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Samsung Galaxy S vs. Samsung Galaxy S

Posted on June 17, 2010 ·

The title is not a typo, I’m really comparing the Galaxy S to the Galaxy S.  Join me.  Here’s the version many of us have seen, and I held in my hands (salivating with desire, I might add) at the Google I/O Conference:

Samsung-Galaxy-S front

And here’s the Samsung Captivate, announced by At&T today, and heralded as AT&T’s brand for the Samsung Galaxy S.

Something does not compute ( and I don’t mean the phones, these babies are blazing fast).  But either they are not both the Samsung Galaxy S, or this name refers to an entire family of devices, not just one specific model.  The latter does not make too much sense to me: Samsung Galaxy can be a family name, without the “S”.  Case in point: Samsung Galaxy Tab .

What gives?  Does anyone have an explanation?  Samsung, feel free to chime in.   Oh, and please release this baby while I am still within the 30-day period of my HTC EVO 🙂

Related posts:

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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Update on the Sprint HTC EVO Battery Debate: Not Bad, Really. See Yourself.

Posted on June 14, 2010 ·

IMG_9983The HTC EVO is the hottest Android phone for now, but it is plagued by the much debated battery issue.  Clearly, it’s a monster of a workhorse, and battery life will depend on one’s usage patterns: you can’t expect a whole lot if you get background updates from social networks every 5  minutes and watch HD video for hours.

But the real divisive issue is battery life on stand-by: some claim their EVO’s die in Sleep mode in a matter of 5-6 hours, while others swear battery life is not worse than that of the iPhone.  TechCrunch goes as far as warning people: Don’t Buy The HTC EVO, It Is A Seriously Flawed Device.

Wow, that’s a heavy statement – and I have to disagree, because I had experienced all the trouble myself, than started to research, experiment and went from 5 hours to 2 days standby time.

But I don’t want to argue – I don’t have to.  I have proof.  Just look at the image on the right: after almost 2 days my EVO still has 40% battery left.

I’d say that’s as good as you can get, from a powerful little computer that happens to allow phone calls, too. 🙂

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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Fixing the Battery Problem your Android Smartphone Seems to Have

Posted on May 31, 2010 ·
Android and cupcake at the Googleplex

Image via Wikipedia

I shared some of my recent Android experience here, with the two leading phones, Verizon’s HTC Incredible and Sprint’s EVO  now it’s time to share a trick (actually two) that makes or breaks your experience with these two mobile powerhouses. Matt Burns @ MobileCrunch loves the EVO but considers the battery a deal-breaker:

Simply put, the battery sucks. It’s a deal breaker. I’m really sorry to say that, too. In fact it hurts me because I wanted this phone so bad, but the battery life is horrible. The phone will lose a third of its battery sitting overnight with the GPS, WiFi, and 4G turned off. Even with Advanced Task Killer set to aggressive and auto killing apps every hour, the most I can get out of the phone is about ten hours.

I know – been there, done that and could not believe how bad it was.  In fact with everything (Wifi, GPS, Mobile Data) off and without activity, in Sleep mode the battery died in 6 hours.  So why have a Smartphone if I have to turn everything off to be able to make a few calls?  I refused to accept it, searched, searched, experimented, and found the two tricks that can dramatically improve battery life.  They are actually simple: start with more, and don’t lose it 🙂

Start with more juice

No, I don’t mean buying a bigger battery pack. Get more out of what you already have. Charge with Power OFF.  Seriously.  If you charge your phone turned on, it will reach full charge status very fast.  The problem is, it’s not really full, only  Android thinks so.  Turn it off,  and recharging will last hours longer, but it will truly be full.  Since it appears to be a software glitch, we can hope an OTA update will fix it … one day.

Don’t lose your juice

Keep your Apps under control.  No, Task Killer and similar tools won’t help, some programs do get restarted no matter what you do.   Here’s what you need to check:  After power on, keep the phone in Sleep mode for a few hours.  If Uptime and Awake time are close to each other, or even 2:1  3:1 ratio, you have a problem.  An application does not allow your phone to go to sleep.  Keep on trimming your App list (and I don’t just mean shut down, but full uninstall) until you’ll see awake time less than 10% of uptime.

With those two tricks, your phone should last 2+ days in Sleep mode, and otherwise it will obviously depend on your actual usage.

