Nexus

The Nexus One’s inability to record videos in HD has always been a bit of annoyance, but thanks to a member of the xda-developers community, 720p video recording is now a go on the one true Google Phone. To get the mod to work you’ll need to be running Cyanogen’s CM5.0.8test3 and up. This means that for the time being Froyo is not supported, but a remedy for the lack of love for 2.2 is said to be coming soon. Click on through to check out a video shot by a Nexus One running the mod and then hit up the read link to grab the patch.

[Via Android Police]

Read

This morning, my colleague Jason Kincaid wrote a very good and very level-headed post about the new iPhone (and the new iOS 4 software) from the perspective of an Android user. I’m going to come at it from the other angle.

Recently, I’ve written my takes on both the Nexus One and the EVO 4G from the perspective of an iPhone lover. Obviously, I don’t have an iPhone 4 yet, and so this isn’t a full review, but after the keynote yesterday we did get some hands-on time with the new device. So I figured I’d write down my initial reaction after playing with the new hardware for about 20 minutes or so. Before I go any further, I’ll save you the suspense: it’s awesome.

The Build

The biggest thing that stands out in my mind one day later is that immediately after I put down the iPhone 4 and went back to my iPhone 3GS, the latter felt kind of like a toy in comparison. Now, I’ve always been a fan of the design of the first iPhone over the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS — that is, I liked the aluminum flat back of the first one more than the plastic backs of the second two. The iPhone 4 is a return to form — literally — but it’s even better now, as the aluminum has been replaced by glass (in either black or white).

As Jason noted, the device feels rock solid in your hand. It is without a doubt the most impressive piece of mobile hardware I’ve ever held. There’s nothing on the device that feels janky. Aside from the backside upgrade, all the external buttons on the device are now improved as well. The iPhone 4 is pretty much identical in weight to the iPhone 3GS, but it’s significantly thinner. This may be a bit hard to notice in your hand as the iPhone 3G/3Gs has the curved back (so you mostly handle the thinner edges), but I have no doubt it will be noticeable in your pocket.

The Screen

When the iPhone 3GS first launched, I wasn’t sure that the boost in speed would be enough to make an upgrade worth it. I was wrong. Once I had an iPhone 3GS and went back to using an iPhone 3G, the latter almost seemed unusable to me. Thanks to the screen on the iPhone 4, this seems likely to be the case as well.

As Steve Jobs joked in the keynote, “once you go Retina Display, you can’t go back.” After just 20 minutes of using it, I’m hooked. As Daring Fireball’s John Gruber noted yesterday, it’s not just that the iPhone 4 has four times the pixels of the earlier iPhones, it’s that much of the distance between the glass you touch and the pixels have been removed as well. It’s subtle things like this — things that most people will never even realize they’re noticing (but they are) — that make Apple, Apple.

With the iPhone 3GS (or any of the other iPhones), if you bring the device close enough to your face, you can see the pixels. With the iPhone 4, you can’t. It’s really not like looking at a computer screen at all. It’s like looking at a picture — or when something on the screen is moving, film.

The Speed

In terms of speed, it’s hard to know what is the new iOS 4 and what is the new hardware, but the device does seem to run a little bit smoother. It’s not noticeably faster in the way that the iPhone 3GS was noticeably faster than the iPhone 3G, but I would attribute this to the fact that there are already rarely any lags in the iPhone 3GS with iPhone OS 3. I suspect some new games that come out may push the new A4 chip though.

The Camera

As has already been noted, FaceTime is brilliant in that it requires absolutely no set-up to work. Yes, it sucks that it’s WiFi-only, but that will change with time. It also would have been brilliant for Apple to get this working with iChat on Macs (as others have also noted), but since it’s supposedly going to be published as an open protocol, that will probably come too.

I can see the new front-facing camera doing wonders for startups like DailyBooth — and yes, maybe even ChatRoutlette.

The key feature of the camera though has to be the ability to shoot HD (720p) video. There’s some debate out there as to whether this will or won’t kill the Flip cam. My reaction is that while the iPhone 4 alone may not, I can’t see how all of these new smartphones gaining this feature (the EVO 4G can do it as well) won’t.

The Android Question

I know that it’s shocking to some of you that I would love this device. Most interesting may be my thoughts on what this means or doesn’t mean for Google’s Android platform.

As you’ve undoubtedly read a lot in recent weeks, Google is making fast gains in terms of the Android software. I was beyond impressed at Google I/O with everything that was shown off. With Android 2.2 (which I have running on the Nexus One), most system speed issues seem to have been resolved. That said, in my view, there is still no Android device that is better than the iPhone 3GS. And so obviously, the iPhone 4 just widens the gap.

The fact of the matter is that while the software may be getting there from a practical perspective, it still lacks the polish of the iPhone OS (now iOS). A number of people (on both the iPhone and Android sides) I’ve spoken with recently agree, but point to Google’s recent hiring of Palm’s design guru Matias Duarte as a sign that this may change. I hope so.

Overall app quality on Android also still lags behind the iPhone. And the fact that you have to use third-party task killing applications to get devices like the EVO 4G to run the way it should, is completely unacceptable from a users’ perspective.

With the iPhone 4, Apple has refined the hell out of their winning combination of hardware plus software. It’s hard to imagine it getting much better in this form factor — and that’s why I think we may see some radically different things next year for iPhone 5 (well, aside from a Verizon version).

The Mac vs. PC debate has often found people using a car analogy to explain things. I keep coming back to that when thinking about iPhone vs. Android. For a long time, iPhone felt like a Lexus while Android was more like a Kia. With recent upgrades, Android has transformed into more of a Honda. But with iPhone 4, the iPhone is now an Aston Martin (it was James Bond, remember).

But the crazy thing is that the iPhone is an Aston Martin with a Honda-price. Meanwhile, Android remains a Honda at a Honda-price — it’s a good deal, but it’s not an iPhone-deal.

In fact, it’s such a good deal that I continue to say that the only thing really holding back the iPhone (in the U.S.) is its carrier, AT&T. Even if you have no problems with AT&T, you have to acknowledge that they’re becoming the big barrier to the iPhone’s potential growth. There are simply always going to be million of users not on AT&T. In fact, there will always been more users not on AT&T than are on it. So Apple needs to move beyond it to keep expanding.

