Mobile Jaw » Reviews

Comparing Cameras: Samsung Captivate, SE X10 Mini, Palm Pre

Darren Humphries — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:15:49 +0000

Just a quick post to compare the same shot taken with three different phone cameras. Take a look and comment on your opinion of the shots.

Samsung Captivate, 5mp camera

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini, 5mp camera

Palm Pre, 3mp camera

Initial Thoughts: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini

Darren Humphries — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:15:31 +0000

Has anyone made a name-is-longer-than-the-phone joke about the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini? Well, joke about the name all you want but this phone is no joke. The X10 Mini is a fantastic little Android phone.

The X10 Mini is a follow on to the Xperia X10 (previous posts here and here) in a very different format. While the X10 is a high-end device with a large 4 inch screen the X10 Mini is…well, mini. The display is 2.6 inches making it easily the smallest Android phone. The size overall is just 83 x 50 x 16 mm (3.3 x 2 x 0.6 inches), and it weighs just 88 grams (3.1 oz).

The X10 Mini is available from Rogers for just $29.99 on contract, or $324.99 outright. Good price!

Shrinking Android down to work on this device took a fair bit of work by Sony Ericsson, which is the reason this is only running on Android 1.6. But Sony has done a very good job of making Android work on such a small device.

[follow link for more impressions and pictures]

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Read the rest of Initial Thoughts: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini at MobileJaw.

Going Hands on with the Android Based HTC Legend

Mike Temporale — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:30:00 +0000

HTC announced and started shipping the Legend in Europe earlier this year. Well, it’s finally arrived on North American shores and we have been putting it through the paces to see how it stacks up. The HTC Legend is current available in Canada from Bell and Virgin Mobile. While there’s no official word from HTC, it’ is expected that a US carrier will be adding the Legend to their line up. Bell and Virgin are selling the exact same phone – there are no external carrier markings on the device and the specs are identical. The only difference you will find between these two carriers is the price of the phone. Bell is asking $399 for the device without a contract, while Virgin (a discount carrier owned by Bell) is asking $349. I found the choice pretty easy to make and saved myself $50.

When it comes to hardware specifications, the HTC Legend is not considered one of these super-spec’ed devices that are currently hitting the market. However, the Legend has it where it counts, especially when you think about the price point of the device.

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Read the rest of Going Hands on with the Android Based HTC Legend at MobileJaw.

A Look at SBSH PhoneWeaver for Android Devices

Mike Temporale — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:30:00 +0000

Recently I reviewed PhoneWeaver 2.1 from SBSH for Windows Mobile based devices and I was blown away by how powerful and the application was. It had a significant impact on my daily usage of the device. By creating different profiles in PhoneWeaver I was able to forget all about setting the volume or turning on and off Bluetooth for my drives to and from work.

Today, SBSH has released PhoneWeaver for Android based devices. That’s great news for everyone that’s picked up a Nexus One, EVO, Legend, Galaxy S, or some other Android device. Now Android users can enjoy the power of PhoneWeaver too.

I’ve been using the final beta versions of PhoneWeaver for Android over the last couple weeks. The application is pretty much the same as the Windows Mobile version. The interface is between Windows Mobile and Android is a little different, but the overall concepts and functionality are pretty much the same. The android version doesn’t have as many settings to tinker around with, but it’s just the first release. I’m sure it will expand nicely over time.

Once you install PhoneWeaver you’ll notice a new icon in the notification tray on your device. If you pull down the notification window you’ll see PhoneWeaver along with the name of the current profile. Simply tap on this to open PhoneWeaver and manually select your profile or edit/create a new profile.

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The Acer Liquid E… The Saga Continues, General Bits

Dave Evans — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:45:06 +0000

After using the Liquid E for a few days here are some things I have noticed:

As I mentioned before, the battery life is not good. I honestly can’t see getting through a full day of solid use. The issue of it getting hot when the processor is pushed even the slightest has not improved.

On the positive side, I quite like the screen. I personally find that screen size between 3.5” and 4” is optimal. The Liquid E at 3.5” is right in there. I also like WVGA resolution. It allows for a nice screen size but not too wide. I have small hands and wide phones are not comfortable for me. Unfortunately because of the design of the Liquid E, with so much space between the screen and the sides of the device, it is slightly uncomfortable for me. The colors are very vibrant and crisp. This is my first extended use of a capacitive screen and I have found some pros and cons. I think the pros win though. Scrolling is very easy to do on a capacitive screen. I seldom open anything by mistake like I do on my TP2. I do find it a bit difficult to hit the right spot if there are a number of things in a tight area on the screen, since small touches such as with a fingernail do not register, so when you use the soft pad of a fingertip it covers a bit too much area. I wonder if this may be just a learning curve though. Outside viewing seems to be not bad. I’m rather impressed actually. It’s far from perfect, but it is easily one of the best I’ve seen outdoors since the days of reflective screens when they were pointed right at the sun.

