Monthly Archives: January 2011

Five Essential iPhone and BlackBerry Apps

Posted on January 22, 2011 by Shaun

This is the first in a two-part series looking at the best apps available on each of the mobile platforms, and more specifically ones that will make a dramatic difference to the way you use your phone. Not every app will specifically meet your needs, but hopefully some will be as useful to you as they have been for me.

iPhone / iPad

Week Calendar (£1.19 / $1/99)

Week Calendar is, in my opinion, the best calendar replacement currently available on iOS. It marries a highly visual interface with some neat tricks that will make your organisation of a busy calendar much easier than before. For example you can simply hold your finger on an appointment and drag it to another day and time and this can immediately be reflected in whatever online calendar service you are synchronising with. It looks like a mini version of iCal, an app I have never really liked using, but brings near perfect touch navigation to the small screen. Throw in list, day, week and month views and you are all set to start enjoying your calendar again without all of the needless fiddling that so many competitors require you to do.

2Do (£3.99 / $6.99)

There are countless ToDo apps available for the iPhone and believe I have tried most of them. I currently have ToDo Map, ToDo and Put Things Off loaded onto my iPhone, but 2Do has proved itself to be the winner for me. The interface is lovely and offers anyone who needs visual organisation the perfect place to get their tasks in order. It is expensive, but it is also universal and the iPad version is arguably better than the iPhone version in its presentation. With countless customisation options, projects, checklists and so much more included it is hard to consider what is missing here. Even the synchronisation is nearly perfect in its implementation.

TomTom (£29.99 – £69.99 country dependant)

When it comes to navigation I always want the best and at this time I would rate TomTom as the best available. You pay a lot for the privilege though and this means that it is not necessarily the best value for money in comparison to others, but the presentation and general navigation capabilities are exceptionally well created. There are some negatives though which I am still trying to resolve; HD Traffic is a paid-for optional extra which on two occasions has completely missed huge traffic jams and left me stranded for hours on end and the IQ Routes sometimes have a mind of their own. I use this app every day to drive to work and every day I am offered a different route even though there is no traffic on any of them (have checked with colleagues at work). This lack of consistency could lead some to distrust the app, but I have to say that for the majority of the time it wins out against the rest.

Kindle (free)

eBooks are big business these days and Amazon is currently king of the hill in this area. I have chosen Kindle as an essential because the books are, on the whole, very competitively priced and the ability to synchronise between multiple devices with ease only adds to the ease of use. The presentation is also excellent and I would argue that it is better than iBooks for flexibility and the overall look and feel. As it stands there is no better eBook service for multiple devices and until the rest open up and start looking past their own devices it will continue to prosper.

PocketMoney (£2.99 / $4.99)

Finance is another area that is well covered on iOS, but to me PocketMoney stands head and shoulders above the rest. Not only does it offer exceptionally quick transaction input thanks to its ability to memorise previous entries, but it also presents all of the information in a clear, yet detailed, form which works perfectly. There is synchronisation, backups, multiple accounts, recurring transactions and detailed reporting which makes the asking price a tiny drop in a vary large ocean of usability. Superb!

BlackBerry

Tether ($49.99)

$50 is a lot to ask for any mobile app, but potentially Tether will be your new best friend should your lifestyle and needs require such a solution. It works best on 3G BlackBerry’s and in my experience can offer a similar result to a Mi-Fi style solution, but one that you will already be carrying with you. The fact that it hides your tethering is a killer feature because your network provider will have no idea that you are using your BlackBerry this way. Clever stuff…

Ascendo Money ($29.99)

The best mobile finance software on the planet on any platform; hugely detailed reporting, extremely quick data entry and a near perfect understanding of how software should look and work on a BlackBerry smartphone. The desktop component tops off what is a wonderful piece of work and one that is well worth the premium asking price.

Aerize Email/SMS Alerts ($4.99)

This simple app can reduce the time you spend dealing with incoming communications by more than half. Instead of having to go to the email app every time a new email arrives, you can simply dismiss or action the email from your home screen. The same applies to texts and it quickly becomes a whole new way of managing your BlackBarry on a day to day basis. It works so well and the developer has cleverly managed to integrate the look perfectly into the general feel of the BlackBerry OS- it is seriously good.

