Yet another fake Apple iPhone?

This one, from Engadget, is apparently a fake picture:



I'd like to see what the Apple (i)Phone will look like if and when it does come out..

Updated Cellphones getting smarter

The only thing I've updated here are the example cellphones

First a cellphone with a keyboard which is almost a smartphone, but not quite, the LG VX9800 (aka the V):



When opened it has a full QWERTY keyboard:



This is a text messaging and music phone on steroids, and has a calendar with scheduler, an alarm clock, a calculator and a notepad. But it is not a smartphone.

Then there is the T-Mobile SDA, called the HTC Tornado elsewhere:



PCWorld listed it as one of the Top 10 Standard Cell Phones in this article , but CNET rightly referred to it as a "Windows Mobile 5 smart phone" in their review.
It doesn't have a keyboard, but runs the Windows Mobile 5 Operating system.

Cellphones getting smarter

Cellphones are getting smaller and smaller but also getting smarter, while adding features which were previously only found on smartphones - To Do Lists, Calendars with appointments, synchronization with PCs, World Clocks, email and now playing MP3 Music files.

According to this Wikipedia definition, a smartphone is "any electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other information appliance."

However, in the same article, they go on to say "It is increasingly difficult to define exactly what qualifies as a 'smartphone'. Nearly all new mobile phones have some rudimentary PDA functionality such as phonebooks, calendars, and task list"

Even an assumption that a smartphone should have a keyboard can be wrong. Take the case of the Nokia 6810:



When opened it has a full QWERTY keyboard, interesting:



It is not a smartphone, but instead is a text messaging phone.

Then there is the Motorola MPx200:



No keyboard, but it runs Windows Mobile 2002, and is therefore a smartphone (see Wikipedia's article)

I'm sure there are other, better and more up to date examples, but I couldn't think of any. Maybe Engadget Mobile will help me.

By the way, thanks to the General for pointing out Engadget Mobile, which surely must be the mother of all Mobile Technology sites.

Big and Smart

Unlike the svelte Motorola Q smartphone, some early smartphones were really big.

I got to thinking, what is the biggest Smartphone out there? Is it the Sierra Wireless Voq A11 with dimensions of 5.25" x 2.16" x 0.96" (133 x 55 x 24 mm) and weighing 5.11 oz (145 g)?



This smartphone has neither a camera nor Bluetooth, but does have a cool flip open QWERTY keyboard:



But it is easily overshadowed by the huge Hitachi G1000 Pocket PC Phone, which weighs in at 8.4 oz (238 g) with dimensions of 5.8" x 3.3" x .9" (147 x 84 x 23 mm).



The Hitachi G1000 has a 3.5" 320 x 240 pixel color transflective display, a standard QWERTY keyboard layout and an integrated VGA digital camera.

The first GSM Pocket PC 2002 Phone from T-Mobile weighed in at 6.80 oz (193 g) and was 5.08" x 2.87" x 0.71" (129 x 73 x 18 mm), with no keyboard:




To get away from Microsoft OS based smartphones, the first Treo Phone, the Treo 270 weighed 5.40 oz (153 g), and was 4.20" x 2.80" x 0.82" (107 x 71 x 21 mm).



There are a number of smartphones reviewed at MobileTechReview.com

Ubuntu #1

Ubuntu Linux 6.06 is the number one Linux distribution according to DistroWatch.
The All about Linux Blog refers to the "Kubuntu" variant of Ubuntu as "An excellent Linux distribution"

Spyware!

I was going to call this entry "Spyware Begone!" but that is the name of a dubious-looking spyware scanner.

I recently tested a trial version of an AntiSpyware program from Ashampoo. Firstly, the company is aptly named, because although they produce some good utilities, it is a shame how they use spamming to sell their products (pooh!). They are generous with their trial periods though - usually 10 days, and then if you give them your email address you get another 30 days for a total of 40 days. Unfortunately the Ashampoo AntiSpyware program refused to update its definitions as it was a trial version. That sucked, as most other AntiSpyware programs will update to the latest definitions during their (admittedly shorter) trial periods. Then the program to over an hour to do the scan - okay, it was running on a 500MHz machine, but I have read complaints elsewhere that it is slow. Finally it found 800 plus cookies. I wasn't impressed. The program is advertised for $29.99. Not too long after registering for the extended trial I got an email advertising the program for 50% off, if I buy it now. If I ignore this email (which I will), I'll get another offer in a few days time for about 40% off the full price (better buy it now, the discounts are getting less!).

