EE data prices for LTE

Garbage. That’s really all there is to say about the prices and the data limits. Cheapest “offer”, using the term loosely, provides a miserly 500mb of data whilst the maximum amount of data per month is capped at 8gb.

Think about that for a second or two. This is the new super fast EE network, with purported broadband like downloading speeds which is meant to encourage people to download more stuff presumably and there are caps on usage that just about negate any advantage of having the faster download speeds. You’d have thought that the whole point of the service would be so that people could download and/or stream films, music HD quality streams etc…how much of that can they do with 500mb or 1gb of data allowance each month?

WP Central – clutching at straws as usual

Really, WP Central posts some real drivel now and again. Like this post for example…

Talk about clutching at straws, suddenly all is right with WP on the sales front (despite plenty of evidence to the contrary) because the Lumia is…gasp….selling out in Finland. With all due respect to the fine folks in that chilly country, I’m not convinced that the rest of the world should be placing too much emphasis on sales trends there just yet.

What next entirely unexpected news from WP Central? Apple iPhone selling well in California, US?

The Verge

Hmmm. What do you guys think of The Verge? Interesting site no doubt but perhaps trying a little too hard to be different, there’s something a bit 60’s about their look and feel. This group photo worries me. The bloke on the left looks like he’s indulging in a bit of left hand “ham shankin'”, the guy in the middle (the main man apparently Mr Joshua) spooks me, that pose with the just done my middle suit button up and unpleasantly pursed lips look is concerning, looks like he’s just auditioned for a Stella Artois “C’est Cidre” commercial.

Tubby on the right looks like a TV Weather presenter. Perhaps they think their ironic use of dodgy ties is stylish and saying something, well it does, it says “naff” to me. The suits look is crap too, I don’t know, perhaps they all have evening jobs selling double glazing door to door. For a site that obviously likes to think of itself as leading the way and being different, to then show your public face as the guys in staid business suits just perpetuates that horrible old (sexist) cliche that business can only be done by chaps in suits. Get real guys, women burned their bras in the 60’s, us chaps should be burning our ties and suits by well before now.

Unboxing dullness

I remember, a few years ago, giving some stick to some tedious unboxing videos. Here’s one that is up there with the best of the worst, this guy spends nearly half of the video opening the package that the stuff comes in….why bother!? Why does he think anybody would be remotely interested in seeing him grappling vainly with a padded envelope…how fascinating.

I do watch quite a few of these but only with the aim of seeing what the device looks like in the flesh, it’s size and to get the reviewers opinion on how it feels in the hand. I’ve no interest in watching them grapple with the USB cable packaging, turning it over repeatedly as if they don’t know it’s a friggin USB cable. You just feel like saying to them…stuff the cable, plug and headphones as they’re in every box….show us the bloody phone……but before then they have to give us a tedious tour round the device, here’s the volume buttons blah blah…no shit?…so that’s what those buttons are…

Nah, get the phone out of the box and switch the damn thing on asap.

Windows Phone

These new HTC Windows Phones look decent, especially the HTX 8X although there are shades of the Nokia Lumia 900 about it. I still have my Samsung Omnia W which I bought at the start of this year and which I used for a couple of months. It had almost the perfect form factor, slim and compact although the screen was just a tiny bit too small and the camera, at 5mp, was okay but not quite good enough as there was too much light leaking in to pictures taken outdoors.

I always think there is a bit of iOS in Windows Phone in that it’s a bit locked down too, you can’t really do a lot of chopping and changing or customising the UI except to change the wallpapers and such like so your Android user would soon find themselves frustrated. Still, it’s a commendably stable OS with a range of apps that was increasing quite quickly in the time that I was looking. Some of the apps could be mixed though and I was never that particularly happy with the choice of Twitter apps plus the metro UI was a constant throughout and in my view was a hinderance at times as it could take up quite a lot of screen space.

Having said that, I used this RSS app, can’t remember what it was called….was it “My Feeds”?…..and it was the best RSS reader app I’ve ever used whilst there was one or two really good weather apps as well. For a good while the screen resolution was fixed at an older resolution, 800×400?, but these newer devices are now coming out with hi-res displays and the specs are up there with the competition now.

Crikey, I’m sort of talking myself into buying another one but I have to say it is a really nice OS and set up.

iOS 6 – killer features? o2 and nano sims

Well, I was reading this article over at Cult of Mac, a useful if slightly less than unbiased, ahem , source of Apple news, about the very forthcoming iOS 6 release hoping, but not expecting, to be wowed by some new features and ending up a bit nonplussed. The scrapping of entering your Apple ID when downloading updates makes sense and will be handy but that really is about it for me.

