Being a former Nokia fan I was really excited to see what they were gonna announce today. I believe we already know that Nokia would be adopting Windows Phone as their main platform but we wanted to get into the details. So, who is the biggest winner? Without a doubt Nokia is the biggest winner of this alliance. They were already dead in the market. They were still ahead in terms of market share and shipped devices but in terms of innovation they were pretty much dead. They needed to make a tough choice and they did it. I think it was something like, let's try to get together with Google, with Microsoft, even with HP for WebOS; it was something like, we are desperate and need someone to get us back on track asap. And among all those options Microsoft was the best for Nokia.
But, was it really the best? Well, let go back a little while and see Elop's background. Where does he come from? Yep, you are right! Microsoft. So he already knows how Microsoft works. He know what Microsoft would be willing to give and what would not. Nokia needs to be recognized in the US and Microsoft needs to get stronger in Europe with Windows Phone. So there you go. It is a win - win situation. Nokia is still a really important brand in Europe. Remember how Symbian ruled that part of the world while RIM was taking over America?
However, not everything is so bright. What can be wrong? Well, Windows Phone is still a fairly new platform. It has still to find a way to explode its full potential. So far, it still has to mature as a mobile OS. Nokia and Microsoft will need to work hard if they want to position Windows Phone as a leader mobile platform. Maybe with Android, Nokia would not have needed that too much work. Nokia alleges that Android would not let them differentiate enough from other vendors. I am still thinking how Android can limit one brand on customization and seriously I have no clue. Even if Nokia did not go with Android at this moment, I still have hope that they will join forces at some time. Eldar Murtazin has already tweeted about it. And since we are discussing customization let's remember that Microsoft did not let HTC put their so famous Sense UI on Windows Phone devices. It was Microsoft who said that they wanted to keep a uniform experience across all the devices running their OS. For that reason is that it seems odd that according to Ballmer and Elop, Nokia will be allowed to customize their devices in a deeper way than the other brands. What would HTC and Samsung think about this? I can tell you that they will push Microsoft to get the same privileges. And then, we will have something that was not Microsoft's original plan. I would not blame them, you need to evolve and be prepared to give away something to keep growing.
The one thing I am still curious is to see how Bing maps will integrate/work with Ovi Maps. I believe Ovi Maps is one of the best mapping softwares you can ever find. There was a time when Ovi Maps was years ahead of Google Maps and I would not like to see it just disappear. Another thing that will be integrated is Ovi Store. According to today's conference, it will become part of Microsoft Marketplace. Those are good news as Ovi Store never caused an impact.
I really hope both Microsoft and Nokia can build something great together. Both are struggling to get a place in the Mobile OS wars. Unfortunately, there is one thing both Windows Phone and Nokia share. They do not keep their promises. How long have you, Windows Phone users, been waiting for the copy/paste update? And I can easily think of 5 Nokia devices that suffered delay after delay. Anyway, I hope they can both learn from their mistakes (Kin Kin cough cough) and build devices that make me become a Nokia fan once again. I do believe Nokia makes the best hardware out there. And with Nokia, Microsoft may get that needed thrust to position Windows Phone as one of the leaders. As for who is not happy with this alliance? Samsung and Google come to my mind right away. I am sure Samsung will become the biggest cell phone vendor but Nokia will give them a good fight with this new weapon under their arm. And Google? Google will get together with Nokia at some point, I hope.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Nook Color. Is it any good as an Android Tablet?
Hi world,
So what's up with this tablet euphoria? Since the iPad, everyone is saying we are in the tablet era. Maybe most of who are saying it do not know that tablets have a long history. Anyway, it is good to see that a new gadget started quite a big revolution. I always considered myself not a tablet type guy. When the iPad came out I predicted a short life and no much interested to be generated. But maybe I just didn't count with how Apple promote their products.
With the way Android is doing, it was just a matter of time before we were flooded with many tablets running the Google OS. Maybe the most equipped of all those tablets is the Sammy Galaxy Tab. Getting one of those will take between $200 and$ 600 out of your pocket and a 2 year contract. For example, US Cellular offers the Tab for $200 but you need to pay $60 per month for 2 years. Are you willing to pay for another plan besides your cellphone? Why not just getting the Tab and use your mobile to tether and get internet in your tablet? In other cases like Verizon you need to pay $500 and you can optionally pay monthly for data usage. Bottom line, it takes some cash to have a Galaxy Tab. And on top of that we need to consider that Android is still not optimized for tablets. If we want an Android version optimized for tablets, we need to wait for the Motorola Tablet, Xoom maybe the name, to be released around March and sporting an Android 3.0 version. If what Andy Rubin showed in Dive Into Mobile is what we will get then I am willing to spend what the Tab costs right now.
