on the LED flash) and the photo tutor (some basic hints on how to take decent cameraphone snaps) are worthy of honourable mention.TrackIDAnyone that knows Shazam how this works – hold the phone up to a speaker when an unknown song is playing and TrackID will perform music recognition magic for you. It will then send you to a portal where you can download the track -either from the Sony Ericsson PlayNow arena or your network provider’s music store to buy the song in question.TrackID also has searchable elements, an option to see the most listened to and downloaded tracks in recent days and an easy to use interface but it can’t work out what song your mate is trying to hum to you, sadly.TrackerSeen the Nike+ iPod? This is pretty similar, as it works out where you are to help you train while running. The best thing is once your size and weight are calibrated, there’s no need for a pesky shoe sensor – it can map your runs and give you detailed feedback at the end, complete with motivational voiceovers.Crazy PenguinA cool game that’s so addictive we nearly published this review later than we were supposed to. Basically you fire penguins at polar bears, and try and navigate the scenery to do so before you run out of winged ammo.It sounds rubbish – but it’s really not, and while it’s not a reason to buy the phone alone, check it out if you do end up with the Aino.PlayNow ArenaWhile the likes of Apple, RIM, Nokia and friends are off making their own whizzbang application stores, Sony Ericsson, well, isn’t.PlayNow Arena is basically a store front to buy ever-so-slightly pricey games, ringtones, tunes and wallpapers, with an added applications section too. But most of the applications cost to buy – there are only two free, Snaptu and Fring, in the store. We don’t know if the phone is incompatible or the library needs completing, but this needs to change soon if SE is to be a big player in the future.We feel like we’re constantly picking at the Aino, which does feel like it should be a decent handset, but we’ve got another gripe – the battery life isn’t good.Sony Ericsson is touting standby times of up to 367 hours for the Aino – it’s more like 20 hours in real use.While the battery life can be extended to just about last a day when everything is turned off, the Aino is designed to be always on. You don’t want to be turning Bluetooth on and off whenever you want to listen to music – and not least because it’s hidden down in the settings menu (or the slow to launch QuickLaunch box).And Wi-Fi is necessary for the Media Go application – so we can’t see why the battery is a paltry 1,000mAh effort.And while we did listen to a fair chunk of music on the phone, this was offset by not watching video and barely browsing the web, so in real terms it lags way behind its competitors.OrganiserAs we mentioned above with the applications, the amount of organisational ability on the phone is impressive. It’s not going to rival a Windows Mobile, what with its push email, calendar, contacts and whatnot, but it’s got a stopwatch and a timer, and we can’t tell you the amount of people who have told us this is crucial (OK, we can, it’s eight. But they were adamant).The calendar is easy to use, and now comes with a charming piece of artwork, and there are five customisable alarms with some lovely melodic ringtones to choose from.There’s not a lot more to say about organising yourself with the Aino – it might not be the Filofax replacement you’ve been after, but it will let you know when you’re about to miss the footie (as long as you wrote it in there, of course).Connectivity is pretty much limited to the PC via the USB cable, although if you’ve enabled your computer with Bluetooth you can go nuts with that too.The range of options on offer in the Aino is a full complement, with all working well. Wi-Fi sometimes struggles to get going, but on the whole, everything powers up quickly and works when it’s supposed to.We’re particularly impressed with the GPS on board – assisted GPS (which uses cellular towers to triangulate your position) boots up blindingly fast, and GPS has a lock on you generally within 10 seconds. Good show, Sony Ericsson.Bluetooth and the MH100 work together nicely as well, with the latter coming online as soon as it’s switched on. The same can be said for a entering a zone with a paired Bluetooth PC – it connects nicely with the Aino and makes content sharing easy.We also liked the Wi-Fi as it brought Media Go – the only downside to having constantly updated media is you’re often left feeling like you don’t own enough, so a few too many trips to online MP3 stores were necessary out of sheer fear of being uncool.PC softwareSimilar to the Sony Ericsson Satio (well, it’s identical in actual fact, we used the same PC software as it was included on both phones) the phone will connect effortlessly to the PC with a minimum of fuss (once everything is installed).Once again, one of the attributes we particularly like is being able to save and view your text messages in an inbox/outbox format – meaning you can back them up for another phone in the future.Media Go and the Sony Ericsson PC Suite offer you all the media options you need, such as converting video files and streaming media to the phone, and it’s hard to find any fault with this setup really – the new Samsung PC Studio looks a bit nicer and the iPhone has iTunes’ might behind it, but that’s about it. What is the Aino for? Is it a featurephone with smartphone leanings? Is it the PSP phone with some other functionality thrown in the mix? Either way, it’s expensive – around 470 SIM free, or 170 for the phone on a one-and-a-half year, 25 a month contract.We likedWe liked the simplicity of the layout and what the phone is trying to do – it’s got a fairly solid build, although it feels a little long in the hand. BBC iPlayer is always a plus, and the easy-to-use touch media interface is nice. We like the included stand and are big fans of the bundled MH100 headset, and the GPS system with a number of location based services is a nice touch.We dislikedSadly we disliked a great deal more about the phone, from a laggy OS when multi-tasking to an odd touch/non-touch combination.Elements like the touchscreen seizing up, the camera taking 15 seconds to move from one picture to another and the fact the PS3 connectivity doesn’t work regularly make it hard to love this phone, especially when the battery dies for the umpteenth time.VerdictWe liked the Aino a lot when we got it out the box, and our opinion dwindled downwards from there. When the main selling point isn’t fully functional (ie, the PS3 compatibility isn’t up to speed) and both the camera and media player are slow to react, we’re struggling to find a reason to recommend this phone.The Sony Ericsson W995 has the same UI, but is a lot faster, and comes in a nicer chassis, has a faster camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack and crucially is around 120 cheaper to buy. We would have given the Aino half a star less than we have, but we’re still fans of the simplistic Sony Ericsson interface, and the overall package doesn’t deserve to be among the worst phones of the year – we’re just disappointed with the effort.Related LinksMore mobile phone reviewsTechRadar’s Reviews GuaranteeSearch for the best Sony Ericsson Aino deals at OmioRelated StoriesReview: Samsung Galaxy i7500Review: Samsung Blade GT-S5600VReview: Motorola Dext MB200Review: HTC Touch2Review: Sony Ericsson Satio

