Spb Quad is about as simple as it gets when it comes to puzzle game. Much like Bejeweled, Quads relies on you ability to spot a combination quickly and plot ahead for higher scores. Of course you can just play it blindly and hope for the best as most do in Bejeweled. There are a whole host of simple little arcade puzzles but non come quite so close to the brilliance of Bejeweled.
Carphone Warehouse staff are "rigging" mystery shop customer feedback after claims customers are deliberately scoring them low marks, resulting in loss of bonuses.
Carphone Warehouse removed its staff commission scheme in July, replacing it with a higher monthly wage and target-related bonus earnings.
Stores must also achieve a minimum of 80 per cent from its internal mystery shopper scheme, ‘World Class Service’ (WCS).
Look at those prices! £1.20 a minute. Admittedly, networks are making an effort when it comes to EU calling, but if you plan on venturing further afield then you are going to wince to find out just how much you are going to be charged to call home to whisper goodnight to your child when you arrive at the other end.
A press release was issued by O2 announcing the Palm Pre was to be launched on the 16th of October. There is information online of tariffs shown above and later in this post. Best value looks to rope you into a 24 months contract. Have a read:
Project Pink is Microsoft’s secret new phone, their first major phone play since the iPhone. Here are the first pictures of Pink phones, Turtle and Pure.
So what’s up with that tablets? Do you need one? Read it from somebody who owned already 4 Tablet PCs…
I have just stumbled on a fantastic piece of software for Windows Mobile 6.5
Its called “Tell Me” from Microsoft and will allow you to carry out many tasks using only your voice!
I think the best two features of “Tell Me” are the voice to text messaging and voice activated dialling. I will be able to text while driving!
In addition you can say pretty much anything to your phone and “Tell Me” will look for it using the Internet.
“Tell Me” looks absolutely amazing and there is already a beta version for Blackberry available.
If anyone has the chance to try it before I do on WinMo 6.5 please use the forum to air your thoughts. I await eagerly!
Full details can be found at www.tellme.com/you including a video.
Posted By: James
Our latest podcast Episode 42 is now available for download, this week we discuss the Palm’s Q1 revenue, HTC Tattoo, Archos and an xpPhone. You can subscribe via iTunes, RSS or download the mp3 file here. Full show notes after the break.
HTC have this week released bug fixes for there two top of the range Windows Mobile devices.
The first which is available for both devices is a caller I.D update and the second is for the Diamond2 only and fixes a LED flashing light issue.
Both updates can be found at HTC’s website under the support section. (Please read carefully before updating).
Posted by: James
Introduction
A while ago now, Matt produced an unboxing video for the first UMPC review device we’ve had for some time. Ultra Mobile PC’s have seen their market shrink rapidly in the face of cheaper and cheaper netbooks on one side, and feature rich mobile devices.
So can Viliv provide me with a reason to use a UMPC again?
Viliv S5 premium 3G specification:
Have a look at Matt’s Viliv S5 unboxing video to see the product in more detail and to see what other accessories are supplied.
General
My first impressions were very positive. I’d never heard of Viliv, but the packaging was on a par with any of the big name device manufactures, and really did make me sit up and think "hmm… this looks impressive kit". My positive vibes continued when I took a first look at the device itself – sorry Matt, I must have missed that unboxing video!
In the box there’s a couple of quick start guides, one of which basically details the XP setup process (its installed, but you need to do that stage with the annoying music for yourself). The second quick guide is a list of hardware button combos which control how the on screen keyboards work, how to enter the BIOS, and a rescue option if things go wrong!
Under the device itself, complete with mini stylus on a lanyard, there is an AC adaptor, a set of industrial looking ear phones, and yet another "quick start guide", but one which looks more like a decent manual for the device.
That pretty much completes the boxed product, so we’ll move onto the unit itself. Its actually very impressive. I was never a fan of UMPCs but when I saw the S5 I was staggered by the size of it. It is still big, but it will genuinely fit quite easily in a jacket pocket, and unlike most similar devices, it is genuinely portable. The device has a matt finish throughout, and looks exceptionally good.
The front of the screen houses the large 4.8" screen centred horizontally, with a 5 way joystick on the left side, located above a ‘Menu’ button – more on that later. To the right of the screen there’s another 3 buttons – ‘OK’, ‘C’ (for cancel) and a strange icon on a button that has a few uses – but primarily brings up the on screen keyboard. To the extreme left and right of the front panel, are small but decent quality stereo speakers. The Viliv logo and ‘ULTRA PC PMP’ is seen at the bottom edge of the touch screen.
