Android and Me

For a long time Windows Mobile has been my mobile OS of choice. I have actually been using it since it was the HandheldPC version 1.0 (Casio Cassiopeia A-10).

While I still use Windows Mobile everyday (HTC Touch Pro) I have been itching to get at an Android powered device for a while now. Android is the closest to Window Mobile of the OS’ out there, including the required (IMO) multitasking.

When Mike Temporale let me know I would be reviewing the LG Eve I was pumped! Not only was the hardware the type that I prefer but it was Android (version 1.5).

When I first started digging into Android I actually felt a little lost. Having used Windows Mobile for so long I know where to find anything I need, so trying to blindly grope my way around Android just felt very strange. I couldn’t help but think that non-techie types might not be too enamoured with Android.

It’s only been about 3 or 4 weeks now but I do feel comfortable with Android at this point. I’m far from being an expert but can generally do everything I need. The only thing I still find a bit confusing is trying to find where some settings are located. That needs to be organized a bit more.

My daily use of Android on the LG Eve has been very enjoyable (yup, I’m that geeky). I really love using this little phone! Android does everything I need it to and in many ways is what I would have liked Windows Mobile to be by now.

The LG Eve is a little different than most Android phones available for now in that the screen resolution is fairly low (480×320), it’s small and has a resistive screen. For people that have been using Android on something like the Hero they may not like the LG Eve as much. For me, I am used to resistive screens and like the small size.
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Happy Holidays from Mobile Jaw – What Did Santa Leave You?

As the festive holiday weekend comes to a close and everyone gets ready to return to work – unless you’re one of the lucky few who are off until the new year, we want to hear what gadgets you managed to convince Santa to leave under your tree. My family doesn’t tend to buy gadgets for me anymore.  For some reason they think I’m a hard guy to please when it comes to gadgets.  I’m not sure where that idea comes from. However, I did manage to get some cash, some lottery tickets, and a couple Lego games for the Xbox. I really enjoy playing the Lego series and have had a hard time breaking away from the Xbox these last couple days. Santa did leave a Nintendo Wii for the kids. I will admit to helping the kids get it up and running and even showing them the best way to play.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and that you have a fabulous New Year! So, what about you? Share with us what gifts you got this holiday.

Quick Tests of the LG Eve Video Recording

Nothing special here, just a quick test of the Video capability of the LG Eve. Video capture outdoors is really not too bad at all; colour seems to be good and lag is certainly acceptable. Unfortunately, low light capture is not as good and the LED flash is not strong enough to compensate. I’ll try to post an example of that later as an edit to this post.

Let me just say; it was -13C out, so I didn’t want to take time to do anything too fancy. Oh, and my nose isn’t really that big! I think. And the sun was in my eyes…

Edit (Dec 23rd):
I should mention that the Eve does allow editing of video right on the phone. You can trim the length, add text overlays, and add music and filters. I must say, the editing is really quite nice! I trimmed one of the videos above and then just loaded it directly to YouTube.

The camera allows editing of images as well including cropping, levels, colour overlays, framing, text bubbles, resizing and more. You can also create slideshows on the phone.

Overall, in good lighting the camera does quite well, video is clear with little stuttering but in low light it struggles. A better LED would help as this one is just underpowered.

My Favorite Windows Mobile Standard Device is…

I’ve been a big fan of non-touch smartphones for a while now. I find that they are faster to navigate around, easier to use with one hand, and all around more stable than their touch brothers. I have also been very lucky in that I have had access to many of the different models that have come out over the years. Recently I made the following comment on Twitter: I think the Samsung Propel Pro is my all-time fav Windows Mobile Standard device. Original BlackJack with scroll wheel is 2nd. I was asked to explain why I felt this way, but that’s one area where Twitter falls short. There was no way I could explain why the Propel Pro was my favorite Windows Mobile Standard device in just 140 characters. So I sat down to explain why and ended up with 850+ words on why it’s my favorite.  I can’t see how to condense this down to just 140 characters.

Without wasting any more time, here are the reasons. Please let me know your thoughts and which non-touch Windows Mobile device is your favorite.

