Google Maps for mobile is a must-have for your phone and it keeps getting better. The latest update is for Google Maps for BlackBerry and it brings voice search, Buzz as well as other improvements too.

Search by Voice is well integrated into the Android platform, but with Google Maps 4.0 for BlackBerry this functionality becomes available on RIM handsets as well. The supported languages are English (in multiple accents) and Mandarin Chinese.

Google’s latest attempt to break into the social networking world – Google Buzz – is included in the new Google Maps for BlackBerry, too. You can view geo-tagged Buzz posts (buzzes?) and you post your own.

Another feature that made its way into Google Maps for BlackBerry is the Web History synchronization – if you’ve searched for, say, “Punch Pizza” then typing just “pun” will bring up “Punch Pizza” as a suggestion. Starred searches, items in Maps and items starred in the phone are also synchronized with your account.

Finally, there are three more interesting features – Scale Bar and Terrain layer for hiking enthusiasts, searching for businesses near an address and reporting map errors and errors in business listings.

Google Maps for BlackBerry 4.0 is available at m.google.com/maps.

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Perhaps its greatest advantage is certainly the Nexus One is offered solely by Google in two variants. Which means you may skip the carrier store and get free of charge overnight shipping. Believe that when we claim it’s reasonably remarkable that Google is changing the common control-freak ways of the US carriers. But even better, the two versions of the phone–US$529 with out service and also US$179 with a two-year T-Mobile contract–will be unlocked. In addition to you CDMA fans, Verizon Wireless Carrier is set to get its own version of the phone in early of 2010. Google Android Nexus One is addionally available to on-line buyers in Indonesiaand also Taiwan.

Of course, the Google Android Nexus One was not without its problems: The music media player remains to underwhelm, app storage remains limited to the inner memory, we did not get tethering or multitouch, and also we would have appreciated dual-mode (GSM/CDMA) support. Even though with those gripes, the Google Android Nexus One delivers a enjoyable user experience. The operating system undoubtedly can go to head-to-head with the iPhone, and also the Nexus One only gives Google Android more ammo.

This Google Android Nexus One brings welcome new choices to the Android table. This Snapdragon processor is indisputably zippy, the AMOLED screen is gorgeous, and also we welcome both the improved voice dialing capabilities and also the noises cancellation feature. In addition, the Android 2.1 user interface other improvements show that Android continues to enhance as it evolves. It’s not the greatest Google Android phone around–that’s a difficult call to make in such a diverse and crowded field–but it adds to an already rich family group.

Style

Despite the fact that slim as well as eye-catching, the Nexus One’s candy bar, touchscreen-only design will not stand out from the Google Android crowd. Which consists of trackball and prominent screen, it looks a little like both the HTC Hero and the HTC Droid Eris. At 119 x 59.8 x 11.5 mm, it’s about the similar dimensions as the Droid Eris, the Hero, and also the apple company iphone, however it weighs just 130g. The two-toned gray color scheme is ordinary smartphone, but the phone includes a comfortable sense within the hands.

Not amazingly, the Nexus One’s star fascination is its 3.7-inch AMOLED screen. Bursting with 16.7 million colors and also an 800 x 480 pixel resolution, the display truly is a wonder. All from standard text to busy photographs and also images jumped right off the screen in full beauty. The Google Android 2.1 OS adds to the enjoyable 3D design and also vivid wallpaper, which are animated backgrounds that react to your touching and also your songs. They’re a awesome and also attractive touch, but we recognize they could be a bit much for some people and also we’re not sure if they affect battery power. Standard wallpaper is accessible if you’re not game.

Like the Motorola Cliq, you will find five home screens for full personalization. You can add and remove shortcut icons and also folders at will, and you could use the dedicated Google Search box. You’ll notice a custom-made weather/information box that’s identical to that on the Cliq, though here it’s more extensive and its design is enhanced. The display also offers an accelerometer, an background light sensor, and also a proximity sensor.

In comparison with previous Google Android phone, the Google Android Nexus One gives a few unique touches to the home display. A rectangular touch control with a grid design replaces the menu tab located on other Android phones. It makes no difference to usability as long as you identify what it does. You’ll also find dots on either side of the touch control that let you by pass to an personal home screen or view thumbnails of all home screens in a row. Another change is a shortcut bar that permits you to trigger and deactivate the Bluetooth, GPS navigation, syncing, and also Wi-Fi functions, and also control the screen brightness. It’s all very useful since you don’t need to search through a menu.

The primary menu is identical to previous Android smartphone, but it now takes on a rolling effect at either end where the icons recede into the distance like the title crawl in a Star Wars film. Interior menus, the design of the Google Android Market, and the display lock and mute icons are comparable to the Motorola Droid. You can adjust the brightness and also backlighting time, and limit the display animations. There’s no possibility for calibrating the display, but the touch user interface is precise and responsive to a light touch. Haptics response can guide you if you demand assistance.