Pairing up to a Bluetooth headset was very easy, although I seem to have to go into settings and connect each time I turn it on. Using the same headset on my TP2, it connects automatically.

Volume through Bluetooth and phone calls on the phone itself seem quite good, as is the sound quality. However I cannot hear the ringtones, or alarms. Nor can I hear voice commands through Google Navigator.

More after the break: (...)
Read the rest of The Acer Liquid E… The Saga Continues, General Bits at MobileJaw.

Unboxing the HTC Legend from Bell and Virgin Mobile

Mike Temporale — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:30:00 +0000

Virgin Mobile and it’s parent company Bell, have launched the HTC Legend with North American 3G frequencies. Until now, if you live in the US or Canada and wanted the Legend, your only choice was the European version but with that version you never get the nice 3G speeds. Now that Virgin and Bell have launched a North American version, you can enjoy the device and the super fast 3G network that goes along with it. It appears that the only difference between the Virgin Mobile Legend and Bell’s Legend is $50 of your hard earned cash. So with that, I picked up the Virgin Mobile edition today and shot this unboxing video. Take a look and let me know if you have any questions. A more detailed review of the Legend will be coming along soon!

The Acer Liquid E…. The Saga Continues with GPS, Navigation and Music

Dave Evans — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:00:13 +0000

My thoughts on some Android/Liquid E capabilities:

GPS and Navigation
The choices of GPS applications for Android aren’t as wide as they are for Windows Mobile. Co-Pilot have a stand-alone app for about 30 bucks. I used it on Windows Mobile and it’s not bad for the money. Rogers have an application under development that should be out fairly soon, so I’m told. Funny enough it’s called Rogers Navigator. Rogers do offer Telnav for $10.00 a month. If I’m not mistaken this is an app developed by Nokia which Rogers is offering until they get their own in place.

I’ve been using Google Navigator, their latest version with voice commands. The standard Google Maps comes installed on the Liquid E. Just go to the apps store and download the latest version and you are good to go. The graphics are pretty cool with 3D views while you are on the move. When you get to your destination it goes to a snapshot of street view. It’s a free app, so it’s not very feature rich. Like I said, it’s free but you are using data to continually download maps.

The Liquid E seems to lock on to satellites without much issue. I have found that on a couple of occasions my location is off by a good 50 meters or more, running parallel to my road till I make a turn onto a perpendicular road and meet up with myself. I’m sure glad that doesn’t happen often.

If anyone has been wondering why they have underclocked the Snapdragon processor to 768MHz, I know the reason why. Well actually two reasons…..the 1350mAh battery sucks. I’m not even using the Liquid E as my primary device and I’m not getting through the day. Not good. Secondly, while using GPS or anything processor hungry it gets pretty warm. I can’t imagine what it would be like buzzing along in high gear.

The other secondary issue I have come across is volume. Right from the top I have to tell you that my hearing is not that great. Remember when mom used to say “Turn that music down or you’ll go deaf”. Well it turns out she was right. I think the problem I’m having hearing GPS commands may partly be the fault of the app, because I can hear things on YouTube easily. Oh, and I’m pretty certain the women giving the commands is Steven Hawking’s sister.

I can’t hear the phone ring either. I haven’t imported any ringtones, so I’m willing to bet I can overcome that issue with a louder ringtone.

MUSIC
I’m just going to take a quick look at music for now. I’ll likely come back to it again when I’ve finished fumbling around and found my way.

Rogers have service called URmusic. It is very simple to use. Hitting the link takes you right to the URmusic site where you can download music directly for a fee of $1.29 per song or albums for $9.99 and next month the fee shows up on you bill. I haven’t done this yet but I’m assuming I can copy any DRM free MP3s to the storage card. If anyone has any more real use info in this area please feel free to post it.

Next up I think I will probably cover some of the overall operational aspects of the device and Android itself. Wish me luck!

Got me Some Palm Pre!

Darren Humphries — Sat, 15 May 2010 14:00:25 +0000

Have you had a chance to use a Palm Pre or Pixi? Well, be careful if you do; you may just like it.

The Palm Pre has been out for quite a while now but despite that I had not had a chance to actually use it. Like many of you I had only seen WebOS in reviews. What I saw impressed me, but not enough to shell out the money for one.

Well, nothing catastrophic happened but I ended up deciding to get myself a Palm Pre after all.

