GuruDaniel
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Homepage: http://www.thecellularguru.com
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Posts by GuruDaniel
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini available on Rogers for $29.99
Jul 22nd
Rogers is launching the Android-powered Sony Ericsson Xperia x10 mini, a very small phone trying to pack a pretty big punch. No, it’s not the more-desirable x10 mini pro, which has a slide-out landscape QWERTY keyboard, but it’s still a pretty cute little device. We hear, though, that Rogers may launch the pro version quite soon.
It’s powered by a highly modified version of Android 1.6, but most programs should work on the 320x240px screen. The rest of the specs include a 5MP camera with LED flash, WiFi, GPS and removable backplates in a variety of catchy colours (really, Sony?). A nice surprise is Rogers throwing in a 4GB microSD card now, though how much does that really cost them?
Expect the device on Rogers for $29.99 on a 3-year term and $374.99 with no contract.
Nexus One: 2010-2010
Jul 22nd
Dear Nexus One,
Even though I am using you right now, in fact I am currently upgrading your OS to another custom OS that a very active developer community is tirelessly working to perfect, I am speaking to you from beyond the grave. Your time on this earth was too short. In fact, it was murder. You were killed before your time, and you were just starting to shine through the dark trenches of Android’s harsh climate. You were like a high resolution diamond in a sea of smudgy, inferior products, all clamoring to grab a piece of your awesomeness.
There is a beautiful thing you once told me. When I unlocked your bootloader, instead of telling me you were going to self-destruct in some drama queen firestorm, you smiled and lifted your eyes to me, exclaiming, “Thank you, Daniel. That feels much better.” Well, you’re welcome, old friend. And even if I broke your warranty, our friendship was cemented forever in that moment. I haven’t put you down since. (I even sleep with you occasionally, but don’t tell your sister, HTC Legend).
There was that time I dropped you. I am so, so sorry. You didn’t deserve the cold, harsh reality of that bathroom tile. When I gingerly picked you up, and you peered at me with that loose plastic eye of yours, I swear I let out a tear. For I knew my life without you was going to be so bare, so meaningless. But miraculously you came back to me! I applied a bit of pressure (you always liked it rough), pulled up my sleeves and got to work. I put all your errant parts back together, and though you struggled for breath, your spark was not yet out.
And now, officially, you have been given the military send-off. You and a couple hundred thousand of your brethren will be remembered for moving Android forward in such significant ways, the impact will likely only be felt in the coming years. You were the first device to have Eclair and the first to have Froyo. And Google, while they seem to have given you up for permanent adoption, won’t stop caring for you. For they are fully aware you are their true baby, their Splice experiment gone horribly wrong and ecstatically right all at once. You are a fever dream: hardly real, and yet proof there are beautiful other things out there.
You have left a legacy. Since your birth, manufacturers have been forced to improve their own code to meet your high standards. Your sleek body, your gorgeous screen. All enviable and tough to beat. You have your problems, but what children don’t? Ultimately you are the quiet, brilliant kid in the corner to Motorola’s loud, brash bully. You will always be my favourite, my true love.
Even as you sit here next to me, unaware of your impending damnation, I weep for your limited future. You won’t soon be forgotten to the ocean’s endless bottom, but eventually, like any once-brilliant actor past his prime, you will be replaced with someone stronger, faster, more productive. To me, though, you’ll always be Baby, and, baby, Baby comes first.
Droid 2 to come with Froyo? Yes, Confirmed
Jul 21st
According to a couple sleuthy sleuths, when Verizon, the Big Red AT&T killer, launches the Droid 2 next month, it will arrive with the highly-coveted Android 2.2 (Froyo) on board. This is a good thing. Because Android 2.2 is faster and better than Android 2.1.
But not only that, Android 2.2 comes with a built-in WiFi hotspot creator… oh, wait. Verizon won’t let that happen. But should they choose to load it with Swype… oh, wait. It has a superior hardware QWERTY keyboard. In all seriousness, Froyo should bring a number of improvements to the phone, which, if true, will be the first to ship with the Froyo as a retail device, including highly-touted javascript performance improvements.