Oh, and I am switching from the Incredible to the EVO 🙂

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Best Buy Smarter than the Apple Store

Posted on May 26, 2010 ·

apple store “There is an App for that” – is the mantra nowadays, and I really hoped for one,  to solve the major task of telling me where I can buy an iPad.  Anywhere, in any physical store along my long drive from San Francisco to Pleasanton. In the real-time, always-on age it should not be a big deal.  But it is.

Of the two potential sources Best Buy fares better: at least they have an online inventory locator, which tells you none of the stores have it 🙁

Apple stores (the best retail experience in any industry)?  Fuhhgedaboudit.  You can order online and wait two weeks for delivery, find retail stores, even make personal shopping appointments, but the online system can’t tell you availability in the individual stores.  But the Apple site certainly looks better than Best Buys.  Design without content. 🙁

So I am back to the Stone Age method: calling stores one by one.  At least my smartphone helps with that: Google Maps pulls up the stores in the area, and I can touch to call them one by one.   All Apple stores answer with this message:

Thank you for calling the Apple Store in …..  The magical and revolutionary iPad is now available…

Except it’s not. Available.  You have to get to a live salesperson, store by store, to get that information. The welcome message is a cheery lie.   Once again, Best Buy fares better:  the welcome message apologizes that they did not receive new shipments, and all their stores are out of iPad inventory.

So that leaves me with one choice: ordering the iPad online. Which I did.  And don’t get me started on how many things went wrong during the order process…

I know, I deserve it.  After all on the long ride from Google I/O @ Moscone to Pleasanton I had two gorgeous smartphones next to me, on the passenger seat.  Both Android. 🙂

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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Does Sprint Limit Using Google Voice?

Posted on May 21, 2010 ·

(See update @ the bottom)
Well, this did not take long. I’ve just speculated that Google & Sprint wanted testers before the commercial rollout of the Android-driven HTC EVO on June 4th – a few hours later I see that theory proven.  I ran into trouble setting up Google Voice, and called the special number given to Google I/O attendees.  Apparently it’s a “discovery period” customer support group, and the rep I talked to was very (unusually!) courteous and helpful – at least she tried to, within the limits of information available to her.  Unfortunately it wasn’t enough.  Here’s the skinny:

I’m in the somewhat rare situation of being able to compare the HTC Incredible on Verizon and the EVO on Sprint, released a month apart, with essentially the same setup, same software releases.  Here’s part of the Google Voice configuration screen on both:

Google Voice Verizon vs Sprint

And yes, the shocking discovery: it appears that Sprint limits using Google Voice to international calls only.  Let me rephrase that: other parts (e.g. voicemail, transcription..etc) of the Google Voice service will still work, but if you can’t initiate calls using your GV number, than guess what, the other party will see your Sprint mobile number, that’s where they will call you back…etc – in other words the key concept of “One number to show”, which is what Google Voice integration is all about, is dead.

The Sprint rep told me she hoped it was a software glitch that would soon be updated, but frankly, the different wording suggests otherwise.  I’m afraid it’s a business decision by Sprint, and one that should be made very, very public.  Full Google Voice integration happens to be a key decision-making factor when switching to Android, for yours truly, forTechCrunch’s Mike Arrington and likely many others.  Not having it could prove to be a show stopper.

I hope it’s not final – Sprint, Google, HTC, whoever – please chime in here.  We need answers.

Update: The short answer, and it’s a good one, it’s not Sprint policy, just an installation glitch. Details:

All of a sudden I remembered that a few weeks ago when I set up Google Voice on the HTC Incredible with Verizon, it refused the accept my existing Google Voice number, so I tricked it: went ahead with the route of setting up a new number, but input y existing Google Voice number, then it worked.

I suppose something got fixed since then, as the Sprint EVO allowed me to link up with the existing GV account, albeit with the limitation shown above… so I started to wonder if I should try the same trick here.  I deleted the Sprint cell number from Google Voice, signed out on the EVO and even deleted the entire Google Voice app (probably an unnecessarily step, but who knows…).   Then I proceeded with the “new number” setup, but of course using the existing account information.  Got into a couple of loops with error messages, nevertheless following all prompts both on the mobile and the GV web side finally resulted in the perfect Google Voice installation, with identical results to the Incredible version (the phone shown on the left).  I’m a happy Google Voice user again.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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Fake Steve Jobs’s Split Personality

Posted on May 21, 2010 ·

fake-steveIt’s tough to be Fake Steve Jobs nowadays.

