last100 » Mobile

Windows Phone 7 to get some Netflix streaming and XBox Live gaming action

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:37:38 +0000

When Engadget Editor-In-Chief Joshua Topolsky says something is game changing I tend to take notice. That’s how he described developments in the Windows Phone 7 world (previously Windows Mobile) in reference to a demo given at today’s MIX10, Redmond’s developer conference.

Specifically, Topolsky was referring to a Netflix streaming app (Watch Instantly) powered by Silverlight running on Microsoft’s latest mobile OS, along with support for XBox Live gaming.

Both moves clearly demonstrate that Windows Phone 7 series is the Zune phone that many have been wishing for. It’s also evidence of how the company plans to exploit what is arguably its strongest consumer brand – XBox – to give its mobile OS and the third-party hardware that will be running it, fresh impetus. Much needed in the face of so much competition from the likes of iPhone, Android, Palm, BlackBerry and Nokia.

A video of Netflix on Windows Phone 7 is embedded after the jump…

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Nokia Booklet 3G: Thoughts and first impressions

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:29:20 +0000

I’m typing this from my local coffee shop on a Nokia Booklet 3G, the Finnish handset maker’s entry into the crowded Netbook ‘mini laptop’ space. And there’s no doubt that I’m in possession of one of the better looking devices of this type that are on the market.

Nokia’s design cues feel like they’ve been taken directly from Cupertino, the hardware aesthetics are certainly Apple-inspired.

But then so is the price.

Retailing for just shy of £650 from Nokia’s own online store, for what is for the most part under the hood an average Atom-powered (1st generation?) Netbook, seems a little ambitious. Then again, your average price savvy Netbook buyer clearly isn’t the customer.

As I’ve noted before, the real customer of the Booklet 3G is mobile carriers who, presumably, Nokia is hoping will sell the device onto their customers, subsidized over a 18-24 month mobile broadband contract. Technology-wise, the Booklet 3G – built-in SIM slot, up to 12 hours battery life and GPS – is perfectly suited to this scenario.

And although I haven’t yet seen such offers here in the UK, should they enable the Booklet 3G to reach a price point closer to £199, then next to some of the plasticky looking Netbooks from Asus, Accer or MSI, for example, Nokia’s ‘premium’ device could standout and do better with business types or corporate accounts.

The handset maker also has plenty of brand recognition in Europe and, of course, the Booklet ties into Nokia’s Ovi services – so there’s potential consumer appeal too.

That said, my first impressions are a mixed bag: Great looking, well built, decent keyboard and large multi-touch track pad and buttons. The slightly higher resolution than most Netbooks is also handy. On the downside, it feels sluggish running Windows 7 with 1GB of RAM and has pretty rubbish sound. The 12 hours of battery life is clearly overstated too but to be honest, it still seems very impressive. I’m getting a reported 7+ hours remaining with an 86% charge and I’ve been using WiFi for over an hour already.

I have the Nokia Booklet 3G on an extended review loan so I plan to write an update/fuller review further down the line. In the meantime, leave your questions in the comments.

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YouTube updated for Symbian, now supports user accounts

David Gilson — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:08:33 +0000

YouTube's new application homepage on S60

It’s taken a while but YouTube has finally added support for user accounts in its updated client for phones running the Nokia-led Symbian OS.

Announced on the 10th of March, users can now log into their YouTube account enabling them to access their favourites, subscriptions, and videos. YouTube stated that it has taken them this long because they wanted to focus on speed of search and playback. Also new to version 2.4 is suggested search terms as you type in a search query.

Version 2.4 is still missing social features, like sharing videos via Twitter or Facebook. Although, it went unmentioned in the official announcement that there is now a menu option to copy a video’s URL to the phone’s clipboard. While not the easiest of routes, this does present a way for users to direct their friends and followers to the latest skateboarding pet videos.

The new version can be downloaded directly from m.youtube.com/app, although N97 users will be disappointed to find that their device is not yet officially supported. Indeed, installing from the Ovi store will only get you version 2.2.29. However, someone from SymbianFrance.com has extracted an installer for the N97, on behalf of NokiaUsers.net. N97 users can download YouTube 2.4 from here.

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Hands-on review: 3’s INQ Chat 3G – Twitter, Facebook, Skype and more

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:20:29 +0000

Back in August, I was pretty bullish when Hutchison-owned INQ announced the INQ Chat 3G, a follow-up to the INQ1, the company’s so-called Facebook phone.