And if they’re the Aston Martin being sold at Honda-prices, when they’re sold at other dealerships (other carriers), they’ll dominate, right? Well it’s not that simple.

The Honda-like price is only thanks to the sweet deal Apple gets from AT&T. Without the deal, Apple would undoubtedly sell the iPhone for more money (to keep up their margins), and it would be a less attractive purchase for people. It’s the same reason why everyone doesn’t buy an Aston Martin (or a Lexus, to be more practical). Would some people still opt for the Honda if it was more customizable? Sure, some would. But most would opt for the nicer machine, all things being equal.

But all things aren’t equal because the iPhone is tied only to AT&T. And all things are unlikely to ever be equal because prices might have to go up if the sweet AT&T exclusive subsidy goes away. But seeing the success Apple has had being at the luxury end of the PC market, I’m not sure how much they’ll ultimately care. But the fact that they seem to now (as evidenced by pointing out their market share vs. Android in keynotes) is interesting.

As Jason noted in his piece (and I have in the past), the fact of the matter remains that a strong rivalry between iPhone and Android is a good thing for us all. Android continues to improve at a healthy pace and they have some features (like Google Voice integration) that it seems unlikely now that Apple will ever get. Meanwhile, Apple continues to improve their hardware/software combination at a rate that it’s not clear that Google (and their OEM partners) will be able to match.

It’s two different approaches. And that makes sense since the two have different motives. At the end of the day, Android exists so that Google can get more people searching — and keep them searching as mobile devices overtake computers. The iPhone exists to be one of the mobile devices that overtakes computers so that Apple can keep selling high-margin machines.

In my view, for most consumers, the iPhone remains the winning argument in the space right now. And the iPhone 4 just extends that.

iPhone 4G: What Steve Jobs Needs to Announce Today —

You may have heard that a little company called Apple will be announcing, among other things, a new iPhone today. Supposedly called the "iPhone 4G" (or maybe the "iPhone HD?"), for the first time ever since the product's initial debut, news of the latest Apple gadget may not be met with same levels of adoration granted to Apple's previous announcements - and not just because photos of a stolen iPhone prototype spoiled us by giving away all Apple's secrets in advance.

No, today, Apple is finally facing some tough competition in the smartphone space from none other than its former friend and partner Google, whose Android mobile operating system can now be found on a range of devices including the new must-have phone, the EVO, the Droid, the Nexus One and more.

In a matter of hours, we'll find out if the iPhone can still compete.

Sponsor

Android Riding High

Sprint's launch of the first 4G Android phone has already been met with success, according to the latest company news. Via a morning press release, Sprint is announcing that the total number of HTC EVO 4G devices sold on launch day was three times the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the market combined.

The announcement also claims the demand for the device has led to some "temporary shortages" at some of the 22,000 Sprint stores across the U.S., which Sprint certainly thinks is a badge of honor. "We have a sold out phone!", they're practically crying.

But the reason for the EVO's success isn't just the innovative features of the device itself, it's the operating system powering it. Google's Android OS has succeeded by offering what Apple doesn't. For one thing, Android's App Store is wide open. Apps don't go through lengthy review processes - they're instantly published to the Android Market. The OS is also available to multiple carriers on multiple hardware form factors at multiple price points. You can get the kind of phone you want (keyboard, no keyboard, size, weight, screen resolution, etc.) while still enjoying the Android experience.

Steve Jobs Should Announce:

But even more importantly, Android offers things the iPhone doesn't. If Apple wants to compete, here's what Steve Jobs needs to announce today.

1. Better Tethering

The current version of the Android OS, version 2.2 (code-named "froyo"), offers both USB and Wi-Fi tethering, the latter of which may be operator-controlled. With this feature, already available on the EVO thanks to Sprint's own offering, your phone becomes an instant Wi-Fi hotspot for neighboring devices. Apple had to delay a tethering feature until now because they're dependent on AT&T, a network which hasn't quite been up to par with its competitors as of yet. It simply couldn't support the data load of tethering.

But now AT&T has announced new data plans, one of which offers a tethering option for $20 extra per month. But wait - there's a catch (besides the fee, that is). The iPhone can't be tethered with the iPad, so no free data for you Wi-Fi iPad users. Why? According to AT&T, it's an issue with Apple software. The iPad doesn't have USB ports, a spokesperson told the tech news site TechFlash. And iPad Bluetooth tethering is still a no-go.

2. Video iChat/Front-Facing Camera

With EVO's launch came the first mainstream video chat/video calling application, Qik. Joining Fring and perhaps soon, Skype, Qik's video chat application for Android lets EVO users make video calls to other EVO users and soon to others who have supported Android handsets (those with front-facing cameras.) It's not enough for Apple to simply launch a front-facing camera at this point and let the 3rd-party apps do the work. If Apple wants to one-up Android, the company needs its own specialized mobile iChat service that integrates with its lineup of other Apple apps, including its mobile mail, contacts and calendar. A cohesive digital office offering which includes iChat as a feature could trump standalone apps for those who have invested in Apple's ecosystem.

3. Free MobileMe

For users of Google services, going Android just makes sense. Gmail is one of the world's most popular webmail programs, and its deep integration, along with contacts, calendar and other Google offerings, into the Android mobile OS make the phone a powerhouse for Google users. Apple has a shot at doing something similar with its "MobileMe" collection of services, but unlike Google, Apple charges hefty fees to use them. Google gives away its basic services for free, while businesses and other advanced users can upgrade to Google Apps for a fee. Apple should copy Google's "freemium" plan with a free entry-level version of MobileMe if it wants to compete as a services company, too.

4. Wi-Fi Sync

iTunes is an old, clunky behemoth in desperate need of an overall. Let's make this absolutely clear: Zune HD has done Wi-Fi sync from day one. Yes, that's right, Microsoft's Zune. Day one. Why can't Apple do this? Answer: because they didn't have to. Zune wasn't a competitor. But now Android is and has plans for Wi-Fi sync. That means Apple needs to fix the iTunes situation.

