Palm Pixi

Alright here it is.  The second phone in existence to run Palm’s beloved WebOS.  We already saw what the Pre did on the open market, and oh how impressive it was.  The Pixi is so beautifully crafted for those who either realized how bad and/or dislike the crappy sliding mechanism that we saw on the Pre.  At first glance, I was very confused by this phone.  I couldnt figure out how to go back or go home…and then the beautifully backlight center optical button flashed up and my heart beat love.

We dont need to go into detail about WebOS because we already know it is the most capable MOS available right now.  The phone itself has much of the feel of the Pre but with a very different shape.  It is longer than the Pre and has a flat front which makes typing on those little keys just a bit easier.  Overall, it had a fairly decent quality feel…not a deal breaker though.

The phone works will all of the cool accesories that the pre has, such as the Touchstone charger. And yet this phone is so far from a Pre.  Why? because its a blackberry on major steroids.  This is a very different category than the Pre because this phone seems more specific to businessmen because of its design.  There is nothing that pops on this phone and while it does look good, it doesnt have the hype or beauty to make it an iPhone.

For its customer base, there is simply nothing that can beat this phone.  This is the first candybar qwerty touchscreen that has actually worked (for failures see sammy’s epix).  The capacitive touchscreen is nicely responsive as is the keyboard.  Not that I’m praising it, but compared to RIM’s flagship bold and even bold 2, the pixi’s keyboard just works better because of the separation and bubbliness of the keys.

Now, we know that this phone is not trying to be the ultimate phone, but for the high class businessman, I cannot think of a better phone than this.

Yet I do have one complaint and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–Lag.  For whatever reason (just kidding, its the processor) this phone lags, and which its not terrible, its for sure there.

All in all, well done Palm.  I hope that you have enough growth that instead of being bought out by Nokia, you can attract some good engineers.

Motorola Droid: First Impressions

I was finally able to get my hands on a Motorola Droid. I know I am a bit late in the “first impressions” game, but I believe I have some valuable and unique opinions.

I found the phone to be very laggy. Usually I can tolerate some lag as long as it is between applications. I am willing to wait, for example, 2-3 seconds to wait my email to open. I am not, however, willing to wait 2-3 seconds every time I want to scroll through my calender—or even my list of applications. The Droid seemed to almost “mini freeze” every 30 seconds or so regardless of activity. It never froze for more than 3 seconds and usually it was only a momentary pause in the motion onscreen, but still, it really interrupted my experience.

On the positive side, the build quality, like many before me have said, is superb. I can say I was genuinely surprised at how solid it felt in the hand. The slider mechanism isn’t the stiffest I’ve felt (it was a bit loose) but overall very solid feeling.

The phone also looks really nice. I wish I had a more descriptive adjective, but the appearance of the phone is fairly non-specific. That is not to say it is generic looking either. It definitely has a unique style but it is neither sexy, classy, edgy, or pretty. It’s a combination of all four really.

The keyboard, on the other hand, is very mediocre. The keys are amply sized but their spacing and shape is all wrong. While they have a nice enough click, they aren’t raised enough at all to differentiate between keys with your fingers. I found myself constantly pressing multiple keys at once without even feeling it—and I don’t have particularly large fingers at all. The spacebar also feels a bit strange. It somehow feels to small for the phone. Although I rarely missed actually hitting the button, it always caused me some level of anxiety since I frequently would hit its edge. Finally, the overall shape of the phone gave me an uncomfortable typing experience. I often felt my hands kind of cramped. I never really found a comfortable way to hold the phone while typing.

Now obviously there are many pros to the phone that other reviewers have found, and I generally agree with them. The screen is bright and beautiful and also very responsive. Android 2.0 is just as nice of an OS as every says. I didn’t quite have enough time to really fully explore the OS, but graphically and functionally it is quite nice. I found it occasionally counter-intuitive to navigate, but nothing that would ever prevent me from buying the phone.

Overall this is a great phone and while I did not get a chance to put it through rigorous tests, I feel confident in saying that if you’re on Verizon and looking for something new and different the Droid very well may be the phone for you.

The Dream Phone

Just like that 1992 basketball team, The Dream Phone must have several talented players working together–both metaphorically and literally. Company’s must cooperate in order to form a more perfect union between software and hardware. And on a more micro-level, elements of the phone must work together to give the user a unified experience.