The updated device adopts a BlackBerry-esque form-factor in favor of the INQ1’s candybar, adding a full QWERTY keyboard to support a host of social messaging capabilities, including ‘push’ email (via Gmail), Facebook access, Instant Messaging through Windows Live Messenger, Skype, and a Twitter client that provides ‘always-on’ connectivity to the micro-messaging social network so that updates are pushed ’straight to the homescreen’.

That’s a lot of functionality for a fairly low-cost device – it retails for £99 on a pre-pay (PAYG) tariff on 3UK – leading me to describe the INQ Chat 3G as taking aim at overpriced QWERTY touting smartphones.

It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago, however, that I actually got my hands on the phone. Read on for my thoughts…

Hardware

The INQ Chat 3G looks better in real life than the pictures do justice. Despite being (mostly) plastic, the phone has a glossy look to it and the silver trim down the side, along with the metallic painted back cover, adds a certain amount of style. And while nobody would likely buy the Chat 3G based on looks alone, I actually prefer it to some of the lower end BlackBerrys.

The screen is reasonably bright too, and the navigation pad is nice and large, as is the surrounding function buttons. But with regards to hardware, it’s the keyboard which sets it apart from its predecessor.

And it’s pretty good.

There’s plenty of travel and prominence to each key, and a definite click too. The phone’s software offers auto-suggestions in the form of a popup menu, and I found that with very little practice my typing speeds were on-par with similar portrait QWERTY phones, though not quite as fast as using Nokia’s E71/E72.

On the downside, the space bar feels a lot stiffer than the other keys, although this may wear in over time, and I would have liked a dedicated @ key. That said, a long press and hold negates the need to use function to bring up symbols etc.

Overall, I could certainly live with the INQ Chat 3G’s keyboard on a daily basis, which is saying something.

Like the original INQ1, the Chat 3G’s 3.1 MP camera is nothing to write home about, it’s only really good enough for the most throw away use. Which, once again, is a shame considering how the phone integrates with Facebook, making sharing photos on the social networking site a breeze.

There’s 3G (HSDPA 3.6 Mbp) but no WiFi, understandable considering the phone’s price point. There’s also charging and mass storage mode via miniUSB, and a microSD card slot. Oh and GPS too.

It’s also worth mentioning that battery life is much improved over the INQ1. With push email, a few calls, light surfing, and a healthy sprinkling of Facebook/Twitter, you should be good for at least a full day, if not a little more.

Software

Once again, it’s the software where INQ hopes to distinguish itself from competing phones sold at similar or slightly higher price points. And coupled with 3’s support for Skype, for example, the proposition is pretty compelling.

The UI is the same found on the INQ1, with the phone’s homescreen containing live widgets (weather, RSS feeds, Twitter etc.), along with a carousel of app short cuts, not dissimilar to Mac OSX’s dock.

New to the table however, is INQs Twitter app.

It’s fair to say that the app itself is really nicely designed. As well as updating your Twitter status, along with viewing the updates of those you’re following, there’s support for @ replies and Direct Messaging. The latter are also pushed to the homescreen, just like an SMS, which proved really useful.

So far so good.

But this is where things go a little downhill.

After launching Twitter, the INQ Chat 3G routinely froze while downloading the updates of the 300 or so people I follow. Sometimes this would be for a minute or two and then normal use could resume, and other times the phone would actually reboot. It’s quite a serious issue that INQ needs to address as soon as possible in a firmware update, as a quick google suggests the problem isn’t unique. It’s a real shame because, as I said, the app itself, when working, is great.

The second app I put through its paces was push email using my Gmail account. This was very easy to set up, requiring just a user name and password and I was good to go. There are also options for other common email providers, such as Hotmail, Yahoo etc.

Next up, Facebook.

While the Facebook app is quite basic, often sending you off to the mobile website version, the address book integration we first saw in the INQ1 is really neat. It’s a feature that used to set INQ apart from most of the competition, but is now offered in some form by almost every other handset maker – Palm Synergy, HTC Sense etc. – and a number of carriers (Vodafone 360). INQ’s implementation still works well, enabling you to merge contacts that crop up in both Facebook and the phone’s address book/SIM card (and MSN, Skype – see below), although this has to be done manually. A degree of automation would save quite a bit of time setting up the Chat 3G’s social address book, but as this only really needs to be done once, it’s no deal breaker.

Skype was next.

Again the client is really well designed, integrating with the phone’s address book, including the ability to merge duplicate contacts across the various other services that the Chat 3G supports. There’s IM and calling, including SkypeOut for international calls – thanks to 3 – and both worked as you’d expect. Call quality wasn’t great, however, but easily passable for social calls.

Finally, I tried browsing the web. And while full web pages rendered well, the experience was painstakingly slow. An alternative is to install Opera Mini, which I’m told works better.

