Apple have just released the full specifications of the new 3G iPhone, and its looking very nice, add the App Store and extended battery life and you cannot fail to be impressed with the new release aprt from the July 11th release date, full specifications after the break.
Introducing iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, Maps with GPS, support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more amazing features in your hands. And just like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and full web browsing. iPhone3G. It redefines what a mobile phone can do. Again.
As expected the 3G iPhone was announced today at WWDC by Steve Jobs, it will be available in 22 countries from July 11th and will have the following features.
3G but no further details as of yet.
AGPS in built and can be used in combination with cell tower triangulation and Wi-Fi to help locate an iPhone. Finally real-time positioning in Google Maps.
It has been a long time since I reviewed a phone but while I’m on maternity leave and waiting for the baby to arrive I thought I would do something useful. This is actually the first Smartphone (Windows Mobile 6 Classic) device that I’ve ever used in earnest and it has been quite an experience. Read on to find out what I thought of the Toshiba Portege G710!
10 second review:
Device: Tohiba Portege G710
Cost: SIM free only: £185 (Ex. VAT)
Available from: Clove Technology
Summary: One of Toshiba’s latest Windows Mobile device the G710 offers entry level features with the added benifit of built in GPS in a Blackberry style package.
Best of: Inexpensive WM device with GPS, great battery life.
Worst of: Lack of 3G and WiFi. Trackball navigation method that you’ll either love or hate.
What’s in the box?
Toshiba G710 specification:
GENERAL
Starting with the front of the device then we have a 2.46″ QVGA landscape screen with loudspeaker above and controls below. There’s the standard softkeys, home and back buttons as well as the send/end call keys. In the middle you’ll find the trackball which is in place of the Dpad that you’ll find on most devices. Certainly not the first device to use a trackball but the first time we’ve seen one on a Smartphone. Below these you’ll find the fixed QWERTY keyboard.
Looking to the left side of the G710 you can find just two buttons, the power button and the camera button
Spinning the device around to look at the right side you’ll see a up/down rocker for volume control and then a rubber cover over the USB socket. Under the cover you’ll also find a socket for an external GPS antena.
The G710 doesn’t have any additional controls on the top or bottom edges, these are both rounded off and give the device quite a smooth look.
On the back you’ll find a 2.0 megapixel camera with LED flash. You’ll also notice two loudspeaker grilles either side of the camera.
Highlights
Lowlights
REVIEW
I’ve been using the the Toshiba Portege G710 for just over a week now, it’s taken some getting used to as this is the first time I’ve used a Smartphone in earnest. Getting started is a simple affair, removing the back cover and installing the SIM card and 1050mAh battery. It took me a while to find the MicroSD card slot, I even had to double check the spec to make sure it really did have one! The MicroSD card slot is actually located on top of the SIM card and becomes more obvious once you have installed the SIM. It’s virtually impossible to install a memory card without havaing a SIM installed first.
On first boot up the G710 runs through the normal setup asking me to set the date and time and my region and offers to let me set up a PIN code. I notice that there’s no custom software installation routine when you first boot up and I’m not asked about setting up an email account, I can do that manually later. The G710 doesn’t have any special homescreen and instead has a standard WM design.
The first thing I want to do is see what software is already installed on the device but in order to do that I have to get used to the trackball! The trackball is one of those things that you’ll either going to love or hate. Personally I would prefer to see a normal dpad as I find the trackball awkward, there is a definite threshold where it goes from not working at all to working a lot – what I mean by that is if you move the ball too slowly in an attempt to be accurate then nothing happens to as you move it more or faster it suddenly comes to life an you find it scrolling across two or three lines or icons. There is no happy medium here and no settings to adjust to get it right.
Unlike newer HTC devices, the Portege G710 doesn’t automatically detect the network operator from the SIM card, instead you have to go in to a folder in the start menu called Config UK. In here you’ll find 4 icons for setting up the network settings. After runing the desired set up file you’ll see a text message confirming the change. There’s no setting for 3 users though so if you have a 3 SIM you’ll have to set up the data connection manually.