I will admit that Apple, with the iPhone and historically, creates products that have a certain flow. Nothing ever feels cheap and nothing ever feels out of place or clunky. Every motion and graphic on the iPhone feels natural and purposeful. Maybe its just their cool marketing strategies, or maybe they actually put a little more thought than other companies into their products.

The Dream Phone must have sleek, and solid hardware while still maintaining optimal functionality. For myself, and many other, this probably requires a touchscreen and a physical full qwerty keyboard. Ever since Palm started putting touchscreens in their Treos it has become abundantly clear that a touch screen (Dream Phone requires a capacitive) makes things much simpler and quicker. The keyboard, thanks to the modern age of instant communication, is necessary for both teenagers and business professionals alike.

There are many phones which combine these two elements, yet very few of them are truly unique, innovative, or sexy. And worse, oftentimes the addition of a slide out keyboard makes the phone feel slightly cheap. While it is obviously difficult to come up with an innovative form factor while still using the aforementioned hardware components, I feel that phone companies have given up. Like car companies, I think they should start releasing more concept models. By gauging the public’s (by public I mean myself and other self-proclaimed phone junkies) reaction, perhaps the phone companies can continue to push the envelope with regards to form factor.

….The Dream Phone will continue as a series. Next up: A better OS?

600 Apples a Day

Would it shock you to know that there are many people on the face of this earth that would gladly throw down 600 bills for a new phone? It shouldn’t. If you weren’t already aware, go look at Apple’s stock prices and then find me a compter they sell that’s less than 600 bucks. I am in no way insinuating that your grandma needs palm pre, but instead that you do.

It seems that the current age is one in which society has not fully accpeted the capabilities which high tech smart phones possess. Many of them are even more practical in ways than your computer.

These features include a better battery life, more portability, more customizability, and more practicality. What reserves do you have? You can touch an app and drag it, open it, multitask. You can talk on facebook chat, email with your pop server and read the huff post all at the same time. This is a computer! While the keyboard mght not quite be as large as your comuters, you’ll get used to it just like you did from the early computers.

If you’re lookin to join the fad and more forward, today happens to be the perfect day. With the release of Nokia’s N900, we see the birth of the transitionary devices between smartphones and Laptops. Think of the 900 as the big brother of the smartphone and the NetBook as the little brother of the laptop. You get a nice full qwerty with good seperation between keys, a 5mp Carl zeiss shooter, wifi, 3g, Maemo5 and a nice full touchscreen that is quite responsive.

This is a phone that you use everyday and feel and see the luxury of. This is nokia, the worlds largest cell phone manufacterer.

I implore you to get away from the novelty of a free phone and get the productiveness and accessability of a quality device. There are too many on the market to list but generally they sell on contract for about $200+ or off contract for about $400+

This is worth it.

Dear Motorola

Remember the Razr?  Remember when your stock had value? Remember when you had a market share in the cell phone world?

I do.  I remember those shiny metal Razrs in all shapes and sizes filling the pockets of the wealthy at $400 dollars a piece.  I remember the excitement of holding one for the first time, and feeling the smooth and rounded edges of luxury.

And I remember watching your worth fall just as quickly as the price of the Razr rocketed down to free (with 2 year contract of course)

You spent the next few years filling the small void in our hearts where free phones fit in.  And yet, it was clearly distinguishable that Nokia should have been there instead.

Several births of unsatisfactory children later, you decieded to join the race…to create a champion horse from the semen of Seabiscuit (Android)

And you succeeded!…but….not because of you.  Your hardware was but a plastic goblet to hold the holy water.  With all the innovation and hype and beauty of Android 2.0, you gave us an HTC handset that we’ve been using for the last year.  No metal finishings? No keyboard separations? No 8mp shooting?  No Apple-esque innovative battery?

And the Cliq-you ‘innovation’ for T-Mobile. A waste of more than 10% of the screen size on useless button, a small 528ghz processor, ugly colors, No flash!, a D-pad? and braille on the back?

Take a hint from your own past.  This is a market where the one uniquely innovative device can take hold of the market (see Razr, iPhone).  Take your time. Hire some people. Get back on top.

Is the Droid Innovative?

I could simply answer this question with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘asexual’ but what fun would that be?  I could also shed a tear for Motorola not being able to put their name on this device, but then again, haven’t we already seen them bend over for US carrier support?

The correct answer to this question is asexual.

