Not an iPhone killer, but Droid X is still a looker

BY RICH JAROSLOVSKY

IN NEW YORK

APPLE’S new-product launches tend to suck the oxygen from anyone who dares to unveil a gadget at around the same time.

Such is the fate of the Droid X, the sequel to the phone that launched Motorola’s comeback effort last year.

The Droid X, which Verizon Wireless and Motorola introduced in the same week as the iPhone 4 and goes on sale next Thursday, probably hasn’t received as much attention as it should.

It lacks the iPhone’s polish and buzz – but if you find yourself repelled rather than attracted by Apple’s gravitational-distortion field, the Droid X is definitely worth a look.

You can’t miss it: The Droid X is huge, one of the largest smartphones I’ve ever used. Its 4.3-inch screen is 16 per cent larger than that of the original Droid, known outside the United States as the Motorola Milestone, which was itself a hefty chunk of hardware. The screen is also 23 per cent bigger than the 3.5-inch display on the iPhone.

Yet, for all its girth, the Droid X is both thinner and lighter than its predecessor and not at all uncomfortable to hold – if your hand is large enough. Mine is, and I found a natural place for my index finger to grasp it, just where the rear of the case flares out to accommodate the 8-megapixel, dual-flash camera.

ONSCREEN KEYBOARD
Motorola accomplished the reductions in weight and thickness by jettisoning the original Droid’s slide-out physical keyboard in favour of an onscreen one that, especially when in landscape mode, is a pleasure to use, thanks to all that display real estate.

Like all Motorola smartphones, the Droid X runs Google’s Android operating system. Android continues to improve in terms of usability and the number of applications available, now a claimed 70,000.

And the Droid X can do some cool things the iPhone can’t. One is to act as a Wi-Fi signal for nearby laptop computers or other devices.

COMBINED SOCIAL CONTENT

The Droid X also makes use of Motorola’s MotoBlur software, which lets you combine content from Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking sites into a single stream.

It also comes with 24GB of storage – the comparably priced iPhone has 16 – and you can expand the capacity to 40GB, where the more expensive iPhone 4 tops out at 32.

It also has a removable battery. A spare will come in particularly handy if you make much use of the power-sucking Mobile Hotspot.

FLASH-FRIENDLY
Not all the battle lines between the Droid X and iPhone 4 have yet been drawn. Google and Motorola are promising that an over-the-air upgrade this year will allow the Droid X to run videos using Adobe Systems’ Flash software, which Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has famously banished from the iPhone.

So, the Droid X provides more than enough features and performance to vault it to the head of the Droid line.

The original Droid was the first smartphone to really challenge the iPhone. In the end, though, it did little to dent Apple’s hegemony.

That’s likely to be the Droid X’s fate too. In today’s much broader field of Android-based devices, it does a lot of things well – but no one thing well enough.

BLOOMBERG

Source: www.mypaper.com.sg

Read more...

Aquos Quattron LE820M series LED TV

Sharp Aquos Quattron TV rich in colours and features

At a time when 3DTVs are all the rage, Sharp's newly launched Aquos Quattron LE820M series LED TV (available in 40, 46 and 52 inches) boldly ditches the third dimension in favour of a four-colour filter system - red, green, blue and yellow - called Quattron technology. That's one more colour than the traditional red-green-blue (RGB) system found in other HDTVs.

With yellow thrown into the mix, a wider range of colour tones can be reproduced, so Quattron-enabled TVs can deliver more photo-realistic colours, like brilliant sunflower yellows, sparkly golds and vibrant emerald-greens of the ocean, whereas other HDTVs have to resort to close approximations of those true colours.

The four-colour system is coupled with Sharp's LED-backlit X-Gen panel that enhances light efficiency and eliminates backlight leakage to achieve a higher contrast ratio. In addition, 100/120-hertz Fire Motion Advanced technology reduces motion blur.

Colours are not the only thing the LE820M series is rich in; features, too. Four HDMI slots, a USB 2.0 port, and network connectivity via Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) protocols ensure that you can input content from many sources. A wide variety of video and audio formats are supported, too, from common formats like .avi and .mov to the rare but nonetheless popular Matrovska files (.mkv) that feature XviD and H.264 compression.

The LE820M series does not support 3D. Sharp representatives at the LE820M launch event today said that 3D-enabled Quattron sets are forthcoming - they were announced in Japan in late May - but they will be rolled out in home territory first before markets like Europe, United States and Asia are considered.

The Sharp Quattron LE820M TVs will be available this month (prices unavailable).

Online Only - Sharp Aquos Quattron TV rich in colours and features
by Sim Cheng Kai
08:40 PM Jul 02, 2010

http://www.todayonline.com/Tech/EDC100702-0000323/Online-Only---Sharp-Aquos-Quattron-TV-rich-in-colours-and-features

Read more...

