Category: Mobile Phones

15 Annoyances In Android 2.2 Froyo

by
Inf

I got to play with an HTC Desire running Froyo (Android 2.2) over a couple of days now. At first, I was all “Angry birds”! Then I was all “Paper toss!” and whatever other apps that people tend to fancy from the market.

However, after a few days’ worth of use, I’ve uncovered a few annoying quirks that plague Froyo. I’ll admit that I’m not really sure whether the bugs are to due to Froyo or whether they affect that particular device. It’s not nice to have to fork out a truck of money and then reading forums to see people saying “turn down battery”, “turn off Wifi” etc… in an effort to save battery. If you bought a smartphone and can’t use it fully, what’s the point?

For testing, I also flashed a Gingerbread-based ROM (Redux ROM). This should help in determining if issues were fixed.

Anyway, here’s a rundown of 10 of them, and possible fixes, where I’ve found them.Let’s see.

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3 Features Mobile Phones Should Have But Most Don’t

by
Inf

I don’t consider myself to be a very heavy mobile user. Apart from the usual SMS and receiving calls, I sometimes use the camera, or the included Wifi-capability of my phone to browse a bit around while on the go and use the mystic messenger emails android chat. However, there is a set of features which I sorely miss in my device, and other devices I’ve used. I’ve compiled a list here, and I can only hope some developer stumbles on this page, and decides to implement those. Apart from affordable phone plans, they could still go a long way in making a device much more usable. They are not too difficult to implement I think, so here goes nothing…

Timed Profiles

I think it must be Nokia that came up with this bright idea years ago. Indeed, it’s a very good feature (at least it is for me). I don’t have to remember to set my device to Silent before going to lectures and such. But since it was implemented, the feature has hardly evolved.

Also, accessing this feature is a pain in itself. In Nokia devices, you have to dig through the menus down to Profiles, and there you get the option to activate it.

The only thing you can do is set a profile, then time another to expire at a time. After that, the other profile will activate, and when the time is up, the previous profile will be activated automatically. Easy to understand but not very useful.

What would have been useful is able to repeat the expiry time or even plan the expiry of profiles over the week. Say, General profile will be active from 18h to 23h, Sleep profile will activate from 23h to 07h. And Silent active from 07h to 18h. And that schedule will be applicable only during weekdays, while during weekends, you have another set of times.

But no, for now, you can’t have it in-built. Yet.

Delay SMS Sending

Another feature I sorely miss. It’s not even available on the networks as a service most of the time! Oh, I do agree there are ways to do without, like setting a reminder and have it sent at a particular date and time. This was possible in my old handset, but not now. It’s as if handsets are de-evolving! Now, on my N85, I don’t even have a stopwatch, while the good old 3310 had one!

Anyway, back to the point. What I want is a way to compose a message and save it. Then set it to be sent at a date and time. Sometimes, you need to remind a friend to bring you something, but only on the eve of the day you meet. You have to remember to send that message yourself, even if your device could have done the remembering with more ease.

Again no, it doesn’t exist yet as an in-built facility. Not in any device I know of. It may exist as an addon-application, but it needs to be in-built!

LED to indicate new stuff E.g. Missed Calls or SMS pending

My good old Sony Ericsson had a LED outside that flashed. But the problem is that it flashed just to indicate that the phone was on. Kind of a waste if you ask me. It could have been put to much better use as BlackBerry did.

BlackBerry devices have a small LED light that flashes when you have pending sms, calls or emails. Why don’t all devices have that? Even the high-end ones don’t!

Better yet would have the LED flash different colors for different things missing, maybe in order of priority. SMS pending flashes blue. Missed calls flashes red. But if you had both, the light would still flash red. At least you’d know from afar if you had something waiting, without having to touch the phone, or press a key to know.

If this is not possible, just make the LED flash at different speeds for different things.

But no, for now, I have to content myself with a dumb LED that tells me my phone is on. Very useful indeed!

All those small, but useful applications that were in older devices

Stopwatch? Timer? Alarm? Flashlight? Please, I bought a device that was multiples of the price of those lower-end phones, but still, it didn’t have all the features of those phones in them. I don’t have a stopwatch! I really need a stopwatch sometimes, and I don’t have one. Not in a device that costs nearly $300! What the hell! A device that costs $100 has it!

That is not fair developers! Give us those features back. We deserve them. And most of them are mostly software, so you can’t complain that it’ll take space inside the device as hardware.

There you go. I have completed my list of 3 features I really miss on any handset I’ve used, and really wished they were there. Do you have a feature that you wished was there, but is not? Let us know. 😀

Looking for a mobile: My opinions

by
Inf

Let me say it here itself. At first, I was a Nokia fan. Then I became a Sony Ericsson (SE) fan for a while, before going back to my old love, Nokia. Why the shift back? Simply because SE is now spitting out devices that have nothing new from their past siblings. I am in the market for a new mobile to replace my aging SE Z610i. Of couse, I’m considering what manufacturers have to offer NOW, not in another quarter in the near future. I have to say, I am not pleased with SE and the others.

My actual budget was something below $500 if possible. I want a feature phone that will be future-proof for around 1-2 years at least. That will not break in my hands. That is not flip, cuz I got tired of the constant flipping and unflipping each time. Oh of course, I’m looking for a mobile, a portable phone. I don’t want a brick inside my jeans pocket and then find that my pants are compressing important parts.

So, let’s start with SE. What do you have to offer that can match what I am seeking (these are what I considered)? One by one please!