Why you ask? I could answer this question simply, but I must make every answer as sexual as possible.

The “eclair” that google has graced us with has truly spiced up phone sex like never before.  If you thought that real sex with chocolate covered strawberries was good, you should consider phone sex with a phone running Google’s Android’s Eclair.  There’s a threesome right there.

Eclair is the most beautiful form of software dessert that has ever existed.  Think arousingly good.  And whats best (this is where the asexual comes into play) is that the hardware is unisexly fashionable!

Why this phone won’t beat the iPhone:

Verizon is not a cell phone manufacturers brand name.  Poor marketing all around folks.  With the launch of HTC’s new marketing campaign, how is this not the perfect opportunity to hand Motorola a real market share while feeding Verizon the sorrows of At&t’s ever extending contract with apple.  How? Make some commercials. Compete.  If you have HTC and Motorola thrown in a ring, you have twice the commercials that Apple does, and both sides benefit.

Carl Zeiss didnt make the camera.  Okay, I admit this is not a real reason, but there’s more to it, I promise.  The camera in this bad boy is a whopping 5 mp.  That was sarcastic.   As we’ve already seen, a Nokia 5mp shooter can easily take on a Samsung or Sony Ericsson 8 mp shooter.  What does this mean?  Well for starters, Motorola does NOT manufacture quality cameras.  If you plan on holding a certain rep for a period of time, this camera needed to have a designer name or high megapixel count to make a mark.  That said, AF and 24fps are decent, but will prevent this phone from becoming the ‘sword in the stone’ that I have previously described.

Why this phone is better than the iPhone but still won’t beat it.

Eclair spices up phone sex.  No, seriously. The more desserts that Google processes into MOS’s, the fatter I get with love for them.  Eclair takes Android and open source to the next level, and I love everything about it except for the clock because it reminds me of WM6.5. Eclair is quite simply the simplest and most effective MOS on the market right now (watch for Maemo5).

PHYSICAL KEYBOARD.  If nothing else,  this is the sole reason I would buy this phone.  If you have ever typed on an Iphone, you understand why.  I have already explained my disdain for virtual keyboards.  They are tiny, difficult to use, and incredibly less accurate than physical keyboards.  On top of that, you add almost zero depth to the phone by adding that.  Oh and by the way, Apple is so stubborn, they won’t even give support for an attachable keyboard.

Yes thats right, just two reasons.  But its very significant.  I could go into detail about battery life and screen size and color, but there is nothing particularly distinguishing about them.

To conclude: I would buy this phone.  It is practical, looks good, is fast and effective.  And has a physical keyboard.  That said, it is not so sexy that I would turn asexual.  Though some might.  The most cheers I need to give are to Verizon for signing an exclusive contract for Eclair AND slapping their name on a great phone.

I am sad to announce that this phone will not touch the iphone in the open market. Why? I already told you. This phone will never gather the status that Apple holds, and even though it is just as good looking, fashion always prevails…especially over practicality.

I applaud you Verizon, and despite your dirty marketing, I would still buy this phone.

Lost Boys

At this point in its run, ABC’s “Lost” is a fairly well known show. It is supposed to conclude this year, finally, in a surprising and monumental fashion. While possible, this seems unlikely. SPOILER ALERT: I’m pretty sure the whole show is just a) someone’s dream or b) some large practical joke on society about how humans are so dumb that they will watch a show without a plot. I am praying it’s the latter.

This particular author—moi—does not have a gripe with Lost in particular, but with the general trend of crappy drama/sci-fi television shows. Nonetheless, while I am writing this, I may as well complain a little about the most confusing show on earth:

As of last season, there has been a dump-load of time travel. Necessary? Not in the least. Super cool? Not especially. Mainly, the point of all this temporal confusion is to cause genuine confusion in the viewers. However, I think I understand the writers’ logic: if we have no idea what the hell is going on, how can we possibly complain about the plot? Well this particular author sees through your little scheme, “writers”, and wants you to consider this an official complaint.

