Archive for November, 2009

By November 30, 2009 Read More →

Motorola Milestone unboxing

 Motorola-MILESTONE-Droid-Germany-1

Speaking for the Motorola Milestone, JKKmobile has an unboxing for you. I find jkk to be one of the best unboxings, frank, honest and thorough. Very much worth watching. Check it out after the break:

Posted in: Phones
By November 30, 2009 Read More →

Droid Nears Its Million-Device Target

Motorola-Milestone-Droid

An article caught my eye on Gigaom today and it pleased me. It seems the Motorola Droid is selling well, it’s a bit of a hit. Soon to bed hitting pockets here as the Milestone the new Android device runs the much touted 2.0 version of Android. A big step up, a good looking device and great potential. Read on for the whole article,

Motorola and Verizon’s $100 million marketing push seems to be paying off: The much-ballyhooed Droid smartphone made by Motorola and powered by Google’s Android 2.0 OS is inching toward its goal of a million devices sold during the fourth quarter of 2009. The two companies have thus far sold between 700,000 and 800,000 Droids, according to data collected by RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue.

Posted in: Phones
By November 30, 2009 Read More →

Nokia refutes reports it may sell its handset business

Nokia-logo-hands

Nokia insists its handset division is a core part of its business

Reports that Nokia may sell its handset business as part of a drive to develop its internet service offerings were denied by Nokia today.

The reports came on the back of an interview with Nokia marketing head Anssi Vanjoki. Internet sites reported that, in an excerpt from the interview with German magazine Wirtschaftswoche, Vanjoki said a sale of Nokia’s handset business cannot be ruled out as part of Nokia’s move to transform itself into an internet services provider.

He added Nokia should, ‘never say never’ to the possibility. However in a statement today Nokia said: ‘There has been news quoting Anssi Vanjoki that Nokia is considering to outsource its mobile phone production. This statement does not at all correspond with what Mr. Vanjokisaid nor what has been published in the original interview. Our logistics and manufacturing are an important competitive advantage, and a core part of Nokia’s business .’

In the same interview Vanjoki said Nokia needed to speed up Nokia’s transformation into an internet services provider in the face of competition.

[Source Mobile Today]

Posted in: Phones
By November 30, 2009 Read More →

Devicewire.com free Xmas delivery offer

Our pals over at Devicewire.com just sent us an email letting us know about their Christmas delivery offer. In the run up to Christmas, if you spend over £50 you’ll get free standard delivery on your order.

When you place your order simply enter ‘FREEDELIVERY’ in the promo box during checkout and you’ll not pay for delivery.

Oh and please do not forget to enter tracyandmatt.co.uk as the referrer when you place your orders!

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: News
By November 30, 2009 Read More →

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 unboxing video

If you’ve been following closely you’ll know that a few weeks ago I went off to one of the XPERIA X2 launch events in London where I got to play with the handsets as well as speak to some of the nice people from Sony Ericsson.  On Friday SE send over a pre-release sample of the X2 for me to look at so I have an unboxing video and tour for you.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X2

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X2

 

The Xperia X2 is quite similar to the X1, it’s a similar size and the same form factor as the original even the keyboard mechanism is pretty similar. There are some change though that go be on the cosmetic. For starters the X2 has Windows Mobile 6.5 and a MUCH nicer QWERTY keyboard. The camera has been upped to an 8.1 megapixel unit and also now includes an LED flash.

Of course these aren’t the only changes but we’ll talk more about the two handsets when we get to the full review. For now have a look at the brief video below and do remember that this is not the final product, the box and contents will change I am sure!

 

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 unboxing video

 

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Specification:

  • Operating System – Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
  • Processor – Qualcomm MSM 7200 528 MHz
  • Memory – RAM – 256MB / ROM – 512MB
  • Display – 3.2" VGA, 800 x 480 pixel, 65,536 colour touchscreen
  • GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
  • UMTS/HSPA 900/1900/2100
  • WiFi
  • MicroUSB
  • 3.5 mm audio jack
  • Internal GPS antenna with aGPS support
  • microSDHC memory card (up to 16GB)
  • Bluetooth stereo (A2DP)
  • Camera – 8.1 megapixel
  • Geo tagging
  • Full QWERTY keyboard
  • Optical trackpad
  • Talk Time -GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 – 10 hours
  • Standby Time – GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 – 500 hours
  • Battery – Standard battery, Li-Po 1500 mAh (BST-41)
  • Dimensions – 110.0 x 54.0 x 16.0 mm (4.3 x 2.1 x 0.6 inches)
  • Weight – 155g (5.5 oz)

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By November 30, 2009 Read More →

Samsung Omnia Lite review

We have seen an influx for devices since the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 and we also note that Samsung has been busy with their Omnia range. With the original Omnia being so popular are Samsung just jumping on the band wagon to promote all of their new toys or are they genuinely as good as the original?