Couple that with the 1GHZ OMAP processor (faster than a speeding Snapdragon) and an actual usable keyboard, and you have yourself a winner, folks.
Let’s just hope the bootloader is hackable. Verizon? I’m looking at you!
(via TheNextWeb)
Android 2.1 clears half of all Android devices, Froyo creeps up
Jul 21st
| Platform | API Level | Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| Android 1.5 | 3 | 18.9% |
| Android 1.6 | 4 | 22.1% |
| Android 2.1 | 7 | 55.5% |
| Android 2.2 | 8 | 3.3% |
Every month, Google’s Android developers’ forum releases the latest breakdown of Android user distribution based on downloads from the Marketplace. This month, things are looking pretty rosy for Android 2.1, and the upcoming Android 2.2 OS, which was recently released on the Nexus One, and soon on the Droid 2 and Droid X.
Android 2.1 has risen to 55% market share, making it the clear majority holder. The nice thing about it, too, is how quickly it has risen to that spot. Check out the break for the breakdown distribution over time.
Canadian Carriers Most Profitable In Developed World
Jul 20th
An interest study just emerged confirming what most Canadians already know: their big three carriers are the most profitable in the developed world. According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Rogers, Telus and Bell combined for an average of 46.7% profit in the first quarter of this year. Compare that with the UK carriers of 22.6%, which is because of a strong competitive market. Canadians also paid $54.73 US/month on average, also the highest in the developed world.
Hate to say it, but us Canadians know this without even reading the report. Cell phone cost of ownership, especially with three-year contracts for data and voice, is extremely high. Rogers has often justified their high costs by claiming that to roll out a large-scale 3G network to a country the size of Russia and a population half that of Italy is extremely costly. But how costly, exactly? Consumers in Greece only pay an average of $19.87.
Other interesting stats:
- Canada’s penetration rate is only 69%
- Canada still has the highest rate of landline phone use in the world
- Canadians are the third most talky nation with the average person talking 368 minutes per month
- Korea is second with 374 and the US leads with 814(!!) talk minutes every month
(via CBC News)
Bell To Get HTC Wildfire? Say It Ain’t So!
Jul 19th
Bell, what are you doing? You already have the best low-spec Android phone on the market in the HTC Legend! What’s the point of introducing an even lower-spec Android 2.1 device in the Wildfire? The Legend is $79.95 on a 3-year term, and is almost the perfect marriage of size, power and epic aluminum. The Wildfire is like the stunted, ugly sister to the Legend.
But I digress. They must have a reason for showing the phone in a recent internal document (Act-celerate your Sales. Wow, Bell, can you be any lamer?). And if they do decide to introduce it, perhaps the Wildfire could intro at $0 post-paid, or even be eligible for pre-paid.
The Wildfire has the same 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor as the HTC Magic which was introduced over two years ago. It’s 3.2″ 320×240 screen is a tad low-res for my tastes, but certainly fits well with the small stature of the phone. It has a decent 384MB RAM, also adequate for the smaller texture sizes that have to be loaded into RAM. It’s topped off with a 5MP camera with LED flash. So clearly the phone has some legs. It’s also cute and small for the ladies.
I do hope it finds a home in some Canadians’ pockets, but Bell should be focusing more on bringing high-end Android devices to these shores. K? Thanks.
(via AndroidGuys)
Google’s Nexus One Discontinued. Wherefore Art Thou, Open Android?
Jul 19th
So today the last shipment of Nexus One devices were delivered to Google. Once the inventory runs out, that’s all she wrote for the now-famous direct-buy, no-carrier phone. For its time, the phone’s specs were some of the best ever seen, and really still have not been far eclipsed in the seven months since its online-only release.
The beauty of the Nexus One was in its flexibility and the ease in which it could be hacked to its owner’s content. The open bootrom, in layman’s terms, meant that should you find the stock OS insufficient, a couple lines on a command prompt later you could potentially load any number of user-designed OS’s based on Google’s AOSP (Android Open Source Project). One of the more famous ones now is CyanogenMOD, which is a group project to bring many custom improvements, both visual and performance-wise, to the platform.