So, why now? I’m not exactly sure but I guess its a combination of pricing and all the HP take-over news. The buyout (and bail out) of Palm means that resources will be available for both hardware and OS development. That doesn’t really do much for my new Palm Pre as I’m sure future OS developments will be designed for more powerful hardware. But I just…wanted one.

I ended up getting the original Palm Pre as that’s the only one available from Bell. The are selling the Pre at just $299 without a contract. Sure, as smartphones go it is a little old but at that price its a cheap way to at least give WebOS a whirl.

So far, I am really liking this little phone. Yes, it has quirks and problems but not enough to cause geek anxiety. The only thing that is bugging me is the battery life. It is just plain bad. I can get from 8am to 5pm or so but that doesn’t help me for the ride home or for an evening out. I find I have to charge once during the day as well as at night, even if its just a quick top up. Of course, I am using it a fair bit but compared to the HTC Hero I am using there is no comparison.

WebOS itself is a real treat to use. I’ll probably post more thoughts on WebOS later but I am liking its elegance and simplicity. It doesn’t get the geek juices going (ewww… what’s that?!) but it is refreshing to use and took no time at all to become familiar. It lacks options for changing the look and feel and there are too few apps but all the basics are there.

There is an active hacker/modder community for WebOS and most hang out in the forums at precentral.net. I’ve already installed ‘Preware’ which allows for quite a few patches to augment the OS. While it isn’t exactly supported by Palm it doesn’t seem to be harmful at all.

One of the things I wasn’t sure I would like, but do, is the slide down keyboard. It is rather cramped but does a good job of recognizing the right characters when you mash into the keys. I’m actually writing this post on the Pre; something I would not do on many software keyboards. (shakes fist at HTC Hero)

Anyway, I’ll probably be writing more about the Pre but wanted to jot down a few initial thoughts.

If you have any questions about the OS or the hardware of the Pre, fire away.

Checking out the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Mike Temporale — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:30:00 +0000

Last week, Rogers Wireless was the first carrier in North America to launch the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android based smartphone. The wordwide launch was a couple days earlier with Japan’s NTT DoCoMo. The Xperia X10 has been getting a lot of attention around the net for its large display and ultra thin design. I had a chance to play with one at the launch event here in Canada, and then again when a friend picked one up the day it became available from Rogers. The X10 can be purchased for $550 directly from Rogers without a contract, or $150 with a 3 year contract.

I’ll start by going over some of the goodness that this phone brings to the table. First and foremost is the large 4 inch screen. HTC managed to make the HD2’s 4.3 inch screen reach extremely close to the edge of the phone. Sony Ericsson tried as well, but didn’t end up getting as edge to edge as HTC was able to. Regardless, the phone really feels like it’s all screen when you’re holding it.

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Profile Management with SBSH PhoneWeaver

Mike Temporale — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:15:00 +0000

I’ve been a long time user of Windows Mobile Standard (non-touch) devices. There are a number of differences between the two platforms, more than just the touch / no touch element that many people focus on. One such difference is the concept of ring Profiles. With Windows Mobile Standard devices, you can pick between a number of pre-defined ringer profiles like Normal, Silent, Outdoor, etc. When I left the house in the morning, I would switch to Outdoor – when I got to work, Silent – hanging around the house, Normal. These profiles don’t just change the ringer volume, they also switch the Notifications, Alerts, New Message, and system key press volumes. Further, you could tweak each of the profiles so they did worked best for your needs.

The concept of these profiles is totally lost on Windows Phone Professional (touch) based devices. You have to mess around with the volume settings every time you want to change the volume. This is a simple task that most people do 3 or more times a day. It should be easy or even automatic. With PhoneWeaver from SBSH, it can be fully automatic and you can control so much more than just the volume of your speaker.

PhoneWeaver allows you to define smart profiles that can be activated automatically based on some predetermined event like Time, Phone Status, Agenda, or even GPS co-ordinates. The profiles can do so much more than just change the volume of your ringer. They can also enable / disable features like Bluetooth, WiFi, Cellular Radio, and the GPS. That means you can set PhoneWeaver to turn off WiFi, turn on Bluetooth, and turn up the phones ringer volume at quitting time. That way, your phone will be ready for the drive home.

The first thing you’ll notice once you’ve installed PhoneWeaver is the new icon in the top title bar of your device. The icon shows what profile is currently loaded on the device. Now, I’m not a big fan of putting extra icons in the top title bar of the device. I prefer the non-cluttered look for my device. However, I found this icon to be very helpful, at least while you learn how to use the software. Once you’re comfortable, you can dig into the settings and move it’s location left or right, or even turn it off.

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Read the rest of Profile Management with SBSH PhoneWeaver at MobileJaw.