Posts Tagged ‘Partial Hands On’
If you didn’t find much to gasp at during the iPhone OS 3.0 section ofMonday’s keynote presentation at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, that’s understandable. Much of what was showed off were features that we saw trotted out back at March’s iPhone special event where Apple initially introduced the software update.
That said, we did get a glimpse at a few brand new iPhone capabilities as well as a more detailed look at some of the features that were only hinted at three months ago. Let’s take a look at what’s coming to our iPhone when the update drops on June 17.
What’s in store
As rumored, the iPhone’s iTunes Store took a step in the direction of parity with its desktop sibling by adding the ability to purchase and rent movies, TV shows, music videos, and audiobooks from inside the phone’s iTunes app.
As with podcasts, music, and apps, any content that’s over 10MB will only be available to download via Wi-Fi, and not via the iPhone’s cellular connection. Apple’s also made content available from iTunes U, the store’s educational section with classes and lectures from schools around the world.
In addition, the iTunes application will now support users logging into one or more different iTunes accounts, and even let you create accounts directly on the phone. Previously, the iTunes app on the phone pulled its account information from whatever account was logged in on the computer that you were syncing with.
Parental units
Apple also showed off a few additions to the iPhone’s parental controls section, most notably the ability for parents to restrict what applications their children can use. This also requires that all developers submit an age-rating for their applications, as Apple senior vice president Scott Forstall later said. The App Store has received a lot of criticism for its issues with its approval process, including some apps that have been banned as a result of objectionable content, even in cases wherethe content was similar to that being sold elsewhere in the iTunes Store. Enabling restrictions on applications and forcing developers to rate their apps could be a way for Apple to absolve itself from some of the responsibility of policing for edgier content.
Fill ‘er up
AutoFill was briefly mentioned in Apple’s iPhone presentation back in March, but this was the first time we got a glimpse–albeit a brief one–at what it’s capable of. As in Safari on the desktop, not only can AutoFill remember the usernames and passwords for your Web sites, but it can also populate contact information fields on forms based on the information you’ve entered in your phone.
Tether ball
Apple took a little more time to talk about tethering, the ability to share your iPhone’s cellular data connection with your Mac or PC. While the company didn’t show us anything about how the feature works, it did say that a number of their partners in different countries would be offering the feature, though AT&T was notably absent. (A spokesperson from AT&T later told Macworld that the feature would arrive, though they did not say when or how much it would cost). Apple did, however, say that the tethering capability would work with Macs and PCs and could be used over either USB or Bluetooth.
Little iPhone lost
Perhaps the most ahhh-inducing unseen feature of iPhone 3.0 was the newly-unveiled Find My iPhone service. Available only to MobileMe subscribers, Find My iPhone allows you to locate your handset should you misplace it. You access the service via MobileMe’s Web interface, at which point you have several options. Firstly, the Web page can tell you the location of your iPhone, using the unit’s built-in location services, letting you know if you left your phone in the movie theater last night, or in the back of that cab.
You can also send a message to your iPhone, along with an alert sound that plays even if the phone’s ringer is off. This can help in situations where the GPS location doesn’t: for example, if you’ve misplaced the iPhone somewhere in your house. The chime can be played repeatedly, enabling you to easily track down the phone.
Finally, if the phone is lost for good, or contains sensitive information, you can also opt to remotely wipe all data from your phone: contacts, mail, music, photos, etc. And of course, should you then locate your phone, all you need to do is plug your iPhone back into your computer, and you can restore from the latest backup.
Language, please
The iPhone OS already supported almost 20 languages in iPhone 2.0–iPhone 3.0 expands that number to about 30, including long-awaited support for right-to-left languages like Hebrew and Arabic. Apple also noted the inclusion of Thai, Greek, and Korean, and noted that every keyboard has both landscape and portrait orientations.
The “s” is for software?
Along with its speedy new hardware, the iPhone 3G S also brings with it a variety of new software features. While these features are included in the iPhone OS 3.0 update, they’re only available to iPhone 3G S users.