1: Form Factor – There are 4 main form factors – A) Screen with no keyboard, B) Screen with a side-slide keyboard, C) Screen with front-facing keyboard, and D) Screen with front-facing number pad only. I like the physical keyboard as I find it provides a better experience for people that do a lot of writing on their devices. That factor alone removes half the options from the above list leaving a front-facing keyboard or a side-slide keyboard. A lot of devices have the side-slide because it offers a larger keyboard while allowing it to slide away for protection. What drove me nuts when I was using a side-slider, is having to wait for the screen to rotate. It’s just too slow. The front facing keyboard devices don’t have this problem because there is no delay in waiting for the screen to rotate. The downside is that the keyboard is now exposed all the time.  The Propel Pro from Samsung is one of the few devices, and only current device, that offers a front facing keyboard but hides it with a up-slider design. That means there is no delay in waiting for the screen to rotate when you slide out the keyboard to type a message. Perfect!

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WIND Mobile Roaming Charges are FANTASTIC!

WIND is a brand new cellular carrier in Canada and is now live. Rather than just fitting in with the other Canadian carriers WIND is going all out to differentiate themselves and we as consumers are the beneficiaries.

We have already mentioned WIND’s plans but I wanted to clarify their roaming policy because it is VERY different and wonderful.

Obviously, as a new network WIND has a long way to go with coverage, and they know it. They will be focusing on major cities first and will build out as they are able. The solution they have for coverage outside of their network is to allow you to roam on other networks. Well, you can roam on other networks with other phones but are seriously scalped when you do!

When you are on the WIND network they call it “WIND Home Zone” and when you roam you are “WIND Away”. Your Home Zone if not at all limited to just the area you are in. Anytime you are connected to WIND, even if you are in a different city you are in the WIND Home Zone and get all of the features on your plan. WOW! It gets better though!

When you are “WIND Away” or are roaming on another network you will be paying a roaming charge of $.25 per minute…even if you are in the US! Told ya it gets better!

Currently when you go to the US you are dinged for $1 a minute and even with just a few calls you can come back from a vacation with a bill inflated by $50 to $100 or much worse. With WIND you will be 1/4th that cost, or $12.50 to $25. That makes a VERY big difference!

While it may sounds way too clichéd I would have to say that WIND is certainly the breath of fresh air we needed in Canadian cellular!
Reference Link

How To Hard Reset an Android Phone

If you have an Android phone you may at some point want to hard reset, or completely wipe out the phone to start from scratch.

Why would you want to reset? Well, you may want to start again with a fresh install or are having a problem with an installed app. You may have bought the phone from someone or all selling it. Sometimes it’s just nice to start all over.

When I got this LG Eve phone for review it had already been used by another writer who didn’t bother to (or didn’t know how to) reset the phone. As a result, I could have read her email, chatted with her friend, used her twitter account and so much more. Doh! Well, I didn’t do any of that, just set out to find out how to reset it to start fresh.

Those that have been Windows Mobile users may be looking for some kind of hardware key combination to hard reset the device, but it’s actually built into the OS. It’s just a little bit buried and took me a bit to find it.

Steps to hard reset Android:

1. Go to “Setting”.
2. Select “SD card & phone storage”.
3. Select “Factory data reset” which should be the last option.
4. Press the “Reset Phone” button.

Now you just wait for the phone to restart and you are all set to go. Ta da!

BTW, in case there is any confusion about this; this will wipe out everything from your phone. You should back up all information before going ahead with this. It won’t wipe out the information you have on services such as Gmail, or Google Calendar, contacts and such. As soon as you log in with your freshly reset phone you will have all your information back on your phone.

Post any questions in the comments here and we will help you out.

Palm Rubbing Their Palms in Their Eyes

Palm’s latest results are in and it doesn’t look great.

Link to PreCentral.net

“Non-GAAP Adjusted Revenues in the second quarter totaled $302.0 million, non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Profit was $77.3 million and non-GAAP Adjusted Gross Margin was 25.6 percent.”

“The company shipped a total of 783,000 smartphone units during the quarter, representing a 5 percent decrease from the first quarter of fiscal year 2010…”

“Non-GAAP Net Loss for the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 was $(59.6) million, or $(0.37) per diluted share.”

It really doesn’t greatly matter how much better than previous years this was, the fact is that Palm continues to hemorage money!

