The latest on smartphones (and other gadgets)

I have been watching this phone for some time now. It looked like the perfect Android phone, for me at least, with a large screen and most importantly a qwerty keyboard. So eventually I gave in and bought one from my trusty online mobile phone retailer cacell.co.za and 2 days later I had the phone in my hands. Here is a picture of the phone while I was typing this post on it using a WordPress blog posting app for Android. The Android market rocks. Quick to find apps and quick to install them. But why do I see only the free apps on the market. I can’t see the paid apps. Does anyone know why this would be?

The Droid or Milestone is a beast. It looks all angular and industrial. It feels hard and masculine. The metal casing gives it a very durable feel. The phone is thin for a qwerty slide but heavy. My initial impression is wow this is one serious mobile phone. It is going to kick butt. Watch this space for more posts as I explore the Droid.

A few days ago RIM announced the new free version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server.The new BES Express allows users to sync their BlackBerry with a Microsoft Exchange Server or Windows Small Business Server. Sorry Lotus Notes users nada for you. The new BES Express is free, and allows small businesses to have a cost effective solution, without all the advanced features. For consumers BES Express will allow:

◦Wirelessly synchronize their email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks
◦Manage email folders and search email on the mail server remotely
◦Book meetings and appointments, check availability and forward calendar
attachments
◦Set an out-of-office reply
◦Edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files using Documents To Go(R)
◦Access files stored on the company network
◦Use mobile applications to access business systems behind the firewall
The new BES Express is expected to launch this March. You can find more details at www.blackberry.com/besexperss.

If you thought Symbian was dead, think again. Featuring multi-touch gesture support (pinch to zoom that kind of thing), single tap (as opposed to the current Symbian which require double tap in some places), hardware accelerated graphics, HDMI output, multiple home screens, and so on, the OS which still dominates the smartphone market in terms of units sold, is finally catching up. Read all about it at the Symbian Foundation. See below for a concept screenshot of a Symbian 3 homepage. This makeover is long overdue. The first Nokia S3 phones are expected to appear in the 2nd half of 2010. Personally I am looking forward to getting my hands on one. Have long been a fan of Nokia and Symbian.

Korean iPhone users are reportedly using meat sausages to poke their phone screens as an alternative to taking off their gloves and using their own meaty digits. Too cold there.  Sausage sales are up. Neat if slightly gross trick. I wonder if the Koreans replace their meat sticks before expiry? Or maybe they eat them.

These sausages won’t work on my Storm 2 though. Needs a much stiffer poker to get the SurePress screen to respond. I haven’t tried them, but a solid piece of biltong or dro”ewors may work. These salted and dried South African delicacies will also last much longer – won’t find expiry dates on them.

Looks like this will be my last day with the Storm2. I may come back to it after a few days as I tend to do with my phones, but right now I am missing the smooth UI, featherlight touchscreen and real qwerty of my Pre too much. The Storm2 by contrast feels clunky. It feels as heavy as it did on day 1 and the outdated UI combines with the SurePress screen to create a very unsexy clunky experience. Bummer.

It looks solid and feels heavy. Those were my first impressions when I took the Storm2 out of its box. It has a nice metal feel to it. And is this touchscreen weird or what. That was my second impression. It is unlike any other touchscreen I have experienced. Typing on it feels nearly like typing on a real keypad. If that was RIM’s intention then they have succeeded. Am actually typing this post on the device. Going slowly and probably pressing harder than I need to. Think in time I will be able to type fast on it, faster than on my Hero with its capacitive screen. Mostly because I think the Storm2′s SurePress screen will result in fewer typing errors.

The battery didn’t quite make it through the first day. Only 1400mAh. What was the RIM engineers thinking. Had to resort to a few power saving tricks like turning the backlight right down, switching 3g off and so on. Hopefully the battery will get better after a few overnight charges. Otherwise Seidio has a 1600mAh battery….

Hey, it looks like SonyEricsson has finally produced a hot Windows phone. The soon to be released Aspen is a candy bar qwerty running Windows Mobile 6.5.3. The phone looks very sleek, especially in white. It has 2.4 inch screen, which is the same size as the Nokia E71, a bit too small for my liking but you can’t please everyone I guess. It is a touchscreen, resistive not capacitive, and comes with a stylus. The qwerty keypad has a similar shape as the E71 with the Q, A and Z all in a row beneath each other, instead of staggered like a PC keyboard. Some people will complain about this, but I have found the E71 keyboard ok after a bit of use. The phone comes with all the features standard on high-end phones.

And then there is the green angle. The phone carries the Greenheart moniker for which SonyEricsson claims recycled plastic housing, no lead and less chemicals, e-manual, ultra compact packaging and a low-power consumption charger to save energy. All good.

WinMo 6.5.3  includes a more finger-friendly layout, support for capacitive touchscreens, and acts as a platform to enable multi-touch. Microsoft has also improved browser performance with faster page load times and better memory management while improving the pan and flick gestures and zoom and rotational speeds. Funny then that the Aspen has a stylus, a resistive touchscreen and no multi-touch. SonyEricsson may have missed a trick here, but styli are very much de jour in their primary Asian markets, the whole hygiene thing. Still, good to see that there is still support for Windows Mobile.