The Samsung B7300 Omnia Lite

The Samsung B7300 Omnia Lite

 

What’s in the box?

  • Samsung Omnia Lite
  • Triangular standalone stylus with loop for phone attachment
  • Full User manual with over 150 pages
  • Getting started disc
  • Stereo headset with microUSB connector

Also have a look at Matt’s Samsung Omnia Lite unboxing video for more.

 

Samsung Omnia Lite specification:

  • Operating System – Windows Mobile 6.5
  • Processor – ARM 1176 667MHz processor
  • Memory – 250MB Internal
  • Display – TFT resistive touchscreen, 65K colours, 240 x 400 pixels, 3.0 inches
  • TouchWiz v2.0 UI
  • Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
  • Operating Frequency – GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900  3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100
  • 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
  • WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
  • Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
  • microUSB
  • GPS Integrated with A-GPS
  • microSD (TransFlash), up to 32GB
  • DviX/XviD/MPEG4/H.263/H.264/WMV9 player
  • MP3/AAC/WMA player
  • TV-out
  • Camera – 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus
  • Battery – Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh
  • Dimensions – 107 x 51.8 x 12.9 mm
  • Weight – 103 grams with battery

 

General

 

The top of the device you can find the microUSB sync/ charge and headset connector, no 3.5mm to be found on this device. There is also a very small and recessed loop for connecting the stylus or charms etc.

Samsung Omnia Lite-top

Samsung Omnia Lite top view

 

On the left of the Samsung is an up/down volume rocker and a customisable Menu which doubles as a voice recorder when long pressed. There is also a small reset hole.

Samsung Omnia Lite left side view

Samsung Omnia Lite left side view

 

On the busier right hand side there is a dedicated camera button, a covered microSD card slot and a screen lock key, which actually suspends the device rather than locking the screen.

Samsung Omnia Lite right side view

Samsung Omnia Lite right side view

 

Nothing can be found on the bottom apart from the mic.

Around the back of the Omnia lite there is a speaker grill underneath which is the 3.15 autofocus camera, no flash or mirror, however the back is shiny enough to see for portrait pictures.

Samsung Omnia Lite back view

Samsung Omnia Lite back view

 

On the front can be found a front facing camera lens, for video calling and an earpiece recess. Below this is the 3″ touchscreen, covered in the review.

Samsung Omnia Lite front view

Samsung Omnia Lite front view

 

Underneath the screen there is 3 buttons the talk/speakerphone button, next is what looks like an optical Dpad or joystick but turns out to be a nothing more than a back button and finally to the right of this is the end/power button.

 

Highlights

  • Neat, small form factor
  • High spec

 

Lowlights

 

  • Screen resolution
  • Screen responsiveness
  • Detached stylus

 

 

Review

 

On looking around for information the Lite is obviously priced for the mid range market, but without compromising on the spec. Out of the box it is small and neat, the chrome accents and strips mean the phone feels comfortable and solid to hold. In this world of massive devices this is totally the opposite, measuring in at 107 x 51.8 x 12.9 mm you have to say it is small, but on the plus side very pocketable. Matt went as far as describing the Omnia Lite as being ‘cute’ but I am not sure if that is a good thing or not.

The specs do look impressive with the inclusion of the 667 MHz processor, HSDPA, 3G, GPS and Xtra (similar to QuickGPS) and a reasonable autofocus camera etc. There has been no skimping here.

One the thing that I find hard to understand is that I imagine this device being targeted at the first time user and younger people, yet it can appear ridiculously complicated, I am a long time windows mobile user and I love to have apps and gadgets included in my phones to keep me interested, but as Samsung have included Windows mobile and their own TouchWiz v2.0 UI forget trying to find anything in a hurry. As you can see below the customisable menus offer, for me, a little too much choice, not forgetting that this list grows the more programs you add, I just can’t help feeling there must be a better way to get organised. 5 pages of menus are a little long winded. Although a lot of these are customisable and could be made quite minimal.