New HTC Legend and HTC Desire Android Smartphones Unveiled

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:15:09 +0000

New HTC Legend and HTC Desire Android Smartphones Unveiled
HTC today introduced an enhanced HTC Sense experience that will be available on two new Android smartphones, the HTC Legend and HTC Desire. The new HTC Sense comes with a new HTC application and widget called HTC Friend Stream that seamlessly aggregates all of your social communication including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into one organised [...]

iPad, iPhone, Kindle, DS, PSP size comparison
With its 9.7″ screen, the Apple iPad is looking promising for viewing photos and video, browsing the web and gaming.But how does it stack up in size against other devices that you might use for similar things?Our colleagues on GamesRadar.com have fired up Photoshop to provide a comparison of the iTablet against the Kindle DX, the iPhone, the PSP, the PSP Go, the DSi and the DSi XL.STACKED: Chuck the devices on top of one another and the iPhone is looking tinySCREEN SIZE: When comparing by screen size, the iPad comes out topFor a massive mocked-up side-by-side comparison, head over to GamesRadar.Related StoriesIn Depth: Apple iPad: review of the reaction around the webGary Marshall: Will the iPad kill Kindle and nuke netbooks?Hands on: Apple iPad reviewExclusive: Strongest hint yet: Chrome OS to go touchCompetition: WIN! A Datawind UbiSurfer netbook

Solaris Mobile Announces Pocket Gateway Device

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:00:30 +0000

Solaris Mobile Announces Pocket Gateway Device
Solaris Mobile announces the development of a mobile gateway device allowing the reception of services in S-Band on smart phones. The Solaris Mobile Pocket Gateway is a pocket sized S-band receiver which decodes DVB-SH TV, radio & data streams and relays them over WiFi via a mini web server built into the device. This technology [...]