Cult of Mac seem quite excited about adding signatures to multiple email accounts and I’m happy for them but it means not a lot to me. I’m just hoping that overall the new version is stable and quick, that will do for me.

On another issue, I popped into o2 today as I’d heard that they had nano-sims available for existing o2 customers to use in unlocked iPhone 5’s. I was a bit sceptical about this but sure enough I was able to pick one up just by showing the assistant the email I’d received from the Apple Store. Woof woof, as they say. My nano sim problems evaporated in the space of 60 seconds which is just as well as I didn’t fancy moving to 3 as their signal strength in Edinburgh is well behind o2’s coverage. I’d purchased on Tuesday a PAYG card from 3 just to test out the signal strength and was surprised that in the centre of Edinburgh, Hill Street, I couldn’t get any signal at all. Not good enough as I get a full 5 bars from o2/giffgaff (same network obviously).

So, if the iPhone 5 arrives on Friday then I will be able to use it on o2 then that gives me time to see if giffgaff can finally get their act together and provide a clearer idea when they can provide customers with nano sims.

Sony Xperia T exclusives…why?

I’m written about this before as it confuses me and I cannot see the benefit for the phone manufacturer, there must be something that I’m missing. I saw this post over Coolsmartphone the other day and it filled me with dismay to hear that the Xperia T may well not be available sim free until January next year….hence my reason to splash out on an iPhone 5.

This is a flagship device for Sony and it needs to be out sooner rather than later if they wish it to get some traction and that involves allowing it to be up for sale, online and sim free as soon as possible. If not, come January 2013 it will be just another also ran fighting for a relatively small bit of the market. Android seems to be getting busy with these vapour ware launches of late…..there was the LG Optimus 4X which has only appeared at phones4u, the Panasonic Eluga has mysteriously vanished, the Xperia V and T seem to be in limbo as well.

So, what benefit to Sony is there granting exclusivity to a couple of UK high street phone people and restricting access to a far wider group of people? I’m certainly not going to be taking out an additional monthly phone contract to get one so that’s one customer sale gone.

Apple “Eco-System”….

They do say that you can get sucked into the whole Apple thing and that once you’re in, it can be hard to get out. As if every facet of your smartphone existence is all tied up in Apple and you’re totally dependant on them. Not sure I agree with that, sure, you can let that be the case by buying all your music, films, books and media from iTunes, download all your podcasts from iTunes and so on and no doubt that there can be advantages to that…..convenience being one obvious one.
Personally, I don’t see iTunes as some big chain around my neck, nope, it’s just a handy place to back up my iPad and my previous iPhones and have all my apps under the one roof for easy reinstalling if needed.

It sure beats on a number of fronts the syncing apps I’ve used in the last few years for my Android phones, I’m talking here about the generally buggy Sony and Samsung Kies mac syncing software….downloader beware is my advice on that front I’m afraid. It’s certainly easier to sync music and photos from iPhoto and iTunes to an iPhone but I rarely listen to music these days so that’s not a factor for me plus you can get Double Twist for the mac which is useful for syncing music to an Android phone.

Most of the stuff that I tend to use on a regular basis is really non-Apple specific, such as Gmail for email obviously, Dropbox for storing files which is cross platform, ebooks I get from Amazon and the Kindle app can be used on any device, I can upload pictures from the camera to Dropbox and access them anywhere, my todo application is linked to Google and and there is an app for iOS and Android so I can chop and change between those platforms and have access instantly to the same todo lists….I could go on…the point I’m trying to make is I’m not tied in to Apple at all and thus I’m able to change between Android and iOS very simply which is a position you might not appreciate if you were to believe all this “Eco-system” stuff.

When I moved to Android over a year ago I was concerned about losing some functionality via iTunes but to be honest, it’s rarely been a problem in actuality and the eco-system thing is now no longer an important issue for me when picking devices.