The 3G S adds new camera features, including auto-focus, auto-exposure, and auto-white-balancing, all of which works in tandem the the 3G S’s new camera. There’s also a tap-to-focus feature that lets you select which part of a scene you want to focus on. In addition, the camera can also shoot video, which you’re able to trim using a built in filmstrip view very similar to that ofiMovie ’09. Once you’ve trimmed the clip, you can easily share it over e-mail, MMS, or upload it to YouTube or your MobileMe gallery.
The iPhone 3G S also adds Voice Control, a speech-recognition feature that lets you control common actions such as calling contacts and playing music just by speaking into the iPhone’s microphone or the unit’s headphone mic. Hold down the Home button to summon the Voice Control interface, and you can tell it to dial your friend by name, by number, or play music by track, artist, or playlist–you can even tell it to start playing a Genius playlist.
In addition to the Voice Control feature, Apple also talked about adding new accessibility features to the iPhone 3G S, such as Voice Over, zooming in on text, displaying a high-contrast white-on-black display, outputting mono audio, and more. Voice Over, in particular, features a number of specialized gestures to control different functions of the phone. However, the accessibility features are available only on the 3G S.
Apple also added support for Nike + to the iPhone 3G S, allowing you to use the Nike + iPod Sensor in conjunction with a new application to track your progress while running, and sync that data to iTunes for future use, just as you can with the Nike + iPod Sports Kit.
Finally, the iPhone 3G S also includes a new digital compass. Not only does it allow you to orient yourself using a compass interface (which also provides longitute and latitude), but you can also use the compass in the Maps program to show you which way you’re facing, and even orient the map corrently to help following directions easier.
Good for office and home use, the Y650 all-purpose laptop offers a big screen but remains light enough to lug around.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Y650 is a laptop looking for a niche. At first glance it has all the features of a fairly sexy desktop replacement: The 16-inch LCD screen, JBL speakers, and huge hard drive practically scream “media center notebook.” On top of all that, the fairly powerful processor and fast DDR3 memory can deal with just about any video content while handling other tasks, without a hitch. However, considering its low native display resolution and the fact that it has no graphics muscle to speak of, not to mention its price tag of $1299 (on our test unit, as of 4/13/09), we’re left to wonder about what, exactly, Lenovo was thinking.
The Y650 has some reasonably powerful components: With a 2.4GHz P8600 Core 2 Duo, 3GB of 1066MHz DDR3 RAM, and a 320GB hard drive, the Y650, running the 32-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium, did really well in WorldBench 6. Notching a score of 98 in our tests, it ripped through tasks at a decent pace–well above the average, in fact. Unfortunately things fell apart in our graphics tests, as the integrated Intel X4500 graphics limped along in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Unreal Tournament III (producing slide-show-worthy scores of 5 and 8 frames per second, respectively).
The Y650 continues Lenovo’s recent design direction, sporting a carbon-fiber body with a soft, rubberized shell on the lid. I really liked the soft surface and matte finish; it’s a distinctive look that also makes the scratches that are inevitable with glossy finishes a nonissue. The black outer shell of the laptop gives way to a glossy white finish surrounding the keyboard, plus a “copper” trim (which is also reflected in the function keys). It’s a clean, distinctive, yet stylish look that makes the machine stand out. If anything, the design suggests that Lenovo intends the Y650 to be a consumer-oriented machine–which makes our review unit’s lack of a good GPU an even more glaring omission.
Speaking of glaring omissions, this is as good a time as any to talk about the LCD panel. The screen is large and its brightness is good, with solid color levels and a sharp enough picture. It’s also comfortable to look at over long periods of time in various lighting conditions, up to and including moderate levels of sunlight in an office or bedroom, and that’s despite a relatively high-gloss surface. However, the comparatively low resolution (1366 by 768 pixels) on such a large display is disappointing, and it makes managing multiple tasks at once more difficult. Even more surprising is the lack of any display-upgrade options for the Y650 whatsoever. This is a real shame, as the Y650 is one of the few laptops around with a big enough display to justify a 1920 by 1080 (or even 1680 by 1050) resolution. With smaller laptops, dealing with a lower-resolution screen as a trade-off is easy enough–but with the Y650, it feels like a missed opportunity.
The Samsung Innov8 has an excellent camera, but its lack of a touchscreen or keyboard makes navigation difficult.