Google is working on over-the-air music downloads with automatic sync, according to Google's VP Engineering, Vic Gundotra. Announced at Google's recent I/O conference, the updated Android Market ("coming soon," said Gundotra), will let you download both apps and music over-the-air, the same as with Apple's iTunes and mobile App Store, but with a twist: automatic OTA updates.

Apple, better do something with that Lala.com acquisition, quick!

These are just a few of the things we're hoping Apple announces today at the upcoming event. Hopefully, the company will continue to surprise us as it has in the past, making the choice between iPhone and Android a tough one.

Discuss

This morning Google gifted a brand new Nexus One phone loaded with Froyo (Android 2.2) to all their employees in India. The people are obviously excited and you can pretty much sense the excitement from their tweets.

Nexus One for all Google India Employees

     

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

By now, just about everyone on the planet has heard the term “Apple Fanboy.” If you’ve ever said anything good about an Apple product, you’ve likely been called one. But a new class of fanboy has emerged — one that, amazingly, may be be equally as passionate. The Android Fanboy. And it’s actually a good thing.

In case you missed my review of the new HTC EVO 4G phone yesterday, be sure to read some of the comments. As stated, I was coming at it from the perspective of a dedicated iPhone user. Long story short, I don’t really like the device. To the Android lovers, I might as well have killed Bambi.

Never mind the good things I said about the phone, or Android in particular. Never mind that I said that if you’re looking for an Android phone, try the Nexus One or Droid Incredible, because they’re both better devices. Never mind that almost none of the commenters had actually ever used the EVO (it’s not out yet), and plenty of them even admitted that. None of that matters. All that matters is that I said something bad about an Android device. RAGE!

In the Android Fanboys’ minds, I had just slandered the latest reincarnation of their savior. They had to respond. And they did. Hundreds of them. It was quite impressive.

So why is such zealotry a good thing? Because passion is important. If people actually care about Android that much, Google is clearly doing something right. Windows Mobile has never instilled this type of passion in anyone. Nor has Symbian. For a while, it seemed like the Palm Pre might. But it never did. But Android is.

As I described at length last week, the rivalry between Apple and Google is going to be a good thing for us all. Part of that is because the companies are largely equals, so the fight will be fair. But don’t underestimate the importance of fanboys in this equation. For too long, Apple has gotten a massive amount of free fanboy publicity while many of their rivals have gotten none. Android is now starting to get that kind of free publicity too. All of this plays into the idea that the two companies will push one another to make better products, because again, they’re on equal footing.

And Android Fanboys will make the Internet more balanced because they almost exactly counter the ideals (and now passion) of Apple Fanboys. Android Fanboys care about openness and choice. iPhone Fanboys care about presentation and experience.

The iPhone will likely never be able to match Android phones in their integration with Google products such as Gmail and Google Voice. Simply put, the integration is stellar and in my mind, the number one reason to use an Android phone. Something like Google Voice integration is powerful because you feel in control of your device in a way that you’ll never be able to with an iPhone.

But Android phones will likely never be able to match iPhones in seamless user experience because Apple, unlike Google, controls the entire ecosystem from the hardware to the software. As an iPhone user, when I switch to Android, something just feels off. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what is it because it’s dozens of little, subtle things that Apple is able to do because they have the luxury of knowing you’re going to be using their software on the one iPhone form factor (which, again, they also make).

Again, it’s a great rivalry because the two sides offer two completely different executions of the same idea. And they have legions of fans who are positive that each way is the right way. This balance is good for us all — even if individual fanboy comments read like they’re from bat-shit crazy zealots.

[image from AndroidGuys - You Might Be An Android Fanboy If...]

Motorola was recently rumored to be looking to produce its own smartphone OS, thus bringing into question the company’s commitment to the Android platform. But CEO Dr. Sanjay Jha addressed those concerns this week by saying that currently, “nearly all of my focus is on Android.” He also committed Motorola to bringing Android 2.2 to all of its phones as quickly as possible, as it’s necessary in order to enable full Flash support. Motorola introduced its first Android phone, the Cliq, at our Mobilize conference last year; it also makes the top-selling Droid for Verizon.

Next Friday, Sprint will launch the Android-based EVO 4G, complete with a 4.3-inch screen and integrated 4G. I received a test handset from Sprint this week to review, so have shot a photo tour of it and compared it to two other hot Android phones — the Droid Incredible and the Nexus One.

The EVO is also one of the first phones with a front-facing camera for video chatting, which made the release of Fring’s Android app this week perfectly timed. Fring is a cross-platform chat app that handles IM, VoIP, text chatting and now for the first time on Android — video chatting.

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Shared by louisgray
MG's review doesn't match my take - but he will have some valid points here.

Back in January, I wrote a post entitled An iPhone Lover’s Take On The Nexus One. At the time, the Nexus One was soon to be released as the latest and greatest Android phone, and a number of iPhone users were wondering whether it was worth it to switch for the benefits of Android (and perhaps more importantly, another network besides AT&T). My take: it was the Android phone yet, but it wasn’t better than the iPhone. Now I’m going to do the same type of review for the new HTC EVO 4G phone, which Sprint is launching next week.

At Google I/O, the search giant gave the phone away to every attendee complete with one month of service to try it out. Just as with the Nexus One, I’ve decided to use it as my primary phone for the past week or so to get a real sense of the pluses and minuses of the device. Just as with my Nexus One review, this isn’t meant to be an all-encompassing review or roundup (for that, see here or here or here). Instead, this is just my reaction to the device as an iPhone user.

So, I’ll start off with what you really want to know: is the EVO 4G an “iPhone Killer“? No way. Not even close. Does it have some advantages over the iPhone? Of course. But it has more disadvantages. And, in fact, this isn’t even the best Android phone I’ve tried. Both the Nexus One and the Droid Incredible are better. If you want details about some of that, read on.