I bought ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite from ZoneLabs. During its 15-day trial on another machine, I got rid of a pesky folder which opened with Windows on every startup, no matter what I tried, as well as some other less innocuous spyware. Much better than Ashampoo AntiSpyware,

To the Ashampoo's credit I have bought several of their software titles - Ashampoo WinOptimizer Platinum is one I use almost every day.

LG VX8300 thoughts

"The recipient" read the"No end in sight" blog entry over my shoulder and let me order the LG VX8300 cellphone.

Before I get to the cellphone some mild gripes about Verizon's online ordering service. Although I supplied an email address they didn't send any order confirmation. They also didn't email me when the phone shipped. However it arrived on the Tuesday after being ordered on Saturday evening.
What always amazes me are how small the boxes are that cellphones are packed in. The Verizon boxes seem particularly small.
Okay, the contents, I know, I know.

I'm not going to do a full review as there is a fairly good one (albeit badly in need of a spellchecker) with pictures at HowardForums.
Admittedly it is bigger and thicker and doesn't look quite as cool as the RAZR.
However, unlike some other LG cellphones I have seen though (notably the VX5200), it looks professional.

Okay, first my doubts - I'm not sure how good the RF would be it borderline areas with patchy coverage. In pseudo-scientific tests, when one bar of signal strength showed, conversations tended to break up a lot.

As a counterpoint, when the signal strength is two bars or more, conversations are clear. The microphone also doesn't pick up as much wind noise as that of the RAZR.

Customization is a pleasure with the VX8300. I liked being able to silence the Verizon power on and power off jingles. The backlight of both the main screen and the keypad can be set to "Always On". Unfortunately the brightness of the main screen cannot be adjusted though. This would make it more readable in sunlight, but it is already miles better than the screen of the RAZR.
The Flash Lite interface offers two animated interface themes in addition to Verizon's standard interface themes.

I prefer the way that LG handles messages (showing unread/total), as well as the way speed dial numbers can be assigned to numbers after the fact. The keypad is easy to use, and it didn't take long for me to get used to the layout.

Although the LG VX8300 is bigger and bulkier than the RAZR, I would swop in a heartbeat

Windows 98 Permanent Shutdown

Microsoft shuts down Windows 98 from The BBC

No end in sight

This hunt is tiring me out. If it was for a cellphone for myself I would have ordered my top choice today just to get it over with. However since the recipient has said I should wait another week...
At the moment my top choice is the LG VX8300.



I have overcome my dislike for LG handsets after spending a week with the low-end LG VX5200. Its main screen is readable in direct sunlight, and the phone is a lot more customizable than my Motorola RAZR V3c, allowing the power on and power off tunes to be turned off, something I would love to do with my RAZR. Still, I would not swap the RAZR for the LG VX5200.
Okay, so why the LG VX8300? Ease of use is one reason. It also appears to be the smallest and lightest cellphone featuring an memory card - this is excluding the RAZR V3m, which is not even in the running. The only "Con" from the CNET editors' review was "The LG VX8300's Bluetooth feature does not support file transfers." which of course applies to all Verizons cellphones. My second choice is the Samsung SCH-A930, its main disadvantages being the skimpy external display and unusual rectangular shape.



It may cool and different look different but oddly shaped phones are more difficult to hold.

Then there is the Motorola E815, which is unfortunately a bit too large and "long in the tooth".

No Rumors Rule

I'm not one for spreading technology rumors. Yet an interesting one about Microsoft has emerged : that Microsoft is working on an "iPod killer". This story has been spreading like wildfire - its even being mentioned in magazines like PC World "Next iPod Killer - From Microsoft?" (so far, there hasn't been an iPod killer, so maybe they mean next attempt at an iPod killer),
PC Magazine "Microsoft's iPod Killer Plan".
Even Fox News has a story "Sources: Microsoft's 'iPod Killer' to Hit Stores by Christmas" (Oh, it must be true!).
Of course the tech rumor site Engadget has "blurry pictures"

It sort of makes sense that Microsoft would go after the lucrative MP3 Player market. Time will tell though.

Y.A.C.H.

Yet Another Cellphone Hunt, and so soon.

No, I didn't return the RAZR V3c.

My wife's cellphone contract ends soon and I'm looking for the best deal I can get for her. The criteria is different of course, and now, so soon after the last purchase I'm hopefully a bit wiser. This time I don't want to buy a cellphone which is replaced by an upgraded model within a month. Also, my desire for high tech needs to be balanced with ease of use and practicality issues. The simplest route would be to get the Motorola RAZR V3m, as the V3c is quite easy to use - except outside in sunlight where the main (internal) screen washes out in bright light, and is totally unreadable.

