The latest on smartphones (and other gadgets)

So anyway my new Motorola Droid Pro arrived just over a week ago. My initial impressions were a mixed bag. I liked the relatively low weight, when compared with my HTC G2/Desire Z, and liked not having to flip the phone into landscape mode in order to type on the keyboard, but wasn’t impressed by the screen, which apart from being as small as the screen on the Palm Pre, was not as bright and clear as I expected. The keys were also surprisingly difficult to type on. They are small and have ridges that are unlike other keypads I have experienced. Guess this will get better as I get used to the phone.

I wasn’t surprised when the phone prompted me for a code to unlock it. My supplier, CA-Cellular, warned me that the phone was locked to Verizon, and that they will email me the unlock code. When the code arrived a day later, I was however surprised when entering it failed to unlock the phone. A few email exchanges later I received another code from my supplier, which also didn’t work. I then bought my own unlock codes through Swiftunlocks, but knew I had a problem when these guys sent me the same two codes I had received from my supplier previously. With the aid of Google I soon discovered that the anal suits at Verizon have implemented a sophisticated locking mechanism that changes the lock codes continuously over the air. So apparently the only way to get the code is to phone Verizon and ask pretty please. Except they won’t give it to you if you are not a Verizon customer, which of course I am not, living in South Africa. So I had to send my phone back to my supplier, and am now waiting to see if they succeed in unlocking it. It has been more than a week, so am getting worried…

Don’t know about you, but I think these restrictive business practices are really irritating, out of sync with customer sentiments, and am convinced that they don’t result in the outcomes the providers are seeking. Why lock the phone to your network? If the customer wants to buy a contract from a particular network he will. And a willing customer is the best kind. You know why I don’t have an iPhone 4? Because once I have replaced my normal sim with a micro sim, it makes it that much harder to use another phone again. Apple clearly went the micro sim route as a way to lock in their customers. This kind of strategy can work in the short term, and possibly even for a long time, but at some point it will back fire. Look at Egypt. Mubarak’s customers have had enough of being locked into a single party dictatorship, even if it has been benevolent to a degree. They want freedom of choice of their service provide aka government. Take note Verizon, and Apple. Upshot of all this is that I am still using my HTC G2, and am still happy with it. I know I have called it boring in a previous post, but it is a good phone. Excellent keyboard, fast processor, Android 2.2. Everything works well on it, except that it loses cellphone signal from time to time in places where other phones don’t.

Latest on the upcoming Palm WebOS 2.0 device is that it will be code named Mansion, have an 800 x 480 screen, and no keyboard. I guess the Pre moniker was odd already so no reason to complain about Mansion, but no keyboard?! Hopefully this will be the first of a plethora of new Palm devices and some of them will have keyboards. Me, I like them qwerties.

My Palm Pre is now running at 1GHz! And as you can see from this photo, it is doing this speed at a very cool 21 degree celcius. Get the latest versions of Govnah and UberKernel via Preware and your Pre can also.

The Blackberry Torch was launched yesterday. I can already see the word plays on that name: Will it set the mobile world alight? Torch keeps RIM’s flame going, etcetera. Palm Pre-ers will recognise the familiar form factor with portrait slide-out keyboard. Nevertheless I think the Torch is a step in the right direction for RIM – keeping the physical qwerty keyboard that BBs are renowned form while adding a capacitive touch screen a-la iPhone/Android/Pre. The version 6 of BB OS also looks like a solid improvement on the old one, with web browsing and social networking on par with the competition. Initial indications are that RIM hasn’t succeeded in surpassing Android or iPhone in any way, but has at least done enough to prevent more high-end BB users from jumping ship. On a related note, it is ironic that the Blackberry’s famed security has resulted in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE banning BB Messenger, emails and even internet access on the BBs in those countries. Reason being that the high security provided by the Blackberry prevents these governments from spying on their citizens’ communications. Crazy.

There has been a lot of talk about the Palm Pre Plus’ ability to operate as a wireless router/hotspot, but if you happen to own HTC’s Winmobile swanwong the HD2, you can also provide a wireless hotspot for your laptop or other wifi enabled equipment in the vicinity looking to access the internet. You will find it in the Communications Manager app -> select Wi-Fi Router, put in a WEP key of your choice, select the desired 3G connection, and you are set. Pretty cool, not? Have a lookie at the images below:

Did you know that RIM sold nearly 11 million Blackberry smartphones during Q1 2010? This places them 4th in terms of units sold behind Nokia, Samsung and LG. Not bad for a company that sells only smartphones. You could say RIM is now the world’s 4th largest mobile phone manufacturer. It shows the growth in smartphones as well as RIM’s success in expanding their market. Nokia sold 150 million phones in the same period, so RIM has a way to go still though.