The pricey Samsung Innov8 ($930, unlocked; as of 4/7/2009) innovates in several ways–most notably with its 8-megapixel camera; carrying the highest resolution among phones sold to date in the United States, the Innov8 offers advanced in-camera photo editing capabilities and delivers excellent photo quality. And it has versatile multimedia features and an easy-to-use interface.
The Innov8′s design and ergonomics resemble that of a stand-alone camera. The unit’s black case with silver details gives it an attractive, minimalist look. A bright, 2.8-inch display takes up most of its front face, while a four-way navigational toggle with a central “OK” button sits below the screen. Talk and End/Power as well as two soft keys lie on either side of the toggle; you can customize the soft keys as shortcut keys of your choosing. As on the Samsung Omnia, the “OK” button doubles as an optical mouse: You can flick your finger over the button to scroll through contacts or multimedia or move throughout the interface. Using the optical mouse is a bit of an acquired taste: I found the mouse area almost too small to use comfortably, and it wasn’t always responsive. But you can turn this feature off.
On the right spine of the phone is a volume rocker, a 3.5-mm headphone jack, and a microUSB port for charging and data transfers. On the left sits a camera shutter button, a camera mode switch, and a microSD slot. The volume rocker on the right also serves as the digital zoom control, but this layout is a bit awkward: When you’re using the Innov8 in camera mode, the shutter button is on the top right corner and the zoom is on the bottom left. The placement is contrary to stand-alone cameras, which place the zoom and shutter button close to each other, so it feels somewhat counterintuitive. I kept hitting the camera mode switch by mistake when I wanted to zoom.
Despite this nitpick, I was really impressed with the Innov8′s camera. It has a surprising number of advanced features: Seven resolution settings, four image effects (black and white, sepia, negative, and watercolor), light metering, adjustable ISO, and a self-timer. It also offers three fun shooting modes (continuous, panorama, and mosaic), as well as a smile-shot mode that will take another picture if the subject is frowning.
In my hands-on tests, I found Image quality superb, for the most part. Colors were bright and accurate, detail was sharp, and most of my pictures in various environments looked great. The only issue I had was with darkly lit settings: The dual-LED flash just wasn’t strong enough to light my subjects. A true Xenon flash, such as that found on the Samsung Memoir or Motorola ZN5 models, drastically improves shots taken in low-light environments.
The Innov8 has 16GB of onboard storage, plenty of room for you to snap away without worrying about filling up your phone’s internal memory. And if you’re an avid shutterbug, you can pack on 32GB of extra storage via the Innov8′s microSD slot. A lot of the high-megapixel camera phones that have debuted on U.S. carriers don’t come close to this much storage. The Innov8 runs the 3rd Edition, Feature Pack2 version of Symbian S60, the same as the Nokia N96 and N85 phones. And like those N-Series devices, the Innov8 lacks a touchscreen and a hardware QWERTY keyboard, so you must navigate by using the toggle or the awkward optical mouse. Luckily, the majority of the most frequently used menu items are laid out cleanly on the home page. The menu’s interface is a predecessor of Samsung’s TouchWiz overlay. You can scroll through five icons: Shortcuts (which lists the more frequently used programs), Calendar, Music, FM Radio, and Personalization, and view them from within the home screen.
The S60 Web browser is easy to use, and pages loaded quickly and correctly. In the U.S., you can only access the Internet via Wi-Fi, though, because the Innov8 supports only European (900/2100MHz) 3G bands for data.
Unfortunately, I found call quality was hit-and-miss (I used the phone on T-Mobile’s 3G network). On a few calls, I heard a background hiss that was just loud enough to be distracting. Some of my contacts sounded tinny, as well. Parties on the other end of the line, however, said that my voice sounded loud enough, clear and natural, and most said that they did not hear the background hiss.
The audio player is fairly standard: You can view your music library by artist, album, genre, song title, and composer; you can also create playlists on the fly and adjust the sound using the equalizer Sadly, it’s not a true multiband equalizer that you can tweak. Instead, you can choose from different types of sound settings (party, treble, club, to name a few). Video quality was good, but I noticed some pixelation and image noise in a few clips.