Verizon's choice of phones is somewhat limited. Sure they have Smartphones, and Camera/Video/Music phones and simple phones. But there are no Sony Ericsson models and Nokia has stopped making CDMA phones. Basically the big names are Motorola and Samsung. Then there is LG, which used to stand for Lucky Goldstar, but now on the company's website it seems they prefer "Life's Good" (Good for the company's owners/shareholders or for their customers?).

At first my main criterion was for Tri-mode phones - in the CDMA world this means phones with analog roaming capabilities. The idea behind this is that the old Analog networks pretty much cover the whole US, so if you travel a lot (or surprisingly, just around Long Island) you should always get a cellular signal, even when their is no digital signal. Anyway, after owning three Motorola cellphones in a row (including the Motorola RAZR V3c), with a detour into smartphones with the Palm Treo 600, I naturally first looked at the Motorolas.

To my surprise, the only Motorola tri-mode cellphone currently available for Verizon is the Motorola V325. I don’t particularly like it, but it got added to the shortlist. The only other tri-mode cellphones were some LGs. Verizon has very few analog-capable handsets. Sprint, on the other hand, carries a large number of analog-capable handsets. However, from my personal experience with Sprint's customer service, or lack there of, I would not deal with them again.

The Sprint story:
The first cellphone I owned in the US was a dual-mode Samsung on the Sprint network. I didn't use it much, as it was mainly for emergencies (cellphones were regarded as a required safety device in South Africa). Then the earpiece stopped working. Of course the phone's 12-month warranty had expired. I phoned Sprint's Customer Service, who basically said "Sorry, there is not much we can do, come in and buy another phone and sign up for another contract". Instead I saw a free phone advertised with a years contract with AT&T Wireless, and signed up with them. Of course when I called to cancel my Sprint month-to-month account, they decided they could offer me a free phone. Too late, I told them.

To get back to Verizon, I read somewhere that they were scaling back their Analog network. So I began looking at their "All Digital" handsets.

Another cellphone hunt continues...

Customer Service, Major flaw

Last night I had the opportunity to experience Verizon customer service when I canceled the VCAST V PAK while still in the one month trial period.
Their customer service was friendly and efficient, and deserves the high Consumer Reports rating.

I've found one problem with the Motorola RAZR V3c, one that I have not seen mentioned in any reviews. The main (internal) display is unreadable in sunlight and with no way to increase the brightness this makes it almost impossible to dial calls outside. This is a major flaw in an otherwise excellent phone. I really though that Motorola would have fixed this by spending more on a better screen - but keeping costs low may have been their primary concern. After all, who uses their cellphones outside?.
My old, soon to be sold, Treo 600 has an extra bright screen to overcome this. Inside you need to keep it at the lowest brightness setting, but outside there's plenty of brightness on the slider bar to make the screen readable. I have on occasions used it as a torch (flashlight).

Got Gripes?

While searching for a review of ZoneAlarm software the other day I came across this detailed gripe about ZoneAlarm.
I had struck the mother lode, a site dedicated to both software and hardware Computer Gripes: computergripes.com

They also have a link to PC World's 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time.

V3m vs. V3c

Just after I bought the Motorola RAZR V3c, the Verizon Online Site had its successor, the Motorola RAZR V3m on special for $69. That’s a lot more than I paid for the V3c, but it still grated a bit. Of course Amazon’s price for the newer RAZR is $199 after rebates, they must have a lot of the V3c’s in stock.

Anyway, a comparison on Phonescoop.com reveals that the differences between the two are not that important to me:

First is a Memory Card Slot for microSD / TransFlash cards. No Comment.

Then the V3m has better battery life - standby time is increased from 215 hours (9 days) to 325 hours(13.5 days). No change in talk time though.

The updated RAZR has a Music Player. No big deal.

Oh, a converged device; music player and cellphone, you say.

Sorry, my Treo 600 had that, on top of being a handheld computer with a keyboard. I prefer the sound of a dedicated DAP (Digital Audio Player).

Also, the V3m is all of 1mm thinner than the v3c (or 0.03 inches). Now, that really makes a difference.

RAZR Early impressions

So far I'm really impressed with Motorola RAZR V3c. Fortunately I was expecting the Verizon interface and the crippled Bluetooth, otherwise may have been disappointed. It certainly is the coolest cellphone I've owned, easily surpassing the Motorola V600. The main color screen is bigger than I expected for a cellphone. The keypad is really cool, especially when it is lit up. My only minor gripe is that I seem to press the directional keys sometimes instead of the main "Select" button in the main navigational keys. Not being able to fully customize these keys is what I expected. If I really wanted to use the EVDO highspeed features I would be frustrated as EVDO reception is patchy and variable in my home. I have also since discovered that the North Shore and South Shore of Long Island are not in the EVDO coverage area, which I guess explains the bad reception. The cellphone itself is small and light, very easily pocketable. In my tests of the most important cellphone functionality - voice reception - it is pretty good.

