Archive for the ‘Smartphones’ Category

Smartphones overtake PCs in terms of shipment

The inevitable has happened – smartphone shipments have finally overtaken that of PCs, with the former shipping 100.9 million units to stores worldwide in the final quarter of 2010, while the PC camp could muster only 92.1 million units – at least these are the statistics available to us according to a study released this week by IDC. One of the main cause for smartphones overtaking PCs would be the phenomenal growth of the smartphone market, where 2009 and 2010 saw shipments triple, while PC shipments grew at just 45%. Part of this could be due to the way contracts work, especially in the US where one buys new devices once every couple of years when their contracts are up, and with the US being the largest smartphone market, it makes perfect sense. PCs, on the other hand, lasts a whole lot longer and are more expensive. It really depends on how you want to interpret such statistics, but one thing’s for sure – smartphones are here to stay.

Smartphones overtake PCs in terms of shipment, By Ubergizmo. Top Stories : LG Optimus 2X Review, Nexus S Review,

Japan Gets A Gundam Phone With Most Awesome Dock Ever [Robots]

Just in case you weren’t aware that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Gundam figurines, Bandai has teamed up with Japanese network Softbank for a limited edition Gunpla phone. More »










Gundam – Bandai – Anime – Japan – Model

A Quick Look at the Creative Zii Trinity Pumping Out Wall-E In Smooth HD [Smartphones]

Creative’s Zii Trinity handset, which we profiled with a quick video just a few days ago, was spotted again this weekend playing Wall-E in glorious HD, using nothing but its diminutive, generic little frame. Short, but impressive.

The playback is smooth, the sound apt. Iron out some of the interface quirks we spotted last week in that video and we’ll have a nice little platform for OEMs to work with once Creative options this thing out into the ether. [Mobile990 via Engadget]

Review: The Motorola Droid

A few days ago we got Motorola’s Droid in the mail. The device is quite awesome. Beyond being offered on Verizon’s network (which consistently squelches AT&T in coverage and speed) the phone is forged from super-solid (and stylish) hardware. Plus it runs freaking Android 2.0 as its OS. From reviewer Priya Ganapati:

The Droid runs Android 2.0 (aka Éclair) as its OS. It feels more refined than the first version of Android on T-Mobile’s G1 and it’s certainly better than the muddled interface on Motorola’s Cliq.

The Droid’s 5-megapixel camera has up to 4x digital zoom. It produces photos that aren’t too noisy and it does well even in low light, thanks to the built-in LED flash.

The most exciting feature of the phone, though, is the Google maps app — with built-in turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation. Replete with text-to-speech features, the maps are layered with traffic data and a satellite view. But here’s the best part. It’s free! Hear that? You don’t have to pay $10 a month as subscription or buy a pricey $100 TomTom app. You can just zip around with the Droid and Google Maps.

$200, motorola.com

8/10

You can, of course read the full review of the Motorola Droid on our reviews website.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Motorola’s Droid is Memorable, But Won’t Make You Forget the iPhone

Like it or not, Motorola’s new Google-powered Droid smartphone will be compared to the iPhone.

The good news is that this feature-rich handset, running version 2.0 of Google’s Android OS, compares very favorably to the Goliath of the smartphone world as a utility mobile computing device — and, oh yeah, a phone.

The bad news is that there may be too many good things going on to make using this device the quick, intuitive, out-of-the-box experience it should be. That’s a problem, given that the iPhone has set the usability bar so high.

An embarrassment of riches shouldn’t be a negative, and it really isn’t overall on the Droid, which goes on sale Nov. 6 to Verizon customers only. The tight integration of all things Google — maps overlayed on GPS, voice input all over the place, search that does not ask you to decide whether you are looking for something locally or on the net — are now more fully realized in this major upgrade to the mobile operating system the search giant first released on a single handset, the T-1.

This is very good thing for that segment of the population who have become Google citizens and are already used to entrusting their contacts, documents and discovery needs to that cloud.

On the down side, you will need a Gmail, Facebook or Microsoft exchange account to use the e-mail app. And, there is no provision for syncing to an address book (or calendar) on your desktop. Everything is in the Google cloud which, given the recent Sidekick data-loss debacle, may not be the greatest selling point just now.

Like the iPhone and many other handsets this is a primarily a touchscreen device whose face is almost 100% screen — and a bright, crisp screen it is. Rather than take sides in the virtual vs. hardware keyboard debate, the Droid provides both. The hardware keyboard slides out in a familiar landscape mechanism, and it includes a 5-way directional-pad, the better to allow you to keep your hands on the keyboard once you have them there.

The virtual keyboard appears when appropriate, landscape or portrait. And while the software keys appear to be narrower than those on the iPhone they seem at least as easy to use. Another familiar feature is the “reality check” of a small pop-up displaying the key being pressed. And there is a type-ahead function which displays possible words, potentially saving you keystrokes.

On-board music purchase is from Amazon (at least), but when the Droid is connected to a computer it’s read as an SD card, and dragging any tracks onto it makes them playable within the music app. The Droid also sports a 5 MP camera with autofocus, on-demand flash and video.

The Droid goes beyond the iPhone in two key areas: Like the Palm Pre, applications can run in the background, and switching among them is a smooth process. And as a robust GPS device it accepts and gives turn-by-turn verbal instructions, making it the closest approximation yet to a total GPS solution that obviates the need for a dedicated vehicle device. One caveat: it’s necessary to be connected to the 3G data service for course-correction and other dynamic route features to work (and to even plot a course), so this is not a replacement for a GPS device in locales where Verizon 3G coverage is nonexistent or spotty.

Available apps? Android only offers about 1/10th of the nearly 100,000 Apple has available, but that should change as Android handsets become more common. The first app I downloaded was Google Voice which, strangely, is not pre-installed — but then again, it isn’t available at all on the iPhone. On the Droid, you can set your Google Voice number to be the one that everyone sees when you call or text them, so you can switch to Verizon without worrying about giving everyone a new number or waiting for your old number to port over. That’s assuming you’re already using the phone-number-for-life that Google provides.

Navigation is not a touch-screen experience: Unlike the left-right/swipe metaphor there is hard “undo” button which takes you back step by step. In fact there are four hardware buttons to the iPhone’s one: back, menu (which does not activate from any given screen), home and search (which does).

There are three customizable screens that can contain dozens of shortcuts — to contacts, bookmarks, anything — but there are only three of these screens: the “home” screen plus one to the left and one to the right, accessible by swiping. Think of these as a speed dial, with your entire collection of app icons in a sliding drawer. But these icons can be moved anywhere using touch/hold, and there is the gentlest of vibrating feedback to confirm your gesture. (This “haptic feedback” is the default and activates in too many contexts, including for every number you hit when manually entering a phone number. Fortunately, it can be turned off in the settings).

There’s one “feature” that is is sure to draw fire: on certain events, the entire array of which I have yet to determine (although connecting to a power source is one), a computerized voice announces: “Droid.”

On version 2.1 please remove that, Google.

Continue reading for more photos of the Droid.

Photos: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

« Older Entries