iPhone Xenon Flash accessory in the works
For what it’s worth, the 2-megapixel camera of the iPhone does a pretty good job especially in adequate lighting, but what if you’re shooting at night or indoors with poor ambient light?
Archive for December, 2008
Pocket Tunes Radio for iPhone and iPod Touch
NormSoft, Inc. today announced the availability of Pocket Tunes™ Radio, bringing the Internet radio features of their award-winning Pocket Tunes application to the iPhone™ and iPod® touch. Pocket Tunes Radio provides access to thousands of stations by browsing the web or the built-in catalog and supports the most popular and highest-quality streaming formats: aacPlus v2, WMA, and MP3. The application is designed for easy station selection without sacrificing the flexibility to choose and save your favorites. Pocket Tunes Radio pioneers the ability to browse the web and select exactly the stations that you want to hear by simply tapping on the radio link, while also including a large pre-populated catalog of stations for convenience. The integrated browser also frees the user, allowing for general purpose web browsing while listening to radio on their device.
SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile Updated
Sling Media today released updated versions of SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile Professional (touch-screen) and Standard (non-touch-screen) devices. The primary feature addition in the new release is official support for new screen resolutions: 800×480, 640×480, 400×240, and 320×320. 15 new phone models are officially supported. Full details after the break.
Philips GoGear MP3 player review
Philips have released a new MP3 player into the market, the Philips GoGear, but is it bold enough take the crown from Apple?
The Philips GoGear
Introduction
Philips market the GoGear MP3 player as ‘the very best in audio and video playback’ – it certainly packs a useful punch with an array of features which include 8GB internal memory, a 2.8” QVGA LCD colour display, a SuperScroll™ function which claims ‘to find what you want quickly and simply’, MP3, WMA and AAC compatibility as well as an in-built FM radio, WMV video playback, a built-in microphone and high definition headphones which are designed to minimise noise and direct the sound directly from the speaker to your ear drums!
What’s in the box?
- Philips GoGear audio video player
- In-ear headphones (3.5mm)
- Rubber textured pouch
- Software CDs (1 for audio player & 1 for video player)
- User Manual
- Warranty etc
Philips GoGear Specification:
- Memory size: 8GB
- Memory type: Integrated
- Screen size: 2.8” QVGA
- Screen resolution: 320 x 240 pixels
- Weight: 95g
- Radio: With RDS
- Audio/Video formats: AAC , MP3 , WMA , AVI , WMV , MOV
- PC Interface: USB 2.0
- Battery type: Lithium Ion
- Height: 10.6cm
- Width: 5.8cm
- Depth: 1cm
General
The GoGear SA5385 is a fairly conventional looking MP3 player. The player feels very sturdy in the palm and not at all cheap.
On the front of the SA5385 you’ll find all the basic controls. There’s a 5 way navigation control with play/pause button in the centre. Above and below this are the options and back buttons. These controls take up quite a large amount of space for my liking below the 2’8″ display.
GoGear front view
The bottom of the device is home to the headphone socket which is a standard 3.5mm jack socket so you’ll be able to use your favourite headphones. The proprietary sync/charge connector, hold/lock button and reset button are also located here. It’s a simple reset button that you’ll need either a pin or a sharp pencil to press.
GoGear bottom view
On the right of the unit there is a lanyard holder for those who prefer to hang their devices around their necks.
GoGear end view
On the top of the device you’ll see an up/down rocker for volume control
GoGear top view
Highlights
- Strong sturdy design – capable of taking a few knocks
- Easy to navigate menus
- Impressive screen resolution in video playback
- Headphones; excellent sound quality
- Very easy file transfer – drag and drop
- Quick processing speed – very little lag/delay (300MB transferred in less than 1 min!)
Lowlights
- Poor battery life
- Shame it has been designed in landscape – makes one-handed operation difficult
- Pouch not the best thought out design/quality
Review
The GoGear SA5285 takes the form of all standard MP3 players on the market today. It sits quite comfortably in the palm of your hand with all of the important buttons laid out so that you can reach them easily with your thumb. Although I would point out that the device is definitely designed for right handed use and cannot easily be used with just one hand. This is partly due to the fact that the controls seem to be positioned to close to the edge and also due to the weight itself. Not a huge downside but it just means the basic controls, including the volume control is on the wrong side for left handed customers. The directional pad and buttons to the right of the screen are small and somewhat fiddly.