The business model was not without its detractors, however. To purchase the phone was to buy it outright (except through T-Mobile): it came unlocked for any carrier, you just chose the radio inside the phone (for T-Mobile/WIND or AT&T/Rogers/Bell/Telus). For $529, this was not the cheapest option, but the fact that there was no contract that needed to be signed. In a sense, the phone, once purchased, was about as free and open as you could possibly imagine.
But the experiment didn’t work: Apple sold millions of iPhones in the time that Google sold only 135,000 Nexus One devices. Perhaps people in the United States just weren’t comfortable buying a phone outright; their allegiances to the subsidized carrier prices were too strong. And what’s a two-year contract in the long run? For me, it’s two years too long.
So now what? What happens to open Android? Where does one go to get his hackable Froyo? For all we’ve heard about Motorola making it practically impossible to hack its new Droid X phone, the move seems to be away from the open concept of Android and into the OEM-controlled UI changes and awful pre-loaded junkware of AT&T and Verizon. When we purchase a phone, we should have the right to remove programs we don’t want and don’t need. But the carriers feel that with their subsidies they have the right to lock down the devices we buy. It’s ludicrous.
So the Nexus One may go down as a failure in Google’s pocketbooks. But the community that has derived from its open nature is far more important. Thousands of people band together on forums like XDA-Developers to try and crack the problems that Google couldn’t. No 720p video recording? No problem. Battery life getting you down? Install a custom Linux kernel. It’s all possible with the Nexus One, and my fear is that in the future Google will be too scared to pursue the same results with a different phone.
The Nexus One will still be sold via Vodafone in Europe, KT in South Korea, and perhaps some other vendors. But when the inventory runs out on Google.com/phone, it will be the end of an era. I don’t think we have to worry about the success of Android as a platform: the Droid X and Droid Incredible are still out-selling most other smartphones in the US, and Android was the only platform to gain users in the Feb-May time period. But for open Android, it’s a different story.
(via ReadWriteWeb)
Will the Droid be Motorola’s last hackable phone?
Jul 16th
Uh-oh.
Here comes the cavalry. According to a leaked doc from the Droid-Life forums, the first and perhaps only moddable Motorola Verizon handset is going bye-bye. If that is true, and as a result the phone is discontinued to make way for the Droid 2, it is likely that the Droid will become somewhat of a collector’s item amongst Verizon users looking to mod their devices.
Though, in reality, if you haven’t picked up a Droid yet, you probably never will. Since the Droid X was released yesterday, and is much more appropriately named, I feel like most people won’t miss the device too much.
There is a possibility, however, that Google would have asked Motorola not to lock down the bootloader on the Droid 2 as well. But since the direction Motorola is going seems to be once of draconian eFuse domination, I doubt that’s going to actually happen. But what of the legacy of the Droid? It’s important to know that Motorola has vigilantly prevented users from hacking their phones, encrypting the bootloader and threatening to brick the phone if the user tries to mess with it. While the eFuse technology is not confirmed to actually brick the phone, the momentum has already left Motorola getting defensive. They’ve already claimed that if you want to buy a hackable phone, get it from another manufacturer.
I like Motorola’s phones. I think they make good hardware and they don’t try to screw up the user experience too much. There is something to be said for a company that learns from its mistakes. But this bootloader issue doesn’t seem to be a mistake. It’s a calculated business decision, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I am disappointed in the company, though not really surprised.
Let’s hope Google coerces Motorola to keep the bootloader hackable on the Droid 2. I don’t think it will happen, but it’s been a hot summer and magic may still strike.
No, Windows Phone 7 won’t tear you away from your smartphone, unless it’s an Android
Jul 15th
Ok, so the poll results aren’t exactly going to turn a lot of heads here. I mean, most people haven’t even seen a Windows Phone 7 device in person, and to truly appreciate a new phone platform it needs to be used. Couple that with the fact that Windows Mobile has left a legacy of green ooze on Microsoft’s lap, it’s going to be hard to rebound quickly. I’m impressed that 14% of people are even willing to give the platform a try.
Personally, I think Android users are going to be the ones most likely to switch over. Their allegiances aren’t as strong, the Koolaid not as potent as with iPhone. And BlackBerry users are always going to be BlackBerry users. CrackBerry is the strongest narcotic known to man.