4G

Let me lead with a big caveat: I haven’t been using this thing on an actual 4G network. Sadly, neither San Francisco or New York City (the two cities I’ve used the device in) have Spring 4G yet (both should get it later this year). That said, as just about every other reviewer has pointed out, the 4G is almost more of a detriment to the device because while it does offer faster download speeds, they’re not that much faster than 3G — and 4G usage destroys the battery life of the device worse than even 3G does. Also, I have used Sprint’s 4G network before, in Austin, Texas, and I can confirm that it is faster but not that much faster that I would consider it a killer feature at this point. Hopefully that will change as the network matures.

Battery

And let’s start with the battery. Simply put: it sucks. Again, I’m not using the 4G network (and yes, I have the 4G radio turned off), and it absolutely blows. My iPhone 3GS is about a year old now, so it’s battery isn’t at the peak condition that it once was. Still, it almost always lasts me for at least a full day doing what I would consider to be moderate usage of the web, texting, taking pictures, etc. The EVO? Good luck getting more than 4 hours of moderate usage out of this bad boy.

It’s almost unfathomable how bad the battery is in this thing. Why? Well you might assume it’s the massive 4.3 inch LCD screen. But according to the Battery usage area in the Setting menu on Android, the display is only eating up 5% of my battery on average. Instead, it’s “Cell standby” (again, I have 4G off), “Phone idle,” and “Android system” that eat up over 75% of the life. Am I doing anything odd that makes it drain faster than an average user would? I don’t think so, and talking with others who have the device, all report the same awful battery performance. I have no doubt that “regular” users are going to bitch about this as well.

I’m terrified to think what this thing would be like if I were using 4G. A mobile phone that lasts for 2-3 hours? Ugh.

Screen

Speaking of the massive screen, there’s no denying that it’s beautiful. Rather than using the same OLED screen that the Nexus One uses (which you can barely see in daylight), this uses a standard TFT display, so it’s easy to see at all times. The 480×800 resolution is great, and everything looks crisp. That said, this (and the HTC HD2 — the WinMo phone with the same size screen) proves that bigger isn’t always better.

The screen is too big. Or maybe a better way of saying it is that the screen makes the device too big. Mat Buchanan of Gizmodo has called this the “Escalade of smartphones,” and it’s a perfect moniker. For people with huge hands, and huge pockets, this thing will be great. For everyone else, I have little doubt they’ll find this too big. There’s a reason many smartphones tend to hover around the same 3.5 inch screen (iPhone, Nexus One, etc): it works.

Camera

The camera on the EVO is great. And there are actually two of them. The one in the back is 8 megapixels and destroys the iPhone’s 3 megapixel camera. The front one is a lower resolution (1.3 megapixels), but is convient for vanity pictures and video chatting if that’s your thing. The back camera also can take 720p HD video, which again destroys the iPhone (there’s some debate as to just how good the “HD” bit-rate quality is — to me, a novice, it looked very nice).

Of course, the new iPhone is expected to be unveiled in just about a week. And it too is likely to have two cameras (one front and one back). I doubt the back one will be 8 megapixels, but it should get a boost to 5 megapixels. And the front one will undoubtedly be fine-tuned for video chatting as well. And the rumor is that it will take HD quality video as well.

Meanwhile, the photo-taking software on Android continues to lag behind the iPhone’s. And I do mean lag — often times it would take up to a minute for the controls to show up onscreen. And oddly, they can only be oriented to take pictures in landscape mode. And it’s far too many clicks to switch between the front and rear cameras (this is buried in the camera settings area). But all of that is somewhat excusable – what’s not is that more than half the time while trying to take a picture, I would get the message “Unable to save file to SD card due to insufficient file permissions.” I have no idea what that means, nor did I care enough to figure it out. Nor will most users when they get the same message. It worked sometimes, and sometimes it didn’t. I’ve never had this problem with the iPhone — nor is it possible since there is no SD card slot.

The photo browsing element of the EVO, meanwhile, is better than other Android phones I’ve used. But it’s still not nearly as good as the iPhone.

The EVO has a pretty good flash — something the current iPhone doesn’t (but again, the next one likely will). But it’s pretty poor compared to a regular camera flash. Point is, if you’re buying this thing to get a good camera, you should probably just invest in a good camera.

Exterior

The exterior of the EVO is pretty nice. As I said, I prefer the size of the Nexus One (and iPhone), but the EVO feels just as solid (unlike many other Android phones). Taking off the back to access the battery is a bit wonky. The entire back faceplate is removable, but each time I did it, I was sure I was going to snap off one of the clips that holds it in place. I was also sure I was going to snap off my fingernail at one point (which they suggest you use to open it up — brilliant).

There’s also this rather odd kick-stand on the back of the EVO. Presumably, it’s to make watching media on the huge screen more appealing (so you don’t have to hold the big, heavy thing). It’s also probably good for video chatting. But it’s a gimmick at best. And my colleague Jason Kincaid actually almost broke it off when he thought that was the way you get to the battery.

Unlike the Nexus One, the EVO has no trackball. I think that’s a good thing. Some people seem to like it (I assume ex-BlackBerry users), but I never understood the point of having it on a touchscreen device. Good riddance.

My biggest gripe about the exterior though has to be the top on/off button. It lays way too flush against the actual top of the device itself, making it very hard to click. I endured much frustration when I would pull the thing out of my pocket and would try to turn it on quickly. Sometimes I was hitting the button, sometimes I was hitting nothing — and it was hard to tell.

Software

All the other problems aside, the software may be what really kills the device — for now, at least. The EVO out-of-the-box runs Android 2.1 with the HTC Sense UI. Android 2.1 is far too slow. Even running on these devices with 1 GHz chips, there’s noticible lag when doing things such as simply scrolling through your apps. It’s unacceptable.

The good news is that Android 2.2 mostly fixes this. I have been using 2.2 running on the Nexus One, and it’s much, much better. The bad news is that it’s not yet clear when 2.2 will come to the EVO because HTC has to update Sense to work with it.

Speaking of Sense, some people love it. I do not. While I find Android’s standard UI to be a bit bland, Sense is almost too much of the opposite — it’s garish. It also takes up way too much screen real estate with things such as the default time/weather widget. Do I really need the time taking up half of the main screen? No. I want apps there. Luckily, it’s easy enough to delete those default widgets.