  • G70s (slider): A good phone I must say. It does have the features I wish. A small thickness of 14mm. It has wifi, which I am looking for. A good battery providing around 400 hrs of standby and 10hrs of talking before a recharge. GPS is included, though not useful in Mauritius. The price is ok too. Around $350. But what the hell is this phone? G-series are supposed to be smart phones. Or the G705 is not smart. It’s not a Walkman phone. Then what is it? A sort of hybrid? And what’s with the ridiculous 3.15 MP camera? What, does SE have a lot of those and need to pack and sell those? Apart from those, the features are very standard. Music player, TrackID, bla bla. Nothing worthy. Except! A Youtube player! That’s nice. Too bad reviewers say it doesn’t work with the WIFI connection. Streaming Youtube vids via your network is going to kill your charges for sure! They also say the slide mechanism is a bit stiff. So go sleep in a corner, G705.
  • G715 (slider): It’s not out yet, but I am including this to make a point. Go to GSMArena, and compare the two phones: G715 and G705. I did it for you, so check out this link. Notice similarities? Too many of them for my tastes. That’s what I was saying. SE is just giving us phones that resemble existing ones in terms 0f features! They are not adding anything really new. Not only that, they are not upgrading their features. What’s up with those 3.15 MP cameras? And those 240×320 256k colors screens!I mean, my Z610i had a 240×320 256k colors and a 2MP camera. It’s been what, 3 years since I bought it? It was a fantastic phone, really solid and useful. It’s time for its replacement to come, and SE offers nothing really amazing that warrants an upgrade. Either that, or they are exclusively targetting the lower/middle classes only. I want an upper-middle phone! Please! But let’s move on.
  • G900 (bar): Ahh! A smartphone with respectable features! A touchscreen! A 5MP camera. Wifi included. But wait! What do I see! NOOO! The 240×320 256k colors screen makes a comeback! A thin phone with the features I need, but weak screen! There’s also a couple of issues pointed out by reviews which are very significant. 1st: there are no physical call/end-call buttons. You need to tap the screen to answer/end a call. People have said that sometimes, the screen doesn’t respond and you can’t take the call. This is unthinkable: unable to answer a call with a phone! Next issue is that the device is kind of slow, considering that an old processor (if I remember correctly, the one that powers the P1) was used in the G900. Sorry G900, go stand in your corner too.
  • Any other SE Phone: I’m tired. I’m grouping everything else here! What I didn’t like what the recurring 240×320 256k colors screens everywhere! Isn’t it time to switch to something like 16M colors or something? We want quality! Next is the recurring features. When I was looking through SE offerings, I kept seeing the same things recur in most models. The camera was 3.15MP for most new offerings. The same features advertised on and on. It almost seemed to me that SE was selling one phone under different shells and models!

I’m sorry SE. I really loved your phones. The Z610i was nearly bug-less. It worked very smoothly and had tons of nice features. And best of all, it was user-friendly. Don’t want a call? Press the volume button on the side. It mutes the ringer/kills the vibrator but leaves the call on. Press it again, and it sends the busy tone. A very nice touch,. in my opinion. There were loads of features like that which I really liked.

But lately, your phones seem so generic, so bland! I don’t find anything worthy to replace my trusty Z610i. All the new devices look so similar, the features are not impressive. A real pity I should say. RIP my old loved brand.

Let’s go to my ex now. Nokia baby, here I come:

For Nokia, I considered relatively few models. Those really amazed me, but they are not really cheap. I wanted a good, lasting phone. One that can survive for 2 years without replacement. For that, I was ready to fork out Rs.10k if needed. That’s around $400.

  • E66 (slider): A business phone. For a student. Doesn’t really suit, no? But I really loved the features. 3.15MP camera again (it’s a conspiracy or what?) but it has 16m colors! It has Wifi! It has document reader, something which I don’t think the SE’s have! It has VOIP support! And it makes great use of its accelerometer, with stuff like turn-to-mute. $400 on Amazon. Not bad. Again some reviews say it’s not good enough, with a weak battery. A friend also reported that his E66 went bonkers after a fall. I’m a bit cautious about that one.
  • N96 (slider): Awesome phone. But a heck of a price. The N96 is already well known, and I’ll not elaborate on that one.
  • N85 (slider): This one, I really want. Why? Cuz it’s a good balance in features/price. It’s almost like a mini, and thinner N96! Seriously, this device is a killer! 16m colors screen, OLED please! OLED quality is really amazing with really vivid colors. Built-in accelerometer for turn-sensing. A navi-wheel which acts like the wheel on ipods. 8GB MicroSD support (8GB card included). Has Wifi, a 5MP shooter with flash, auto-focus and all the gadgets. Has GPS in-built, a 3.5mm audio jack (I need!), TV-out (not really needed for me), an FM-transmitter which is really awesome – I pause here for a minute. The FM Transmitter allows you to broadcast the music you are playing on your mobile to an FM receiver. Like your car radio. Very few mobiles have that, and that’s what I really call an innovative feature. Has a document viewer and plays Internet radio. No seriously, what more can I ask of? Probably a better battery. The talk-time is around 6hrs and standby of 350h. With the FM transmitter and other power munchers, it’ll be much less. Oh, did I mention that this baby is a dual-slider? Like the N85? And its very thin. 16mm for you!Take that SE! That’s what I call an amazing phone. Price? $450 something on the Internet. I wish I had somebody going near China to pick this one up for me!
  • N97 (touch-screen / QWERTY) – Similar in features to N85 but with a full touchscreen and QWERTY included. But hell, that’s one hefty price tag. Around $750. Too much for me, but I can dream! 😛

Others I have considered are the Samsung Omnia and the Innov8. Truly awesome devices, but at what price! Out of my league, I must confess.

Ah I’m tired of reading reviews. I’m ending this article here. Do you have any mobile phone recommendations for me? Let’s hear those. This was my first mobile-phone related article btw!

Ps. Did you notice that Google changed its favicon again? This one is more Google-like! 😛