BerryWeather ($9.99)

$10 is a lot of money for a weather app, but with few quality competitors available for BlackBerry and a heavy feature set, BerryWeather just about manages to pull off the price. There are pushed weather alerts, over 72,000 locations covered and an interface which looks somewhat similar to the standard HTC weather app. If you need weather tracking and you need your BlackBerry, you may as well buy the best.

REXconnect ($9.99)

Imagine being able to transfer data between your mobile calendar, email, address book, tasks, memopad, browser and almost every other default app on your phone. Very few platforms can do this, but BlackBerry can thanks to REXconnect and the price is a steal considering the functionality you are getting.

Next time, I will cover five essential apps for Symbian, Android and Windows Phone. Feel free to add your essentials with a comment.

Comments Off


Sony Ericsson Vivaz 2 preview

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Shaun

mobile review has published a preview of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz 2 and the word on the street is that this one could be much more impressive than recent SE efforts. Still not convinced by the design though…

An appropriate change is always welcome and it seems that MT15i along with Arc represent a step in the right direction. For the first time in its history Sony Ericsson has developed and is about to launch truly cutting edge devices and the company has almost nothing to fear in the hardware department as well.

While that may not be entirely true in Arc’s case since pricewise it will have to compete against LG Optimus 2x with Nvidia TEGRA 2 power, the Mt15i is at least positioned against “easier” opponents.

MT15i can be called the successor to Vivaz, a phone well designed, which nevertheless fell short mostly due to its OS deficiencies. This time around, MT15i kept the same design philosophy with some changes, but received a significant hardware upgrade dumping S60 in favor of Android.

That fact combined with some software tweaks and a proprietary Sony Ericsson interface on top of Android produced a well balanced and skillful device, something that we had not seen from Sony Ericsson for a long time now.

Comments Off

Thinking Of Leaving Nokia?

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Shaun

The Nokia Guide has posted a story called Thinking Of Leaving Nokia? in which it lists various reasons why you you stay such as long battery life, the best cameras etc. The operating system and apps are conspicuous by their absence though.

The mobile space has changed a lot. It’s very different from just a few years ago and there is a lot of competition. Strong competition. All good reasons why Nokia fans might be considering other brands  as their main device or as a second phone. Think again. Here are a few reasons why you should reconsider getting another device…

2 Comments


QOTD: Cloud services?

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Shaun

Which Cloud service(s) do you currently use? Evernote is the main one for me, but My Writing Spot, DropBox and Google are also used. It would be nice to use just one, but they all excel in different areas.

10 Comments

Why “Windows Everywhere” could bring about “Windows Nowhere”

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Shaun

Not since Moses returned from Mount Sinai clutching the Ten Commandments have tablets been so much in the news. Tablet stories have dominated the tech press in January, from a glut of product launches and announcements at CES to the heady swirl of rumour and disinformation surrounding Apple’s next-generation iPad.

The tablet strategies of the big names in technology are inextricably linked to their OS choice; Google sees this new form factor as a chance to put more eyeballs on ads and is therefore devoting the forthcoming Honeycomb release of Android to them.  Likewise, Apple wants to extend the reach of iOS, which in turn drives the uptake of iTunes accounts linked to credit-cards.  The iPad, like the iPhone, is a brilliant machine for content consumption – a euphemism for emptying your credit-card of funds.  Even HP is getting into the game in an attempt to build mindshare for WebOS, a great OS that’s been largely overlooked but will soon be found on a range of connected devices.

But what about Microsoft?

Despite somewhat sluggish sales, Windows Phone 7 has been a hit with journalists for its slick, original interface and buttery-smooth operation.  Microsoft has grown small market shares into successful businesses before.  Think Xbox.   Strangely, though, Microsoft has been quiet concerning the chances of launching Windows Phone on tablet platforms, much to the vocal consternation of the new OS’s fans.  In fact, Redmond seems focused on bringing the next generation of desktop Windows to tablets instead, despite vicious criticism of previous attempts to do so, such as the on-again, off-again HP Slate.

On the face of it, this strategy does seem crazy.  Windows Phone (which is “Windows” in name only) is already optimised for touch and boasts a clean, lightweight interface and ARM compatibility.  Why are MS investing millions of dollars to bring desktop Windows to tablets when they already have an OS that could perform the job adroitly?  Apple, realising that customers love iOS features such as instant-on and the App Store are bringing those virtues to the Mac, rather than trying to bring the Mac experience to tablets.  The recent Macbook Air refresh is considered by many to be the first step towards the iOSification of OSX.