By my super simple math skills Palm would need to sell 19.7% more phones (all else being equal). That would be 937,526 phones. I don’t see that happening in the near future at all. Obviously their trending is downward, which makes sense after the initial hype with a new product launch.

Certainly, it is admirable that Palm has been able to do this well already but they are just not properly structured to continue the way they are. In my example above that only gets them to breakeven; doesn’t get them to the point of making profit and paying down past debt.

Palm doesn’t seem to have any plans for releasing new products, so any increase in sales is going to have to come from new carrier partnerships and make up for the sliding demand on Sprint.

I truly want WebOS to make it but I don’t see that happening with Palm. There needs to be a complete structuring of the company or they need to look for a buyer. While they still have money in the bank from their equity offering they will be through that this year if they can’t make significant changes in time.

Maybe they should set up a Paypal tip jar. I hear that works for Leo Laporte.

First Look: LG Eve, Android for Everyone

The LG Eve, available on Rogers in Canada is a new Android Smartphone being offered for just $49.99 on a 3 year contract. I have been given the chance to use an LG Eve (you can call it the “GW620R” if you feel the inexplicable need) for a bit and will be posting some thoughts on it for the next little while.

This is actually my first go at Android, so I was pumped about playing with this phone. I’ll get into more of that in later posts. For now, let’s take a look at the hardware and an overview of the Eve.

Let’s just gets the specs out of the way:

Basic Specification

• Type: Slide phone/Touchphone
• PET NAME: Eve
• QWERTY Keyboard: Yes
• Technology: GSM and 850/1900 MHz HSPA ; Quad Band Operation 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Dimension: L x W x D (mm) 109 x 54.5 x 15.9mm
• Display: 262K Colour TFT
• Touchscreen: Yes
• Vibration: Yes
• GPRS/EDGE (class) A-GPS / Stand alone

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Wind Mobile Pricing Leaked on Howard Forums

It appears that pricing for Wind Mobile, Canada’s newest national carrier has been leaked on the internet. Wind is expected in the next few days and many of us can’t wait to try out the new network / operator. If the pricing that was posted by “Windsider” over at Howard Forums is correct, there’s going to be a lot of people looking to switch carriers in the next little while.

There are 3 different voice plans to pick from, Chat – $15, Always Talk – $35, and Always Shout – $45. All of the plans include Caller ID and Call Forwarding – 2 things that the other carriers like to charge extra for. All of these plans offer unlimited Wind to Wind calling. Chat offers 100 province wide minutes, Always Talk offers unlimited province wide minutes, and Always Shout offers unlimited Canada wide calling. There is also an option for $20 unlimited North America calling.

For non-BlackBerry users there are 2 choices for data. Infinite Mobile at $35 gives you unlimited data for your phone and allows tethering. Infinite Laptop is $45 and is unlimited data for USB data sticks.

BlackBerry data also has 2 options – Social at $10 and Infinite at $35. Social gives you unlimited instant messaging, Facebook, and MySpace. The Infinite option gives you unlimited internet.

These plans are just what the consumer in Canada has been waiting for and just what the competition was afraid would happen when Wind entered the market. I’m ready to sign up and switch my service.

Xbox Gamer Tag Info on Windows Mobile

Since the launch of Xbox I’ve been expecting Microsoft to launch a Windows Mobile client that would let you track your friends progress while you were away from the console. Sadly, Microsoft has not stepped up to the plate on this and there are now clients popping up for other mobile platforms.

Thanks to the hard work of ZaaM IT, that’s all changing. He’s just released an early beta of WM Live – a Windows Mobile based application that allows you to check up on your friends while you’re mobile and away from the Xbox console. You add in all the Gamer Tags that you are interested in following, and then you can scroll left and right through them. Selecting a friend will display a more detailed list of their recent progress.

You can download the latest version from ZaaM IT’s website. Please make sure you have the .Net Compact Framework 2.0 installed on your device (most recent devices will already have this). Also, it’s important to know that the current version does not support non-touch devices. I’ve been told that this will be added once the touch version becomes more stable.

Thanks to Peter for telling us about the story posted over on joystiq. There’s another picture of the detailed screen after the break.

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