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One disappointment picked up my Matt in his unboxing was the screen resolution, I can see what he means when he talked about the sharpness not quite being there, we have by now got used to the fantastic screen from other Samsung devices, and unfortunately this is not one of them. The 240 x 400 pixels resolution and the small screen size gives an appearance or a slight blurring, hopefully you can see what is meant in the screenshots, don’t get me wrong it in no way makes the device unusable or anything like it, it is just not as sharp as it could be. On top of that it is also not as responsive as it should be at times, I found myself stabbing at the screen more than twice to get certain apps to work or close, quite often while hitting the ‘x’ that the appointments app would open which proved very frustrating, maybe I need smaller fingers? Or a stylus….

It also takes some time to get used to the screen being as small as it is, texting is fine with the use of Samsungs own on screen keyboard, but there are times when a stylus definitely comes in handy, the only issue is that there isn’t one onboard you have to have attached it, and this for me is far from ideal.

clip_image018 clip_image020

Other functions are really as you would expect call quality was fine and the speaker works exactly as you would hope.

As mentioned earlier that camera seems to be pretty decent, as we expect Samsungs are a tad better than most these days, in my opinion, although the omission of a flash and mirror is a shame. Only 3.15 megapixel’s too but not that bad, it certainly will not replace you dedicated camera.

The battery on the Omnia was also as expected, good to see that the higher capacity 1500 mAh has been included as standard, and lasted a good day plus, dependant, as always, on what is being used and when. Overall, acceptable.

The GPS with Xtra also worked well, I trialled N Drive as well as CoPilot and Google maps and all where responsive and accurate, the only issue is the screen size being small to pick up any great detail.

clip_image022

 

Conclusion

 

My time with the Samsung has been a mixed bag, the features and spec makes it very useable and easy to get on with in the main. Coupled together the small screen and the unresponsiveness make for quite a few frustrations as well.

I am sure that the compact, high spec phone will appeal to a lot of people, for me it was not the first phone I picked up in the morning for a day’s work, very capable and with all the goodies that you would need but just a few too many niggles that make it outstanding.

I am not really sure that I want a phone that was ‘Cute’, I think I will give the LG GM750 a look now, damn it! Isn’t that the same phone?

 

Review by: Steve

Posted in: Phones, Reviews
Tags: ,
By November 30, 2009 Read More →

Tweetie 2.1 for iPhone released – with support for lists, geotagging, gap detection

Loren Brichter, who has developed Tweetie is one of those developers who have hit the jackpot and got rich thanks to iPhone. Most of such developers are “one-trick-pony” and cannot reproduce hits after the first time. It looks like Loren is trying hard to keep his Tweetie Twitter client on top by releasing new Twitter features very quickly after they were introduced by Twitter.

Of course support for Twitter lists is our favorite new feature of Tweetie 2.1:

IMG_0482

… but gap detection comes close as second most favorite:

Posted in: Phones
By November 29, 2009 Read More →

Elonex iGame iPod Dock review

Last week the Elonex iGame Family TV Games Dock arrived and after the brief unboxing video I connected it to the TV right away. Easy connection and setup as well as being quite attractive, what did we think of the iGame? Read on to find out!

The iGame 'console' dock and controller

The iGame ‘console’ dock and controller

 

The 10 second review:

Device: Elonex iGame Family Games Dock

Cost: £74.99

Summary: A cool looking iPod/iPhone dock with TV connectivity and cool sports games.

Best of: Watch your iPod videos on the big-screen and play some fun family sports games.

Worst of: Controllers a little plasticy and light, games sometimes hiccup, not the best picture quality.

Buy it now from: SuperETrader

 

What’s in the box?

  • The iGame iPod Dock
  • Wireless controller
  • Mains adapter
  • TV connection cable (composite video)
  • Batteries for the controller
  • Manuals and warranty card

 

See my iGame unboxing video for a quick tour of the hardware.