The 4 touching controls below the display–a back button, home and search keys, and a handle for the notifications menus–are standard Android. A long press to the home display will bring up your latest features, while a long press to the search control will trigger voice search. The touch controls take a firm press, but it is not a big deal. Once you’re not using the touch screen, the trackball will be your primary interface tool for accessing menus. It’s huge and also reactive, and it lights up when you have a message. The virtual keyboard is also unrevised from other Google Android smartphone; you can use it in both landscape and also portrait settings.

The power control sits on the top of the phone, next to the 3.5mm headset jack. We’re thankful that the jack has a standard size for employing your own headphones. The volume rocker on the left spine is thin, but it’s easy to find when you’re on a call. On the rear side are the camera contact lens, the flash, and also a space you can engrave with a personal message. You’ll need to remove the battery to gain access to the microSD and SIM cards. The micro-USB port sits on the phone’s bottom end and accommodates both the wall charger and a USB cable.

Functions

As an Google Android phone, the Nexus One has every thing you’d expect from the OS. The contacts list is limited by the available memory, but each entry can store multiple fields for phone numbers, street addresses, work information, emails, URLs, instant-messaging handles, nicknames, and also notes. Contacts are automatically synced from your Gmail account, but you can sync Facebook and Microsoft Exchange contacts. We did both and also the exchange took just seconds. As with earlier Android smartphone, you have to keep applications from the Google Android Market on the 512MB of internal memory. microSD cards (the Google Android Nexus One can accommodate cards up to 4GB) are only for some other data files.

Besides Gmail, the Nexus One furthermore facilitates other POP3 and IMAP4 accounts, though not through a unified in-box. During our initial experiment time period we were unable to add a Yahoo account. When we tried doing so, we received a message that not all Yahoo accounts are supported. That’s the first time we’ve seen that on an Android phone, and also it’s unpleasant. When we typed in our Yahoo account anyway, the Google Android Nexus One informed us that our username and also password were wrong (we did it several times for sure). We’ll keep trying, but for now it doesn’t look good.

Regrettably, calendar syncing looks to be imperfect. Despite the fact your Gmail calendar will sync automatically, presently the Nexus One doesn’t support Outlook calendar and also notes. Google says that feature is coming soon, but for now the Nexus One is not a full-fledged business gadget.

The Nexus One’s major feature selling point is its voice command capabilities. In improvement to dialing, you may perform a range of features, such as updating your Facebook page, composing a text message, and seeking the Google Android Market using just your voice. We jumped in right away and were astounded how effectively it worked even in a crowded room. Certainly the only mistake it made was it spelled “be” with just the letter b when we said “I will be late.” The function is speaker-independent so no voice acclimation testing is required.

The 5-mega-pixel camera is a couple of leaps ahead of most Google Android smartphone. Further than the option of four resolutions, it also provides the aforementioned flash, white balance and also color effect controls, auto focus, infinity focus, a 2x digital zoom, and also three quality settings. We enjoy the enhanced camera interface that came with Google Android 1.6, specially the quick change to the video camera. You may record up to 30 minutes of movie in a 720 x 480 resolution (20 frames per second), but clips for multimedia messages are capped at 30 seconds. You can also select a high quality setting, a color effect, and white balance.

Photo quality is satisfactory. Colors looked natural and there was small image noise. The flash is somewhat vivid, though it doesn’t seem to be of much help in completely dark places. Video level of quality is about standard. Whenever you’re finished shooting, just forward the photos to friends using the usual methods. Additionally, you can use one-click upload to Picasa and also YouTube. You can geotag your shots for your reference.

The Gallery application offers a couple of enhancements. When you first open up the gallery, photo groups will be arranged in stacks with the title of the group underneath. Tapping each stack will display the photos in a grid format for quick scanning, or you can swipe through each shot individually in a slideshow. And thank you to the 3D graphics, the photos will show up to rotate as you tip the phone.

We had wished Google would give us a much better media player on the Google Android Nexus One, but that’s not the case. There’s nothing bad about the Android player; it’s just that not thrilling. You have album art, repeat and also shuffle modes, and the option to make playlists. You can create audio via a USB cable connection, a memory card, or from the Amazon MP3 Store. Access to a quality video store and an FM radio are still on our wishlist.

Additional capabilities include things like a calculator, a full duplex speaker phone, a compass, a text-to-speech feature, A2DP stereo Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, text and also multimedia messaging, and the full slate of Google apps like Google Voice, Google Talk, and Google Maps. Appreciate it to Android 2.1, the Google Android Nexus One also has the Car Home program, which will offers local search and also real-time, turn-by-turn directions with voice.

