So, to better answer John’s question, I figured I would just share with everyone, all the apps installed on my phone. So here’s the list, and just so it’s clear, some of these are not the best app out there. However they do what I need and do it well. Take a look and let me know what app I’m missing, or share your thoughts on what I’ve already got.

Watch this video on YouTube.

I was pleased with quality of the video recording. Although full 1080p has a weird, almost 2X digital zoom effect to it that I did not like. If I were going to use the video recording feature regularly, I would stick to the 720p setting. The quality is almost as good and it does not have that weird zoom effect. Pinch to zoom also works fine in 720p, but is not supported in full 1080p recording.

Overall Samsung has done a good job with the camera. The average user should be very pleased with the performance.

Enter Rick Mercer, a Canadian political satirist who is well known for his humorous video’s and political rants. Rick put together a great parody of the Heritage Moment commercials that air in Canada. This particular one is focusing on the history of Canadian telecommunications. The video makes fun of the gouging that Canadians are still facing. Rates are going up, Again.

Watch this video on YouTube.

The winner will receive a brand new Palm Pre 2, a touchstone charger and a very nice leather case.

Be sure to follow our Palm Pre 2 coverage and reviews to learn more about this great little smartphone.  Detailed review will be coming soon and a video review shortly after.

This Palm Pre 2 is locked to the Rogers network and must be activated with them to use. The giveaway does not include any airtime. This contest is only open to Canadian residents and will only be shipped to a valid Canadian address.

This contest begins on December 25th, 2010 and will run until January 1st, 2011. A winner will be picked at random on January 2nd, 2011.

Rules: To qualify all you need to do is:

1. Follow us on twitter, @mobilejaw and RT the following:

I just entered to win a free Palm Pre 2 smartphone from @mobilejaw, open to all Canadians! http://bit.ly/gKbMOP

or…

2. Post on our facebook page wall at facebook.com/MobileJaw. Post the following:

Throwing my name into the hat for the Palm Pre 2 giveaway! [You can add anything else you want after this but keep it nice! ]

You can do either of these to be entered but doing both will enter your name twice! You can only enter once for this giveaway (from each of twitter and facebook), so don’t bother spamming it. If we suspect that the winner has acted fraudulently (posting multiple times from various accounts) we can, at our discretion choose a new winner. Before announcing the winner we will contact them either on twitter or facebook and they will have 48 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond in that time we will have to choose a new winner. If you have any questions about the contest please fill out our contact form here or simply reply to this thread and we’ll do our best to answer your questions.

We hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season. Stay safe, have fun and please share this giveaway with others.

I spent a lot time playing with the Focus when I got home from work last night, plus I’ve had some experience using it today. Here’s a few early observations (which are of course likely to change a little over time as I get used to the phone):

Samsung Focus Hardware:

I like the overall feel of the phone and I don’t find it “plasticy”, as other reviewers have commented. Granted, it isn’t the most solid piece of consumer electronics I’ve ever held, but it seems pretty good and I appreciate the light weight.

The 4-inch AMOLED display is gorgeous and while I haven’t yet tried it in direct sunlight, it’s easy to view in all indoor conditions and the colors are wonderful. The depth of black is shockingly good.

The physical buttons, as well as the three capacitive touch buttons on the front face, work well and I have yet to have a problem with any of them.

The sound quality on incoming calls is hardly the greatest, but it’s actually much better than I’d feared it might have been. The native earpiece has globs of volume, there is literally ZERO background hiss or noise on incoming calls (it’s quite eerie), and voices sound very distinct. My only issue with the sound is that it has a somewhat hollow tone and its a little harsh on some voices.

I did try the tethering back door that works only on the Focus and I worked well for me. I don’t tether much, but it’s nice to be able to do it (even though Microsoft didn’t want me to).

Windows Phone 7:

As I suspected, it’s the things that the OS is missing, rather than the things it does well, that have taken front-and-center during the initial use. I’ve tried to be as forgiving as possible, but some things seem rather difficult to accept and I can only hope that Microsoft addresses them quickly. My big gripes are:

• No individual call duration in the call log
• The need to unlock the phone before I can answer an incoming call
• Lack of conversation threading in email
• App handling approach (back key only) is cumbersome under many circumstances.
• YouTube player is annoyingly poor so I can’t stand watching many of the videos
• Calendar reminders can only be set to fire off at (mostly useless) preset times prior to the event.
• No way to stop the phone announcing incoming email while I’m asleep at night.
• Horrible selection of ringtones.

Some of the above items are serious in my mind, but none are show-stoppers. In other words, despite the aggravation these missing items create for me, they aren’t enough to turn me off of the OS.

I will admit that it’s hard to please someone like me, who does software development on mobile phones as a living and is therefore exposed to all of the phone operating systems on a regular basis. The geek in me is strongly attracted to Android for its openness and lack of any severe limitations (so long as you get a GOOD Android device), but the day-to-day user in me likes Windows Phone 7 for some of its well-executed approaches to day-to-day issues. What Windows Phone 7 does well, it does very well and it’s a joy to use in those circumstances. If Microsoft can fix most of the weaknesses, then WP7 promised to be a real contender.