Verdict

On paper, there’s a tremendous amount of value packed into the INQ Chat 3G and for the most common apps and social web services, the phone has you covered. The built-in apps replicate almost exactly how I’ve set up my day-to-day and much more expensive smartphone, Twitter, push email, Facebook, Skype etc., and in that sense, the Chat 3G fulfills its mission: bringing a social messaging QWERTY phone to the mass market.

But, and it’s a big but, the Chat 3G often seems to be trying to punch a little bit too much above its weight.

In places – particularly, Twitter and web browsing – it feels like the processing power can’t quite keep up with the phone’s software ambitions. Freezes and a general sluggishness let down an otherwise smart feature set and User Experience.

Whether or not this can be improved through a firmware update, only time will tell.

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Intel and Nokia combine forces to battle Google Chrome, Android and Apple’s iPad

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:40:39 +0000

They were already known to be sharing technology with regards to their separate Linux OS efforts but now Intel and Nokia are to merge their respective distributions.

Intel’s Moblin and Nokia’s Maemo operating systems are to be combined into a new Linux-based OS called MeeGo that will target “multiple hardware platforms across a wide range of computing devices, including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems.”

Intel is desperate to get its chips into devices that aren’t a traditional PC and Nokia needs a viable and developer-friendly platform to replace Symbian as the latter moves further down into mass-market smart phones that in-turn are replacing feature phones.

But the array of devices targeted by MeeGo also suggests that the move is designed to go head on with Google, both Android, which is finding itself running on more and more non-smartphone hardware, and Chrome OS designed for netbooks. And by extension, Apple’s iPad too.

MWC: Symbian S^3 UI concept ticks all the right boxes!

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:03:34 +0000

The Symbian Foundation, the custodians of the Nokia-led open source mobile OS of the same name, has published a concept video showcasing the User Interface changes we can expect in version 3. The UI is seen as a major weakness of Symbian, especially as it transitions away from its S60 ’scroll-and-click’ non-touch roots to something more finger-friendly. So how is Symbian S^3 shaping up?

Pretty darn good, if the video is to be believed.

The UI borrows plenty from the iPhone but also adds a splattering of Palm-esque app switching – similar to WebOS’ card view (see review) – as well as building on some of Nokia’s own UI ideas, such as the widgetized home screen we first saw on the N97. Only this time there are revolving homescreens – Android-style – so that a user can access many more widgets.

Check out the video after the jump…

Oh and we can expect devices running Symbian S^3 to begin shipping as early as Q3 this year, apparently.

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3’s CEO talks iPad, the mobile network’s ‘perception problem’, Spotify, and more

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:38:02 +0000

3UK’s CEO talks about how the network is planning to address its ‘legacy perception problem’ and why bidding for the iPad would be like trying to sign a premiership footballer

I’ve just got back from a fascinating press briefing with mobile carrier 3UK’s CEO Kevin Russell and CTO Graham Baxter, billed as a discussion of the “themes, trends and challenges that will shape the mobile industry in the UK in 2010.” Although the subtext was something more along the lines of: how is 3 addressing what was described as its legacy perception problem.

People still, wrongly or rightly, often associate the network with poor coverage and/or service. This despite the fact that the network’s coverage and capacity has and is improving and that in my view 3 is one of the most, if not the most, innovative of the UK networks, especially on pricing, data services and positioning.

Here’s what I learnt during two presentations and the very frank Q&A that took place afterwards:

3 has an image problem that needs be addressed.

Despite investing heavily in its network and seeing the benefits in terms of coverage, speed and capacity, the number one issue facing the network is how to shake off what was described as its ‘legacy perception’ problem. If I remember correctly, it’s the one thing that keeps Russell up at night. Two ways 3 can address this.

1) Organically by letting the network speak for itself as 3 attracts and retains subscribers who can experience the improvements for themselves

2) Try to create a big ‘catalyst’ moment, perhaps through acquiring a ‘hero’ handset or device as O2 did with the iPhone. Russell suggested that it could be a combination of both but wouldn’t go into specific details with regards to 3’s marketing strategy.

In terms of reality, 3 has been on a steep learning curve with regards to huge increases in mobile data usage by its customers, says Russell. But that the network has steadily improved its data coverage and capacity, in part through its network share with T-Mobile, and that 3 is on track to have over 12,000 base stations up from just over 7,000 by the end of October 2010.

It was also pressed home by CTO Graham Baxter that in the end all of the carriers faced the same challenge. The only real way to increase capacity is to acquire more sites (base stations/cells) and more spectrum. 3 is making great strides with the former but the latter is in the hands of the government/regulator. That’s why 3 is particularly worried about the Orange/T-Mobile merger.