Phones since mid 2011 onwards

Read this and weep:
Xperia S – bloody back kept pinging off
Samsung Omnia W – nice, still got it
Xperia P – under-rated little gem
HTC One S – good camera, rather good
Lumia 710 (truly crap)
Lumia 800 – over-rated
LG Optimus Black – meh
Sony Xperia Arc S – fab fab fab but now a little slow on ICS
Motorola Droid Pro – nice idea but crap keyboard
Motorola Atrix – mediocre
HTC Cha Cha – great keyboard, crap everything else

Not Much Anywhere

Yes, if you live in Edinburgh then this would be more a more fitting title for the Orange T-Mobile tie-up. I like T-Mobile as they have had a pionerring role in bringing cheap mobile device internet to consumers down the years here in the UK plus I have always found them to be very helpful. It’s just a pity that their coverage in Edinburgh is rather mediocre, many times I have been unable to hold on to a signal at work or when out and about it has been flaky. When I was with Orange, a company for whom I have nothing but bad things to say about, it was similar. I remember paying about £10 a month to get a meagre 8mb of data a few years back from them and I doubt their deals in this respect are truly “unlimited” as they claim now.

Still, if they can improve the quality of reception up here then it will be a step in the right direction. Oddly, I was having a forum discussion on a Palm Pre website the other day with some guy in London who uses T-Mobile and he was saying that he gets great coverage down there whilst his o2 coverage is flaky which is the complete opposite of what I find up here.

Crap and good…Proporta & Kensington chargers

Good….the Proporta 3400 turbocharger battery is good and for under £35 represents decent value. I can recharge my iPod Touch twice over on a single charge and it comes with a carrying pouch and selection of “tips” that fit different phones and gadgets. I can recommend it whole heartedly as a portable battery charging bit of kit not just for Apple stuff but for micro and mini USB devices.

Crap.…the Kensington iPhone Battery pack charger. This actually costs a couple of quid more than the Proporta yet struggles to give my iPod Touch anything more than one full charge. The capacity is obviously well below that of the Proporta one which is surprising given the cost. I bought a real cheapo iPhone charger, one that you just stick into the iPhone bottom dock, off Amazon about a year ago for £12 and it lasts as long as the Kensington one which just emphasises how disappointing it is.

CarPhoneWarehouse “trade ins”

I noticed that the CPW are doing trade-ins for your old phones. You can access it online and get a quote from them but be prepared to be hugely insulted. For example, they would be prepared to offer £30 for an unlocked HTC Hero. Fair enough, offer such a facility which some suckers might take you up on if they don’t know any better but don’t insult people’s intelligence by offering such low prices. Had it been say, £125 offered for the device I’d have just thought…”that’s what I’d expect to be offered, it’s not great but they are a business after all so you kind of expect to be slightly shafted”, but to offer such a pathetic amount is taking the mickey.

Having said that, Mr Random Dumber Generator had a slightly more positive experience when he obtained his Hero from a local CPW store so who knows?

Samsung bada – abad idea

bada: yet another mobile OS | PDA-247.

What are they thinking of here? Didn’t Samsung have some limp proprietary o/s on a previous model or two anyway, was it that Tocca thingy perhaps? They’re going to need a whole new eco system, app store etc etc to make this work and with the existing great choice available elsewhere it is going to have to be pretty special to even survive. Timing is a bit iffy too, what with all the praise being heaped on the great white hope, Android.

I thought I read somewhere that Samsung were aiming to cutback on their Windows Mobile support and this would partly explain why.

Smartphone Addiction: the timeline

Smartphone Addiction: the timeline | PDA-247: Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Symbian, webOS, Windows Mobile.

Now this is a funny post from Shaun and sadly, for a twerp like me, almost true. The other night I was digging around in my “gadget bag”, basically a huge Sainsbury’s carrier bag into which various assorted and abandoned leads, chargers and cases are chucked, looking for a spare mini usb cable.

The stuff that is in there is amazing. I found 7 1st gen iPhone cases, 4 3G iPhone cases, 4 Treo 680 cases, 2 cases for devices I cannot remember, 2 usb cradles of a generic nature (again I have no idea which phone they were used for), 4 mini usb wall chargers, 4 Palm wall chargers and 5 Palm sync cables. But of course no spare mini usb cable.

I feel duty obliged however to correct Shaun, purely in the cause of accuracy you understand, and point out that I have actually only (only!!) bought a Nokia E71, Treo Pro, Blackberry Curve, HTC Hero and Palm Pre this year which is 5 devices in 11 months. This, of course, equates to a new phone every two months. Ouch. I’d like to state with a degree of confidence that this will still be the case in 3 months time but I know within myself it’s highly unlikely.

YouTube – Krusell Hector

YouTube – Krusell Hector.

This, I would venture, is the dullest case review video I have ever seen. However, you have to admire this person for managing to drag it out for over 5 minutes.