Performance

We tested the Nexus One in Las Vegas with T-Mobile provider. As a quad-band world smart phone (GSM 850/900/1800/1900), you’ll be able to use the Google Android Nexus One with any GSM carrier, but its 3G bands (2100/AWS/900) are compatible only with T-Mobile’s network in the US. AT&T customers will be able to use the Google Android Nexus One, but their data speeds will top out at EDGE.

Call quality was very good totally. Interactions were clear, the volume was high in volume, and also we noticed little static or disturbance. We also could get service at the Las Vegas Convention Center during the 2010 International CES. With thousands of cell phone-happy people in one place, CES can be a notorious dead zone.

On their end, callers said we sounded good. They will tell we were using a cell phone, but they reported no problems with the volume level or clarity. The smart phone dialer user interface is easy to utilize, and also we like the one-touch access to your contacts and recent calls lists. Also, any time you’re on a call, you can easily change to Bluetooth or the speakerphone with one touch.

Speaker phone calls were acceptable as well. The sound was tinny and also a tad distorted at the higher volumes, but it gets pretty loud. We had no trouble having on conversations in most environments. Friends informed us same problems on their end, although a few mentioned more background noise. We’re still testing Bluetooth headset quality and also the Nexus One’s capability to make Bluetooth hands-free calls.

The 3G speeds lead in a pleasing browser experience on most fronts. Our only complaint is it falls short of the multitouch support of the Droid Eris. To zoom in, you will need to use the magnifying glass icons on the underlying part of the screen. On the benefit, pages loaded rapidly, thanks to the strong 3G connection, and also the browser offers a full set of features like bookmarks several windows, and cut and also paste.

GPS program works much better than on some other Google Android phones, but it still missed us by a block or two. It’s not a deal-breaker, except if you’re attempting to lead someone to you. In those cases, make sure you’re giving correct guidelines. Audio quality is decent through the external speaker, but a headset will offer you the finest experience.

The Nexus One’s greatest triumph is its 1Ghz Snapdragon processor. It produced a huge change that was visible the moment we dove into the smart phone. Software loaded in a flash and also there was no lag when switching among functions. We also did not experience the lag we frequently get when moving among home screens on the Moto Cliq. It’s not an understatement to say that the Nexus One is the fastest Google Android smart phone we’ve seen.

Battery lifetime for the Nexus One is as follows: 10 hours of 2G talk time or 7 hours of 4G talk time; 12 days of 2G standby time or 10.4 hours of 3G standby time; 5 hours of Internet use on 3G or 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi; 7 hours of video playback and also 20 hours of audio playback. Relating to FCC the radiation checks, Nexus One features a digital SAR of .867 watts / kg.

]]> http://mycoolgadget.com/google-nexus-one-htc-smartphone-review/feed/ 6 http://mycoolgadget.com/htc-hero-%e2%80%93-new-product-tour/ http://mycoolgadget.com/htc-hero-%e2%80%93-new-product-tour/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:21:08 +0000 My Cool Gadget http://mycoolgadget.com/?p=841

As Orange seem to have some sort of deal going on, they also announced today that they will be launching the HTC Hero in the UK in the early July. They have even prepared a live preview of the Her and its new HTC Sense UI. Here, have a peek:

HTC Hero will be available in three color versions – White, Brown and Graphite (Orange exclusive), with the white one coming with fingerprint-resistant Teflon coating. It will hit the European shelves in July with Asia and North America following later this year.

Source

Design

Without a doubt, the main reason one would pick the Magic over the Dream is the form factor. At 113 x 55.6 x 13.7mm, the Magic is an extremely compact smartphone which doesn’t weigh much, too, at just 116g. The colors available are white and black. Both versions come with a glossy finish, so oily smudges and fingerprints are a given with the Magic. Like the Dream, the bottom part of Magic’s chassis sticks out a little. Think talkshow host Jay Leno’s chin. Going by these two products and leaked shots of HTC’s upcoming devices, this seems the defining design factor for its smartphones based on Android. We put this down as a purely design element because the handset’s microphone is found on the bottom edge, so the protrusion won’t do anything more than if the entire front surface was flat. 

The 3.2-inch screen on this smartphone has a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. Because it is of the capacitive variety, a stylus will not work on this display, similar to the iPhone and HTC Dream. One of the features we have gotten used to in many smartphones is the light sensor on the front that helps to adjust screen brightness automatically. This feature is not available on the Magic, so those who switch from indoor to sunny outdoor environments frequently may have to adjust the screen settings regularly. Aside from that inconvenience, the Magic’s display is sharp and the touch surface sensitive. 

The six buttons on the front of the Magic include the regular crop of Home, Menu, Back and Search, not to mention the standard Call and Hang up keys. The improvement over the Dream is really the larger trackball. This makes it easier to use and also more obvious when it flashes, which happens when you have new notifications on the device. The only other physical button(s) on the device are the volume controls on the left side. 