I have had a few Blackberries over the years. Best one was the Bold, worst one the Storm. That clickable no-multi touch screen of the Storm made interacting with the phone slow and painful, while the aging Blackberry OS did not lend itself to touch screen operation. While Blackberry is still renowned for its excellent email capability, as well as Blackberry Messenger, the OS has fallen behind the likes of Apple OS, Android and WebOS. Browsing on a Blackberry is very unsatisfying, youtubing even more so.

All of that is about to change I hear with the release of the Blackberry Bold 9800 next month. This will be a Blackberry with a difference, sporting a capacitive touch screen and a slide out portrait qwerty keypad a-la Palm Pre, as well as the new version 6 of the Blackberry OS. Version 6 is rumoured to have a new Webkit based browser (same technology as used in WebOS and Apple OS browsers) as well as support for multi-touch and pinch to zoom. Details are a bit sketchy still, but this promises to be a phone worth keeping an eye on. I might even buy one, if I can get both my corporate emails and gmails in HTML format on the phone that is.

My Palm Pre got me very excited this morning when it announced that WebOS 1.4.1 was available and that it brings PAID APPS to my phone! So I hurriedly downloaded and installed the 12mb update. Only to find afterwards that my app catalog still shows 0 apps wtf? Could it have something to do with the fact that I am currently roaming in Switzerland on Orange?

Thanks to Alastair, who today is getting what may be the second Palm Pre in Africa, I did a hard reset on my Pre, and reinstalled Preware. Now I can once again install patches using Preware, such as enabling landscape email. Preware still won’t install free apps for me, it launches the Palm App Catalog which is no good as it says that the app is not available in my country. Luckily some free apps, such as TweedFree, can be installed using WebOSQuickInstall. So all is good, as good as it can be until the App Cat becomes available here. Enjoy your new Pre Alastair. Go to www.seidio.com if you want to get an extended battery for your Pre.

After using the Droid (ok, mine is actually a Milestone, but that is such a lame name, and too close to Millstone, which given the heft of the phone….) for a few days I am no longer so sure that this phone is going to kick butt. I know it has been selling very well in the States, but I wonder how much of those sales were due to the huge marketing spend by Motorola and how much due to the phone’s own intrinsic appeal.

Ok, let me start with the things I like about the phone. It has a large 3.7 inch capacitive screen that is large enough to render complete web pages. It is also very sensitive to the touch and a pleasure to work with gesture-wise. Mine has multi-touch support, while the real Droid doesn’t (or didn’t when originally released late last year). The phone is very fast, faster than I expected given that the Arm Cortex A8 CPU (a 600MHz, OMAP3430 chip downclocked to 550MHz) also powers the Palm Pre. The Droid is definitely fast than the Pre. The keyboard is excellent in terms of the size of the keys, travel and tactile feedback. The keyboard feels like a high quality affair, like the rest of the phone.

Typing on the Droid is somewhat spoiled by the lip sticking out the right side of the phone (when holding it in landscape mode with keyboard slid open) as well as the space used by the dpad. The result is that the phone juts into my right hand and requires my thumb to have to stretch. Quite uncomfortable. Also not enough space between the top row of keys and the bottom of the screen which makes it hard to type numbers (these are on the top row).

The vanilla Android interface on the Droid is not very slick, especially when compared with HTC’s Sense as implemented on the Hero, or with the Palm Pre’s WebOS interface. It could do with a bit more pizazz. Font size control is also completely absent, and with the small fonts used on the Droid, I have to put on my reading glasses every time I use the phone. Giving my age away here I guess, but Android badly needs the ability to change font sizes. So does, WebOS for that matter, but I at least managed to patch WebOS to get bigger fonts. Windows Mobile has had the ability for years. So has Symbian. Blackberry leads the pack here, providing a large variety of font sizes and types.

Then there is the Droid’s battery, all 1400mAh of it. It is just not good enough. I haven’t been able to get through a day (12 hours) on a single charge. Even using JuiceDefender to limit the data connection to 2 minutes out of every 15 minutes has not helped enough. It did improve the battery life, but not enough for a full day’s operation, and it meant that the phone would not connect at all outside of the 2 minutes window, which is very irritating when you are trying to surf the web for example. I see the Seidio has a 2800mAh battery for the Droid, but it makes the phone heavier and uglier, neither of which the phone needs.

Google integration is good as can be expected from an Android phone. The Youtube client delivers excellent quality videos, coupled with the screen, maybe the best quality Youtube videos I have seen on a mobile phone to date. Android market is also good, and downloading and installing apps is a painless (and free, since I can only access free apps) exercise.

My overall impression after the first few days? I am back to using my Palm Pre.

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.