HTC Hero review

From mobilecrunch……

The Hero is a great phone. It is on par – and ultimately better – than the Palm Pre and, some would say, the iPhone on many points. It also turns those lumbering Windows Mobile and Symbian into something that you will fondly remember from your youth, a set of dinosaur technologies now extinct.

Ouch.

Strange little pointy thing

I was down at the Ocean Terminal shopping centre in Edinburgh on Sunday afternoon and popped into a few phone shops to check out what was on offer. No sign of that new Samsung Android phone in o2 unfortunately and they are still out of iPhone 3GS models. Outside o2 I saw an odd sight, this guy standing there with his phone, looked like the updated newish o2 Touch Cruise thingy (XDA Guide?) and he was tap tap tapping away at the screen with a stylus. How quaint I thought, haven’t seen or used one of those for a while. To me it just sums up Windows Mobile, the only o/s that still needs a stylus for quite a few models.

I always hated that about Win Mob, some of the onscreen buttons like battery and X (close running apps) were too small and too close to the top of the screen to hit with your finger and this entailed whipping out the stylus. Looks like some of the newer models still suffer from this. Plus, not having a capacitive touchscreen is a pain as I found out when having a quick play with the XDA Zest….jesus, how unresponsive was that screen!!

I also popped into Carphone Warehouse. They offer to buy your iPhone 3G model if you trade up to a 3GS, the amount would pay off my o2 bill almost but I have promised to give Sarah the old 3G so that option is out.

Saw this posted on a phone site about the Samsung phone….thought it was important.

It’s the first Android handset that isn’t made by HTC to be available in the UK and means that now the four biggest UK operators all have an Android handset. O2 has the Galaxy i7500, Orange and T-Mobile have the HTC Hero, and Vodafone has the HTC Magic.

Samsung Galaxy i7500 Hits O2 | PDA-247

Samsung Galaxy i7500 Hits O2 | PDA-247.

Looks good does it not?. Plus it is not white, which has to be an advantage over the HTC Hero. You wonder how much better the camera will be on this Samsung than the same spec shooter on the HTC job given that HTC does not exactly have a great reputation for the quality of cameras. I would like to have a phone with a really decent camera on it as I tend to take a lot of snaps.

And look…a phone with menu buttons! Take note Apple. Plus, there are more of these Android sets coming to market now and the specs look, frankly, more enticing than the iPhone bu

t of course that is only half the picture. It will be interesting to read reviews of this phone versus the Hero as it does not have the highly rated fancy dan HTC sense interface. Will that be a plus or minus?

Still, it is quite expensive for an Android set if it is only free on the £45pm contract. Those sort of deals pitch it into iPhone  and high end win mob devices territory.

Developer Offers Inside Look at Sales Gap Between App Store and Android Market – Mac Rumors

Developer Offers Inside Look at Sales Gap Between App Store and Android Market – Mac Rumors.

Interesting post this but it needs to be remembered that Android is still in relatively early stage of development and acceptance by the general public. Mind you, having said that I have seen a few Android devices out and about in the wild of late, a couple of mums at the local primary school this morning were sporting the T-Mobile Magic.

Will it inspire developers to make software for the Android platform? Hmmmm…It’s not just the range of software that is available for the iPhone it is also the way it is easy to view details of that app, read reviews and make that purchase without having to go through screens and screens of typing in purchase details. Apple have made it easy, too easy some would say, to go through the whole purchase process and it sounds like Android’s App Store hasn’t managed that ease of use yet.

Apps Apps Apps

I like the look of the HTC Hero although the unlocked £400 cost puts me off. The 5 mega pixel camera and all those lovely buttons however appeal. The biggest drawback though for me is the thought of starting from scratch again on the software side and having to splash out on a whole heap of new apps and then, even worse, spend a whole heap of time re-entering data into database type apps. Having just done it on the iPhone I can't say the prospect appeals again. If I switch to another platform then I'll no doubt end up buying loads of new software, make a good few mistakes along the way and then in 6 months time move back to the iPhone. I must be getting old because in the past it would have been the sort of challenge I'd have relished but now, I genuinely can't be arsed.

I've got a huge amount of Windows Mobile stuff, a good few Symbian apps, 7 years of Palm programmes and over a year of iPhone software. Lord knows how much I have spent down the years. In SafeWallet, I have sections for each platform and over 150 entries. Good grief. The vast majority will never be used again. There should be a 2nd hand market for selling software serials because it is one market where you can never recover a single penny for items you will never use again.