On the base of the Magic is a single mini-USB port. This covers charging, syncing and connecting a wired headset, similar to many other HTC smartphones. This also means you don’t get a dedicated 3.5mm audio connector, which can be a pain if your phone is also your primary music device. To use a regular set of headphones, an optional adapter is required. The Magic also comes with a microSD card slot behind the battery cover for memory expansion, which doesn’t require you to remove the battery to access.

Features

The HTC Magic is capable of HSPA data downloads over the cellular network up to 7.2Mbps and uploads up to 2Mbps. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi for Internet access at hotspots, Bluetooth and GPS for satellite navigation.

Also found in the Magic is a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back. This comes with autofocus but no flash capabilities. We tried a few shots with the Magic and found photos to be generally of good quality for a smartphone, though the autofocus feature felt a little slow. This smartphone is also capable of video capture with a maximum resolution of 352 x 288 pixels.

Hardware and wireless features aside, the most important specification of the HTC Magic is that it’s the first device to come with Android 1.5. The new onscreen keyboard is one of its upgrades over the original, allowing the Magic to be designed without a physical keypad. HTC further customized this soft keyboard and the one you see shipped in the Magic has full QWERTY, numeric with T9 and Chinese handwriting layouts. The numeric keypad layout is very similar to what’s found on the HTC Touch series of devices running on Windows Mobile. This is optimized for one-handed typing and we found it to be very useful when on-the-go, especially if you are commuting and need to hold onto something with the other hand. Switching between this layout and the full-QWERTY one is a long-winded process, requiring multiple screen taps and entering a separate settings page. 

In the full-QWERTY layout, auto correction of text is turned on by default. In cases where you mis-tap letters, the software will try to guess what you intended to type and give you that option. For example, if you miss the final “t” when spelling “about” and end up with “abour”, the keyboard guesses your intention and pressing space or enter will give you the correct word. What was annoying is that it takes many steps to turn off this predictive text option. There is no button on the keyboard to toggle it and you end up going deep into the settings page to change it. This is frustrating when you want to type in a colloquialism or acronym without adding it to the dictionary. Another annoyance was that even though the onscreen buttons enlarge when your finger makes contact with them (like on the iPhone), this was slow to occur and you would usually be moving your finger off to another letter before seeing what you’ve really typed in the last tap. This slows down accurate typing and definitely needs to be improved. 

Widgets have also been added to the Cupcake revision of Android. These are useful gadgets you can add to the Home screen such as a digital clock in favor of the default analog one or a Wi-Fi toggle button so you don’t need to enter the settings page to turn on that feature. New widgets can be found on the Android Marketplace with many of them available for free. 

Copy-and-paste has been enabled in the body text for the browser, which means you can takes chunks of text and forward them in emails or text messages. Regrettably, you cannot paste phone numbers copied from the browser into the phone dialer. This means that even with copy-and-paste, finding a restaurant’s phone number for reservation will require you to remember and dial it manually–very counter-intuitive. 

Aside from those mentioned, HTC has added another important feature–Microsoft Exchange support. Once this is set up, you’ll be able to get your Exchange mail, calendar and contacts on the Magic, a critical feature for business users who need constant access to their corporate email.

Performance And Conclusion

The 1,340mAh battery in the HTC Magic gave it a battery life of about 1.5 days on a single charge. This was better than the one day we got with the Dream, but would still require daily charging, especially if you use a lot of data and turn on mail auto-sync. 

Audio quality of calls was good and we did not experience dropped calls during our review period. The speakerphone was also loud enough for use in reasonably quiet environments–no complaints there. 

Though it isn’t perfect, Android 1.5 is a significant improvement over the first version, and software-wise, the Magic is much improved over the Dream. It does have a few niggles that require sorting out, especially for text input. The good news is that these can all be changed with software updates, and hopefully, HTC will make the Magic better with time.

[posted by John Chan]

View, Edit and Create Microsoft® Word & Excel® files on your Android-powered Smartphone

Whether you’re an organization looking to mobilize your sales professionals or an individual looking to increase personal productivity, leaving your office or laptop behind does not have to mean leaving your crucial files and work behind.

Now you can get your work done no matter where you are by using Documents To Go Standard Edition to view, edit and create Microsoft Word and Excel files and attachments on your Android-powered  smartphone.  And since it is full featured yet easy to use, Documents To Go is one mobileoffice suite that makes good business sense.

Why Choose Dataviz Documents To Go?

• First & only. Documents To Go is the first mobile Office suite for Android that supports editing of native Microsoft Word and Excel files as well as the only solution to support all of the latest Microsoft Office file formats including 97, 2000, X, XP, 2003 and 2007 for Windows as well as 98, 2001, 2004, 2008 for Macintosh.