All the basic necessities are to found in the box. The device is plug and play compatible as I found, making transfer of music and videos very quick and easy. The transfer/upload process was something I was impressed with, having previously owned a Zen vision:M, the GoGear was light years quicker!
Once the device is up and running everything is laid out in an easily accessible format. The main screen has 8 icons that you can easily work through with the 5 point navigation control (4 way arrow selection and a central select/power/play/pause button). The icons include music, videos, pictures, radio, recordings, folders, settings and last played. There was nothing innovative about the way the device/menus work which left me quite disappointed at it was the ‘same old menus’ in a ‘new device’.
The GoGear comes with a set of ‘in-ear’ headphones, which are impressive and are capable of delivering quite a punch, albeit to your eardrums! They come with 3 various sized cushions, either one should be suitable for your respective ear holes.
Philips has included a 2.8″ QVGA display on the device making it great for playing videos. The display is clear, bright, sharp and evenly lit.
Having watched the sample ‘how-to’ videos supplied on the device I have to say that video play back is impressive, there are no signs of motion blur or lag. The player will automatically bookmark your place in a video file for you when you pause, so you can return to the same position after going off to change some settings, or even listen to some music. This works with multiple video files, too; handy if you make a habit of watching your movies in chunks. It’s slightly disappointing that forward and backwards scanning is limited to 4x speeds. In my opinion the video playback surpasses that of the iPod family which I have always found somewhat pixelated, maybe it’s just me… however, one thing I was unimpressed by is the font that is used to label menus/folders, not very clear.
With 8GB of storage space at your disposal you’ll be able to get a whole host of music tracks and video on the device!
All in all the device is nicely designed and put together, with a glossy black front, thin silver trim around the edge and a brushed aluminium-effect black plastic rear panel. Claimed battery life runs to an impressive 30 hours for music and six hours for video, I found this too be very different on the player I had, might have been a dud battery. Music file format compatibility is good, with support for not only MP3 and WMA, but also AAC and Audible files. A positive point is also that GoGear is capable of playing radio on the device straight out of the box with RDS and 20 presets, plus the facility to record either radio or voice via an external microphone.
Conclusion
Despite its numerous capabilities the GoGear SA5285, doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. It is well priced at just under £100 for an 8GB player with such a large screen and great headphones, it is better than most deals available. But when all aspects of the device are weighed against others on the market, I feel you would be hard pressed to be parting with your cash for the GoGear.
Review by: Noman
Review LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone and iPod Touch
If you use LogMeIn on your home or office PC or Mac this application is an absolute must, I have been using LogMeIn for many years and it has saved me on numerous occasions when I have forgotten files either at the office or at home. LogMeIn is a suite of software services that provide remote access to computers over the Internet and there is a free version that I have always used and it works perfectly as long as the PC or Mac you are trying to access is online. Just recently LogMeIn announced that they were working on an application for the iPhone and whilst I missed out on the beta it is now available in the App Store, read on for the review.
HP launches iPhone photo app
HP has launched an application that allows iPhone users to print their photos and pictures wirelessly. iPrint Photo is available to download as an application through Apple’s App Store and lets users print a photo simply by touching it on their screen. Once the image is pressed an instruction to print is sent over wireless to an inkjet printer. “Wireless printing is a fun extension of the iPhone/iPod touch’s easy photo capture and viewing experience,” said HP. “Images stored on your iPhone or iPod touch can print on most HP networked inkjet printers connected to a local Wi-Fi network. Pictures will print out at a standard photo size. “HP iPrint photo uses Apple’s Bonjour tools to search for and identify printers, and supports Wi-Fi networks including Apple Airport, Linksys, D-Link and Netgear.