Continuing in his role as FSJ, he has to defend all-things-Apple, especially from ruthless attackers like Google. (As a sidenote, did Vic Gundotra just have a Steve Jobs moment yesterday?)

On the other hand Fake Steve is also the Real Daniel Lyons.  One who actually uses smartphones, wants to pick what he really likes and is sick of his alter ego’s “censoring content, ruling out material that he deems to be offensive”.  To the point that he ditched the iPhone and switched to Android.

Now, which Steve / Daniel should we believe?  🙂

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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On Those Android Superphones Again

Posted on May 21, 2010 ·

vic gundotra Wow, for not being a gadget-blog, we’re spending quite a bit of attention on Smartphones @ CloudAve. Are we turning into gadget-freaks? 🙂

Like Ben, I’ve also received an Android-powered Sprint HTC EVO at the Google I/O Conference, and unlike him, I will be able to use it on Sprint, if I so chose.  As a New Zealander, Ben is out of luck – the Sprint CDMA phone does not work there, so I understand his rant, but let’s make it clear: Google did not ignore international attendees.  All paid participants (we we, bloggers, were not)  had received a phone weeks prior to the conference: US attendees a Motorola Droid, International ones an unlocked Nexus One.

Which is why I was shocked to hear Vic Gundotra’s announcement on the second day that all attendees would receive the next HTC wonderphone (hey, was that Vic’s Steve Jobs-like “One More Thing” moment?).   Since this somewhat invalidates the previous phone giveaway, I can’t help but think that it was a last-minute addition to Google’s original game plan – and that leaves me wondering about the reasons.

I can only speculate, but perhaps Google and Sprint wanted to have a few thousand “testers” for the phone before it’s official launch on June 4th?  In fact not just any users, but developers – but that would make even more sense if they had early access to Froyo (Android 2.2) which is announced, but not yet available.  Both new HTC phones – Incredible on Verizon and EVO on Sprint  came with the HTC Sense flavor of Android, but the EVO will allow turning this off, switching back to vanilla Android.  I will turn it off today and keep an eye for a magic OTA upgrade to Froyo:-)

(Again, this is pure speculation, I have no official or leaked info on the matter whatsoever)

Now, a bit of follow-up on my previous rant regarding coverage.  Phone companies must have decided I live in a corner of the world  – home to PeopleSoft, Commerce One,  Oracle, Workday, Safeway, Kaiser Permanente – that does not deserve good coverage (OK, the surrounding mountains may have to do with that, too) . Getting sick of reading all the coverage map and the surrounding spin, I actually fell victim to the most dishonest map from the carrier with the best coverage, Verizon.  Unlike the others, they don’t indicate signal quality at all.   So now I am the proud (?) owner of both the HTC Incredible (purchased myself) and the HTC EVO (Google gift) and get to compare Sprint vs Verizon in my area – one weaker than the other:-(

And with all that said, my favorite phone is one I can not get my hands on: the Samsung Galaxy S. No writeup or video can do it justice.  You have to hold it in your hands.  I did.  It was hard to let go.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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Facebook Big Mac Attack – Not For Me, Thanks. Top 10 Reasons to …

Posted on May 7, 2010 ·

Burger Fat Kid Oh, just what the Doctor has ordered: more junk food coming your way, left and right, from the social network that’s taking over the Internet: Facebook.  McDonald’s will be the first advertiser taking advantage of Facebook’s soon-t0-be-releasing location feature.

The first reaction from most is this will kill leading location-based services: Hey Foursquare, Time To Close That Round Of Funding Before Facebook Chops Off Your Head.  Yes, probably true, but now I am more worried about Facebook users – all of us – then businesses, and not just as a defender of healthier diets.  Greasy or not, it’s not the ads that worry my, it’s yet another level of thoughtless surrender we’ll soon be committing: broadcasting our location every step of the way.

Yes, I realize there may be social benefits from bumping into friends via Foursquare Facebook, but have you really considered the danger of letting the world know where you are every step of the way?   While you think about it, also consider just whose hands you leave all that data in: not exactly the champions of privacy.