Marvell Introduces 1GHz ARMADA 618 Chipset
Marvell today announced the newest addition to the ARMADA family of application processors the Marvell ARMADA 618 for next generation HD-capable smartphones. The ARMADA 618 offers a CPU core with PC-class performance, integrated 1080p full-HD encode and decode, and 3D graphics with very low power requirements. ARMADA 618 supports Linux, Android, Windows Mobile, and [...]

Apple’s top 10 issues: AT&T, the App Store, and … computers?

admin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:15:10 +0000

Apples top 10 issues: AT&T, the App Store, and computers?
John Gruber, author of popular Apple-focused blog Daring Fireball, just finished his presentation at the MacWorld conference in San Francisco, where he walked through what he sees as Apple’s top 10 issues. Many items should be familiar to people who use Apple products or follow the tech world, but there were some surprises, too. Even when discussing old complaints, Gruber found a funny and smart way to describe why they matter. Here’s the list: 1. Steve Jobs — Jobs is to Apple what Walt Disney was to Disney, Gruber said. He’s the visionary who defines the company’s culture. And as everyone was reminded when Jobs took his medical leave of absence last year, he won’t be leading the company forever. Disney lost its way when its founder died, and the same thing might happen when Jobs retires. (Incidentally, VentureBeat’s Paul Boutin wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal about how Jobs’ other company, Pixar, has reinvigorated Disney.) 2. AT&T — The complaints about AT&T reception among iPhone users in the United States, especially in cities like San Francisco and New York, are never-ending. And while Apple will presumably end its exclusive relationship with the carrier at some point, Gruber noted that Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook recently defended AT&T during a company conference call. Apple also disappointed a lot of iPhone users with its AT&T partnership for the iPad tablet device. 3. Computers — Apple has never succeeded in having two computing platforms that thrive at the same time. For example, when Apple launched the Mac, the Apple II started to languish. Now Apple has the MacBook laptop and the new iPad, and after trying out the iPad, Gruber said, “I think a lot of people are going to choose the iPad over the MacBook Pro.” The overlap itself isn’t necessarily a problem, but “Apple has never pulled that off before.” 4. The App Store — Critics who want Apple to follow a more Google-like, open model for the App Store aren’t going to get anywhere, Gruber said. But even if you think that Apple is heading in the right direction overall, there are still problems with the approval process. There’s the slowness with which updates are approved, the arbitrariness of some App Store rejections, and the larger question of whether the approval process is sustainable as the App Store grows. “It should only be about quality control, not competition control,” Gruber said, offering Google Voice as an example of the wrong kind of rejection. 5. Security — Apple is too slow about responding to publicly disclosed security issues in the open source libraries that it uses. For example, someone found a problem with “just about every implementation of SSL” last fall, Gruber said, and it took Apple 75 days to ship a security update. Apple shouldn’t be the last one to address these issues, it should be the first. 6. MobileMe — Gruber focused on a couple of different aspects of Apple’s mobile syncing services. First he criticized the web apps for being pointless and basically a me-too effort on Apple’s part because everyone was talking about web apps. He also criticized the iDisk service for not being worth the expense, especially when compared to superior file synching applications like Dropbox. 7. Backups — Apple has started to provide a way for its customers to back up their data with Time Capsule, but that still requires more work than necessary, Gruber said. The underlying problem is that Apple is focused on storing the data on your device. Google’s cloud-centric model seems superior in this respect, because if you use Gmail or Google Docs, all your data is automatically stored and therefore backed up in Google’s data centers. 8. Apple TV — This is one Apple product that has never taken off. Gruber said that’s because it’s really only good for watching movies and TV shows off iTunes, where Apple is forced to make deals with movie and TV executives who “want to go back to the way things were.” That’s why the selection is so bad and the prices are too high. And Apple will never get where it needs to be to make Apple TV a hit “when they’re negotiating with people who are that stupid.” 9. Arch rivals — Microsoft started becoming irrelevant when it ran out of big competitors to take on, and Apple risks a similar situation now, Gruber said. Google is increasingly brought up as a competitor, but it’s an uneven competition, especially in the areas where the two companies are really going head-to-head — mobile phones (Android vs. iPhone) and low-end computers (Chrome OS vs. the iPad). In each area, it’s not a huge blow to Google if its products lose, as long as people are still using their online services like Google search and Gmail. On the other hand, if the iPhone loses out to Android, that’s a big problem for Apple. 10. About box credits — Steve Jobs stopped crediting the individual team members in the “about box” of Apple applications when he returned to the company a decade ago, ostensibly to thwart headhunters. Gruber said he’s skeptical that’s a real deterrent — after all, everyone gets credited in Pixar films, and that doesn’t seem to cause any problems. “Software can be an art, and Apple has been one of the leading practitioners of treating it as such,” Gruber said. “Artists should get to sign their work.”