Moving to the top edge, and there are hardware buttons for volume control and a ear phone socket. There’s also a small tab, which on closer inspection, and a bit of pushing and pulling, turned out to be hiding a telescopic aerial. I was quite exited by this, but having read the manual it turns out its a "DMB Aerial"… and only useful in Korea 🙁 Boo Hiss!
The bottom edge is just home to a couple of heat dissipating grills, and the back is equally as plain as it consists of a huge slab of battery pack! Removing the battery allows access to the USIM socket.
On the left side, there is a rubber cover over a selection of input and output ports. Firstly there is a ‘multi-i/o’ socket which apparently outputs video via a selection of cables. A bit disappointing there is no standard port, but its always difficult on small devices. Theres also a full size USB port, and microusb to connect to a computer. The device is seen as a removable storage device, but the manual does insist – in bold – that you should read the manual first. I didn’t bother, and I’m still alive to tell the tale.
There is also a reset button under the cover, but the AC power socket is located just down from the cover.
The right hand side houses the power switch (lock, off, on), and the battery release slider.
The battery takes up the whole of the back of the unit and has a simple ‘Viliv’ logo on the back. Removing the battery reveals the SIM card slot for 3G connectivity.
Highlights
Lowlights
Review
The device actually powers on very quickly – which is not bad going for XP, and you arrive swiftly at the desktop. Our review device came with a desktop full of apps. Some appear to still be in testing – “Mobile Partner” for example. You also get the usual office trial, and either Viliv, or a previous reviewer had installed all the Windows Live apps. Google Earth and a number of other popular apps were included.
There’s a start menu replacement app called the ‘Viliv Cube’ – which is nice enough, but oddly only shows the app names rather than the nice shortcut names. For example “winword.exe” rather than Word 2007.
The hardware Menu button though, oddly defaults to the built in Windows Start Menu. I don’t like these silly menu replacement systems, so it suits me, but it seems odd that Viliv don’t have it using their own software.
So I moved on and connected the device onto my wireless network. A painless experience, but thats often the case as long as you use the built in Windows Wireless Zero Configuration tool, rather than any manufacturer tools! Firefox and Internet Explorer were installed, so I went ahead and launched Firefox.
I pressed the keyboard button on the right hand side, and up popped a semi-transparent touch keyboard. This is shown on top of the bottom portion of the screen, which is generally a nice idea. However I did spot a potential flaw. If you open up the keyboard and begin typing a web address, the firefox history bar drops down on top of the keyboard, rendering it a bit useless.
That was pretty disappointing but having spoke to Viliv they did point out that I can install a number of open source and paid-for touch-screen keyboard systems. These are compatible with Windows – and indeed other operating systems – and are of various qualities. The built-in keyboard does however work fairly brilliantly elsewhere. You can actually write or edit a document on this with ease.
In fact that brings us neatly onto the screen. On such a tiny device, a resolution of up to 1024×768 is pretty impressive. Annoyingly the resolutions don’t all seem to match the aspect ratio of the screen. I eventually realized the best resolution to use was actually 1024×600 – which is still massive for such a small screen. However, text is still readable, and the screen and touch keyboard both make the device extremely usable on the move.
The usability extends beyond the touch screen though – the Viliv comes with a stylus as well, which might not be the most earth shattering news you’ve heard today, but… its on a strap! Moving on anyway… there’s also the joystick/jog dial control, which makes moving around buttons and fields within dialog boxes very quick, and very easy. No need to hit the button with your finger or the stylus, so once again Viliv have added to the usability of the device very well.
The battery life was also mightily impressive considering the size of the screen, and the built in hardware – which includes GPS and Bluetooth.
In terms of the built in GPS I can report that the hardware performs quite well. There is an option to download updated AGPS data which certainly helps with a GPS fix. Having used it at home I can can get a GPS fix even while sitting indoors. Where the problem with GPS lies is in the SatNav software that’s available for the PC. There are lots of titles out there that will work quite happily with the Viliv, Google Earth for example works just fine. The problem I found is that many of the turn-by-turn SatNav products out there do not have UK maps available. The only ‘big name’ product out there that has a UK map is Garmin Mobile PC – but that’s for another review – the Viliv itself works fine!
Conclusion
Viliv have really gone to town on the S5 and come up with something that could be quite special. The software package is a little bit rough around the edges, but the hardware itself is fantastic. Software, of course, is fairly easy to fix anyway and an alternative keyboard might be a cheap fix as well.
I really didn’t think I’d get on with an UMPC device, but as soon as I opened the box I was impressed with the build quality of the kit, and the styling. I realise this is a small market, but if you are after a UMPC, go get this one!
Review by: Mark
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