The thing is, Microsoft really has no choice but to champion Windows on tablets and, eventually, on phones too.  Let me explain…

Classic Windows is a great business for Microsoft.  Three of the five business divisions of the software giant are directly predicated on the existence and popularity of Windows and they are collectively responsible for around 80% of Microsoft revenues, the rest of which is made up of online services, games and mobile.  Without Windows, Microsoft is no longer a viable software business, at least on the scale we’re used to.  And Windows is under threat; the success of smartphones and the emergence of tablets are leading to exponential growth in non-Windows platform usage.  You see, convenience always wins; purely digital music has triumphed over cassettes and Compact Discs because you can conveniently carry thousands of tracks around in your pocket.  Digital cameras have eradicated film because they make reviewing, choosing and printing your pictures easy.  Now that smartphones have great screens and fast processors, people are gradually finding it more convenient to browse Wikipedia on the move, shop at Amazon on the train or reply to their emails over a cup of coffee in their local Starbucks.  Small, single-purpose mobile Apps are replacing their bulky desktop cousins.  And every user who is browsing, gaming and working on their tablet or smartphone is one less user sitting in front of Windows.

Speculation?  Far from it.  Taking web browsing as a case in point, analysts project that mobile web browsing will exceed desktop browsing by the middle of 2013, should present growth continue.  That’s a serious problem for Microsoft, who have built a business empire around bums on seats in front of desktop PCs.  It’s no wonder that the initial ad campaigns for Windows Phone have emphasised how great it would be if you used your phone LESS!

So what else is Microsoft doing?  Users are deserting the desktop, so Windows will follow them wherever they go.  Thus, we are getting a port of Windows for ARM chipsets.  It’s a huge task and developers will be forced to recompile drivers and applications to work with the new CPU instruction-set.  And we’re promised that Windows 8 will be touch-friendly.   It could be that Windows Phone will simply end up as a stop-gap measure intended to keep their hand in the game until a unified, grown-up Windows experience is ready for the small screen.

Yet this is a risky strategy.  Complacency has brought Microsoft to this point and now they face serious challenges; alienating their existing loyal mobile users, angering partners such as Intel who have massive vested interest in seeing Windows flourish on their x86 architecture and even in-fighting between their various divisions over which OS platform gets primacy.

Worst of all, what happens if they fumble the development of Windows 8?  Should the touch experience be anything less than class-leading, if start-up is anything less than instant or if overall performance is sluggish, then customers just won’t adopt it, because, once again, convenience always wins and Google, Apple et al are just waiting to mop up those disenfranchised users.

Drop the ball on Windows 8 and we could see the end of Microsoft as a mass-market software vendor and the end of an era.

Peter

1 Comment


Flight Control figures offer insight into global App Store sales

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Shaun

Firemint has published some analysis of sales of its Flight Control game and the resulting figures offer us an insight into how big the relative app stores are around the world. The game got to number 10 in the US by selling more than 1.5 million units, it reached number 7 in the UK by selling half that number and number 5 in Australia with just over 300,000 sales.

It would take some time to do a full side-by-side analysis, but the UK number is a real surprise. For every copy sold in the UK, 2 were sold in the US which has a population 5 times greater. It is not scientific and represents only one game, but I do wonder if more apps are sold per user in the UK than in the US?

1 Comment

Sony Ericsson: profits way up, volumes way down

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Shaun

Sony Ericsson appears to be doing a very good job of increasing its profit margins. The number of units shipped in the latest quarter was 11.2 million which compares to 14.6 million in quarter 4 of 2009. However, the profit in the latest quarter was Euro 39 million whereas at the same point last year it managed a loss of Euro 40 million. The talk of streamlining the product range towards the high-end market makes sense, but it is clear that SE has turned around the business side, but still needs some imagination to really break through.

“Bert Nordberg, President & CEO of Sony Ericsson commented, “2010 was a turnaround year for Sony Ericsson. Our four consecutive quarters of profit reflect the success of our shift towards an Android-based smartphone portfolio. We will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the creation of Sony Ericsson in 2011, and as shown by the recently announced Xperia™ arc, we will continue to focus on delivering the most entertaining smartphones worldwide.”