But things change. Come October, or November, or whenever, Windows Phone 7 might blow everyone away with the most robust and usable 1.0 software ever released on a mobile platform. People may say, “Wow! Look at the potential for this thing! I must be an early adopter.” What’s more likely is that most early adopters will breach the Zune/Xbox/Office integration, its potential app marketplace, and all other areas in which it can improve. The Metro interface looks sexy, its consistent UI deployment unbeatable.
All that’s left, really, is the hardware. We know that LG and HTC will be diving head first into manufacturing. We know that, at minimum, the hardware will be as or more powerful than current high-end Android devices. That’s important, as a minimum 4″ screen is going to need some robust hardware. If the internet experience is as good as they claim, and if multimedia support is there, I don’t see why WP7 will be any less desirable than Android or iPhone. But we’ve seen a pretty good platform in WebOS go down the toilet due to lack of hardware/carrier support. Microsoft can’t and won’t let that happen.
BlackBerry Accessory Review: Otterbox Commuter Case for Bold 9700
Jul 15th
The BlackBerry 9700 is a thin phone. I find it to be largely the most comfortable, pocketable phone currently on the market. Yes, there are more powerful devices out there: the iPhone 4 has recently become the de facto leader in industrial build quality and design.
So I prefer to wear the 9700 naked. I have tried a lot of cases for the phone, and none have really kept the phone slim and usable enough to justify the added weight. The Otterbox Commuter case for the Bold 9700 is about the best combination of strength, durability and good looks that I’ve found for the eponymous BlackBerry device.
The case, like all Otterbox Commuter and Defender series cases, is split into three parts: the screen protector, the silicon surrounding and the hard shell. The silicon usually covers the entire housing while the shell slips over it and protects the more important areas of the phone.
The Bold 9700 version is particularly well suited for this purpose as the phone itself is not exactly made to be dropped. There is a saying in the industry: “It’s a good thing BlackBerrys are easy to replace, because their quality control sucks.” This is particularly true about the newer devices. It seems that ever since RIM moved their manufacturing process to China, the quality of their devices has decreased. The trackpads wobble, the battery covers slip off, the side buttons creak. It’s just not what it used to be.
And most BlackBerry users tend to use those colourful silicone slip-ons. Those are not only ugly, but when dropped from a fair distance, are not going to sufficiently protect the device. The Otterbox Commuter case adds a fair amount of weight and thickness to the phone, but because it’s pretty thin as it is, it doesn’t reduce the pocketability.
The quality of the materials is top notch. The silicone is flexible and sturdy; never once have I seen any of the flaps on the movable parts of the silicone tear or break. As well, the plastic shell is lightweight and extremely precise. I do have some issues, however, with the fact that because the silicone piece includes flaps that cover the various holes, including the headphone jack and charging jack, it emcumbers easy entry. When removing the flap from the headphone jack, for example, it often involves using two hands to pry it from inside the hole itself, and getting the headphone into the jack involves holding the flap back while you try to maneuver it in over the excess silicone. There’s almost too much of a good thing. I don’t feel these flaps are necessary, and often cause undue frustration when inserting the charging cable at the end of a long day.
A benefit, however, to having the hard shell on the phone is the slightly extra width it gives the phone when holding it to type. As most Bold 9700 owners know, the phone is narrower than its predecessor, the luxuriously-sized Bold 9000. As a result, the keyboard had to be narrowed too. The Commuter case actually widens the phone by a couple millimetres, allowing you to hold it and type more comfortably with your thumbs. Probably not an intended benefit by Otterbox, but certainly welcome if you’re longing for those Bold 9000 days.
Overall I would recommend the Otterbox Commuter case for anyone who’s ever dropped his phone or missed her Bold 9000. You’re going to feel a lot safer with it on.
The Otterbox Commuter case for Bold 9700 is available for $34.99 on their website or at many affiliate retailers.
Pros:
- Great manufacturing quality
- Three-part system, includes screen protector
- Makes phone very durable
- Widens phone slightly for more comfortable thumb typing
Cons:
- May add too much bulk for some people
- Charging and headphone holes are too difficult to open
- Screen protector is of questionable quality and value
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