I have also realized, more dishearteningly, that the overarching theme of the show has nothing to do with an island, characters, emotions, or any of that average mumbo-jumbo. The point of Lost is to pose questions. Unfortunately, those questions are not moral or philosophical in nature nor do they examine society and its problems. The questions serve, in essence, to keep the viewers hooked—and golly gee it works beautifully. I have been watching Lost since season two and consider myself a fan. I thought I knew everything there was to know about Lost until I realized there was nothing to know at all. What is the island that they landed on? Where is it? Why are they traveling in time? Who the hell was that polar bear in the pilot episode? Is he friendly? These are just a few of the zillions of question this show has forced me to ask myself. Maybe some have made deep and meaningful personal discoveries from staring these questions in the face, but I have just found myself frustrated.

Before I continue to digress and rant about my favorite tv show, I would like to reveal the true raison d’etre of this post: ABC should not create another series to replace Lost. I’ve seen their two current contenders—V and Flash Forward–and they are simply Lost 2.0 but with different characters and settings. The plot is still thinly woven and there are still so many unknowns.

Lost is special because I am dying for answers. When I started watching Lost I wasn’t expecting to have so many questions and doubts after the fifth season. Now, with V or Flash Forward, I can only assume that I will have a similar amount of curiosities far after season one is over. You’ve already played your hand of mystery ABC, please don’t ruin a good and successful idea by copying it and repackaging it as new. Some may stick with you, but others, like myself, will see through your thinly veiled guise.

Perhaps instead of leaving me with thousands of unknowns and questions left to be answered, maybe you could make a show all about answers and solutions? Just a thought.

What Makes a Good Mobile OS (pt. 1)

In this segment, I’m going to go through several characteristics which make a mobile operating system good and effective and then highlight which OS’s succeed or fail at each.

There are many MOS’s on the market today.  You have Windows Mobile, which is currently in version 6.5.  WM6.5 is more or less like running windows on a mini computer.  You have access to Microsoft’s applications such as those in MOffice, which include the ability to open AND EDIT (more on that later) these documents in addition to any type of access to email.  The first important phone to be relased with this MOS was HTC’s TYTN (which later turned into the AT&T Tilt).  Windows is now the most prevalent MOS in the United States (in terms of the variety of phones that run it) and is supported on every major wireless carrier (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile)

Next is Google’s Android.  This MOS is the first open source operating system on the market and follows suit with Google’s quality of programming.  Android is currently in its version 1.6, thought 2.0 will be springing up in a matter of days.  The first Android phone was HTC’s Dream (later changed to T-Mobile G1).  There are only about 6 phones on major US carriers that run Android–none are carried by AT&T.  T-Mobile now was several Android phones, which Sprint just picked up its first, and Verizon’s will arrive in the next few days. No official word on AT&T.

Not to be overshadowed, Symbian OS is actually the most popular and widely used MOS in the world.  The reason we don’t see more of it in the US is because (for whatever reason) we simply do not see enough Nokia phones.  Symbian is more or less specific to Nokia (though rumors say that SE is building one) and is one of the most powerful OS’s out there.  Symbian is more specifically designed for simplicity and business and succeeds greatly at both.  The most popular phone running Symbian in the US is the Nokia E71, and Nokia’s N97 runs the first version of Symbian for touch screen

Next is WebOS, designed by Palm to save the company from its falling cell phone market share.  This OS is specific to Sprint’s Palm Pre, and the soon-to-be-released Palm Pixi (the candybar little brother of the Pre).  WebOS takes a major step into creating the all in one device, as it was the first to combine all contacts such as those in email and Facebook.  It features genuine multitasking but lacks application support.

Next is Maemo 5, which is an MOS designed to make the switch from smartphones to tablet PC.  Though it was made as a transitionary OS, it packs a huge punch.  It is extremely customizeable, so much that the average user would require a LARGE learning curve.  The Maemo has yet to open up its doors the world, but we have seen it run already on Nokia’s N900, which will be released in the near future under T-Mobile’s 3g bands. Look out.

Though it is commonly mistaken, Apple’s Iphone also runs a mobile operating system.  That OS is coincidentally called IphoneOS, which is run only on Iphone, Iphone 3g, and Iphone3gS.  This therefore confines it at AT&T’s systems (Verizon cant complain anymore with the release of its Droid) but believe it or not, more data is transfered worldwide on the IphoneOS than on SymbianOS.  IphoneOS is important because it was the first to allow any developer in the world to create and application and make millions by selling it in the Itunes App Store.  This was a great success, and drove Apple into  huge market share just from one single phone.  This single phone was the best selling worldwide for the last few years and was a huge boost to the smartphone market.