The Relationship Between Facebook and Privacy: It’s Really Complicated says Mathew Ingram @ GigaOM this morning, and I strongly disagree.  There is nothing complicated about it.  Facebook does not give a *** about privacy: it’s a concept CEO Mark Zuckerberg finds obsolete, simply does not believe in at all. Now, in reality, even Facebook caves in  to demands of privacy, but they are either careless or incompetent, or both, plugging one security hole after another.

Three strikes and you’re out – I guess Facebook is exempt from that law, now that they are becoming the New Internet.

But people are actually worried about privacy implications to consider quitting Facebook entirely: 10 Reasons To Delete Your Facebook Account.  It’s a post worth reading in full, here are just the headings:

10. Facebook’s Terms Of Service are completely one-sided

9. Facebook’s CEO has a documented history of unethical behavior

8. Facebook has flat out declared war on privacy.

7. Facebook is pulling a classic bait-and-switch

6. Facebook is a bully

5. Even your private data is shared with applications (you are no longer trusting Facebook, but the Facebook ecosystem).

4. Facebook is not technically competent enough to be trusted.

3. Facebook makes it incredibly difficult to truly delete your account.

2. Facebook doesn’t (really) support the Open Web.

1. The Facebook application itself sucks.

facebook internet 2040I must admit for all my grumpiness I have not deleted my account, and I likely will not (not that it would be easy ).  I resisted joining Facebook in the first place, was probably a year or so late, and even when I joined, I created a separate email account just for FB, and disallowed saving any Facebook cookies (remember Beacon? ). But resistance became just too inconvenient… so now I am in. That said I am not particularly active on Facebook, hardly maintain my profile and generally my presence there is a mess (this is where my marketing friends can jump in chastizing me for the lost opportunity).  I’m only sticking around because Facebook has proven to be too pervasive, it is everywhere and (almost) everyone is on it.  So yes, it is great to find long-lost friends and even discover some new ones.  But that’s all for me, and I seriously suggest you all reconsider the level of your presence.

And even if you are very disciplined in your Facebook usage (are you?) read #5 above again.  Just yesterday I was setting up my shiny new Android phone: I decided to enable location information, for the benefit of Google Maps and other really useful services.  But… but..but … I am also tweeting and communicating in a zillion other ways from that same device, and although I will try to be careful about reviewing the permissions of every single app, it’s likely I will slip sooner or later.

So think about this: in this API-driven intertwined ecosystem of mobile and web services, just how certain can you be that Facebook (and others) won’t get information you never intend to give them in the first place, no matter how careful (you think) you are?

Updates:

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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I Stole the HTC Incredible for $99. OMG.

Posted on April 30, 2010 ·

Wow, talk about luck, apparently I caught a discount that barely existed for hours.  I’ve long waited for a decent smartphone available @ Verizon, be it the iPhone, Nexus One or whatever else … so raving reviews of the HTC Incredible certainly did not leave me cold. Still somewhat hesitating, I started to look for deals.  Verizon offers the new superphone for $199 with a two-year contract, but I’ve quickly quickly found some outlets selling it for $149. Then it occurred to me I should check my new default shopping destination, Amazon.  Bingo!

htc 99

I could not resist the $99 price, so I quickly ordered it.  This morning I wondered why people are saying Amazon sells it for $149 … a quick check on the pricing:

htc 149

Wow – was the $99 an introductory promotion ( not that they needed it, the first shipment sold out in hours), or an honest mistake by Amazon?  I don’t know, but am certainly happy that I grabbed it while it lasted 🙂

Now, if only HTC had a better name for it: saying HTC Droid Incredible is quite a mouthful – compared to the elegant simplicity (simple elegance?) of just saying iPHone.  Perhaps they should follow this advice:

If you have the audacity to name your new smartphone Incredible, it had darn well better live up to its name. Based on the reviews from CNET, LAPTOP magazine, PC Magazine, and PC World, the new HTC Droid Incredible does just that. In fact, the Android 2.1-based Verizon phone ($200 with two-year contract) could just as well be named Awesome. Stupefying. Maybe even OMG.

OMG.  I like it.  Now, please, Holy Amazon, just ship it soon.

(Cross-posted @ CloudAve)

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How To Buy A Non-iPhone

Posted on April 24, 2010 ·

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