• Full featured. Dataviz Documents To Go is not just a viewer, it’s a complete solution with a full range of viewing AND editing features.

• Powered by InTact Technology. DataViz’ acclaimed technology ensures all original file formatting is retained once a file has been edited on a smartphone and forwarded on.

• Send & receive attachments. Documents To Go is tightly integrated with Gmail and other e-mail applications like the RoadSync Beta for quick and easy native attachment downloading and sending.

• Native. Open Word and Excel files on your Android smartphone without any desktop or server conversion needed. Whether you receive files via email, the internet or a media card, native document support means you’ll always be able to open files regardless of how you get them to your device.

• Nothing new to learn. Documents To Go was designed and developed with the Android device user in mind – everything from the menus to the touchscreen to trackball is supported for a familiar look and feel.

• Limited-time introductory pricingexclusively available through Android Market.Get it now!

Key Features

• Download, open and send attachments in Gmail and other e-mail applications like the freeRoadSync Beta

• Supports all the latest Microsoft Office file formats including Office 2007

• View, edit and create new documents on your T-mobile G1 and HTC Magic

• Access important files stored on expansion cards via the built-in file browser

• Automatically maintains a list of “Recently Used” documents for quick access

• Securely open password-protected files

• Multiple zoom levels with portrait and landscape support for optimized rendering on a small screen

• Touch-screen, trackball and keypad navigation, plus optimizations for Android Os 1.5 (a.k.a. Cupcake)

• Supports rich formatting in Word To Go including bold, italics, underline, font color, alignment, bulleted and numbered lists, tables, bookmarks, comments, footnotes, endnotes, track-changes, etc.

• Powerful data computation in Sheet To Go with support for 111 functions, cell formatting, row and column preferences, auto-fit options, freeze panes, sort, cut, copy, paste, undo, redo, etc.

• Localized in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish

HTC GOOGLE – At an Android developer’s conference called Google I/O, the company handed thousands of Google Ion phones the the attending developers for free. Google Ion, of course, HTC Magic, running Android and in a fancy new outfit.

The Google Ion is obviously hardware and design-wise identical to the Vodafone-exclusive HTC Magic smartphone. However it’s got the Google I/O conference logo on the back, it comes in shiny black/blue and the retail package has a SIM card with 1-month T-Mobile service, which initially led us to believe that it’s c-branded by T-Mobile USA (but guess what, it’s not).

The difference from the T-Mobile G1 comes with the bundled OS update (Cupcake) and the lack of a hardware keyboard.

There also seems to be more good news for Android lovers on the horizon. According to Andy Rubin, senior director for Mobile Platforms for Google and the spearhead of the Android operating system, there will be at least 18 Android-running phones on the market by the end of the year. That number might also go as high as twenty, coming from eight or nine different manufacturers.

And finally, Google announced their next Android Developer challenge. Participating developers will be able to submit applications in a total of 10 categories starting in August.

The Android users will vote the applications and rate them in order to get the 200 best in the final round.

The prizes range up to 100 000 US dollars for each category plus up to 150 000 US dollars for the three overall winners.

You can learn more about the second Android Developer Challenge here.

Source

Apple is well known for its simplicity, but the upcoming version of the iPhone’s system software is exhibiting usability weaknesses that companies like Nokia solved years ago. 

Earlier this week, as part of the ramp-up towards releasing this software to the public, Apple began running astress test of push notifications–the hallmark feature of the new operating system. This system sends notifications to your phone whenever there’s an update from an application, even when it’s not running. 

To manage the onslaught of notifications from each application, Apple added a new menu that lets users manage push notification settings for each application, as well as providing a quick switch to turn them all on or off. While handy, this introduces an annoying problem for business users that Nokia solved a decade ago by providing a quick way to toggle multiple settings without the hassle of menu hopping. 

User sound profiles, something that Nokia has had in its phones for over a decade, do just that. These let you change multiple settings on the device with just two button presses, and include things like ringer volume, vibration, keyboard tones, and control over how much attention each type of alert can get. 

The best part is, you can switch between these profiles by quickly tapping the power button and choosing from a pop-up menu. You’re also able to make your own custom profiles with settings you choose. There’s even the option to have them automatically turn on and off during certain times of day, so you can have it switch to silent after 10pm. so it won’t wake you or your significant other up when you’re trying to go to sleep. 

On the iPhone, you have one profile, and one profile only. Even if you turn the ringer sound off by flipping the volume silencer switch, you will still receive alerts and vibrations for incoming calls, e-mails, text messages, etc. Worse, with iPhone OS 3.0, Apple has embedded some of the options to turn these things on and off a little deeper than they were in version 2.0. 

The new notification settings now live where the email push notification used to reside. That menu has been pushed ever deeper into the mail settings, which means that to tweak things like how often it fetches e-mail and pops up with calendar items and invitations, you have to dive three settings menus deep (not including the two or more actions required to wake and unlock the phone and get to the settings menu). 