Available free from the iTunes App Store.
via Yahoo
The Gadget Show smartphone shootout
In last nights episode of The Gadget Show in the UK, Channel 5’s presenter Jon Bentley was testing four smartphones to see which one would come out on top. The phones in questions were the Blackberry Storm, T-Mobile G1, HTC Touch HD and the iPhone 3G. They carried out three tests, none of which were very scientific and dropped the phone that came off worst in each test. The first test was the camera and email attachments and the T-Mobile G1 came off worst and was dropped. The 2nd test was how easy the phones were to use and this time we saw the Blackberry Storm say goodbye with poor keyboard performance taking around 40 seconds more to create and send an email than the Touch HD, in second place the iPhone but there was not much in it. The final round saw the iPhone 3G and the Touch HD go head to head on battery life, this is where it all becomes a little silly as they started calling each other then taking pictures and playing games, all requiring different processing power etc so not really a very scientific test however this did see the Touch HD come out on top lasting 30 minutes longer than the iPhone 3G. You can see the full video here.
Samsung Pixon (M8800) review
The Samsung M8800 (Pixon) is Samsung’s latest attempt at replacing your digital camera by combining a great 8 mega-pixel camera and a high end touch screen mobile. So is it really time to say goodbye to your current compact?
The Samsung Pixon
As for styling the Pixon is dominated by a large 3.2” touch screen display which allows for clear and high quality playback of your videos and photos, as for the phone’s capabilities the specifications are as follows:
Samsung M8800 Pixon specification:
- Dimensions:107.9 x 54.6 x 13.8 mm
- Weight: 121g
- Battery:
– Talk Time: 220 mins
– Standby Time: 290 hrs
– Capacity: 1000 mAh - Display: 240 x 400 pixels/3.2 inch
- Network:
– GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)
– 2100 HSDPA (Single-Band) - Camera: 8 mega-pixels (auto-focus)
– Dual LED Flash
– Shake Reduction
– WDR (Wide Dynamic Range)
– Face Detection
– Smile Shot
– Face Link (Face Tagging) - Video:
– Hi-Resolution VGA Video Recording
– 30fps Video Recording (VGA)
– 120 fps Slow Motion Video (QVGA)
– Supported formats: MP4, 3GP, H.264, H.263, DivX & XviD
– Video Streaming - Music:
– Supported formats: MP3, AAC, eAAC+ & WMA
– FM Stereo Radio (RDS)
– Windows Media Player Sync
– DNSe (Digital Natural Sound engine) - Memory:
– Phone Book (2000)
– Dilled Calls
– Missed Calls
– Received Calls
– 200MB (internal)
– microSDHC (external) - Connectivity:
– TV Out
– Bluetooth (2.0)
What’s in the box?
I wont go in to any detail here as matt has already recorded a great Samsung Pixon unboxing video.
General
At 13.8mm thick and weighing just 121g the Samsung Pixon is surprisingly small considering the large amount of features packed into the device. The general style of the phone is similar to several of the LG touch screen devices. In your hand the Pixon feels fairly substantial and as for build quality it certainly feels like a quality device.
The phones overall appearance is more likened to that of a digital compact camera with a simplistic layout and with most of the the controls being handled via the touch screen display the Pixon is fairly clutter free with regards to buttons.
The Front of the device as mentioned is home to the wonderful 3.2” Touch screen with the call buttons below and a single button for navigating menus. A forward facing VGA camera is also located on the front of the device for video calls.
Samsung Pixon front view
The left side of the phone is home to a micro SD slot below which is a quick launch button allowing for easy access to the phones music player, camera or messages and finally a hold button for locking the device.
Samsung Pixon left side
On the right a button for controlling volume which also becomes zoom control when the phone is in camera mode. Below this a playback button allowing for quick and easy viewing of photos and videos. The camera button is the final button on the right side of the phone and is used to launch the phones camera function as well as doubling up as the shutter button for capture.
Samsung Pixon right side
The Proprietary connector input for headphones and the phones charger is located on top as is is the phones battery cover release.
Samsung Pixon top view
The back of the device is very similar to a compact digital camera largely due to the impressive looking 8 mega-pixel camera which is obviously this phones big selling point. Above this is an LED flash and below is a fairly powerful speaker which is great for music playback. The camera lens has an automatic lens cover which is activated when the phones camera function is launched and remains closed when the camera is not in use.