Since the Innov8 debuted, Samsung has released the Memoir, which also has an 8-megapixel camera and is offered at a subsidized price through T-Mobile. The Memoir boasts similar camera features as the Innov8, but with one notable upgrade: a Xenon flash. Add a fun touchscreen user interface, and the Memoir is actually the better all-around camera phone. But if you’re not looking to bind yourself to a contract, you won’t be disappointed in the Innov8′s snapshot capabilities.
An unlocked brother to the HTC Touch series phones, the HTC Touch Cruise ($550, unlocked, as of 4/9/2009) has an eye-catching look and a beautifully designed touch interface. But like the other HTC phones we’ve tested, the Cruise suffers from sluggish performance–a common problem with Windows Mobile touchscreen phones.
The Touch Cruise is thin and lightweight, measuring 4.0 by 2.1 by 0.6 inches and weighing a featherlight 3.6 ounces. A generous 2.8-inch touchscreen with a gorgeous, bright 240-by-320-pixel resolution dominates the face of the phone. Sitting below the display is a cluster of navigational buttons consisting of four flush buttons and a four-way navigational pad encircled by a navi-wheel. The navi-wheel moves smoothly, and its rubber coating makes it comfortable to use. The four buttons are shortcut keys to Navigation, End, Send, and Footprints (a feature that lets you geotag photos) .
Over T-Mobile’s 3G network, I found the call quality disappointing. I heard a faint hiss in the background, but it wasn’t loud enough to be distracting. What was disappointing was the frequent echo on my end. But parties on the other end said that they could not hear a hiss or echo. Call recipients also said that my voice sounded loud and natural, with no distortion or tinny effect.
The Touch Cruise sports the improved TouchFLO 3D interface, a simple HTC overlay that runs atop the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard operating system. TouchFLO 3D looks spectacular on the Cruise’s display, but its performance was hit-and-miss and downright pokey at times.
TouchFLO 3D consists of a bar of shortcuts to applications such as the Internet browser, e-mail, and the music player that runs along the bottom of the screen. Overall, TouchFLO 3D is incredibly intuitive, making the sometimes headache-inducing Windows Mobile a breeze to navigate. You can flick through the shortcut bar to find an application, and it will instantly pop up on the screen. The programs present a 3D illusion (hence the name) that is very pleasing and futuristic-looking. The weather application, for example, was impressive with its animations of the current forecast.
Unfortunately, while applications popped up quickly, I noticed some lag when scrolling through contacts and messages, as well as when navigating through the music app. I often found myself swiping the shortcut bar multiple times to get it to move. I also had to tap keys on both the QWERTY and numeric keyboards until a letter or number appeared on the screen. Another drawback to TouchFLO 3D: You can’t customize your shortcuts without digging deep into the Windows operating system.
For browsing the Web, HTC preinstalls both Internet Explorer Mobile and Opera Mobile. The Opera browser can handle regular Web sites as well as mobile sites. But like similar smartphone browsers, it does not include Flash support out of the box. The Opera 9.5 Web browser loads quickly and is easy to use–the Cruise’s touch- and press-sensitive navigation button is similar to the iPod’s touch wheel, with the ability to zoom in and out of pages. Like all HTC Windows Mobile phones, the Cruise has Microsoft Outlook, as well as Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat capabilities.
The music player, like most of the programs on the TouchFLO 3D interface, is aesthetically pleasing, with an iTunes-esque album-art navigation system. Sound quality was good overall. The lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack limits the phone’s capabilities as a music player, though; to use standard headphones, you must insert a clunky adapter, included with the phone.
The Cruise lacks a dedicated camera key, but you can access the camera from the shortcut bar. On the Touch Diamond, the camera is located on the front of the device, so it doubles as a video conferencing tool, too. The Cruise, however, has its lens on the back, so it lacks a video calling option. The 3.2-megapixel camera has no flash, but it does have autofocus, and a few advanced controls such as flash light adjustment, white balance, and self-timer settings. You can zoom in to your subject using the touch-sensitive navigation button. Image quality was average, but shots in low-light environments suffered due to the lack of flash. You can view your photos in a touch-friendly, flickable photo album, similar to the iPhone’s.
The HTC Cruise impresses with its gorgeous display and variety of multimedia features. But like other HTC Touch phones we’ve seen, the Cruise’s touch interface gets is bogged down by Windows Mobile, which makes for a sometimes frustrating experience.