Sonos ZonePlayer S5

Fluid music streaming

FOR the uninitiated, Sonos ZonePlayers are wireless music devices that stream music from the Internet or from your computer.

Previous ZonePlayers required you to plug in your own speakers or any amplified audio device in order to play music. But with the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 ($694), you no longer need to do that, as it is an all-in-one system with five dedicated digital amplifiers that includes two high-frequency drivers, two mid-range drivers and a subwoofer.

Other than a headphone jack and two Ethernet ports, the S5 also has an audio line-in port if you prefer to connect your media player to the speaker.

Its clean and elegant design is a boon for the minimalist. But at 217x365x123mm, the S5 takes up quite a hefty desktop space. It weighs 4.15kg.

Note that one Sonos device has to be wired to your wireless router in order for the streaming to work. This is because Sonos devices use their own proprietary wireless network. Thus, if you own only one S5, you cannot place it, say, in the living room when your router is in the study room. Luckily, there is a cheaper alternative - the Sonos ZoneBridge 100 ($172) connects one or several ZonePlayers to the wireless network by being wired to the router.

Either way, installation is a breeze. Simply connect the S5 or the ZoneBridge to an Ethernet port on your router, install the Sonos Desktop Controller software (for both Mac and PC) on your computer, add your music library and you are good to go.

You can control music playback on the S5 from your computer via the rather expensive wireless Sonos Controller 200 ($607), which comes with a charging cradle. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can download the free Sonos Controller app instead.

The app has the same intuitive interface as the Sonos Controller 200 but it lacks some features like Repeat or Crossfade. You can exit the app to receive calls or send SMSes without interrupting the music.

Other than streaming music from your computer or network-attached storage, it can also stream music from more than 25,000 Internet radio stations across the world. In addition, it can connect to popular music services like Napster or Rhapsody.

Music streaming is excellent, and feels almost as though music were played from a built-in hard drive in the S5. Except for a slight pause before music starts when you tap the Play button on the Controller, there is no lag during streaming.

The S5's audio quality is remarkable for a single-unit speaker. It is loud enough to fill the living room for your weekend house party when you crank the volume up to 50 per cent.

While the audio separation might pale in comparison to that of a full stereo system, it does well emanating the high frequencies while preserving the mid-range. The bass does go a tad "thumpy" when you crank up the volume, but there isn't much audio distortion.

If you want to stream music in your house and are willing to pay the price, the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 is a good choice. Do budget a little more for the useful Sonos ZoneBridge 100 though. TREVOR TAN


Network Speaker Review: Sonos ZonePlayer S5
by Trevor Tan
05:55 AM Jul 02, 2010

http://www.todayonline.com/Tech/Techreviews/EDC100702-0000045/Fluid-music-streaming

Read more...

Smartphone Review: Samsung Galaxy S

Shooting to a promising start

THE Samsung Galaxy S looks like the Apple iPhone. It has a curved back, a silver lining around the screen, and rounded squares framing each icon on the app pages.

But this Android 2.1 device can hold its own against the competition.

For starters, it's fast. The capacitive display is very responsive, and apps launch with minimal delay. Though there's a slight lag when loading photos, it still feels zippier than some other Android phones running on a 1GHz processor. At 9.9mm and 119g, the Galaxy S feels really light, too.

Though its huge four-inch screen means you need big hands to be able to hold it comfortably and deep pockets to tug it away snugly, it does improve the typing and web-surfing experience. The Super AMOLED display is gorgeous - sharper and brighter than other screens I have encountered.

Besides the roomy 16GB internal memory, most of the other specs for the Galaxy are standard smartphone fare - a 5-megapixel autofocus camera that can capture high-definition 720p videos and a microSD card slot (supports up to 32GB).

Samsung has made an effort in customising the Android OS for the Galaxy S. Besides the usual tweaks to the onscreen keyboard and adding icons for various connectivity options to turn them on and off easily, it has included things like the Daily Briefing feature. This compiles weather information from AccuWeather.com, AP Mobile news, stocks from Yahoo! Finance and the phone calendar. You can add a widget to one of the seven home screens to see all these updates at a glance. But the lack of customisation is disappointing - you cannot change or add any other service provider for these information.

Your communication with each person via various channels such as Facebook, email and SMS, as well as their social media updates, are integrated in the phonebook. A useful feature is the built-in Swype text input service, which allows you to glide your fingers across the keyboard instead of typing. It made messaging on the onscreen keyboard more fun and less frustrating.

One gripe about this handset is that the proximity sensor doesn't seem to work very well - there are buttons like "mute" onscreen when a call is in progress, and I have accidentally ended or muted a conversation more than once.

