John at myITforum.com

Do I like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 ?

In a word, disappointing for me.  Yes, it’s got a cool camera, and yes it has a big screen and yes it has MediaScape and TimeScape but alas, it’s not for me.  I could run the gauntlet of everything I don’t like about it:

• I already mentioned how disappointing Android 1.6 was and well…I’m sticking to it.
• I can’t for the life of me figure out copy/paste from any of the applications.
• There is a separate application for Exchange Connectivity from Futuredial.com.  Not sure what exactly this but interestingly enough, the links to read about the reviews of their product are linked to Touchdown.
• I absolutely HATE having to manage multiple icons on the device (multiple email/gmail/work email icons; multiple contacts; multiple calendars)
• Difficult to type on (had the same issue with the HTC Aria).  Again, I don’t know what Sony was thinking or what kind of QA this went through, but portrait or landscape, the keyboard is a mess and missed letters ALL of the time.
• Where’s the multi-touch when browsing the internet? Everyone is doing that these days and again, it’s missing.
• The “Sony” skin is horrible.  Maybe I just haven’t figured it out yet but on Motorola, HTC and Samsung Android phones, you can slide the front page left and right multiple pages to group/sort your icons.  There is only one page right, and one page left for this phone, and you can’t even fill the pages with icons.  They “snap” when moved losing valuable screen real estate.  I can cram 16 icons on one page on other phones.
• I only made three phone calls and it was difficult to hear.  I was hoping there was still a shipping plastic film covering the speaker because even turned all the way up it was difficult to hear.
• One of the great things about Android is the customization and the “one-click” to do things.  Not sure what Sony was thinking with this but they made Android difficult and not customizable.
• Even though I’ve used bigger phones (HTC EVO 4G and HTC HD2), this phone feels bigger and heavier, even though it isn’t.  I’m sure there was a reason to make this thing curved and wider that larger phones, but it shouldn’t feel this big. 

Hopefully Sony will update this phone to Android 2.1 or 2.2 quickly, and fix a lot of the issues, particularly with the keyboard.  You’re much better off with the Aria or Captivate if you’re looking for Android on AT&T. I’ll keep looking for my next phone.

My ranking of the Android phones on AT&T (In my opinion, Verizon and Sprint have better Android phones):

HTC Aria

Samsung Captivate

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

For the next couple of days, I’ll be taking a look at the new Sony device.

Already a little disappointed that it is only running Android 1.6.  How can OEM’s deliver a product on the market when 2.2 is already out?  Hopefully it will get an update quickly.  The other specs however are impressive:

• 1 GHz Processor
• 8.1 MP Camera, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
• 4 inch WVGA display
• HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
• 419 MB Internal RAM available with a 2GB SD card in the box

Highly touted on this phone is Timescape and Mediascape.

Docs for Facebook

Discover. Create. Share.

Now you can discover, create, and share Microsoft Office documents with your Facebook friends. Built using Microsoft Office 2010 – Docs for Facebook provides the best possible document service for the Facebook environment. Seamless integration with Facebook means that the service is all about sharing your documents. Finally docs can be friendly too!

http://docs.com/

Android Battery Test Reveals Droid X Lasts Longest

Laptopmag.com has completed a battery test of the latest and greatest Android phones.  One of the biggest frustrations from users is the battery life, something RIM Blackberry has seemed to nail (except for the Blackberry Torch…it seems the battery life on that is one of the worst I’ve every seen). 

Appears Motorola and Dell have figured out the battery issue with both the Droid X and Droid 2.  It’s a shame Moto hasn’t expanded past Verizon Wireless. 

You can read how they tested to ensure comparable results and the full testing analysis here.  All I can say is YIKES for the lovely Samsung devices.

Windows Phone 7 Leak Summary

Lots of Windows Phone 7 leaks…what’s been reported?  Engadget as usual has been a goldmine of information.  ASUS, Dell, HTC, LG, and Samsung have supposedly all confirmed devices.  Will there be more?

