Mobile Tech: September 2005 Archives

Word is out that T-Mobile and Danger, Inc. will be rolling out a new over-the-air (OTA) update for the Sidekick phone. This update, as per the Danger site, is likely to be well-received because it answers several user complaints.

Some of my favorites:

1. The Web Browser will now support Javascript, quite an accomplishment for mobile devices. The Hiptop forums are full of posts where the nontechnical users get Java (which powers every application on the device) and Javascript confused- hopefully this will cut down on that noise in addition to making the web browser usable on modern sites. An interesting test will be to use it on AJAX sites and see if it can keep up. I also wonder how the device handles Javascript pop-ups or other annoyances and vulnerabilities. Perhaps they are filtered out at the proxy server.
2. Text Editing now has Undo! Such a basic UI refinement on PCs will be welcome on the mobile front, lthough I'm sure the beefier smart phones and PDAs have had this for some time.
3. Search text in web pages. I've often loaded large web pages from Google results, only to find myself  scrolling... and scrolling... and scrolling to find what specifically I was searching for.
4. Camera app now supports slideshows and can rotate your images on the phone.
5. Select multiple messages from the email app, allowing them to be moved or deleted.
6. Moving contacts between the Sidekick and your SIM card.

Although it's not listed explicitly, there seems to be some kind of contextual menu functionality added. The page refers to default link actions (by hitting enter) versus hitting Menu and having alternative link actions appear.

It seems the ROKR phone, which I regarded as a tentative and incomplete but reasonable first step in testing the waters of a music player/phone convergence device, has not impressed the tech media and the bloggers.

Keep in mind that this is not an Apple phone, and was not designed by Apple's industrial design gurus. To see the iPod Nano and try and compare the Nano to the ROKR is comparing apples and bananas- there are similarities but there's more to contrast than there is to compare. Instead, the ROKR is a Motorola phone that runs a mobile version of the iTunes software. The distinction is an important one to make- if you view the ROKR alongside other Motorola phones, you see it fits in with their design style. Whether for good or ill is another discussion; I certainly have mixed feelings about Motorola phones in terms of design but they have a solid functional offering.

The ROKR E1 may be a testing of the waters. Perhaps Apple wanted to start small so as to avoid cannibalizing precious iPod sales. Rather than make the huge investment into building their own iPhone, which would have large R&D costs due to the high level of Mac integration that will be required for such a device to succeed, they partnered with an established phone manufacturer so that the risk is not as great.

If the ROKR concept takes off, great. If the market decides that phones are not good mp3 players, the damage will be kept somewhat at bay. But the biggest risk may be in not producing such a phone at all- there are other players in this space, and if the market takes off, Apple risks being left behind.

Put in that light, the ROKR might be good business strategy as a test balloon.

A 32 GB flash iPod may be in our future. Samsung has announced that they've
developed a 16 Gb (that's giga-BIT, not -BYTE) flash memory chip. These chips, when
assembled into a flash memory card for use in, for instance, USB keys, mp3 players, or
digital cameras, would constitute a 32 GB (that's -BYTE) flash memory card.

With the positive buzz surrounding the iPod Nano, which at present has a 2- and a 4-
GB version, I forsee a future with larger and larger mp3 devices, sans hard disk technology.
Even more interesting is the proposition that these drives, if made at a large enough
scala that their price points would be affordable, could also go into portable computing
devices and mobile phones, which seem to be held back in part by the power and size requirements
of mini hard disks, and which instead remain in the low-capacity flash realm.

Alongside the Motorola/iTunes ROKR phone announcement came word of another impressive design achievement out of 1 Infinite Loop. The iPod Nano takes advantage of recent drops in flash memory prices and increases in capacity to create an iPod completely based on flash. Yes, we've already seen that with the iPod Shuffle, but the Nano has a full color display and clickwheel, allowing the user to choose exactly what they want to hear.

The Nano is named appropriately for its physical size, but the storage space of 2- and 4- GB is anything but tiny. The pricing starts at $199, making this a nice midlevel (above Shuffle, but below the larger iPods) offering. I wonder what's to become of the hard disk based iPod Minis out there... perhaps they are getting more affordable on eBay this week.

Comparisions

Apple Looking at the detailed specs, the standard iPod weighs in at 5.9 or 6.4 ounces, while the Nano weighs a mere 1.9 ounces. The storage capacity is much less, but the Nano is also capable of photo slideshows on its LCD screen! There is, however, no video-out jack.

Also of interest to those familiar with Apple's ongoing difficulties with battery life is that the iPod Nano cuts charging time down to 3 hours while keeping the playback time to about 14 hours. This seems  a siginificant stride due in no small part to the use of flash memory rather than energy-hungry hard disks.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this product is headed in the future, and I'll be keeping my eye on the ROKR phone as well, posting updates as they become available.

Today, Apple Computer has released the rumored iPod Phone combination device, called the ROKR. At first glance it's quite a nice phone, featuring tri-band international GSM, a small and light formfactor, video recording, camera with zoom and flash. Add to that the iTunes mobile software which at present time can hold 100 songs, and the stereo playback, and you have a nice way of converging audio playback with mobile communications.

The ROKR, made by Motorola, is currently only supported by Cingular Wireless. Rumor has it that the other mobile carriers had problems with allowing the songs to be transferred to the phone directly from the users' iTunes installations on their desktops. The phone has Bluetooth technology, leading to speculation that song transferrence can take place wirelessly (though at Bluetooth's datarate I wouldn't want to transfer any more than the 100 songs this phone can hold!).

This phone looks to be a winner. The advantages of having its desktop sync software already installed on many home PCs, the nice touch of having music automatically pause when incoming calls occur, and a well-laid out interface will make the first iTunes-capable phone a worthy entry into the market.

I've finally had the chance to take a look at the Palm LifeDrive, which I wrote about back in June. In spite of the price, I'm quite impressed. The form factor is pleasing and is indeed a palmtop device. In the limited amount of time I had to experiment, I noticed the navigation is simple, fairly intuitive (at least as intuitive as the Sidekick II) and efficient.

The color screen is sharp, and can operate in both portrait and landscape mode. I entered the media viewer and was pleased to see that playback of video files is sharp and, at least for the file I watched, free of stutter and distortion. I did not have the opportunity to listen to any audio output, but I noted the iTunes-like interface, right down to the brushed metal look of the GUI.

The browser seems like it might be easy to use, but unfortunately there was not a WiFi connection available at the time I was inspecting the LifeDrive.

From my brief encounter with the device, the LifeDrive remains on my personal wishlist. I'd prefer to take a longer test drive to really get into detail and write a better review. Stay tuned; I'll see what the options are for getting that underway.