The phone comes preloaded with quite a few apps. Besides the usual Google ones like YouTube and Gmail, there is ThinkFree for editing and viewing Microsoft Office documents, a pretty ebook app called Aldiko and a file manager, among others.

The Galaxy's battery life fared well in tests - it lasted right about 15 hours when I had WiFi and Bluetooth on, music playing on loop, push mail and a Twitter client updating feeds in the background. The phone had enough juice to keep going for an impressive 24 hours with normal use - I left the WiFi on, surfed the web and posted status updates on social networks, on top of the usual calling and messaging.

The Samsung Galaxy S is available exclusively from SingTel at $0 to $768 with contract, depending on the type of plan. MAY CHUA


Smartphone Review: Samsung Galaxy S
by May Chua
05:55 AM Jul 02, 2010

http://www.todayonline.com/Tech/Techreviews/EDC100702-0000046/Shooting-to-a-promising-start

Read more...

Uber-cute USB drives re-released

SAN FRANCISCO

MIMOCO, the world’s first character-based USB drive-maker, is celebrating the fifth birthday of its uber-cute flash drives.

The Boston-based firm is behind funky designs, such as those based on characters from the Star Wars movies and Japanese animated series Domo.

Mimoco will re-release some of the original Mimobots, as they are called, which include a carnivorous-looking frog, a funky skeleton, a blue fairy and a sweet purple swirl,

ZDNet reported.

http://myepaper.mypaper.sg/ebook/web_php/System/Zoom_In/Zoom_In_Page.html

Read more...

Microsoft smartphone gets the axe

SAN FRANCISCO

JUST 48 days after Microsoft began selling the Kin, a smartphone for the younger set, the company discontinued it because of disappointing sales.

The swift turnabout for the Kin, which Microsoft took two years to develop and whose release was backed with a hefty ad budget, is the latest sign of disarray for Microsoft’s recently reorganised consumer-product unit.

“It’s an absolute failure,” said Mr Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research, adding that he was surprised to see Microsoft kill a product so quickly, given the company’s history of sticking with new products and improving them over time.

Microsoft’s consumer-product unit has struggled to offer a credible competitor to Apple products.

It has chased the iPod with its Zune for several years with little effect. Apple’s iPhone, as well as an array of smartphones powered by Google’s Android software, is a more recent challenge.

Microsoft also recently cancelled a project to develop a tablet computer that would compete with Apple’s popular iPad.

Microsoft said that it would move employees who had worked on the Kin to the team in charge of Windows Phone 7, a coming revision of Microsoft’s operating system for smartphones,which is due in autumn.

But Mr Golvin said that the recent success of Android phones and Apple’s new iPhone 4 make Microsoft’s challenge to compete effectively ever more daunting.

“They have an even higher mountain to climb now than when they announced Windows Phone 7 in  February,” he said. The Kin, which came in two models, was aimed at young users and emphasised access to social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

While neither Microsoft nor Verizon Wireless, which sold the Kin exclusively, disclosed sales figures, people close to the companies said that sales were disappointing.

Verizon slashed the prices of the phones to US$50 (S$69) from US$200 for the higher-end model, and to US$30 from US$150 for the stripped-down version.

Microsoft said it would cancel the pending release of the Kin in Europe, and would work with Verizon Wireless to sell existing inventories.

NYT

http://myepaper.mypaper.sg/ebook/web_php/System/Zoom_In/Zoom_In_Page.html

Read more...

Cisco sees chance to challenge iPad

UNITED States networking equipment-maker Cisco unveiled a tablet computer for business professionals on Tuesday as technology rivals lined up to compete with Apple’s iPad.

The Cisco Cius – pronounced “see us” – is powered by Google’s open-source Android operating system and boasts eight hours of battery life.

Customer trials of the Cius would begin later this year and the device would be available in the first quarter of next year.

It weighs 0.52kg, less than the iPad’s 0.68kg, and has a 7-inch screen, smaller than the 9.7-inch screen on the Apple device.

Unlike the iPad, which does not have a camera, the Cius features two: A front-mounted high-definition camera which allows for high-definition video streaming and real-time video, and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera.

The Cius also offers e-mail, instant messaging, Web browsing through Wi-Fi and eventually 4G connectivity, and the ability to produce, edit and share content stored locally oron the Internet.

Cisco said the device was designed to provide workers with “the ability to access and share the content they need from any place on the network”.

Said Mr Tony Bates, a Cisco senior vice-president: “This platform can transform how healthcare professionals advance patient care, how retailers deliver service experiences to consumers, or how universities deliver world-class education to their
students.”

Cisco is making more products that transmit video, moving beyond its core business of routers and switches.

The Cius will cost less than US$1,000 (S$1,400), said Mr Bates.

AFP, BLOOMBERG

Soure: www.mypaper.com.sg

Read more...