Income before taxes, excluding restructuring charges, was Euro 189 million for the full year 2010, compared with a loss of Euro 878 million in 2009. The improvement of approximately Euro 1.1 billion was driven by the success of a streamlined product portfolio focused on higher-end smartphones and an improved cost structure. Sales for the full year 2010 were Euro 6,294 million, a decrease of 7% from 2009, while gross margin improved from 15% in 2009 to 29%, in 2010.

During 2010 Sony Ericsson completed its company-wide transformation programme, improving its cost of sales ratio, reducing its global workforce by approximately 4,000 people in total, consolidating its facilities worldwide and decreasing annual operating expenses by more than Euro 880 million. The total restructuring charges for the transformation programme were Euro 381 million.”

Comments Off


The Dragon is looking to slay the Gorilla

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Shaun

Gorilla Glass looks likely to face some stiff competition from Dragontrail which is impressively demonstrated in the video link below. I have looked around, but cannot find any specific advantages in either, but this new invention looks as good, if not better, than the Gorilla version.

Dragontail Video Demonstration

1 Comment

New Piel Frama leather case for Nook Color

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Shaun

Piel Frama has released a new leather case for the Nook Colour which will add substantial protection and some style to what is quite a dull looking unit. As usual, you pay for what you get and there is oodles of quality in this accessory.

Comments Off

deGeo Brings Locational Privacy to Photo Sharing

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Shaun

deGeo is a very simple new iOS app that performs a potentially crucial privacy task. We need to see more apps like this that get around the limitations imposed on iOS in terms of how you can tweak your usage.

San Diego, California – deGeo is a new photo sharing app for iOS that protects iPhone and iPad users locational privacy. The app helps to guard personal privacy by removing the built in geotags when sharing photos. deGeo makes it easy to post and share pictures with friends and online via email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more via simple gestures.

The iPhone, like most modern camera phones, stores the exact GPS location coordinates with each photo. This invisible geotag data is embedded into every picture, revealing the exact latitude and longitude of where it was taken. Prying eyes, lurkers and unscrupulous web snoopers can easily find and view this location data simply by viewing your photo.

While geotags can be useful for personal reference, automatically including your real-time location along with each photo is probably not the best idea when sharing online. Locational geotag data can potentially disclose some of your most sensitive information including your home address, workplace or daily habits. Revealing your location via a photo can catch anyone by surprise and could potentially compromise your privacy without you even being aware.

Unlike the iPhone’s built in photo application, deGeo removes your geotag’s before sharing photos. deGeo purposely does not include the geotags and associated EXIF metadata so users can safely share pictures and also save deGeo’d copies back to their own photo album.

“Before deGeo, users would have to use specialized technical tools or utilize advanced photo editing software on a computer to edit or remove geotags,” remarks developer Ryan Kairer “With deGeo on your iPhone or iPad, removing geotags is simple and effortless.”

Comments Off

What exactly is wrong with the Samsung Nexus S?

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Shaun

I have received some emails over the past few days about the Samsung Nexus S. Here are some select comments, but there appears to be some teething problems at the moment-

“Apps keep refusing to open, I get the “force close” box when trying to open then.  Soft reset required.  Basic apps like the text messager.  No Task Managers etc installed, in fact just a couple of widgets is all apart from pimlical and angry birds (where the advertising is p*ssing me off too).”

“The radio seems to die – it goes to “no network”, and only a soft reset fixes it.  Putting into airplane mode (to put back out again) crashes the device when you try it.”

“Almost universal list of users complaining of phone restarts during calls.   So much potential here, but…”

2 Comments

iOS 4.3 beta

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Shaun

TiPb has published an extensive walkthrough of the changes we can (maybe?) expect in the final version. The new gestures will be of particular interest to anyone who already uses iOS. Thanks to Peter.

“iOS 4.3 has just come out in beta with a rumored release date anywhere from February 10 (the Verizon iPhone release date) to March, 2011, and new features like Wi-Fi personal hotspot for iPhone and multitouch navigation gestures for iPad.

If you want a quick look at the new software but don’t have a lot of time, check out the video above for everything you need to know about iOS 4.3 in just 5 minutes. For a more in-depth iOS 4.3 guide, read on after the break.