The EVO does come with some pretty nice ways to integrate your Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr accounts when you set it up. And then you can easily see friends’ activity from the nice Friend Stream widget they provide. Sadly, this widget loads way too slowly. I also like the Twitter widget they give you. It’s a very simple way to update your Twitter status without even launching a client.

HTC also has a brilliant pinch-to-zoom mechanism to access each of your 7 main Android screens. In fact, it’s exactly like the Expose feature in OS X. You pinch on the EVO (or if you’re on the main screen, hit the home button) and the screen you’re on zooms out to reveal thumbnails of all of the screen you have, and shows what’s on each of them. Apple should consider copying this for the iPhone because it’s much better than the current scroll from page to page method

The worst part of the software though is the keyboard. It’s laughably cluttered. The soft keyboard built into Android is bad enough — mainly because it lags (which again, Android 2.2 fixes). This Sense one is much, much worse. It’s set up in a way so that you can access things such as numbers on the top row of keys, but you have to hold them down to do so. And actually, numbers are also found if you hit the “12#” button at the bottom of the keyboard. It’s redundant and confusing.

And the cursor movement keys at the very button of the keyboard are one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen. Again, this is a touchscreen device, why do I need touchscreen soft keys to move around whatever I’m writing? Just touch where you want to go.

WiFi Hotspots

Okay, I’ve been fairly hard on the device so far. But there is one thing that despite all it’s problems, would make me consider it: the WiFi hot spot feature. It’s hard to explain how awesome this is. But there are a few big catches.

I’ve tested out a Sprint Overdrive (mobile hotspot creator) before, and it’s great. But it’s also yet another device you have to carry around, and it’s somewhat of a pain to boot up, get connected to the service, etc. The EVO is like an Overdrive that you’re going to have on you at all times. And turning it on is one touch of a widget on the screen. This creates a new WiFi hotspot that up to 8 people can connect to. You can set the password right from the included software.

The other day, I was in a cafe in New York City but only had one hour of free Internet access. When I ran out, I turned on the EVO Hotspot and was up and running again in seconds. And it was fast (again, even without 4G).

Yes, the battery issue remains — this thing may work for a couple of hours as a hotspot, maybe less — but there is no disputing the ease-of-use.

Mobile hotspot creation is being built-in to Android 2.2, but it will be up to the carriers to decide how they use it (meaning, they decide whether or not to turn it on, and how much to charge for it, if so). This Sprint version is different (it’s not the built-in Android version) — and right, now entirely free. But that is expected to change following the actual launch. Reports indicate that Sprint will offer the Hotspot feature for free through July, but only to those on 4G networks. After that (and for other users) it will cost an extra $30 or so a month, apparently.

That’s a buzzkill.

Of course, next to the iPhone, which still doesn’t have any tethering option in the U.S. thanks to AT&T’s inability to maintain their network, this is still a great feature.

Overall

So, that a lot of words about what, as an iPhone user, I like and don’t like about the EVO 4G. Would I give up my iPhone for this? Not a chance. Hell, I wouldn’t give up a Nexus One or Droid Incredible for this, even with 4G. The battery life is simply too poor, and the whole device is too large.

The Android software continues to make steady improvements, but Sense, in my opinion, doesn’t help it at all. Instead, Android 2.2 is the thing to get, and that won’t be available on the EVO at launch.

The EVO has many of the strengths of the Nexus One — mainly, the way Google services interact with the phone (Google Voice, Gmail, Maps, etc), but it adds a bunch of weaknesses.

If you’re a fed-up iPhone user looking to switch to an Android device, there are better options. If you’re a happy iPhone user that is interested Android devices, you probably won’t like this one much at all.

And no matter what camp you’re in, if you do buy this thing now, you’ll probably be kicking yourself in a couple of months as better 4G devices hit. Or you’ll be kicking yourself in a couple of months when better Android devices hit. Or you’ll be kicking yourself in a few weeks when the new iPhone HD (or whatever it will be called) hits.

Forgive me, but: this is probably not the Android device you’re looking for.

An iPhone Lover’s Take On The HTC EVO 4G — Back in January, I wrote a post entitled An iPhone Lover's Take On The Nexus One. At the time, the Nexus One was soon to be released as the latest and greatest Android phone, and a number of iPhone users were wondering whether it was worth it to switch for the benefits of Android (and perhaps more importantly, another network besides AT&T). My take: it was the best Android phone yet, but it wasn't better than the iPhone. Now I'm going to do the same type of review for the new HTC EVO 4G phone, which Sprint is launching next week. At Google I/O, the search giant gave the phone away to every attendee complete with one month of service to try it out. Just as with the Nexus One, I've decided to use it as my primary phone for the past week or so to get a real sense of the pluses and minuses of the device. Just as with my Nexus One review, this isn't meant to be an all-encompassing review or roundup (for that, see here or here or here). Instead, this is just my reaction to the device as an iPhone user.

Look, the N900 might be sitting at the top of Nokia's handset pyramid in terms of capabilities, but as we've said all along, the N900 is not a mass-market device. Nokia's been very clear that the N900 was launched as a means to strengthen its Maemo development community (on the path to MeeGo we now know). And by all accounts, it's done just that while winning a rabid fanbase of nerds in the process. Nevertheless, Reuters uses Gartner's estimate of less than 100,000 units sold in the device's first five months as proof that Nokia can't mount a challenge to RIM and Apple. True the numbers are paltry compared to the 8.75 million iPhones Apple sold from January to March or even the oft noted Nexus One sales that reached just 135k units moved after 74 days. In its defense, Alberto Torres, head of Nokia's solutions business said that "Sales have substantially exceeded expectations." So yeah, Nokia has problems, but the N900 isn't wasn't one of them.

Nokia sells just 100,000 N900s after first five months: so? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 05:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After releasing Flash Player for Android, Adobe launches a PDF reader for Android. The applications is available in the Android Market and it can be installed only if your phone runs Android 2.1 or later.

Nexus One already comes with a document viewer based on QuickOffice, but the application doesn't do a great job at previewing PDF files. Adobe Reader for Android opens PDF files much faster than QuickOffice and it has a better zooming feature.