Macworld iPad panelists defy Steve Jobs snub of the show
This year’s annual Macworld conference is missing a key component: Apple. The company — very likely Steve Jobs himself — decided last year that they weren’t getting enough out of Macworld. So this year, Macworld bravely carried on without an Apple booth or a Steve Jobs “One more thing …” keynote. On Saturday afternoon, Macworld editor Jason Snell brought out four serious Mac geeks to talk about the iPad tablet computer, despite the fact there were no iPads in the room, or anywhere else onsite at Macworld. Macworld editor Dan Warren, Mac Observer and Macfixit writer Ted Landau, GDGT co-founder and Engadget veteran Ryan Block, and roaming columnist for Macworld and the Chicago Sun-Times Andy Ihnatko discussed their expected plusses, minuses, and ultimate uses for Apple’s tablet. Ihnatko, who like everyone except Landau handled an iPad at Apple’s launch event, says the iPad stands out from previous Windows-based tablets because of its build quality. “You can tell you’re handling a premium product,” he said. “The device itself disappears after the first five seconds. You feel like you’re interacting directly with the mail app.” This has one potential downside, he said: You might stop paying attention and drop the thing. “I think a lot of people will go down to Walmart or Home Depot and get that grippy tape to put on the back.” Landau said, ”I think the majority of people who are happy with a laptop today will be happy with an iPad in three to four years.” That’s because developers will conjure up apps we haven’t thought of yet. “Will I be able to use it as a phone?” Warren asked. “Or a camera?” Landau added. Panelists criticized Apple without restraint for the company’s closed, intractable approval process for apps. Landau spun a funny parable in which he tries to use his Cuisinart toaster oven as a space heater on a cold day. Cuisinart customer support tells him his extension cord doesn’t say “Made for Cuisinart,” so it won’t work. And the Pop-Tars in his pantry won’t toast, because they weren’t purchased from Cuisinart’s online store. And in fact, the terms of use document that came with the toaster forbid even trying to use it as a heater. “I tried to tell a friend about this, but he was totally unsupportive,” Landau joked. “He’s kind of a Cuisinart fanboy. ‘They’re just looking out for your best interest,’ he told me, ‘And those Pop-Tars really aren’t good for you anyway.’” That, Landau concluded, is how it feels to struggle with Apple’s app store. Snell argued that he likes the app store because the apps almost always work flawlessly and don’t break his iPhone. “Why not an app store for the Mac?” he asked. The toughest topic for panelists was the iPad’s use as a reader for electronic books, newspapers and magazines. Block said the iPad reaffirmed his Kindle, a much better dedicated device for reading entire books on a computer screen. “I can see a day when the Kindle is free,” he said, as a means of bringing customers into Amazon’s e-book embrace. Snell concluded that it was too soon to forecast the iPad’s success, or even its modes of operation, for books. “iBooks was obviously a work in progresss,” he said of the book-reading app Steve Jobs demonstrated at the iPad’s launch event in January. “I think there’ll be fifteen different ways to read a book” on the iPad, he said. Ihnatko blamed the Internet for making it hard for publishers to go digital. The Net, he said, treats expensive, hard-won, tightly written and thoroughly fact-checked investigative journalism with quickie blog posts. Internet users have been trained to believe that all content should be free. Ihnatko thinks digital rights management tools will be a boon to publishers, just as they were to music and movie companies. Once people find it’s easy to buy the New York Times or a novel online, he said, they won’t mind paying a small price for much better content than what they can get for free. But publishers, like Hollywood, he concluded, will need to come to accept lower prices for each individual item online before they can really dive in and deliver the superior content for which iPad toters will pay. For a blow-by-blow report on the event, see TUAW’s liveblog post. (Disclosure: Macworld is owned and mostly run by IDG, the enormous tech-topics publisher — Macworld, PC World, Infoword — that also owns the DEMO conference now produced by VentureBeat.)