Apple iPad maybe?

While Russell didn’t appear to totally rule out 3 offering a subsidised iPad (or perhaps a SIM-only offering that targets owners of Apple’s device) he acquainted bidding for an exclusive to trying to sign a top premiership footballer. Not only does everyone want the same player, but as a result there is a hefty price to play. A price that Russell suggested wasn’t usually worth playing. And besides, 3 likes to ’swim in the opposite direction’ to the rest of the industry.

He also wasn’t familiar with the new microSIM ’standard’ that the iPad requires, which provided a slightly awkward moment.

Spotify’s ’soft launch’

3 began offering the music streaming service Spotify with a single handset – the HTC Hero – in November of last year. It was a relatively soft launch, conceded Russell, and that the network was waiting till it could offer Spotify on more than one device before giving the service a much greater push. He also said that 3’s retail bricks ‘n’ mortar stores were the best channel to promote offerings like Spotify.

As for more handsets that support the service, Russell talked of a half-dozen rather than one or two more. Not surprising since Spotify has clients for Symbian, Android and the iPhone.

YouTube not iPlayer is the bandwidth hog

It’s YouTube not the iPlayer which stands out as 3’s biggest bandwidth hog. Although Baxter explained that in some ways the problem takes care of itself. YouTube throttles its own bandwidth at peak times so it’s often out of 3’s control anyway. In comparison, iPlayer hardly registers. Why?

No reason was offered but I think it could be to do with the way 3’s handsets support iPlayer. All of the Symbian devices support downloads not just streaming. Perhaps users are grabbing content over WiFi before leaving the house. Also worth noting: there’s currently no official iPlayer client for Android.

As you’d expect, Facebook has been a big driver of data usage on handsets too, though obviously nowhere near as bandwidth intensive as streaming video.

3’s been surprised by the Terminate The Rate campaign’s support

Russell said he’d been surprised by how well the carrier’s Terminate The Rate campaign had resonated with the public and members of parliament. The campaign is attempting to influence the decision Ofcom makes on reducing the charge of Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs). From the campaign website:

MTRs are charged when you call somebody on a different mobile network, or call a mobile from your land-line. Their network will charge yours a fee for receiving (or ‘carrying’) the call. This is a Mobile Termination Rate. The current charge is around 4.7p or more for every minute you’re connected – charges we think are excessive and distort competition.

Of course, 3 is particularly exposed to MTRs since it has less subscribers than its competitors so, inevitably, will have to pay out a lot more than it gets in.

Data roaming charges are “stupid”

Somewhat related to MTRs is the charge levied on customers when they consume data in other parts of the EU or elsewhere abroad. Russell highlighted the difference in price domestically and internationally.

Typically, 5GB of mobile broadband will cost £15 here in the UK, while it’s something like £6,000 when roaming. Russell said this is “stupid” and that the issue needs to be addressed now not sometime in the future as has been argued by others in the industry.

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People keep asking… what do I make of Apple’s iPad?

Steve O'Hear — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:03:34 +0000

Now that the dust has settled and I’ve had time to gather my thoughts, here’s what I make of the iPad, Apple’s own take on the tablet computer.

It’s an Internet appliance not a computer

While the tablet computer is nothing new, the iPad is, arguably, a completely new product category, which appears to occupy the middle ground between a smartphone and a laptop. If, of course, such a middle ground exists.

Unlike the raft of Windows Tablet PCs, which Bill Gates once claimed would be the future of personal computing, replacing the desktop and laptop, the iPad doesn’t appear to replace anything. It’s certainly too big to replace a smartphone. And it’s not capable of undertaking many tasks for which a laptop or desktop computer – read: fully-fledged desktop OS/applications and mouse/hardware keyboard – is required. But in many situations – web browsing and consuming content – the iPad is arguably better.

It’s a closed and tightly controlled platform (as I predicted), with Apple acting as gatekeeper in terms of hardware, software, applications and content. Good or bad, as a result the iPad won’t be plagued with many of the usability issues users of a more open and complex platform face (Windows/Mac OS etc.). Unlike desktop OSes, the UI/platform is also designed from the ground up to support touch input.

It’s not a computer in the traditional sense but an Internet appliance. People won’t buy the iPad instead of another computer but because it’s not a computer.

Only Apple could have built it

On one level, the iPad represents very little new from Apple, which is actually the point. It’s no more than a supersized iPod touch or iPhone without the phone. Based on the same OS, multi-touch UI, closed and controlled and dead easy to use app and content store (iTunes), best of class web browser (minus Flash of course), best of class PMP etc.