"Adobe Reader for Android offers multi-touch gestures, like pinch-and-zoom, as well as double-tap-zoom, flick-scrolling and panning. We've also added a reflow mode, which will take text-heavy documents with wide margins, and automatically wrap the content for easy viewing on smaller screens," explains Adobe.

The application doesn't include basic features like search or support for password-protected files, but it's snappy, documents are readable and the applications opens in full screen.

One of the most interesting APIs in Android 2.2 allows developers to create applications that can receive messages from servers. "Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) is a service that helps developers send data from servers to their applications on Android devices. The service provides a simple, lightweight mechanism that servers can use to tell mobile applications to contact the server directly, to fetch updated application or user data."

To try the new APIs, you can install an Android app and a Chrome extension that let you send a link from the browser to your phone and automatically open the URL in Android's browser. Install the Android application, register your device and enable "launch browser/maps directly". Then install the Chrome extension, click on the icon and log in to the same Google account used in Android. Now you can send links to your phone by clicking on a button in Google Chrome.


The application requires Android Froyo, which is only available for Nexus One at the moment.

Brian at PocketNow posted a browser comparison video showing the iPhone, the Nexus One, and the HTC HD2 all viewing the same websites. He installed Froyo on the Nexus One and downloaded the Flash beta which allows him to run almost all Flash content. It's really long.While I do enjoy a long video of a man playing with Android phones, 11 minutes worth of a man playing with phones (found after the jump) might be a bit tiring. However, the money shot comes at about 1:40 where you see some Flash games playing in the wild. I think the most interesting part of that part of the video is how close Flash games running on a good processer are to standard, natively written games. So fine, you say, things look great. Why not run Flash?

Android 2.2 supports Flash, but if you hoped to watch Hulu on your brand new Android device, you’re out of luck, since Hulu doesn’t have arrangements with the content producers to cover mobile phones.

However, there’s a nifty trick to make Hulu run on your Android 2.2 device; all you need to do is trick Hulu into thinking it’s running on a desktop browser.

According to Absolutely Android, the procedure is as follows: open the web browser on your Android device, type about:debug into the address bar and press Go. Go to settings, scroll to the bottom and select UAString, change the setting to Browser, and enjoy Hulu on your Android device.

This trick has been tested on Google’s Nexus One. Unfortunately, it comes with certain drawbacks; you get the desktop version of Hulu instead of one optimized for mobile devices; furthermore, it will likely get blocked by Hulu very soon. Still, it warms our hearts to see that watching Hulu on an Android, although through unofficial means, is indeed very possible.

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Tags: android, Flash, hulu, video

Brian at PocketNow posted a browser comparison video showing the iPhone, the Nexus One, and the HTC HD2 all viewing the same websites. He installed Froyo on the Nexus One and downloaded the Flash beta which allows him to run almost all Flash content. It's really long.While I do enjoy a long video of a man playing with Android phones, 11 minutes worth of a man playing with phones (found after the jump) might be a bit tiring. However, the money shot comes at about 1:40 where you see some Flash games playing in the wild. I think the most interesting part of that part of the video is how close Flash games running on a good processer are to standard, natively written games. So fine, you say, things look great. Why not run Flash?

Android 2.2 Screenshots: Our Favorite Features in Froyo [Screenshot Tour] — Android 2.2 (code-named "Froyo," the next alphabetical installment of dessert-named releases after Cupcake, Donut, and Eclair) is now rolling out to Nexus One handsets. Whether or not you've received your update just yet, here's a quick look at our favorite new features. More »



Android - Google - Handhelds - Nexus One - AdobeFlash

My First Bite Of Froyo Is Tasty —

I’m sitting in the Philadelphia International Airport with a delay on my way to San Fran — tomorrow I’ll be speaking on a panel at the Netbook Summit — so now’s a good time to share some thoughts on Android 2.2, aka: Froyo. James offered up a video look and summary of the new Froyo features, but I’ve been using Android full time since January and can offer a different perspective as a result. I’ve also been flashing ROMs on my Nexus One for a few weeks to gain the HTC Sense interface and other features. After using Froyo for the past 24 hours, I’m fairly impressed — the operating system compares well against some of the optimized and enhanced ROMs I’ve recently used.

Some thoughts in no particular order:

• Froyo is a little faster than Eclair on my Nexus One, but the speed difference isn’t that dramatic. The stock ROM on the Nexus One was pretty solid to begin with in terms of performance. Although I haven’t used that ROM for nearly four weeks, I did restore it yesterday for a few hours prior to installing Froyo. Nexus One owners will likely be happy with Froyo’s performance, but I find it marginally better, not exceptionally better at this point.
• I like the new dedicated icons for the Phone and Internet next to the program launcher. But I think it sloppy that Google left the standard shortcuts for both on the main home screen — they’re simply not needed and I imagine that most every Nexus One owner is removing them. A little thing, yes, but it adds to the unpolished nature that some folks claim Android has.
• There’s no unified inbox yet, but you can switch between accounts slightly faster in the Gmail client with Froyo. At the top left of your Inbox, you can see which email account you’re using. Simply tap it and you’ll be shown the Gmail Accounts window so you can switch. Prior to Froyo, it took a menu button press and a tap of the Accounts option for the same action. It doesn’t sound like a huge improvement, but I switch between the accounts dozens of times daily, so those extra taps add up.
• Support for Adobe Flash 10.1 beta is nice and it works reasonably well. I haven’t played any Flash games — I never do, actually — but I did view a few videos. Even those not optimized for mobile sites offer a good experience. Playback is relatively fluid and less choppy than what I’ve seen with Flash Lite. I haven’t tested enough to determine the battery drain.
• Although it’s too early to tell, it seems like the radio in my Nexus One is performing worse with Froyo. Near as I can tell, there was a radio update included with Froyo and I’m seeing more signal bouncing from 3G to EDGE than I did prior. Again — too early to tell, but it’s something I’ve noticed. If any other Nexus One owners running Froyo have seen the same or don’t have issues, please chime in.
• Google may have caught some developers by surprise with the quick release of Android 2.2, right after it was introduced at the Google I/O event. Why do I think that? There were a number of apps I was using in Android 2.1 that I couldn’t find in the Android Market. I’m not sure if developers had to update their apps for 2.2 or not, but bunches are missing. I pinged the RunKeeper folks as soon as I noticed this — I use the app on a near-daily basis — and they told me today that the app is now in the market. It is and I was able to install it on 2.2, but there are still other apps not showing.
• On a related note: I’m not yet able to move any apps to my SD card. I don’t need to do this because I have plenty of free space on my phone, but I wanted to try it. Again, it appears that developers have to enable their app to run on an SD card in Android 2.2.
• I was using an HTC keyboard on the Nexus One, but Froyo’s input method has improved quite a bit from that of Eclair, so I may stay with the stock keyboard for a while. The word suggestion functionality is less intrusive and the overall accuracy of the keys feels better.
• The new camera application is also improved, but I prefer the camera I was using on an HTC Sense build. With that app, I could tap to focus and meter the exposure, much like the iPhone 3GS. The Froyo camera application doesn’t support such a feature, but it does provide new options for exposure, zoom and geotagging.
• I haven’t used the portable hotspot functionality — AT&T is providing free Wi-Fi today at the airport — but it’s welcome. I had both a wired and wireless tethering application in many of my customer ROMs and they make for a good backup 3G connection as needed. For now, I’ll still stick with my Verizon MiFi as a dedicated 3G solution and use Froyo’s hotspot feature as needed for backup connectivity. Because the Nexus One comes directly from Google and not through a carrier, I don’t expect this feature to disappear on me. It remains to be see if Android phones sold by carriers in the U.S. will see the tethering option — or if they do, what it might cost.