The G710’s keyboard is pretty easy to use and the keys have a nice positive feel to them. They are also raised enough to make them quite easy use either single or two handed. They are quite close together though so if you have particularly large fingers (or thumbs actually) then you might find that you press more than one button at a time.
The Portege G710 is one of an increasing number of Smartphone devices to include built in GPS and I’m pleased to report that it has a SiRF Star III chipset. Unfortunately Toshiba have not included any GPS software with the device but there are a few free or inexpensive packages out there that you can use. I installed Google Maps in order to try the GPS unit out. As with most devices it takes a little while to acquire a signal the first time you use it but after seems to take less time. Sitting in the garder it quite accuratly pinpointed my location on the aerial map.
The G710 has a dedicated external GPS antena socket. This is situated right next to the USB connector under the rubber cover on the right side of the device. The rubber cover it really awkward to open and it annoys me every time I have to plug in the USB cable.
If you use an external GPS antena you have to select this in the antena settings menu.
As Matt has mentioned in other reviews and articles, we live in an area with poor network coverage. The G710 isn’t the best device to network reception, nor is it the worst. I can get a bar or two of signal most of the time here at home but it’s not totally reliable. If you live in an area where the signal is marginal there are probably other devices that have better reception.
One of the biggest disapointments with the G710 is the lack of 3G or HSDPA. Now I realise that this is a fairly inexpensive device, and if you consider the GPS then it IS good value for money but no 3G I suspect will put many people off. We do not have 3G coverage where we live so I guess it’s not such a big deal for us. However, if you couple the lack of 3G with the lack of WiFi the G710 may have limited appeal. For me spending so much time at home at the moment I find myself using WiFi a whole lot more and I know that Matt uses WiFi all the time at work.
There are advantage to having only GPRS and EDGE though and that is the much better battery life offered by this device. Compared to my TyTN II over the past I’ve had to charge the G710 far less frequently. I guess you have to consider the trade off between connectivity, battery life and price.
The screen on the G710 is clear and bright. It’s smaller than I am used to but still just as readable. The screen is flush with the front of the device so you might want to use a screen protector as I think it’ll be more susceptible to scratching.
CONCLUSION
The Toshiba Portege G710 is a good entry level smartphone and offers value for money especially when you think about the built in GPS.
If you are a business or power user then I the lack of 3G and WiFi are likely to be a bit of an issue and I suspect you’ll want to look elsewhere. But if you are looking for an inexpensive Blackberry-style Windows Mobile device and like the idea of built in GPS then the G710 is definitely worth considering.
Review by: Tracy
[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Windows Mobile blog, G710, Toshiba, Tracy & Matt]
In association with Mobility Today, J Doss has put together a page with a live audio stream of the Steve Jobs Keynote from WWDC combined with a live chat room where we can discuss what’s happening as it happens.
To join us in the chat room please head on over to http://www.jdoss.net/wwdc/.
The audio stream is provided by iPhoneAlley via www.ustream.tv if you want a proper user name in the chat, register with ustream first.
Thanks to iPhoneAlley for the audio feed.
Phonemag gets the scoop on the new Samsung Omnia. The Samsung OMNIA is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and comes packed with MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, and Word). Even though the OMNIA is 100% touch screen, Samsung included an optical mouse for ease of navigation – the optical mouse is similar to what you’d find on laptops.
If your a Sling user then they have just released some interesting information on a forthcoming release for the iPhone. According to Sling, "Ever since the Apple iPhone hit the market, we’ve been receiving inquiries as to when we’ll have a version of SlingPlayer Mobile for the platform. To date we’ve only expressed our desire to support the platform when it is possible to do so. But with the Apple WWDC kicking off this week, we’re now ready to show off a bit of what we’ve done.
We have been working hard behind the scenes and have some great news to share. Starting very soon we will be getting our hands on some devices to produce our own reviews. We have already got a Palm Centro which we are writing a review and it will be up very shortly but soon we will also start to receive more and more devices and accessories to review. This is a great result for the site and we can guarantee one thing, all our reviews will be our honest opinion.
On top of this we have just about completed the look of the site and we have added an iPhone web icon so if you bookmark us with your iPhone it now has a much better look and we have a tab / bookmark icon too.