It builds on so much before it, only Apple could produce the iPad.

Not its individual parts, of course, but the sum of those parts, which are much, much greater. Who else designs the hardware, operating system, software and has a thriving eCommerce platform all completely integrated? And don’t underestimate in-app purchases. Not Google, not Microsoft or any OEM… That’s why Apple’s competitors and the media industry are shitting bricks.

It’s no surprise how much Amazon has invested in its own digital content strategy but right now Apple looks to be better positioned to be the Amazon of digital.

And the iPad is a huge part of this.

It’s not an eBook reader, it’s about convergence

Steve Jobs once said of dedicated eReaders: “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore”? And: “The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t ready anymore.”

Of course, he often dismisses a product category before unveiling Apple’s own take which “fixes” all of those problems.

But on this occasion, I don’t think the iPad represents a U-turn on Jobs’ part.

The iPad is no eReader both technically – no eInk – and conceptually. Sure you can read long form books on this device, just as you can on a smartphone or laptop, and some users will, but it’s not as suited to such a task as a dedicated eBook reader… but it doesn’t need to be to compete with devices like Amazon’s Kindle.

Because for many it will be just good enough.

The iPad is purely about convergence. It combines existing solutions to many existing problems in a single product tied to and built on Apple’s existing technology, design and ecosystem – the very same tech or way of thinking that solved many of those problems in the first place.

The fact that it’s not dedicated to eBook reading is why it will win out over such single function devices. And when Jobs said that people don’t read anymore, I took it as saying that the market for a single purpose eBook device wasn’t large enough for Apple to go after. Not that people don’t read. On the other hand, the market for people who read all sorts of content – long, short – on the web is huge, and the market for people who also like to watch movies, do a little email, view photos from friends, social network etc., is even greater

Apple doesn’t go after niche markets anymore. Not under Jobs’ watch.

Just like the best camera is the one that you have with you (think Nokia and Sony Ericsson’s success with camera phones, which also, err, make calls and do other stuff), the iPad is either fantastic or just good enough for many tasks in a single converged device that it will displace single purpose devices, such as the Kindle, or less well converged ones, such as Netbooks, for many tasks.

I repeat.

The iPad is all about convergence.

It’s not really a mobile device

The iPad isn’t really a mobile device. Not in the sense that the iPhone or any decent smartphone is. It’s not, primarily, for the journey, it’s for when you’ve arrived (to borrow a line from Mad Men). In that sense, I don’t think it competes with a smartphone as much as it seems. If Apple had invented an iPhone that could, upon the press of a button, triple in size, there’d be no need for an iPad.

But the company hasn’t.

Now, depending on what you want to get done once you’ve arrived, the iPad may or may not compete well with a laptop, the device it most closely impinges on.

It reflects as much as defines consumer behaviour

Perhaps the best way to describe what the iPad does best is Couch Computing, even though it’s not a computer in the traditional sense and you don’t have to be sat on the couch.

While over time it will likely influence consumer habits – think in-app purchases of content for newspapers and magazines and apps that nobody has dreamed up yet – as it stands today I think the iPad reflects a change in consumer behaviour whereby people access the Internet while doing other things. Such as checking email, looking up something on Wikipedia, reading news, Facebooking, while watching TV. Or while chatting to friends in the same room or on the phone or listening to music and texting on their mobile.

Teenagers, for example, multi-task all the time, and one ‘task’ is being online. Good or bad, that’s just how it is these days. The iPad fits this model of consumer behaviour.

It’s perfect for ‘casual’ anything online, while you’re doing other things.

Or Couch Computing.

It will sell really well and developers will flock to it

I’ve no doubt the iPad will sell really well. People tend to forget how well the iPod touch has done and the iPad will build on this and surpass it.

Developers are going to love the iPad, both in terms of how it stimulates their imagination but also that they can make real money on the device. The majority of the iPhone’s 140,000 apps will already run on the iPad, albeit compromised, and it won’t be long before lots of the killer apps are rewritten for the iPad. New apps that are only possible or suddenly make sense on a bigger screen will, of course, also be written.

The same way as the iPhone created the perfect storm for paid-for apps, the iPad isn’t cheap and nor will its customers be.

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My 5 mobile trends for the next decade #m2020

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:24:30 +0000

Rudy De Waele (@mtrends), who has been tracking the mobile space for as long as I can remember, asked a number of his personal “mobile heroes” to predict five game-changing mobile trends for the next decade. Not quite sure how I made the list – there are some real heavyweights included (see below) – but I’m flattered none-the-less. Here are my 5 mobile trends for the next ten years.

