Handheld Now

HTC Sense 2.1 Rolling Out Some New Features

Kyle — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:31:07 +0000

Today HTC announced a few new phones. Some of which have Android 2.1 with Sense UI. So far there is not much news on the new additions. What we do know is that there is a new widget called Friend Stream. It aggregrates all of your social networks live on your homescreen.

Speaking of homescreens, you can now pinch on the homescreen to see all of your homescreens at once. This is a much faster what to switch between screens than scrolling past them all.

The Sprint Hero should be expecting this update over the air soon. Sprint just tweeted that it will be updated in early Q2.

Source

What is all this Buzz about Google’s new social networking service?

Kyle — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:32:22 +0000

A few days ago the internet superpower, Google, announced Buzz. This is at least their third attempt at a social networking platform. There was Orkurt, which only seemed to take off in South America and at least one other attempt to gain market share in the social networking arena. For all intensive purposes we will just say third time is the charm.

To explain Google Buzz in a few words, I would say it is Twitter meets Google Latitude. The majority of the innovations comes in the mobile version. Android users can post Buzzes natively on Google Maps and Google Search widget, and other users can access the mobile site. You can upload pictures and have messages Geo-tagged to your exact location. Not only does it give an address, but it can also give the name of the store, mall, school, or other place that you are currently in.

Feature	Android 2.0+	BlackBerry	iPhone	Nokia S60	Windows Mobile
buzz.google.com		Coming soon		Coming soon	Coming soon
Buzz Layer on Google Maps for mobile		Coming soon
Buzz on a Place Page
Voice shortcuts
Buzz icon shortcuts

Buzz is very infantile currently and it will take at least a month to see if it will be a success. So far there have been millions and millions of Buzzes sent from mobile phones and the integrated Gmail application. This was Google’s plan to get Buzz out there by using the millions of Gmail users that they already have to get it started.

You can integrate all of your other social networking sites, personal RSS feeds, and many other services. Sign up for your Google Account now if you haven’t already and see where Google goes with this.

You can follow me on Buzz by clicking Follow Kyle Dornblaser.

Windows Phone 7 Series Announced at Mobile World Congress Today

Kyle — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:48:12 +0000

Earlier today Microsoft unveiled its latest creation, Windows Phone 7 Series. It is just a newer version of Windows Mobile that has been built from scratch. This was smart on Microsoft’s part because the only way they could ever catch up would be to forget backwards compatibility and just move forward. This could very well be what they have done since there is no word on whether or not any current programs will be compatible with 7 Series.

Microsoft also realized that resistive technology is a way of the past, and not only made it capacitive touch capable, but all devices are required to have capacitive touch support. There are also some more unreleased minimum specs that are required for all phone manufacturers that wish to have this OS on their smartphones. They also noted that physical keyboards are also permitted to use with the software.

The User Interface is largely inspired by Zune HD with large fonts and simple but stunning buttons. Unlike most touchscreen phones these days, the homescreen isn’t just a grid of tiny app icons, but it has a two column tile system. The tiles are very large to make it easier to tap. These tiles are also animated with live information from the cloud, as well as other notifications.

On that note, Microsoft is bragging about being extremely connected with social networks. They only seem to support Facebook and Windows Live natively though. Apparently other social networks like Twitter and Flickr are available through Windows Live, but I am not too sure how well that will work out.

For years there have been rumors about Xbox Live integration with Windows Mobile. Today that is finally confirmed! Unfortunately there is no working example of it. Joe Belfiore explains the future features though, “I want to show you how this looks and works on a real phone. So you’ve got your avatar here, spotlight updates, and recent achievements. There are requests — you can see someone is nudging Anna to come and game with them.” On top of that some games will be able to earn you Achievement Points.

Xbox integration was not the only other Microsoft product added to the operating system. Zune, Microsoft’s semi-successful portable media player, is available in all of its glory. This full featured media player is simple and sexy. The operating system will also be compatible with the Zune Pass, which is the envy of iPod owners. For $15 a month users can listen to and download unlimited songs from the Zune Marketplace. This gives owners millions of songs available on their phone via the built in marketplace.

Of course there are tons and tons more features to this operating system including Microsoft Office, third party apps, and GPS. The OS won’t launch until this holiday season though. Windows Phone 7 Series will likely become obsolete by then considering all the new highly anticipated and rumored phones like the iPhone 4G. As a Microsoft fanboy, I can not wait to try out this on the latest hardware later this year.