In a way, I hope that the rumors of slow WP7 sales are actually TRUE. If WP7 were a runaway market success it would cause Microsoft to take the same annoying attitude that Apple gets away with. Subsequently fixes would be slow to materialize, because the company would be fools to mess with success. However, a poor showing in the market will FORCE them to re-evaluate their decisions and with any luck we’ll see many of the weaknesses fixed sooner than later.

One reviewer I read noted that there was little likelihood that WP7 would fail. In his estimation, Microsoft would throw money at it until it WAS a success. I can’t see that being a bad thing for early adopters.

HTC’s Chief Innovations Officer, Horace Luke, talks with Pocket-Lint about his work at HTC and how the company goes about designing their products. It’s a very interesting article that will help shed some light on what goes on behind the scenes at HTC. Horace has a passion that drives him to think a little different which results in a nice change in how things are typically done. As I’ve said, it’s an interesting view into HTC, and if you want to learn more, check out Pocket-Lint’s other interviews with HTC – One & Co, and Drew Bamford, the person behind HTC Sense.

(Source = Windows Phone Thoughts)

More telling of the Canadian smartphone marketplace is that iPhone and Blackberry are far ahead of either Windows Phone 7 or Android.

“Despite Canadians’ lack of awareness about the platform, nine per cent say they plan to buy a Windows Phone 7 device the next time they buy a phone. That just narrowly beats out Android at 8.8 per cent, but is behind iPhone’s iOS (25.9 per cent) and BlackBerry OS (20.5 per cent).”

Certainly, the buying results for this holiday season and the first quarter of 2011 will be interesting to watch. I truly don’t think it will outsell Android initially, but perhaps at some point it will. Either way, at the least this poll shows an excitement level we don’t normally see for Micrsoft products.

Curious about Windows Phone 7? Want to see it up close? Come to the launch event for the Toronto Windows Phone User Group at Microsoft Headquarters on November 16th! Details here

Verizon today announced the availability of the Samsung Galaxy Tab on November 11th for $599.

“Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Tab™ will be available Nov. 11 for $599.99. Running on Android™ 2.2, the Samsung Galaxy Tab features a brilliant 7-inch touch screen; robust HTML Web browsing experience with full support for Adobe® Flash® 10.1 for video and mobile gaming; and a 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird Application processor.”

Most sites are complaining that this price point is just too high and it certainly seems to be. The iPad starts at $499 (albiet sans 3G) and perception is that the Galaxy Tab should be less ’cause…it’s not an iPad.

While I do think the price point is a bit high I think it’s actually not as far off as some are saying. The Galaxy Tab has that ridiculously beautiful 7 inch Super AMOLED screen which you have to see to appreciate and is sized well for someone that needs the balance of portability and screen size. If you add 3G to an iPad you end up at the same price point, but people think the extra 3 inches on the iPad justifies a premium at the Tab doesn’t.

Still, perception on value is always an individual thing, and may be the death knell for the Galaxy Tab. When you add that there is no subsidy being offered, you end up limiting the market for this kind of product.

We wish Samsung all the best with the Tab, and hope that they do well.

Source: PRNewsWire

There’s no information on what will power the phone, or what it will look like, or the ultimate price. Sony Ericsson has a good history of making sharp looking devices with solid radio’s. So we can  only hope that this will be the case with the Windows Phone 7 device. I’m looking forward to seeing what Sony Ericsson has up their sleeve. I just hope they don’t screw it up like they did the Android based X10.

So far I have made enough to buy myself a couple coffees.  Oh boy!  Hey, not complaining, just saying.

I’m actually finding that I will carry the Charm with me more often than the Samsung Vibrant if I am just running to the store.  The Charm is just a bit more convenient and I worry less about damaging the screen since it’s so much smaller.  For anything longer than a short trip its the Vibrant for sure. Screen is fantastic, camera is worlds better and Angry Birds actually works on it.

The battery life on the Charm has turned out to be sub par.  I have done everything I can to reduce the drain, but on moderate to heavy use it will only last until about 4pm.  Not so great.  I may need to look into some accessories that help with battery life.

I got the iPod touch 4G last week and think its a great little device for the money.  It is a nice little improvement over the last touch with the higher rez screen, faster processor, sleeker design and cameras. I will say that I was a bit surprised that they limited the cameras as much as they did.  I get that it’s an inexpensive device, but having only a 0.7MP camera on the back is pretty weak.  The camera does a good job but still…

I’m looking forward to trying out the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet.  Not too sure when that will be but I gotta get at one!  They look great.

Probably the most exciting thing in mobile coming soon HAS to be the launch of Windows Phone 7!  I am really pumped about WP7: it looks great, runs very well, and is something new and interesting!

For quite a while now I have been using various Android phones and really like the OS but am getting a bit bored with it; not as bored as I am with iOS, just that it is feeling a bit…old-ish.  Once you try WP7 you will see why I say that.  It’s just so fresh and modern! (picture me jumping up and down like a three year old)

Well, bored you long enough. Get back to your lawn bowling or knitting or whatever you were doing before.  Feel free to argue with me in the comments, or to say something more friendly.