As phones get smarter, pipes get dumber

In the era of app stores and handset makers launching their own Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings, mobile carriers will continue to struggle with the issue of who ‘owns’ the customer. Terrified of becoming a dumb pipe reduced to selling commodity voice and data services, some will try to innovate with their own SaaS products, most of which will fail, while the smartest players will partner and invest in innovative startups. That said, as the pipes get increasingly clogged up carrying all of this data, and with the advent of 4G, networks will start to focus on and highlight their competitiveness based on infrastructure and capacity alone.

Your phone will become your doctor

Mobile phones are already the ubiquitous mobile device and, increasingly, provide a ubiquitous Internet connection. Just like the best camera is the one that you have with you, more and more hardware functionality, such as innovative input devices and sensors, combined with software and a data connection will piggyback the mobile phone, rather than try to compete as a separate device. Health care will be a major benefactor.

Money transfer beyond mobile banking

The mobile phone will replace your wallet. Not only will you be able to manage your money via your mobile phone and use it to pay for products in authorized retail outlets both online and offline, but mobile money transfer will extend to peer-to-peer. Everyone will become a walking ‘cash’ register.

Battery technology will finally catch up

The combination of new types of battery technology and less power hungry chips will lead to mobile phones, even under the strain of all of this new hardware, software and data functionality, being able to stay powered up for more than a day. Perhaps days. Evidenced by the recent Netbook phenomenon, with 7+ hours becoming the norm for a low cost 10inch laptop.

People will share more and more personal information

Both explicit e.g. photo and video uploads or status updates, and implicit data. Location sharing via GPS (in the background) is one current example of implicit information that can be shared, but others include various sensory data captured automatically via the mobile phone e.g. weather, traffic and air quality conditions, health and fitness-related data, spending habits etc. Some of this information will be shared privately and one-to-one, some anonymously and in aggregate, and some increasingly made public or shared with a user’s wider social graph. Companies will provide incentives, both at the service level or financially, in exchange for users sharing various personal data.

See the full presentation

Mobile Trends 2020

View more documents from rudydw.

Other contributions come from Howard Rheingold, Douglas Rushkoff, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Gerd Leonhard, Timo Arnall, Carlo Longino, Katrin Verclas, Atau Tanaka, Alan Moore, Marek Pawloski, Ajit Jaokar, Nicolas Nova, Inma Martinez, Tony Fish, Jonathan MacDonald, Willem Boijens, Carlos Domingo, Russ McGuire, Raimo van der Klein, Michael Breidenbruecker, Robert Rice, Ted Morgan, Martin Duval, Andreas Constantinou, Fabien Girardin, Matthäus Krzykowski, Rich Wong, Andy Abramson, Ilja Laurs, David Wood, Stefan Constantinescu, Henri Moissinac, Kevin C. Tofel, Enrique C. Ortiz, Felix Petersen, Tom Hume.

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Review: Motorola DEXT / CLIQ – another social networking play with MotoBLUR

Steve O'Hear — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:16:35 +0000

It seems that 2009 is the year of the comeback handset. Palm saw its Second Coming with the Palm Pre (review). Sony Ericsson relaunched with the Symbian-powered Satio (for what good that did them) and a new slogan. And Motorola, after years in hibernation and having completely missed the smartphone boat, unveiled its first Android-powered device, the Motorola DEXT as it’s known in Europe or CLIQ in the states.

The DEXT isn’t just any old Android handset, either. Shunning the standard out-of-the-box Google OS experience, the device introduces MotoBLUR, the handset maker’s own social networking UI layer and service. A unified address book that syncs Google, Facebook and Twitter contacts, updates pushed to the home screen, support for photo sharing via various third-party sites, with all of a user’s settings and data backed up on Motorola’s own servers.

It’s closest in its thinking to Palm’s Synergy feature, but also reminiscent of INQ, HTC’s Sense, Vodafone 360, with a bit of Nokia’s Ovi Share thrown in. In fact, as 2009 draws to a close, social networking integration is fast becoming just another tick-box requirement rather than a headline feature outright. On the other hand, no one has yet to perfect the concept, Motorola included, so there’s still plenty to play for. But before we dive into MotoBLUR, let’s take a look at the phone’s hardware.

Motorola DEXT/CLIQ slideout QWERTY

Hardware

There’s something distinctively North American and Moto about the design cues of the DEXT. It’s fairly chunky, heavy, and features a four row landscape QWERTY slider. It’s definitely function over form and, aside from its weight (163 g), overall Motorola have made some sensible choices.