Source

Sprint HTC Hero Review

Kaitlin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:41:24 +0000

I have mixed opinions about the HTC Hero. In theory, it’s amazing. In practice, it can use a little work.

The phone, of course, comes without a physical keyboard. The on-screen keyboard is decent, though a little more cramped than that of the iPhone. Basically, it would be disastrous without the predictive text. With the predictive text, it’s actually pretty good. With one word, I typed every letter wrong and it still knew what I meant. Impressive, right?

Then there’s the messaging. To me, messaging is the most important function of any phone. It’s all I do every day. It’s somewhat of an improvement over my last phone, as the messages are grouped together into conversations where instead of viewing one message at a time, you can see a whole thread of them. It also allows you to send messages that are more than 160 characters. There is also this really cool feature where the phone tries to guess when messages you received were sent, and insert them in the correct place on the timeline. For example, if someone sends a message a minute before you but you don’t receive it until after send yours, the phone will insert it before your message. Unfortunately, sometimes this messes up and it can be confusing because the phone will show someone answering your question before you actually asked it.

The phone includes a 5 Megapixel camera. Although it does not have a flash, it takes beautiful pictures outdoors and indoors, as long as there is enough light. This camera has autofocus, which helps eliminate blur. Sometimes the camera will bring up an error and refuse to open, but usually all you have to do is restart the phone and it will start working again.

The Hero has multitask capabilities. You can have many different programs open at once, though as other reviewers will tell you, it will start to lag if you have too many programs open.

Lag is a major problem with this phone. Even when you only have messaging and mail open, it will sometimes start to lag. Generally turning it off for a few minutes will fix this too. Most problems on this phone can be fixed with a restart.

Battery life is about as to be expected for a smartphone. If you use it heavily (such browsing YouTube for six hours straight), you might have to recharge it when you get home from work or school. Otherwise, you should be fine if you plug it in to the charger nightly.

Overall, it’s a pretty good phone. It’s multitouch and multitasking, with a beautiful camera and a fairly intuitive interface. Unfortunately, it likes to lag to the point where it takes 10 seconds for the text message to catch up to your typing. I’ve yet to decide if the delay is worth all the things it can do.

Camera Test

DonutGames’s Rat on a Scooter XL for iPhone Review

Kyle — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:26:29 +0000

While browsing the App Store today I came across this game. I’ve played a lot of DonutGames’s free iPhone games and thought I would try this one out. So I purchased it for $0.99. After playing it for a minute, I realized that it was just interminable monotonous jumping on a scooter. While I realized this was the concept of the game, I thought it would contain a little more.

Their game Rat on the Run contains the exact Rat Scooter game, and it’s free! The only difference is that there aren’t different “gametypes” for the scooter like on Scooter XL. These “gametypes” are just different items you have to land on to score points, so all of them are essentially one in the same.

To sum up, the Rat on the Scooter XL game is mildly fun but is not worth paying anything for. Just download the free Rat on the Run game that contains a Rat on Scooter game and two other minigames.

Video Review by MrKangarooBill to show gameplay

There are way too many cell phone operating systems on the market today

Kyle — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:32:59 +0000

There are three operating systems on computers that deserve any recognition. Microsoft’s Windows is the most popular by far. Microsoft focuses solely on software and lets other manufacturers worry about the hardware. Apple’s Mac OSX is a proprietary operating system installed exclusively on their hardware. Linux is a free alternative that can be installed on any machine.

It seems inevitable that the same thing will happen with cellular devices. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile is bought by companies who manufacture the hardware for the phones. Apple’s iPhone OS is exclusively used on their iPhone and iPod touches. Google’s Android is the free, open source alternative for cell phone manufacturers, much like Linux is on computers.

Worldwide Smartphone OS Marketshare as of Q2 2009

What about all the other cell phone operating systems? Most cell phones have custom OS’s. This is a waste of time for all of the companies. They should be focused on the hardware and the software companies should focus on the software. This has worked out well in the PC world. The exception of course is Apple, since they are extremely good at doing both.

Blackberry, Palm’s webOS, and Symbian are a few of the many other popular operating systems. I feel that the only way cell phones will reach their full potential is if most cell phones are compatible with each other. This means they need the same OS. Windows had many, many programs that can be installed because it is a common medium. Cell phones have at least six operating systems for developers to develop on.

Truly it does not matter which operating systems actually come out the victor. The important thing is that two or three will consolidate power and provide a default medium for applications to be developed on.