Overall, Froyo offers a solid performance boost and some welcome user interface enhancements. Android still lacks a little polish around the edges, but it’s a very functional and customizable operating system. I’ll likely stick with Froyo for a bit, but I find that I’m already missing the HTC Sense interface and widgets. Some HTC bits I’ll likely be able to add to Froyo, but Sense will require a completely different ROM. Once that arrives, I’ll probably flash my phone for the Sense experience.

Note: I’m not able to capture any screenshots at this time because that requires the Android SDK, which I don’t have installed on this computer.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Google’s Mobile Strategy: Understanding the Nexus One

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Until now, nearly all the folks who have expressed an opinion about the weighty matter of Apple’s refusal to allow Adobe’s Flash onto the iPhone (including me) have had one thing in common: They’ve never used Flash on any smartphone. But Google is pushing out Android 2.2 “Froyo,” an upgrade that includes a beta of FlashPlayer 10.1, to Nexus One phones. And the 5,000 people who attended Google’s I|O developer conference in San Francisco last week went home with Sprint’s EVO 4G phone, which still packs Android 2.1 but also has the FlashPlayer beta. More than a decade after Adobe started talking about Flash on phones, it’s finally possible to try real smartphone FlashPlayer and form informed conclusions about whether its absence on the iPhone is cause for anger, celebration, or apathy.

I don’t have a Nexus One, so I’ve been trying out Flash sites on the EVO. I’ve tried some of my favorite sites, some high-profile ones, and ones that Adobe has been recommending. My experiences aren’t the final word on what the future of mobile Flash is going to be like: The beta is, indeed a beta, and the EVO hasn’t even shipped yet. But I started this experiment wanting to like Flash on Android…and as of right now, my hands-on experience with it has left me profoundly disappointed.

Herewith, quick notes on fifteen sites.

Success stories

Bloggingheads.tv: This is one of my favorite Web video shows–one I’ve wanted to watch on my phone for years. They’ve lately implemented a basic level of iPhone support, but it involves downloading giant MP4 files for watching in the iPhone’s QuickTime player. With FlashPlayer on Android, the Bloggingheads video player seems to work exactly as it does in a desktop browser.

TIME’s The Call podcast: For some reason, I can’t find this in iTunes–so I’ve been listening to it on TIME’s site via a Flash-based audio player. Works swell on Android.

South Park Avatar Maker: This applet is optimized for mobile Flash, and it shows. (It is, however, optimized for portrait mode only–one basic difference between AJAX Web apps and Flash ones is that Flash ones have a specific aspect ratio in mind)

Less Successful Success Stories

The New York Times: On the Android browser, the NYT site forces you into a mobile site with some videos in H.264 format. I used Google to track down the full-blown video section. Over 3G, the player functioned, but video playback was unbearably choppy. Over Wi-Fi, buffering video so long that I thought the browser had seized up–but once things got going, the video played, even when I zoomed it to take up the screen.

Ecodazoo: In Adobe evangelist Ryan Stewart’s recent video, he singled out this Japanese site as one of his favorite Flash creations, both in desktop browsers and mobile ones. When I tried it, it more or less worked. But there were glitchy artifacts on some screens, and some of its controls and labels will leave you squinting–a fundamental problem for Flash apps, since nearly all of them were written under the assumption that you’d be using them on a vastly larger screen.

Kongregate: I tried a couple of games at this Flash-based gaming portal that’s set up a mobile edition. They were playable. But they didn’t leave me the least bit giddy over the prospect of Flash games coming to phones: The graphics were blah at best, and the touch-based input was crude and limiting. In short, they were case studies in why it makes so much sense to write native games for mobile platforms.

Tales of Woe

Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook: I’ve been jonesing for Bejeweled Blitz–the one Facebook game I have a weakness for–on my Droid. (On the iPhone, it’s available as an app.) When I went to Facebook on the EVO, I switched from the mobile site to the full version, then discovered that tapping on the Games tab didn’t accomplish anything. I got to Bejeweled Blitz by Googling around, and discovered that the whole interface loads, with one exception: the game itself. (I had similar issues with plain old Bejeweled on PopCap’s site.)

Lala: I thought it would be an entertaining example of perverse poetic justice if the nifty, partially Flash-based music service–now owned by Apple, and going away at the end of the month–would run on an Android phone. Nope. The display was garbled, and I got a cryptic error message.