By the way, thanks to The General for pointing out that the "Q" in the Motorola Q stands for "Qwerty" - that makes sense as it has a keyboard.

RAZR not Razor?

Questions for Motorola:
Why drop the "o" from Razor to make it RAZR, or the "b" and "e" from PEBL? Okay, so short CAPS are eye-catching - ROKR instead of Rocker. I guess V60 or V600 wasn't catchy enough. Now there's the Motorola Q. Does Motorola have to pay royalties to Ian Fleming's estate? ("The lasting impact of 'Q' does not refer to the Motorola Q")

Target Acquired

Bullseye!

(I hope, and not "Mission Accomplished")

Cutting Edge technology:


....a year ago



Can you hear me (now)?

Non-Mobile cellphone

A cellphone by definition should be mobile.

I was very interested in the VZ Navigator feature from Verizon. When it first came out I had read about it, probably in PC Magazine. Now, this seemed like a really cool and useful technology. A cellphone is something you carry almost all the time, and is (usually) smaller than one of those handheld GPS devices. So basically you shold have access to GPS whenever you really need it (assuming there is coverage in the area you happen to be lost in, but that's another matter). The way Verizon prices it is appealling - either $10 a month (for the constantly lost), or $2.99 for a 24 hour period whenever you need it. From a flyer (aka junk snail mail) Verizon had sent me, it appeared that they only offered 2 cellphones which were GPS enabled: the Motorola V325 and the LG VX 9800. At first the VX 9800 sounded like a cool phone loaded with features like BlueTooth, a Megapixel Camera etc,, but then I realized it's a brick.
Dimensions 4.57 inches, 1.97 inches, 1.0 inches, weight: 5.19 ounces. For a cellphone that's a brick.


The LG VX9800 as a cellphone


The LG VX9800 is not a PDA, as it doesn't have an OS, but is a text messenger.

(Mobiledia has larger pictures of the LG VX9800 in their review)

As for the Motorola V325, it was the first to have VZ Navigator, and had good user reviews on CNET, Phonescoop and even on Amazon. Yet it lacked bluetooth - kinda ironic for me to want bluetooth, since I have it on my Motorola V600 cellphone and have never used it. I also have it on a couple of my handhelds, but never have tried hard enough to get it working - infrared works easily between handhelds (this includes Palm and PocketPCs).
Anyway, I digress.
Also, the Motorola V325 only had a VGA camera, and since I was upgrading a better camera would be nice (the camera on the V600, although low resolution, takes pretty good pictures for a cellphone). The one nice thing the V325 had was a World Clock.

The General (the cellphone expert) mentioned the RAZR. I had a look at it on the Verizon site, and saw that it supports VZ Navigator. Sneaky Verizon - they don't want to tell you that upfront - it would affect the sales of "The V" (the VX 9800, I guess V stands for Very Big cellphone). The Motorola RAZR V3c goes for $99.99 after rebates on the Verizon site and in their stores.
On Amazon.com however, it can be had for free after rebates.

The prey was in my sights...

Smells like a Hunt

Before the last blog entry about Ubuntu, I was so engrossed in a hunt that I didn't have time to blog.
What? Yes thanks.

Anyway, I didn't expect to find myself on a hunt, especially considering I've basically blown my personal technology budget for at least the next year.
I've being wracking my brain trying to figure out how I got into research mode, which quickly morphed into hunt mode.
No, I don't hunt Polar bears - this is a technology hunt.

I was looking at getting onto a "Family Plan", and after checking when my wife's cellphone contract ended, I quickly checked when mine ended. To my surprise my contract had ended last year, and I've been on month-to-month since then.

Aha, research mode became hunt mode. I checked out my current cellular provider, Cingular, and saw that their cheapest plan was $39.99, which is $20 more than my current plan, but with 10 times the minutes I currently have. But their free phones were not particularly inspiring.

Instead, since I'm eligible for a discount from Verizon (don't ask why, it's a state secret), I had a look at their plans and phones.

The first phone which interested me was the Motorola V325, to be seen here on its own blog. One of it's most interesting features was the VZ Navigator which allows GPS Navigation from a cellphone - see PC Magazine review here.



This phone seemed ideal, it even had analog roaming, but...

The hunt continues...

Linux for Astronauts

A new version of Ubuntu Linux has been released, version 6.06 (6.06 meaning the release date of June 2006)

Why Linux for Astronauts?
Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu project, was also the first South African in space, having paid $20 million for a trip to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket in 2002 (see his website)