 
A small tweak to Apple’s handling of email fetching has a big effect on usability for business users. 
(Credit: CNET)

 
So here’s my problem with all this: When I start my work day I want to turn all this stuff back on after having to have turned it off so I wouldn’t hear a buzz or have the screen light up every few minutes while I was asleep. I want it to get my work and Yahoo email via push, and fetch all other mail every 15 minutes. I want to flip the push notifications back on, too. Now I have to go through two different settings menus, flipping each one of those things on, when there really should be one where I can manage both. 

Even better would be a system similar to Nokia’s where I can set up the phone to do these activities at certain times of the day, just like I’m able to set up with timed alarms. Or how about making use of these US$30 and US$50 plastic charging docks by having the phone automatically switch to certain settings when it’s in a particular dock. Heck, that would make me want to buy one for work and home. 

What really surprises me about this is that Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs has been a notorious stickler about the details in the software and hardware found inside the company’s products. An anecdote about Jobs in Steven Levy’s Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness, mentions that he badgered the engineering team of the original iPod repeatedly when he couldn’t get to the song he wanted in a certain number of clicks, something which led to the original iPod’s simplistic text menu structure. 

Jobs wanted to get to a song in just three clicks. I just want to turn my email and notifications on and off in less than nine.

Third party innovation

Just because Apple has not addressed this issue with its own software releases doesn’t mean it hasn’t been worked on by others. 

A third party iPhone developer known as BigBoss solved half these problems eight months ago with an app for jailbroken iPhones called SBsettings. This is a menu that drops down when you slide your finger across the top of the iPhone, and provides quick on/off access to various features like 3G, Bluetooth, and the phone signal. The closest Apple’s iPhone software gets to that is with the airplane mode, however that’s an all or nothing solution, and still requires exiting whatever application you’re in. 

The SBsettings menu for jailbroken iPhones lets users quickly change settings for multiple apps and services. 
(Credit: BigBoss.org)

What’s nice about SBsettings is that it follows you no matter what app you’re using, which is exactly the kind of system-level control Apple needs to bake into a future firmware revision. 

The company has already done this with some of the hardware buttons, and special software-controlled combinations like clicking on the home button twice to call up things like iPod controls, phone favorites, and soon the phone-wide search. But where it’s really lacking is when you need to make a quick change in an app, and don’t want to exit it to do it. This happens to me all the time when I need to hop over to a different Wi-Fi network, or am reading something in bed and want to turn the brightness down. It’s just a pain to exit whatever I’m doing and dig through Apple’s ever-growing settings menu. 

In comparison, Google’s more open approach on its Android mobile platform has led to a handful of genuinely useful apps that let you accomplish exactly the type of functionality I pined for earlier. One called Toggle is very similar to SBsettings, and puts most of your phone’s antenna controls right in the status bar, so you can very quickly swipe your finger down and adjust Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, screen brightness, volume levels, and airplane mode. Like SBsettings it can be set up to be systemwide, which means its available whenever you need it, from any app you’re using. 

Another, called Locale can change a number of settings when you get within a certain geographical radius. When I get into either one of these two zones it can change things like screen brightness, ringtone, the wallpaper, and which phone antennas are turned on and off. 

This innovation already exists, and it could make the iPhone OS that much easier to use. While Apple has often remained steadfast on keeping things overly simplistic to appeal to the masses (see the Mighty Mouse, buttonless Shuffle, one-input cinema LCD displays, et al) it’s making the business of getting business done on the iPhone a more complicated affair. 

Any business users who intend to use the iPhone for work and play have many things to look forward to with the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 update, but juggling notifications, email fetching, and other settings could add up to quite a headache. 

Apple did not respond to calls or emails for comment on changes to these menus. 

Update: Developer Mario Intelliborn pinged me to let me know about his MyProfiles app for jailbroken iPhones. It lets you do most of the things I’m talking about and more, including a way to make calls and notifications from certain parties get through. To use it you need to have a phone that’s been jailbroken to allow for unsigned, third-party applications.

[by Josh Lowensohn]

For today’s show and tell, Samsung’s first Android phone is serving Cupcake. The Samsung I7500 a.k.a. Galaxy is the first Google-powered device to come with a 5 megapixel camera and that’s just the tip of much improved multimedia skill.

This is just a preview and it should serve to whet your appetite as the I7500 prepares to launch. As soon as we get our hands on a final version, we’ll grab our tool bag and make an out-and-out review. For now, we’ll just share our first impressions of the device.