HTC Touch Diamond review (Part 3) – “Touch-flo 3D”
One thing that sets the HTC Touch Diamond apart from other Windows Mobile devices is the unique Touch-Flo 3D user interface. This builds upon the success HTC had with the original Touch and later the Touch Dual and Touch Cruise and integrates further into the Windows Mobile OS.
Lets take a closer look at the Touch-Flo 3D interface by examining each screen in turn. Note that I’ve reduced the size of the screen shots by 50%.
Home Screen
This screen effectively replaces the Today screen and shows you the date, time and Operator name. You’ll also see that it tells you when your alarm is set for, has a link to call history and shows you the next event in your diary. Unlike the today screen this page wont show you whether or not you have unread email or SMS on the main page but if you look to the bottom the number of unread emails is shown in a green circle over the email button.
People
This tab allows you to add your favourite people or contacts to a roladex style system that lets you thumb through your contacts if your contact has a photograph associated with it then it will be displayed here, otherwise you get to choose what image to display instead.
Messages
This tab provides you with a preview of your text messages and gives you quick access to compose a new text message.
The mail page is where you access your email accounts. As you can see in the image below you get a preview of the last message in your inbox on the screen. The icons down the side denote the three email accounts I have configured and the icon at the top starts a new email message. Buttons at the bottom of the screen allow you go to the inbox for the choosen account or, from the menu button, send/receive, switch accounts or start a new message.
Internet
The internet page is pretty self explanatory with a link to the web browser (Opera 9.5) and the excellent YouTube client.
Photos and Videos
The photos and videos page lets you browse through any photos you have stored on your device providing they are in the My Documents/My Pictures folder. You can scroll though your photos by swiping your finget up and down on the page then you can tap on the image to bring it up full screen. Once you have the image fullscreen you can zoom in and out by spinning your finger around the dpad and you can move the picture around the screen by dragging it.
On this page you also have an icon to start the camera in either still or video mode. At the bottom of the screen you have buttons to open the album, which gives you a typical preview of images or you can start a slideshow of the currently displayed images.
Music
The music page give you direct access to the music files saved on your phone so there is no need to go into media player, you can select songs or whole albums to listen to from this page and you even get to see the album art for your files if they have them.
You navigate through stored music on this page in much the same way as you would an iPod or iTunes, by swiping your finger across the screen. Buttons at the bottom get you in to your media library or the menu allows you to access controls for repeat, shuffle, track properties, playlist and audio booster.
Weather
Once again this page it pretty self explanatory. The main image tells you what the weather is like today (there are some nice animations to be seen here) with other buttons offering 5 day forecast and the menu allows you to add/remove locations, change the temperature units and change how the information is updated.
Settings
The settings page does what it says on the tin. From here you can sync with ActiveSync, edit the sound settings, alter the background image or wallpaper, open up Comm Manager or download updated weather information. Each of the pages accessed from here are also HTC customised pages that are very easy to use and navigate.
Programs
The last of the main touch-flo 3D pages is the Programs tab. Here you can add shortcuts to the programs that you most commonly use. You can add up to 18 shortcuts to this list and you can easily add or remove them as you see fit.
Comm Manager
Finally I’m going to briefly mention Comm Manager. This is yet another example of how HTC have done away with the standard Windows Mobile interface and replaced it with their own customised version. This is a welcome change and shows you at a glance whether the phone is on or off, if your data conection is active or if you have WiFi on. I think that new WM users are going to find these pages a lot easier to use.
I think that’s enough on the Touch-Flo 3D interface for now. This review unit has to go back in just a few more days but fortunately I’m told that my retail unit is on its way. I’ll tell you more about the retail version as soon as it arrives and I’ll let you know what the differences are, if indeed there are any!
Review by: Matt
See Part 1 of the review.
See Part 2 of the review.
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, orange, HTC, HTC Touch Diamond]
The Windows Mobile Team Blog have posted an interesting article explaining how to customise the sliding panel seen on all Windows Mobile Standard (Smartphone) phones. Jorge Peraza is a Developer on the Windows Mobile team that was responsible for the new “Sliding Panel” home screen in Windows Mobile 6.1.
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