LG E900	LG C900	LG Panther	Samsung Cetus

HTC Mozart	HTC Schubert	ASUS	HTC T8788

I have always been a big fan of HTC.  I haven’t been real thrilled with any other OEM to date, Android or otherwise.  I love the HTC EVO 4G, and the HTC Aria.  While it’s been mentioned that the HTC Mozart above probably isn’t the actual phone, I’m not sure what to think about the Schubert and the T8788.  Pictures have been known not to be too telling, so we’ll see.

Google Reader not updating all feeds

I’m a big fan of RSS feeds.  I’ve tried lots of different news readers to get the fastest, best experience from reading the RSS feeds I subscribe to.  I won’t comment on how many feeds I subscribe to…it’s a lot.  Over the last week I’ve been using three different news readers to see how they operate with my feeds.  One big thing I’ve noticed.  Google Reader may be web based to use on multiple computers, and may be fast, and may look nice, but Google doesn’t update all of my feeds.  Either something is broke again (I went weeks with some of my feeds not updating and then they all updated), or Google just decides for itself what feeds to update and what feeds to ignore.  One entire group of feeds has not updated on Google Reader for three days, yet the two other news readers I’m testing have shown a minimum of 15 new articles posted. 

For someone who has to stay up on current events, Google Reader just isn’t cutting it.  How do they decide when to update feeds and how often?  No need to comment, that was more of a rhetorical question than anything.  I know how often it’s supposed to update.  Fact of the matter is, it doesn’t work.  Why subscribe to RSS feeds if the feeds don’t update and you have to go to the website to look?

As an aside, I’ve also noticed the date/time stamp for Google Reader in some cases does not coincide with the date/time stamp of the actual article.  In some cases, it’s way off (as in over 12 hours), in other cases, its several hours off.  Again, not that big a deal but some of them are my primary feeds and I DO notice.

Evernote hits 4 million users

One of my favorite apps for Android (and every other mobile OS I use or test) is Evernote.  No doubt with the explosion of Android and iPhone that Evernote is growing this fast.  If you haven’t used Evernote yet and you’re an avid note taker (I take notes on everything), you really should check it out.  For me, it was my solution to no over the air sync of Notes in Outlook.

Evernote blog

Verizon Wireless Palm Pre Plus for $.01

I just posted that Amazon was offering the Samsung Captivate for $.01.  It looks as if Amazon is also offering the Palm Pre Plus (turn the Palm Pre in to a mobile hotspot) for $.01.

I’m not sure how much longer Verizon will be offering the phone.  Rumor has it that it’s been E-O-L’d already, perhaps waiting for the HP webOS phone.  The Palm Pre Plus features the Palm webOS platform, a vibrantly colorful touchscreen-enabled display, and slide-out full QWERTY keyboard.

AT&T Samsung Captivate for $.01

Amazon is offering the Samsung Captivate on AT&T for $.01.

If you’ve been waiting for this phone but didn’t want the hardware costs, now’s your chance.  I’m not too thrilled with the Exchange ActiveSync implementation, nor am I thrilled at the default color schemes, but it does have one of the best displays available today.  Powered by a fast 1 GHz processor, the Android 2.1 operating system, 16GB of internal memory (without storage card) and AT&T's 7.2 Mbps 3G connectivity.

Motorola Android Software Upgrade News

Have a Motorola Android device and wondering when you’ll get your upgrade?  Motorola has published their upgrade schedule here.

But, here it is:

AV-Test.org Certifies Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0

Use Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0?  AV-Test.org has certified the product with a score of 14 out of 18 in their latest round of certification testing.

It appears three products, Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, Panda Internet Security 2010 and Symantec Norton Internet Security received the highest ratings at 16 out of 18.

The major difference?  Kasperky IS is $80, Panda IS is $60.95, Norton IS is $69.99, and Microsoft SE is FREE.  Interestingly, all six products that scored higher are a minimum of $40.  Do you get what you pay for? 