  
Samsung I7500 official photos

Samsung I7500 Galaxy at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 5.76Mbps
• OS and CPU: 528MHz CPU with 128MB RAM running latest Android OS v1.5
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar, no keypad
• Dimensions: 115.0 x 56.0 x 11.9 mm, 119 g.
• Display: 3.2″ capacitive OLED touchscreen, HVGA resolution (320 x 480 pixels)
• Storage: 8GB, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• Camera: 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB v.2.0, 3.5mm audio jack
• Misc: Accelerometer sensor, FM radio with RDS, Gesture lock
• Battery: 1440 mAh battery

   
The I7500 is Samsung’s Google phone

Version 1.5 of the Android OS brings some very welcome refinements. The on-screen keyboard is obviously one of them, now that Android powers a full touch handset with no keyboard at all. Video recording and playback have also been included – both strangely missing in version 1. Stereo Bluetooth is aboard as well.

There’s also some UI polish and plenty of work done under the hood. Extensive bug fixes and improved performance should make the OS even more enjoyable.

Before we begin, it would be fair play to note that in this preview we’re using quite an early version of the device and it’s not all shipshape. The most noticeable absentees are the camera samples, but the obviously undercooked Camera app does the handset no justice. A good 5 megapixel snapper is a valuable feature and we have every reason to believe Samsung will get it right before launch.

    
A few comparison shots with the iPhone

Design and construction

For quite a while, the T-Mobile G1 had sole title to the Google phone nickname. The HTC Dream (the non-T-Mobile-branded version of the G1) and HTC Magic obviously have the same genes. The first thing that comes to mind when you see the I7500 Galaxy with the screen turned off is, clearly and undoubtedly, Samsung.

Only when the screen lights up do you realize that Android’s inside. The screen is easily the best part of the hardware – a 3.2″ HVGA capacitive OLED touchscreen. We should note that our unit had a greenish tint but again, it’s an early version with many issues still to sort out.

The screen is very responsive, reacting to even the lightest touch. Once the green tint problem is dealt with, the display should get the amazing vibrancy typical of OLED screens.

  
The 3.2″ OLED display is the main attraction of the I7500

The hardware buttons are where the user interface has changed the most. The trackball was replaced with a regular D-pad (a very old-school Samsung D-pad, we should add) and, while the other controls are the same, their layout and styling has changed. So if you’re coming from a G1 you’ll need a few minutes before you feel at home.

While the back key is obvious enough, the I7500 menu key is marked by an arrow pointing up from a square bracket. That doesn’t exactly scream “menu”. The home key – that looks like an Nseries multimedia knob – is squeezed between the back and end button. The Home key is small but comfortably raised, so pressing it is trouble free.

  
Samsung don’t like trackballs

The styling of the phone is quite plain, more on the cheap than the conservative side. It’s plastic all around, and the silvery accents on the control and navigation pad do little to glam up the basic piano black front.

The sides of the I7500 Galaxy are not that different from the G1. On the left there’s just the volume rocker. The right-hand side has the shutter key, which can be half-pressed to handle autofocus, and a hold key typical of Samsung touch phones.

   
The volume rocker on the left • shutter key and hold key on the right

Now, the need for a Hold key is questionable. In the G1, the end call button locks the display anyway.

On the I7500 Galaxy there’s an application called “Spare Parts”, which allows you to make minor tweaks like changing the behavior of the End button. You can set whether the End key should lock the phone, return to home screen or go to homescreen and then lock. We hope it gets updated to control the behavior of other buttons too. A user-configurable Hold key could be very helpful.

The top has the microUSB port and a lanyard eyelet and – guys at HTC, pay attention here! – a standard 3.5mm audio jack.

  
The 3.5mm audio jack and the microUSB port on top

The all-plastic rear is rather plain. The only embellishment is a dot-printed world map to subtly hint of Google’s global reign … erm, sorry… reach. The camera lens, single loudspeaker grill and the Samsung and Google logo are all there is at the back of the I7500 Galaxy.

  
A look at Samsung I7500′s back

The 5 megapixel camera lens is enclosed in a slightly raised frame, which also accommodates the LED flash.

 
The 5-megapixel snapper and its companion – the LED flash

Removing the back panel reveals the easily accessible SIM compartment. Unfortunately, that’s how you get to the microSD card slot as well. The memory card slot is under the battery cover, but the card can be swapped without removing the battery.

 
What androids are made of

Overall, the Samsung I7500 Galaxy is pleasingly compact and the hardware controls are quite roomy. It sits well in the hand, its 11.9mm of thickness count for a lot of that. The Plain Jane styling borders on cheap and comes out a bit too boring for a handset that’s debuting a brand new OS in the Samsung portfolio. The handset has a distinct Samsung face though and the brand’s loyal customers will perhaps appreciate that. The other positive thing is that we have no reason to question the phone’s long-term durability.