Next is RIM (Research In Motion) Blackberry OS.  This one is pretty similar to Symbian is almost all aspects.  It was designed strictly for business, and despite the range of users it currently has, it still really only is effective for this.  All but 2 Blackberrys are candybars with full qwerty, and application support is almost identical to that of WM.  The 2 touch screens are the Storm and Storm 2.  The Storm ran one of the worst builds of any OS and got some of the worst reviews of any mobile phone to exist.  RIM holds about 21% of the market share, which shows the uniqueness of its devices and effectiveness of its software.

Lastly is Linux, we we mostly see in China.  Since I dont live in China, I will be referring to the build used in Garmin/Asus’s G60, currently carried by AT&T. Linux is completely close sourced in terms of application supports, but is very effective otherwise.  Though you can only view MOffice documents, you get a very GPS heavy OS which is very simplistic and perfect for a first smartphone user.

While I have my own preferences, there are very legitimate reasons for someone to use any one of these MOS’s. While some are more powerful than others, you must realize that MUCH of the goodness that makes up a phone is the hardware. We will go into specific carrier and phone recommendations at a later date.  This is just about smartphone operating systems.

Palm’s Problems

Palm threw all they had into the Pre and it was a huge success—sort of. WebOS is powerful, fluid, convenient and fun. The form factor is relatively unique and comfortable. The accessories are even cool (see: Touchstone charger). However, they made several large errors with the device they chose as their savior.

Palm should have made a version of the phone with a metal chassis. Of course that would have made the phone more expensive, but it would have allowed them to make a “luxury” version of the phone. Judging by all of the pre-Pre buzz, I am sure there would have been plenty of people willing to fork over an additional $100 or so for a better built phone. Also, this limited edition Pre might have given the general public the impression that the Palm Pre is still something stylish and cooler than an average smart phone. Why else would a phone be worthy of an expensive limited edition? Still, the overall poor plastic build quality was not Palm’s biggest mistake.

Why, oh why, Palm, would you choose to exclusively give your flagship phone to Sprint? I understand they must have given you a little cash, or perhaps made promises of “adult favors”–but that is no excuse. I can also see how you admired the iPhone’s bold move to give exclusivity to AT&T. More importantly, I understand your desire to copy the iPhone since it was/is so wildly successful.

Well maybe no one told you, but the “Now Network” has fewer customers than any of the nations major carriers. Maybe no one told you, but Sprint is losing customers faster than Usain Bolt on more steroids (yeah, I went there). So why, oh why, would you choose them to be the sole carrier of your savior child?

AT&T might not have taken you (Apple can be a bit pushy) but I’m sure Verizon and T-Mobile would have been more than happy to sell your phone. I’m not angry at you Palm, just a little disappointed.

More Pre’s sold=more money for Palm=more money to spend on R&D=better Palm phones for moi in the future.

I just love you, and would like to see more of you. Please don’t force yourself out of business with more foolish mistakes.

Dear Sony Ericsson

Why do you tease me so? When I saw your Xperia X1 come out only a short while ago, I became thrilled at the idea of a truly powerful SE smartphone. Then you chose Windows Mobile as an OS. I can only wonder why you did that seeing as most of your cell phones sell in Asian markets where symbian is already so powerful. While your tweaks to the software were quite respectable and your hardware pristine, you still heavily lagged in processing.

Since then you have come out with several phones such as the music-heavy Satio and the camera-heavy C-905. Yet somehow you always remained behind the mark. The practicality was always there, both in interfaces and hardware and yet, your 8 megapixel shooter fell short of others (see innov8) and your music capabilities fell short as well (see Apple iPhone).

I then read of your future flagship codenamed Rachael.  I expected it to run Donut and use another SE specialized user interface. I expected a Sony style build quality featuing metal mechanisms.

And yet you force me type on a virtual keyboard and suffer as your fancy animations and graphics chug away with Snapdragon’s nipple.  Everything that you improved in Windows Mobile, you have murdered in Android.  Your user interface looks nothing short of Windows Vista, and forces me to associated you with the slowest and most painful of windows processing.  And you seem to take after it as well! Struggling to navigate from page to page, I can only wonder when you will freeze up and go to sleep forever.

Oh how you tease me so!

You were once on the forefront of cell phone technology, combining your superior mp3 technology with Ericsson’s communications hardware.  Yet you stay one horse back as you have for several years now.

Are steroids legal nowadays?

Sweden is calling.