Source

The New and Improved Handheld Now

Kyle — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:27:02 +0000

We have made a lot of progress since we first opened up this summer. Back then all we had was a .info domain name and a lot of hope. Since then we have been working hard to get this website running smoothly.

There are currently over 70 posts and several of which are helpful reviews and comparisons. We try to bring you as much original content as possible or at least offer our humble opinions on the topics. Since we have a decent amount of articles posted, we have added a Related Posts box under each post.

We have not spent a dime on advertising, so most of our traffic is organic. The amount of hits we get from Google searches always astonishes us.

Recently we installed Intense Debate into our comment system. This is to further encourage user feedback and commentary. There is nothing we appreciate more than reading your comments. If you have questions we always try and answer them within a timely manner.

A visual update, as you might notice, is a new banner. The old one was very boring. This one is much more appealing.

Thanks for all your support and we hope to see more of you in the future.

No related posts.

Swype – The Next Evolution of Handheld Text Input

Kyle — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:36:04 +0000

Cell phones and other handheld devices have progressed thus far to a less powerful PC keyboard. Swype promises to drastically improve the way we input text on the go. Now I have not used a device with it, but from what I have seen it is powerful to say the least. Swype is the Lamborghini of handheld input methods.

Their official benchmarks put its capabilities at 45 words per minute. They claim that PC keyboards get less than 60, so this almost puts it up to par with them. And mind you, the Swype method is one handed! I bet you are wondering how it works, well I will tell you after the break.

Instead of tapping each character on the keyboard, your finger never leaves the screen. You just guide your fingertip from the first letter straight to the next letter and then to the next as quickly as you’d like. There are a couple of other moves for doing the same letter twice and inserting symbols, but I am sure that they will be second nature in no time.

Currently the only phone that supports Swype is the Verizon Omnia II. Certainly in the coming months and years developers will switch to this system or one similar to it, since it is so clearly superior.

Here is a video of Swype vs iPhone’s Keyboard:

Also a beta version of Swype on Verizon’s Droid Eris:

Source

A Christmas Santa Review Plus Hidden Missions

Kyle — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:14:40 +0000

A Christmas Santa is one of the top applications currently in the App Store and warrants a review. It only costs $0.99, which is well worth it for this entertaining game.

There is a short plot explaining why Santa is flying. Apparently the reindeer do not want to fly anymore because Santa cannot afford to pay them, so Santa has decided to fly alone and has 45 days to learn how to fly.

If you have ever played the flash game, Learn to Fly, then you have played this game.

The graphics in the came are cartoony and reminded me of South Park.

There are several hidden missions in the game that give you extra money.

Hidden Missions

Fly 0-1 Mile
Wait 15 seconds before you fly
Slam into the snow with a rocket
Long slide in the snow
Fly exactly 777.77 Miles

Overall I would recommend this game to anybody. Anything packing at least an hour or two of fun is definitely worth a buck.

Quick Review of the Palm Pixi

Kyle — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:19:16 +0000

First off let me say this, I have always been a major fan of webOS. The GUI is absolutely gorgeous, and the way it handles multitasking is lightyears ahead of the rest of the market. The Pixi comes preloaded with the latest build of webOS and with it comes Yahoo integration.

I had to go to a Sprint retail store since Palm is unreliable with their review units. We received an email shortly after the release of the Palm Pre from Palm’s marketing department letting us know that they would be sending us a unit to review ASAP, but to this date we have still not received it.

The Pixi is extremely tiny. As you can see in the picture, my hand dwarfs the entirety of the device. While having a small device might seem convenient and appealing at first, you should know that the keyboard is way too cramped and the screen is hardly manageable with its 2.63-inch multitouch screen with 18-bit color, 320×400 screen resolution Sub-HVGA display.

While it lacks WiFi, Sprint’s network is very capable of handling most of your data needs. The web browser on the device is in my opinion second only to the one found on the iPhone. Like the Pre, it also features over-the-air backup, restore, remote erase, and software updates.

Applications are all the rage these days. The App Catalog found on the Pre and Pixi is still quite undeveloped when compared to other devices. With that in mind, their new Ares SDK has just left private beta testing and now is in public beta. Hopefully this will breath some life into the App Catalog and catch it up to par.

All in all the device really is not that bad. My only faults with it are its small screen and cramped keyboard. I am extremely bias though because I am used to the iPhone with a bigger screen and have never really liked keyboards. I would recommend this to a first time smart phone user or somebody who is in love with webOS’s brilliant GUI and maybe just does not want a slider phone (Palm Pre).