Sony Ericsson Unveils Aspen, Eco-Safe Windows Mobile Phone

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:30:04 +0000

Sony Ericsson Unveils Aspen, Eco-Safe Windows Mobile Phone
Sony Ericsson today unveiled the Aspen, an eco-friendly Windows Mobile smartphone, as the company pushes towards greener phones that are safer for the environment.

AT&T Approves SlingPlayer for iPhone on its 3G Network
AT&T said it will now allow the SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone application, a television-viewing program, to operate on its high-speed 3G network, reversing an earlier ban after federal regulators began looking into the wireless industry over discriminatory practices against certain types of Internet traffic.

Apple Allows VoIP on AT&T’s 3G Network
Apple is allowing iPhone owners to use Internet calling services like Google Voice and Skype over AT&T’s 3G cellular network, after the Federal Communications Commission became concerned that blocking those applications could violate open-Internet access rules.

Samsung’s Q4 financial report, another profitable quarter

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:44:59 +0000

Samsung’s Q4 financial report, another profitable quarter
2009 was a really good year for almost all of Samsung’s divisions. And as the just published financial report shows Q4 was just the icing of the cake. Quarter by quarter the number of shipped Samsung mobile phones…

Troubleshooting Your Nokia Phone with Nokia Diagnostics Software
Want to know your phone problem before you send your Nokia phones to service center? Nokia Beta labs has introduced a new Nokia Diagnostics, letting you perform 5 different tests on your Nokia phone. Check out the software here. With Nokia Diagnostics, you can diagnose, troubleshoot and configure your device using five different tests: Network Coverage [...]

Samsungs first Android OS 2.1 phone for Korea
Samsung has announced their first Android phone for their home market, powered by Android OS 2.1 and will be arriving this March through SK Telecom. Dubbed as SHW-M100S, it’s second Android gadget in Korea, after MOTOROI landed. The Samsung Android comes with an 800MHz processor, a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen (WVGA), 5MP camera with 720p video [...]

Coin operated mobile phone for the credit crunch

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:30:03 +0000

Coin operated mobile phone for the credit crunch
Dial-a-Phone has the scoop today on a coin operated mobile phone designed to cut spending in the credit crunch. The phone is codenamed the 100-F from a Latvian manufacturer, new to the mobile phone market, called Lirpa. It seems bizarre, but the phone design has been inspired by the global credit crunch (which must have reached [...]We love mobile phonesCoin operated mobile phone for the credit crunch

Sony Ericsson Aino
After announcing a November release of their first new generation multimedia phone, the Satio, Sony Ericsson have released details of another device – the Aino. Unlike the totally touchscreen Satio, the Aino has a slide out keypad as well as touchscreen functionality. The Aino also seems to pack a heavy punch in the multimedia department with [...]We love mobile phonesSony Ericsson Aino