Samsung Pixon back view
Highlights & Lowlights
+ 8 megapixel camera
+ Responsive Touch Screen
+ Easy to use
– No WiFi
– small internal memory
Review
The Samsung M8800 is a great looking phone full of promise and I am pleased to say that in many respects it has lived up to my personal expectations. The First thing that struck me about the Pixon was its size, for a phone with so may features I was certainly expecting the Pixon to ave more depth but the fact Samsung have managed to squeeze all of this into a device 13.8mm thick is a great achievement.
As it is the first thing you will see when you unbox the Pixon it makes sense to start by talking about the touch screen display. I am sure I am not the only one who has not always been the biggest fan of touch screen displays on phones I have often found them to be over sensitive and for this reason make tasks such as texting very difficult indeed. I can honestly say though the Pixon has changed my opinion on touch screen displays, it is not perfect but it is certainly one of the best I have used. The screen is clear and crisp which makes navigating through the phones menus quick and easy.
As far as using the Pixon day to day call clarity is good and I had no problems with the receiver, as mentioned texting as well as carrying out any other tasks which involve you typing such as sending emails or adding event to your organiser are easy to do either using a classic numeric text pad layout or by using the touch screen QWERTY activated by rotating the phone horizontally. Browsing the net is as expected nothing special and the lack of wi-fi is a disappointment. The phone includes the standard organisational tools such as calender and memo’s also included are widgets similar to vista these allow for quick access to your favourite applications as well as providing some fun extras such as photo viewers and world clocks.
The Samsung M8800’s party piece is its 8 mega-pixel camera this includes a number of functions which manage to match those included on an average priced compact digital, the camera includes face recognition, auto focus, anti-shake, blink detection to mention just a few. Videos can be recorded using high-resolution VGA recording at either 30fps or 120fps for slow motion playback. The picture Quality of the Pixon is certainly accomplished for a mobile for but also would be considered more than acceptable for a standard digital camera. The phone also managed to perform well even in low light situations which is a common problem. When combined with all the other features such as the included multimedia functions it really is a suitable substitute for many mid range digitals but will be replacing your high end compacts just yet.
Speaking of multimedia functions the phone has support for MP3, AAC, eAAC+ & WMA with clear playback either through the mobile’s in built speaker on headphones. As for memory the phone has 200mb of internal memory however support for up to 16GB with the use of microSD.
Standards such as battery life not great with the Pixon stated as 220 minutes talk-time and around 290 hours stand by however obviously these will vary depending on the amount and type of use you put the phone through with tasks such as browsing taking the battery life allot quicker. The M8800 supports Bluetooth 2.0 and TV out allowing for big screen playback.
Conclusion
In conclusion the Samsung M8800 (Pixon) is an attractive stylish piece of kit packing a big punch in the form of an 8 mega-pixel camera. The phone has some great features and the clear and responsive touch screen allows for quick and easy navigation as well as text input. The phones’ picture quality is not perfect and may struggle to match many 8 mega-pixel digital cameras currently available on the market however that said a combination of the Pixon’s camera and video capabilities along with it’s multimedia functions leads us to a great phone for the popular party goer, the phones puts to much emphasis on the camera and relatively little in terms of accessibility through features such as Wi-fi to be a great corporate phone but with this being the time of year for parties the Samsung Pixon is perfect party accessory.
Review by: Nick
[ Post Tags: smartphone news, Samsung Pixon, M8800, camera phone, 8 Megapixel, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]
Nokia’s Mail on Ovi public beta goes ‘live’ around the world
Mail on Ovi, the free email account from Nokia, is now ‘live’ and can be set up directly on Nokia phones without requiring a PC to get started. People who use Nokia Series 40 devices can create their own email address directly on their mobile phones. The Ovi email account gives a person all the features and functionalities of a typical PC-based email account. During the Beta period, consumers will be able to choose from 12 languages based on the settings of their device, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog, Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia.
Orange digital media report reveals increase in mobile usage
Orange today unveiled its fourth Digital Media Index, a detailed report offering an insight into customer consumption of digital media. The latest findings reveal a marked increase in mobile data usage, which has almost doubled in the last quarter. This increase follows improvements to devices designed to access mobile data – from USB dongles to more advanced mobile handsets, all matched with new price plans specifically created to increase mobile internet relevancy to consumers. At the same time, the evolution of social networking to the mobile platform, combined with more effective promotion of on portal content and services, means consumers are now accessing the content they want, quicker and easier than ever before.
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