Picnik: Apple isn’t the only company that owns a neat Flash-heavy service that won’t work on the EVO. Google recently bought the slick Picnik image editor, which is absolutely invisible. (It’s such a rich app that I wasn’t expecting it to be phone-friendly…but I thought I might get something.)

Then there’s Adobe’s Acrobat.com workgroup suite. You might be hopeful that something from Adobe itself would run, but all I got was a great big error message.

PCWorld.com: Videos produced by my old cohorts play just fine on Skyfire’s Android browser. With FlashPlayer, though, the player controls loaded but the video itself went AWOL.

Warner Bros.: The movie kingpin is one of several companies that worked with Adobe to build “Flash enabled” mobile sites. At the moment, however, it appears to be Flash-disabled–I got this message whenever I tried to watch anything. So I tried Warner’s standard site, which gave me video clips I could hear but not see.

Nickelodeon: Also working with Adobe, but apparently not ready to roll–its site was befuddled by the EVO and thought it was a Mac.

Hulu: Just for yuks, I tried the video megasite even though I knew it blocks Android. It yanked my chain by showing a sponsorship message for the show I was supposedly about to watch, then fading to black with an error message that seemed to say the whole thing might be my fault.

Let’s see–that’s three sites that performed impressively, three that were worked but had issues, and nine that–at least when I tried them–simply wouldn’t function. That’s a better showing than I would have had on an iPhone, but not that much better. The notion of traveling around the Web and determining for myself whether Flash content will or won’t work on a phone sounds like work, not pleasure.

I suspect that some of the glitches I encountered will get fixed in short order–I mean, if Warner Bros.’s mobile site is a showcase for mobile Flash, it’s going to work, more or less. Other sites may get tweaked into better shape. And maybe I’ve been discovering bugs which Adobe will fix before FlashPlayer goes final.

But what I just tried isn’t remotely the “full Web” that Adobe has been saying FlashPlayer for Android unlocks. It’s fundamentally unsatisfying, bearing at least as much resemblance to Steve Jobs’ withering assessment of mobile Flash as to Adobe’s own defense of it. Adobe will surely whip it into better shape, but by the time it does so, will anybody still care?

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Sometimes there are advantages to staying up really late at night. I had just laid down in my bed to try and get some sleep for a flight to New York tomorrow when I remembered I hadn’t charged my Nexus One. I reached over to my bedside table to grab it, and I see an alert letting me know a system update is available. Having just read numerous reports that Android 2.2 would be coming to the device in the “next few weeks” I figured this couldn’t be the new OS codenamed “Froyo.” But it was.

Yes, apparently Google is starting to roll out the Android 2.2 Froyo update to Nexus One devices right now. I just tried the EVO 4G (the newest Android phone which Google gave out at Google I/O this week) but 2.2 isn’t available for that device yet. I guess being the “Google Phone” has its advantages. Nexus One owners, if you’re up, check for an update right now.

Note: Our MobileCrunch readers will be horrified by this post. But lately I’ve been on a rant about using simple technologies that just work, instead of always trying to make at least the basic features of the newest and greatest product we’ve ever seen do something spectacularly awesome, like make a phone call that doesn’t end from a carrier drop or a dead battery.

A week ago I found myself in a difficult position mobile-phone wise. My two go to phones – the Motorola Droid on Verizon and the Nexus One on T-Mobile – were history. The Nexus One mysteriously disappeared during my move to Seattle. And the Droid, my backup phone when I needed rock solid Verizon coverage, came to an untimely and violent end during extended “testing” on my rock slate tile floor. I was without a working mobile phone of any kind.

Normally I’d remedy that situation by buying a new phone. But I wasn’t about to shell out a few hundred dollars for a phone with the HTC EVO coming just around the corner. I needed something to get me to June 4 when Sprint will sell me that phone.

That’s when I became immersed in the pre-paid phone world. Based on watching The Wire, I knew pre-paid phones were important tools of the drug dealing trade – if you are careful enough and switch phones often, it’s extremely hard for the Baltimore police department to get a solid wire tap on your pre-paid phone, for example. Other than that, I could not speak intelligently about what they had to offer.

So I walked into my friendly neighborhood Radio Shack and took a look at what they had to offer. These aren’t exciting phones, unless it was 1999 again, in which case the tiny color screen would be very cool. But they’re small and, importantly, they make phone calls.

And wow are they affordable. For $25 I walked out of the store with a Net10 LG 100 phone that had 300 minutes of talk time included over a 60 day period. As long as you buy more minutes all the minutes keep rolling over to new months. And there is no contract and no termination fee. I pointed my Google Voice phone number at the phone, and everyone that calls my normal number gets through just like they did on my old smartphones.

The phone has features such as making calls, receiving calls, a speakerphone that’s better than any smartphone I’ve had, and a battery that seems to last forever. It also does text messaging and has a variety of cheesy ring tones to choose from.

That’s it. And five days later after heavy usage I’m not sure I’m going to stop using it. The call quality, despite the fact that it uses the AT&T network, is five stars. Calls fail to be dropped. I consistently am able to hear what the person I’m talking to is saying. All of these things are new experiences to me, or at least new in the last few years.

I tend to carry my iPad around everywhere with me, which does browsing and apps a lot better than any smartphone anyway (although the Google Voice website is a mess on the iPad). I haven’t been using the data connection on my other phones that much since the iPad, so losing those features doesn’t matter much.

And really, for certain social situations, like dinners, all this phone activity needs to stop anyway. If you can’t check into Foursquare or Gowalla with your phone, you definitely won’t be. I found I was having actual conversations with people instead. While my tiny prepaid phone sat lightly in my pocket, humming on a full battery charge.

So there you have it. A one time Cult of iPhone charter member, who abandoned Apple for the promise of Android and Google Voice, is now a hard core LG 100 prepaid phone fanatic.

And I’m going to stay that way until June 4, when my failing sense of self control will walk me into a Sprint store and purchase a HTC EVO. I’ll probably forget all about the LG and leave it at the checkout or something. Because love is fleeting, and shiny stuff, after all, is cool.

But until then, if you see me at TechCrunch Disrupt next week, ask to see my phone. You’ll want one, too.