You can read the full reports here and decide for yourself.

Sprint's Product Guru Exits

Yikes!  As if Sprint doesn’t have enough to worry about…

Sprint Nextel Corp.'s product development guru plans to leave the company Monday—making him the second high-profile executive to leave the wireless carrier this month.

Kevin Packingham, 39 years old, who led the development of the company's flagship Evo 4G and upcoming Epic smartphones, plans to run another company in Kansas City, according to a Sprint spokeswoman. She declined to identify the company.

The departure of Mr. Packingham, a senior vice president often tasked with demonstrating the carrier's key devices during major events and conferences, comes as Sprint ramps up the marketing push for its next fourth-generation phone, the Samsung Epic.

Reference

CTIA ENTERPRISE & APPLICATIONS™ 2010 Announces Keynote Lineup

CTIA ENTERPRISE & APPLICATIONS™ 2010 today announced its keynote lineup of top executives representing diverse industries—financial services, government, healthcare, telecommunications and transportation. These speakers will address how wireless is revolutionizing the workplace and what the business community should expect from next-generation LTE networks. CTIA ENTERPRISE & APPLICATIONS will take place in San Francisco at Moscone Center West October 6-8, 2010; co-located partner conferences will begin on October 5. 

John Chen, CEO and president of Sybase, Inc.; Dr. Kristina Johnson, under secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy; and Lowell McAdam, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless will deliver keynote addresses on the opening day of the show.

On the second day of the show, Thursday, October 7, Bob Evans, senior vice president and director of the “Global CIO” business unit for InformationWeek, will moderate a keynote roundtable of CIOs including:  John ***, senior vice president and CIO at Western Union; Jackie Woods, systems manager at UPS; and Rusty Yeager, vice president and deputy CIO at HealthSouth. 

On Friday, October 8, the third keynote session will feature Ronald Spears, president and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions and Derrick Kuzak, group vice president for global product development at Ford Motor Company.

“CTIA ENTERPRISE & APPLICATIONS is all about the impact mobility and smart technology decisions have on business,” said Robert Mesirow, vice president and show director for CTIA. “Our keynote speakers will share real-world examples of how wireless can be effectively leveraged and deployed in the enterprise.”

Press Release

Android third largest OS

According to Gartner’s press release yesterday, Android grew another 50% and is not the third largest OS.

Also for the first time, Symbian has dipped below 50% worldwide sales.  With all of the security related issues RIM is facing overseas, it’s only a matter of time before Android takes the #2 spot.  How many Android phones have been released worldwide over the last few months?  Anyone have an exact count?

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Android expanded rapidly in the second quarter of 2010, overtaking Apple’s iPhone OS to become the third-most-popular OS in the world (see Table 2). In the U.S, it also overtook RIM’s OS to become the No. 1 smartphone OS in this region. “A non-exclusive strategy that produces products selling across many communication service providers (CSPs), and the backing of so many device manufacturers, which are bringing more attractive devices to market at several different price points, were among the factors that yielded its growth this quarter,” said Ms. Milanesi.

Smartphone sales to end users totaled 61.6 million units in the second quarter of 2010, a 50.5 percent increase from the same period in 2009. The top four smartphone OS vendors exhibited growth in the second quarter of 2010, and accounted for 91 percent of the worldwide smartphone OS market, up 6 percent year-on-year.

Surprisingly, Windows Mobile retained a 5% market share.  It will be interesting to see what happens when Windows Phone 7 releases.  Will Microsoft adopt a non-exclusive strategy with the backing of many device manufacturers?

Full press release

DROID 2 by Motorola running Flash Player 10.1

Adobe TV has released a video showcasing the new Droid 2 running Flash Player 10.1.  DROID 2 is the first smartphone to ship out of the box with Flash Player 10.1 and benefit from HW decoding of all H.264 video profiles in Flash Player.