 

General

The main part of the package then is the iGame dock itself. It’s a circular plastic unit with a silver bar across the middle. The main unit has only three buttons, a power button, reset and a source button. Towards the front of the dock you’ll find a flap which neatly covers the dock connector when not in use.

igame-open

 

On the back of the dock you’ll find all of the relevant sockets for plugging the device in. On the left is an ‘iGame Card’ socket that looks like an SD card socket. Next to that the video and audio connectors for hooking up to the TV, using the supplied cable. Enjoy your TV in the bedroom with tv beds. Finally on the end is the socket for the power cable.

igame-back

iGame dock back view

 

So the other part of the kit then is the wireless controller. I’m sure almost everyone will agree that it has more than a passing resemblance to the Wii controller. It works in similar way to the Wii controller, it’s wireless and motion controlled but does not have the optical pickup on the front that the Wii-mote has. The unit takes 2AA batteries which are supplied and also has a built in vibrate function.

controller

The iGame wireless controller

 

Highlights

  • Good looking design
  • Great iPod conectivity
  • 10 fun games included
  • Bargain price

 

Lowlights

  • Don’t expect Wii quality gaming
  • Picture quality isn’t the greatest
  • Controller vibrate function annoying

 

Review

I have to be honest that when I first eyed the iGame and looked at the price I wasn’t expecting a lot from it. It comes in at a price point that’s not much more expensive than a regular TV dock for the iPod or iPhone but with the added gaming element I wondered if the overall result would be poor. So lets take a look.

Setting up the iGame really is a piece of cake. There’s a pretty detailed getting started guide but to be honest I don’t think that most people will need it. It’s just a case of plugging the unit in to the power cable and then in to the TV and switching on, it’s no more difficult than that.

When you first plug in and turn you are welcomed by iGame splash screen and a note saying ‘powered by Elonex’. The screen only appears for a few seconds before you are dropped in to the main menu. What you see on the menu when you first turn on depends on whether or not you have an iPod sitting in the dock.

Assuming that you have an iPod docked you’ll see a menu that lists the types of media on your device and then you can use the wireless remote to navigate through Music, Videos, Shuffle Songs, Settings and Now Playing. This is where you can set up play back of the media stored on the iPod then.

main-menu

iGame main menu screen

You need to think of the iGame dock in two parts really. One being the more traditional TV dock and the other the gaming element. The reason I say this is that as I already mentioned you can play back the media stored on the iPod and obviously play the games BUT where I was surprised here is that you don’t have to have the iPod or iPhone docked in order to play the games. I thought that the iPod would be an integral part of the game playing but that’s not the case so even if you didn’t own an iPod you could play the games on the iGame!

So looking at the media elements first the iGame brings the same sort of functionality that you would find on your iPod to the large screen. You can go in to music and look through albums, songs, and artists as well as podcasts etc. The menu system is well laid out and almost identical in structure to the one on the iPod itself so takes no getting used to.

Video playback is much the same you can go in a look at the various video sources that you have and then play them back on the TV. Bare in mind though that the resolution of your iPod screen is much lower than that of almost all TV’s so don’t the iPod dock to upscale these small movies to HD for you. Sure the video will fill the screen but depending on the quality of the source footage the results can vary greatly. I downloaded a music video from iTunes to use for testing and the results were acceptable, I’d happily sit through a movie played back on there but I’d make sure it wasn’t my latest favourite, that’s what Blu-ray is for!

DPP_2871

Music video on the iGame (anyone guess who this is?)

So media-wise the iGame dock is good. It’s handy to be able to navigate through everything from the comfort of the sofa with the wireless remote and audio playback is perfectly OK. I suspect that something like this will come in handy this Christmas with a house-full of guests!

 

On to the games part of the iGame. As I mentioned already I was surprised that you can play the games without an iPod being docked but you can! When you turn on simply press the triangle button on the controller to enter the games menu.

iGame game selection screen

iGame game selection screen

There are a total of ten games included on the iGame. A god selection of sports and puzzles games:

Tennis, Bowling, Trampoline, Table Tennis, Dart and Tanks are all motion controlled action games, where you might want to stand up to play them! If you want something more cerebral then there’s SuDoKu, Tangram and Firecracker that do not require the motion control but instead use the D-pad and buttons on the wireless controller.

As you enter each game you can choose either a male or female character.

players

The control method naturally depends on the game that you are playing. So for example, tennis and table tennis require a more sideways motion where bowling requires that you swing the controller in a more natural bowling motion. Watching someone play the Trampoline game is definitely amusing!

If you’ve ever played on the Wii then you’ll pick the games up right away, controls are pretty intuitive really but when you start each game it does explain how the controls work for that particular one.

The Bowling game

The Bowling game

The bowling game is definitely our favourite. Requiring you to swing the controller under-arm and press and release the trigger at the right time during the swing. Not as easy as it sounds.