  
Samsung I7500 in hand

A robot’s user interface

We have quite an extensive description of the Android UI basics in our T-Mobile G1 review, so to keep things short in the Samsung I7500 preview we’ll just try and focus on the changes brought by the latest revision of the OS.

Virtual on-screen keyboard for small robotic fingers

The biggest change in the Samsung I7500 Galaxy obviously is the switch from a physical to a virtual keyboard. It does the whole-letter pop up each time you press a key but there’s something to look out for – three dots under the letter. If those appear, a press and hold will bring up all available related symbols – the letter with all the diacritics for example. The keyboard also auto rotates to landscape thanks to the accelerometer.

  
The keyboard in portrait and landscape modes

The I7500 virtual keys are smallish – especially in portrait mode – and typing could be very error-prone. Otherwise, the keyboard offers helpful features like a “.com” button when you’re typing an URL, or a “Next” button when there are more fields to fill in, with that button changing to “Done” at the end.

  
Variations of the letter ‘o’ • the smilies work the same way

You will spot that the Apple iPhone keyboard is physically larger. The larger screen estate surely adds to that despite the lower resolution. But the most important difference with the I7500 Galaxy is that the iPhone keys are more loosely spaced apart.

  
Samsung I7500 Galaxy and Apple iPhone QWERTY keyboards size comparison

Folders go alive

We’ve all seen phones boasting on-screen widgets that notify of new emails or display an RSS feed. With version 1.5 on the I7500 Galaxy, Android is trying out an interesting solution to unify such things and make them an inherent part of the interface.

   
The default live folders that come with Android 1.5

The solution is called “Live folders”. The main difference with ordinary folders is that the live folders are automatically filled with content. For example, there’s a “Contacts with phone numbers” and a “Starred contacts” live folders. They do what you would expect them to do – they are filled with contacts that have phone numbers or are starred.

Nothing particularly exciting so far, but that’s not even half of it. A live folder can be populated with your emails, playlists, an RSS feed, bookmarks and so on. There’s a simple API to provide content for live folders. In non-programmer talk, this means it’s easy to write programs that stay in the background and fill the various live folders with custom content.

So, it won’t be long before Twitter live folders become available, or a folder for your Netflix queue, or just about anything, that can you can make a list out of. We think this is a great way to deliver dynamic content to your homescreen from many sources without it becoming a colorful mess of differently styled widgets.

Miscellaneous chrome plating

There are some minor additions in terms of eye candy as well – switching between apps causes the current app to zoom out and “throb” while the other app loads. Another minor tweak to the I7500 OS is the shading of the buttons, which gives them a more elaborate look.

Another of the more useful additions is the ability to filter the list of applications in the “Manage applications” menu – you can choose to view running apps or apps from third-party sources. You can terminate running apps, turning this into a simple task manager (there are more advanced ones in the Marketplace).

  
Filtering the list of installed apps

In the I7500 Galaxy Settings menu, there’s a new addition called Locale & text. It allows you to pick a different locale (which changes the language of the UI), change some keyboard settings and access the user dictionary. That last bit lets you teach autocomplete new words.

   
The Locale & text menu • keyboard settings • adding a word to the dictionary

The music player is the same

There aren’t any visible changes to the Music player, the only worthwhile addition is a music player widget.

 
The Music player widget is quite simple

It does what any other music player widget does – display track info and add a play/pause button and a skip button to your homescreen. The widget doesn’t offer fast-forward and there isn’t a skip back button. A tap on the widget brings you straight to the music player.

Video player the Spartan way

We were quite disappointed with the lack of a video player in the original version of Android (although we found a silly hack to view 3gp files through email). Luckily, there’s a dedicated video player on board the I7500 Galaxy… well, sort of.

It’s about as simple as you can make it – once you hit the video player icon you get a list of all videos available on the phone. And the interface while playing a video consists of play/pause, next and previous buttons, as well as a draggable progress bar.

  
A basic video player – it’s a start

The I7500 Galaxy video player seems to support only the H.263 codec but since the application crashed when trying to play other files, we suspect it’s a long way from finished. Perhaps it won’t be far fetched to see even DivX/XviD support implemented.

What the app really needs is some UI to filter videos like the one in the music player.

Final words

The I7500 Galaxy or the Samsung’s take on the Google phone is a solid device with all the gadgetry we’ve got used to in smartphones. We’re very eager to get our hands on a final version and see how the camera performs – YouTube and Picasa integration that will be part of v1.5 would turn it into an even more connected device.

The ample 8GB of internal storage and microSD expansion, topped with a 3.5mm audio jack and A2DP make the I7500 a worthy competitor to dedicated music players and Samsung sure know good audio quality.

The Samsung I7500 however is more important than that as it marks an important point in the history of the Android OS – it’s the first working non-HTC device running the OS. Yes, Androids have a long way before them but they don’t give in to their more mature market adversaries.

[by gsm arena]

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