The build quality is solid, and the slide mechanism is both sturdy and smooth. There is, however, a very noticeable gap between the slide-out keyboard and screen when the phone is closed which will bother some, although it’s a trade-off that benefits the QWERTY with raised keys and plenty of travel. With that said, the keys could be better spaced apart, perhaps by shrinking each key a little. Every now and again I find myself pressing two keys at once, but this has improved a little over time. The ‘enter’ key is nice and large and Motorola have duplicated the traditional Android ‘back’ key so that it’s easily accessible when the keyboard is open as well as when the phone is in portrait mode.

Rather than the standard Android track ball, the DEXT features a directional pad, situated on the left hand side. It works just fine but I found myself rarely using it because its positioning – it’s only accessible when the keyboard is open – doesn’t support one handed operation of the phone.

Overall, the DEXT’s keyboard is definitely better than the Palm Pre and on par with the Nokia N97 but it doesn’t come close to the standards set by the Nokia E71 or BlackBerry Bold.

The other hardware controls include a slider switch for putting the phone on silent, volume up and down keys, on-off switch, and a portrait positioned ‘back’, ‘home’ and ‘menu’ button. There’s also a microUSB socket for charging and connecting to a PC – with support for mass storage mode – and a standard 3.5mm headphone socket too.

The touch screen on the DEXT is a 3.1 inch capacitive, which is similar in size to the Palm Pre. It’s reasonably responsive and bright, although on a few occasions a finger swipe was registered as a click, as if the 528 MHz Qualcomm processor on the DEXT can’t quite keep up or the touch screen isn’t as sensitive as it should be.

Connectivity-wise, there’s WiFi, assisted-GPS, 3G/HSDPA, Bluetooth. There’s also a digital compass and a 5 megapixel camera, which proved to be fairly decent in good light, possibly the best Android camera I’ve tested yet but not in the same league as Nokia and Sony Ericsson’s best efforts.

The DEXT packs a 1420 mAh battery, which was able to power the phone for a full day in most circumstances even with MotoBLUR regularly pushing social networking updates to the home screen (see below). Obviously, milage will vary considerably depending on 3G signal strength and WiFi usage etc.

Software

The DEXT runs Google’s Android OS, version 1.5 (Cupcake), which is a couple of revisions behind the latest release (2.0). It’s not a Google branded phone either, due to the UI and other software tinkering that Motorola have carried out.

The handset maker has, however, licensed all of the standard Android Google apps e.g. Gmail, Google Maps etc., including single sign-in and synchronization with your Google account and contacts.

Over-the-air updates are also supported, as is access to the Android Market and the growing library of third-party apps that are available for the platform. However, it’s MotoBLUR that really distinguishes the DEXT from competing Android phones.

MotoBLUR is a mixture of UI customization, unified address book, discrete applications, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). As I wrote when MotoBLUR was first unveiled, Motorola claims that the combined offering “is the first and only solution to sync contacts, posts, messages, photos and much more—from sources such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail, work and personal e-mail, and LastFM—and automatically deliver it to the home screen”. Of course, that’s not strictly true. Moto isn’t the first mobile player to go down this road, but the PR spiel gives you a fair idea of what the handset maker is aiming for.

In terms of the home screen, MotoBLUR consists of a number of additions to Android’s standard widgets which can be placed anywhere you choose across multiple revolving home screens.

The ‘Happenings’ widget pushes your friends’ status updates and other alerts, such as friend-requests or event invites, from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Last.fm to the home screen. Rather than the DEXT polling each service separately, Motorola’s does it at the server level and then only pushes new content to the phone. This is presumably designed to be more efficient and help preserve battery life. Tapping on the widget brings up a sort of card view with one update displayed at a time and the ability to browse through them by swiping right to left. If you’re following a lot of people on Twitter or Facebook it’s not a very scalable method of navigating updates, therefore you’re also able to open a scrollable list view of all updates.

Strangely, however, there’s no way to filter by @ replies on Twitter, making it very hard to track conversations and in this context MotoBLUR is pretty much useless. It’s as if the team that designed MotoBLUR don’t actually use Twitter or at least only superficially. Instead, you’re still better off downloading a third-party Twitter app from the Android Market, such as Twitdroid.

The ‘Messages’ widget lets you send status updates to Twitter or Facebook (or both at the same time) directly from the home screen. Other MotoBLUR widgets include a weather widget and RSS reader for pushing content from blogs, news sites or any RSS feed straight to the home screen. All work really well.

But perhaps the most interesting and controversial aspect of MotoBLUR is the unified address book which merges contacts from Google, Facebook, MySpace, Last.fm and Twitter. It’s not a new idea and it suffers from the same problem faced by competitors. It’s all or nothing.