Note: We’re combining iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad walkthroughs below since, post iOS 4.2 grand-unification the size of the updates are roughly similar. If it gets more complicated later, we’ll split iPhone/iPod touch out from iPad like last time.”

Comments Off

A billion connected devices by 2016

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Shaun

The UMTS Forum has predicted that there will be 1 billion connected mobile devices by 2016. I guess this kind of prediction is easy to make, but it does highlight the many ways we can now connect with a mobile device and the reasons why voice is being replaced by web, IM, email etc.

“20th January 2011: A major new report from the UMTS Forum predicts the global existence of one billion Consumer Electronics (CE) devices connected to mobile broadband networks by 2016.

“Two Worlds Connected: Consumer Electronics Meets Mobile Broadband” explores relationships between the CE and cellular industries. The full report is available exclusively to members of the UMTS Forum.

The study argues that while the market for connected devices remains embryonic, CE device connectivity will outstrip overall wireless market growth in the next five years. This trend is signalled by a wave of device categories – from e-Book readers to satnav devices – that are already starting to demand access to cellular data networks.

”The collision between mobile broadband networks and connected devices – from digital cameras to personal health monitors – will see by our own estimation as many as a billion additional connections by 2016,” comments UMTS Forum Chairman Jean-Pierre Bienaimé. “As an industry association, our remit to guide and inform all players in the mobile value chain has now expanded to embrace consumer electronics.”

“The future growth of the mobile communications and CE industries are intrinsically linked”, continues Bienaimé. “Over the next few years, mobile broadband will enable the cost-effective deployment of ‘always on’ devices for the consumer. The largest area for future growth in mobile communications is in devices like gaming consoles, e-reading devices, in-vehicle entertainment, home appliances and healthcare.”

“There’s no doubt that the CE industry must ‘connect or perish’”, adds Bienaimé. “In particular, we encourage operators and CE vendors to collaborate on developing new business models – like revenue sharing – that reduce upfront investment risk while generating new sources of value.”

“It’s time for operators to look beyond connectivity and access models” concludes Bienaimé. “They must play a higher-profile role in managing the whole customer experience, from novel routes to market and technology platform management to packaged offerings that help ‘mobilise’ CE devices.”

Comments Off

QOTD: Smartphone size?

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Shaun

Does smartphone size matter much to you these days? With the general move to large screens and less people using them for voice it seems that size is one of the lesser considerations now.

10 Comments

Stylus Sock review

Posted on January 20, 2011 by Shaun

I received my Stylus Sock today. Here’s the link.

Stylus socks are made of a conductive material and stretched over a form, in this case a plastic holder that’s as long as a normal length pen (3 cheers). There’s also a piece of felt under the “nib”. The result is a tip that is not hard but is not soft or noticeably cushioned like most other iPad stylii. Yes they look a little strange, but who looks at the pen when they’re writing.

And that’s the important part – the writing. I tried the Stylus Sock with Noteshelf. Very nice. Now keep in mind that I have no experience with anything that is supposed to be digital ink perfection. So I’m going by what feels best and gives the best digital ink results. It’s the same idea as comparing Penultimate to Noteshelf.

My previous stylus was the Targus version, which is the same as the Boxwave and the Griffin. I found that to be very usable although the soft nib was a bit off putting. And there was a slight bit of drag. I have a Boxwave screen protector on my iPad, so I don’t know if that is as smooth as an unprotected screen.

The Stylus Sock is noticeably smoother. There’s no drag that I could feel or certainly nothing that was distracting. We already know that Noteshelf’s digital ink is very responsive. With the Stylus Sock, it’s more so. Also, I found that the accuracy of my writing (or chicken scratches) was better. All in all, an almost paper-like experience, and certainly the best yet.

The one I ordered was $7 plus $3 shipping from the Netherlands to Canada. Cheaper than other stylii for better performance. They have another style that appears a bit thicker and longer.

All in all, I’m very pleased. If anyone else picks one up, I’d like to hear other opinions, but I recommend this one.

PS. Since writing this I’ve tried the Stylus Sock on my iPhone 4. It’s the first stylus that makes writing notes on the iPhone practical for me. Bonus!

Bob

2 Comments