Overall the game graphics are pretty good and most games are 3D. They wont compete graphically with the Xbox or even the Wii but then they could hardly be expected to! The games are fairly simplistic in that you play them win or lose then that’s it, there’s no complex unlocking of certain things when you achieve a high-score or the like but again that’s to be expected and is in some ways a benefit in that you can just pick a game, play for 10 minutes and then turn it off, they are not overly demanded of your time so you can play from literally 5 minutes to 5 hours if you want.

Additional games can be purchased online from the Elonex store and I guess that’s what we need the iGame card slot on the back of the unit for. I didn’t try to add games to the unit but I understand that new games are inexpensive to buy.

My biggest bug bare with the system was the vibrate function of the wireless controller. It’s an annoying buzzy thing inside the controller that cant be turned off it would seem. What made it worse was that almost every action in some games resulted in a buzz from the controller. Wish there was an option in the setting to turn this off but sadly there’s not one that I can find and in fact the settings menu is pretty sparse with just language and PAL/NTSC settings that are of any note.

 

 

Conclusion

Overall the Elonex iGame is an impressive product that provides good value entertainment and iPod connectivity. The games were able to keep two adults amused for a few hours one evening and we’ve been back to play for short periods of time since.

Don’t try to compare this to the Wii. The games and controls are no where near as goods as the Wii but don’t take that as too harsh a criticism of the iGame, consider the cost here and what else if can do too.

This isn’t a product that I would add to my living room but certainly a good addition to a young persons bedroom setup and a worthy addition to anyone’s Christmas list!

 

Don’t forget this is one of the prizes you could win in our Christmas competition this year too so check out the competition post too!

 

Review by: Matt

Posted in: Reviews
By November 29, 2009 Read More →

Sony Ericsson Aino pulled

sony-ericsson-aino-satio

Sony Ericsson handset suffers from problems with touch screen interface

Software problems have hit a second Sony Ericsson handset – the Aino – just weeks after its launch.
The news comes just days after Sony Ericsson pulled its flagship Satio handset after high returns at Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4u saw both retailers halt Satio sales.
The failure of the beleaugured manufacturer’s two ‘killer’ handsets raises qu

Posted in: Phones
By November 28, 2009 Read More →

Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 unboxing video

We’ve been looking at quite a few of the Samsung Omnia handsets recently from the Omnia Lite a few weeks ago to the Omnia Pro B7330 just last week. So quite a few reviews are already in progress and will start going up next week so this morning I got my hands on the Omnia Pro B7610. Not sure why Samsung choose to call two handsets virtually the same thing but then we are talking about a company that has a UMPC and an MP3 player with exactly the same product name! 😛

The Samsung Omnia Pro B7610

The Samsung Omnia Pro B7610

 

The B7610 then is a Windows Mobile 6.5 professional handset with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. Similar in size and design to the HTC Touch Pro2. The B7610 though has a 3.5″ 480×800 AMOLED display which is just stunning. I am so impressed with Samsung’s LCDs lately, they really seem to be able to get that right. The QWERTY keyboard is also a nice feature. Sure there are plenty of sliding QWERTY devices out there at the moment but Samsung have chosen not to cram too many keys in to the small space and instead have kept to 4 rows of reasonably large keys. Anyone with large fingers like me will be pleased with the size.

So, I’m sure you know the drill by now, here is the unboxing video of the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610. The review starts in earnest tomorrow and will be making some comparisons to a few other QWERTY handsets that we have in the office at the moment such as the Xperia X2.

 

Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 unboxing video

 

Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 Specification:

  • Operating System – Windows Mobile 6.5
  • Processor – 800 MHz
  • Memory – 1GB Internal
  • Display – AMOLED resistive touchscreen, 16M colours, 800 x 480 pixels, 3.5 inches
  • GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 
  • 3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100  
  • 3G HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
  • WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
  • Bluetooth  v2.0 with A2DP
  • MicroUSB
  • GPS – Integrated with A-GPS
  • MicroSD up to 32GB
  • DivX/XviD/MPEG4/3gp/H.263/H.264 player
  • TV Out
  • Stereo FM Radio with RDS
  • Camera – 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
  • Battery – Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh
  • Dimensions – 112.6 x 57.8 x 16.2 mm
  • Weight – 159 g with battery

 

Posted by: Matt

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
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