Activate support for Facebook, for example, and all Facebook contacts are imported. That’s great for people who you want to have occupying space in your address book but doesn’t scale if you have hundreds of Facebook ‘friends’. The same is also true of Twitter etc. In fact, Twitter is potentially worse, since you may well follow people, such as brands or celebrities, who you have no real relationship with. The only option is to deactivate a service or add contacts that you really care about to a list of favorites.

The upside of MotoBLUR’s social networking-savvy address book is the ability to view a friend’s latest updates and content from within their address book entry. More fun still is that when a contact rings, their most current status update pops up on the incoming call screen – potentially invaluable info to help you decide if you actually want to take that call!

Where MotoBLUR’s unified approach does scale better is with regards to the phone’s in-box. Direct Messages from Twitter, Facebook etc. are treated the same as SMS or, optionally, email, based on contact rather than service. For somebody like me who relies on Twitter’s DM feature to stay in contact with work coleages or contacts, this is a real blessing. With MotoBLUR, I never missed a beat.

MotoBLUR also adds photo uploads to various third-party sites to the phone’s camera app. Facebook, MySpace, Picasa and Photobucket are supported, while Twitter through services such as TwitPic, is sadly missing. More evidence that Motorola doesn’t quite get the microblogging service.

The final aspect of MotoBLUR is that all of your settings and content is backed up on Motorola’s servers. This means that if you change handset to another that supports MotoBLUR or if you need to do a hard reset, you won’t have to start over. It also means that you can do a ‘remote wipe’ if you lose your phone. This is a really important security feature due to the fact that the DEXT stays permanently logged into all the social networking and email accounts that you’ve chosen to activate.

Verdict

There’s no doubting that the Motorola DEXT is a decent smartphone and I really like where the company is heading with MotoBLUR. Even in its current incarnation, it’s really fun and in parts genuinely useful. That said, there’s a lot of room for improvement. The scalability issue needs to be solved as not all social networking contacts are equal. Twitter integration also needs to support the conversational aspect of the service. And while MotoBLUR supports more third-party services than rival handset makers’ own social networking-savvy offerings, it would be a smart move to offer a Software Development Kit (SDK) so that any third-party service can add support for MotoBLUR.

Finally, is Motorola back in the game?

Based on the ambitions of MotoBLUR and the DEXT’s solid hardware, it’s a cautious yes.

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Nokia E72 in the house!

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:46:02 +0000

Regular readers of last100 will know how much I like Nokia’s QWERTY touting E71, with it superb keyboard and BlackBerry-esque – only more svelte – form factor. I was therefore really looking forward to the E72 (see ‘My favorite smartphone just got superseded‘)

The E72 keeps much of the same design as the classic E71 but adds a slightly faster processor, an updated version of the operating system – Symbian S60 3rd edition feature pack 2 – better camera and a mini track pad for “easier” scrolling through web pages and email (luckily it can be turned off). The wait was a long time coming, however, as the E72 got delayed and delayed.

It finally went on sale last month in the UK and, shortly after, Nokia kindly sent me a loan unit, which I’ve been using as my main device for a few weeks and hope to write full review very soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the device, leave a comment and I’ll answer as best I can.

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The Guardian newspaper’s iPhone app offers off-line mode – mobile Internet’s killer feature?

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:57:24 +0000

The Guardian has released a paid-for iPhone (and iPod touch) app that makes reading the UK newspaper on Apple’s device a truly smartphone experience.

Along with features such as the ability to customize the newspaper’s ‘front page’, support for audio, finger-friendly navigation, including ’swiping’ through photo galleries, the feature that really stands out is off-line browsing.

As I write over at TechCrunch Europe, the functionality…

… works in a similar way to music streaming service Spotify’s own iPhone app. Sections of the newspaper can be ‘cached’ in advance to enable access when outside of a WiFi network or mobile signal. As with listening to music, this is particularly appropriate for reading a newspaper on-the-go, such as when commuting on London’s Underground or any other subway for that matter. The app also offers access to the various Guardian podcasts, which can be downloaded in advance or streamed.

Even though we are (slowly) moving towards a world where our data lives in the cloud and broadband access is ubiquitous, there are always going to be times when a reliable Internet connection simply isn’t possible. However, with mobile apps incorporating caching functionality, such as Spotify and now The Guardian’s offering, we’re seeing the lines being blurred between cloud-based and locally stored content. This hybrid approach, if the user experience is done right, has the potential to offer the best of both worlds.

Might an off-line mode be the mobile Internet’s killer feature?

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