HTC Hero Announced Reviews & Launch Date
At a press event in London yesterday, HTC announced the release of an all new Google Android phone, the HTC Hero! Not only is this new handset running Android but also HTCs, all new, widget-based operating system Sense. This new user interface will provide easily customisable live content in the form of email, SMS [...]We love mobile phonesHTC Hero Announced – Reviews & Launch Date

Gary Marshall: 10 ways the Apple iPad changes the game

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:30:11 +0000

Gary Marshall: 10 ways the Apple iPad changes the game
It’s not a phone, it’s not a netbook and it’s not really a Tablet PC. Apple’s iPad is a whole new kind of gadget – and it’s much more revolutionary than it looks.Here are 10 ways it’s changing the game.1. It’s got an Apple processorOf all the ideas that have gone into the iPad, this one may turn out to be the biggest: Apple kit now packs Apple chips. That makes Apple like Microsoft and Intel combined, and could prove to be a major difference between Apple kit and hardware built by others with bog-standard off-the-shelf processors. It might not happen this year, but Apple silicon will end up powering the iPhone, too.2. It does colour ebooksE-ink displays are easier to read for long periods, but the iPad’s eBooks can be in colour – and could include other media, such as video. The potential for bringing magazines and other publications into the 21st Century is enormous.3. It’s ridiculously easy to useDon’t underestimate the importance of simplicity. Even the best netbook is overly complicated for basic stuff such as email, photos and web browsing. The iPad makes them all as simple as opening your fridge – and it doesn’t do things for the sake of doing them. No, it doesn’t have a camera. Why on earth would you want to take photos with something the size of a large paperback book? It doesn’t make phone calls because it’s not a phone. It doesn’t have hooves because it’s not a horse.4. It adaptsThe iPad isn’t a computer that expects you to adapt to it. It’s a photo frame that becomes a newspaper that becomes Facebook that becomes a games console that becomes an ebook reader that becomes a photo frame again. It adapts to you.5. It uses multitouch properlyNo matter what Steve Ballmer or Steve Jobs says, using multitouch on a traditional computer is like strapping a jet engine to a pig: technically possible, interesting to look at and pretty much pointless. The iPad has been designed from the ground up as a multitouch device, and as a result its interface is based on what works rather than what everyone’s been using for two decades.6. The best bits aren’t here yetWhere were the textbooks and the comic books and the enhanced ebooks, not to mention the so-amazing-you-can’t-even-imagine-them killer apps? They’re all coming. If Apple had been showing the iPad to all and sundry it wouldn’t have stayed secret for very long. Now it’s out, the developers can start building things for it.7. Everybody’s going to copy itThese days, every smartphone has an OS that looks very like the iPhone. You can bet that within weeks, we’ll start seeing a whole bunch of media devices and tablet PCs that look very like the iPad. 8. It does appsIt’s an obvious point, but it bears repeating: the App Store is a really, really, really big deal. Like the iPhone, the iPad’s hardware doesn’t have everything a geek might want – but it does have an excellent OS and a great big stack of Apps. That’s what makes the iPhone a must-have, that’s what’s going to make the iPad really compelling.9. It’s really cheap – and could get cheaper stillThat $499 price point is really, really low – and we can’t think of any reason why media firms (newspaper publishers, perhaps?) couldn’t offer heavily subsidised iPads as part of a subscription. They get paid, you get a cheap iPad, Apple gets another user, everybody’s happy.10. It’s the first of a new breedThe first iPhone didn’t do 3G, didn’t do copy and paste, didn’t have a compass, and didn’t have an App Store. Look at it now. If this is what Apple’s up to now, what on Earth does it have up its sleeve for version 2.0? Related StoriesNew Apple MacBook teardownApple says ‘come see our latest creation’Apple looks for UK mobile partner for TabletApple Tablet ’spy shots’ and testing details uncoverediPad apps to cost more than iPhone apps