So do we have any other option if we want an Android tablet? Yes, we have Archos tablets, the Viewsonic G Tablet and if we are willing to get our hands dirty, we have the Nook Color. I was in the market for an eReader and about to get a Kindle 3rd generation. From my point of view, the Kindle is the best eReader out there. But if you want to get something more than a reader then consider the Nook Color. What do we get with it? Well, Barnes and Noble has done a great job with the second generation of their eReader. The first thing you will notice will be the 7in screen with a 1024 x 600 resolution. Sounds fancy but is it that good? It is. It has the iPad resolution in a smaller screen which results in a higher pixel density (169 ppi). It also feels good in hand and built with high quality materials. By no means it is light but it is not as heavy as it looks. It is also thinner than the Galaxy Tab.
What do you need it to make it a real tablet? Well, as with any iOS and/or Android device you need to jailbreak/root it to get the most out of it. But do not be afraid. The process is really really simple. Maybe not as much as the Unrevoked one click root but still fairly simple. Basically you download a boot image that you will put into a SD card and use it to boot your NC. The only downside of the process is that while rooting the device, you do not have any feedback on the progress. You get kind of nervous when your brand new NC has a black screen for more than 2 minutes. But after it boots up, you get your reward.
The best thing about rooting your NC is that you do not lose any of the B&N software. Every application is there and if you like the homescreen that comes by default then you can still keep it. If you also want to install an alternative launcher like ADW of LauncherPro you can do it and then switch between the stock launcher and the one you installed. Maybe the biggest limitation you will find is the lack of physical keys. You do not have the regular 4 keys to navigate through the Android OS. This is greatly worked around by an application called Softkeys. It takes some time to get used to it and it is also buggier than you would like it to be. But if you are not a picky user then you will be fine.
The performance after rooting is somehow inconsistent. Some times it is really snappy but other times it has some problems handling some applications. Users who have rooted their NC have also noticed that after the root, it may reboot on itself while sleeping. I have seen this twice with my NC. I think all of these inconsistencies will be over once a custom ROM is released for it. We just need to be patient for someone to release it. I personally would love to see CyanogenMod running on this device but I guess it will not be soon. The CM team has been really busy with the Gingerbread release and all the devices that they support.
I have been using my NC for two weeks mainly for Google Books, Google Reader, Twitter, Last.fm and Gmail. I could not be happier. It is great to have a bigger screen (when compared to my Nexus One) to read on but at the same time portable enough to get it around the house. As a reader it behaves great and as a tablet you can install whatever Android app you can think about. That is my next point. Somehow I thought that its graphic processing power will not stand up for the big tasks. That opinion changed once I installed Dungeon Defenders: First Wave. This game was released on Dec 23 for Android devices. I loved the game. Graphically speaking it looks great and it is using the Unreal engine. However, the game has some minimum requirements to run. Two days ago I played it with a friend. He has a Sammy Epic and I can tell you there were some differences between the performance seen in the Nexus One and the one seen in the Epic. It runs much smoother on the Nexus. Maybe it is because of the GPU included in the Hummingbird processor. I decided to install the game on my NC to enjoy playing on a bigger screen. I can tell you that it works great. The performance is really good and the graphics look awesome.
Answering to the post title, is it any good as an Android Tablet? It is. For $250 it is the best Android tablet you can get and once we get a custom rom running on it this device will definitely rock.
So what's up with this tablet euphoria? Since the iPad, everyone is saying we are in the tablet era. Maybe most of who are saying it do not know that tablets have a long history. Anyway, it is good to see that a new gadget started quite a big revolution. I always considered myself not a tablet type guy. When the iPad came out I predicted a short life and no much interested to be generated. But maybe I just didn't count with how Apple promote their products.
With the way Android is doing, it was just a matter of time before we were flooded with many tablets running the Google OS. Maybe the most equipped of all those tablets is the Sammy Galaxy Tab. Getting one of those will take between $200 and$ 600 out of your pocket and a 2 year contract. For example, US Cellular offers the Tab for $200 but you need to pay $60 per month for 2 years. Are you willing to pay for another plan besides your cellphone? Why not just getting the Tab and use your mobile to tether and get internet in your tablet? In other cases like Verizon you need to pay $500 and you can optionally pay monthly for data usage. Bottom line, it takes some cash to have a Galaxy Tab. And on top of that we need to consider that Android is still not optimized for tablets. If we want an Android version optimized for tablets, we need to wait for the Motorola Tablet, Xoom maybe the name, to be released around March and sporting an Android 3.0 version. If what Andy Rubin showed in Dive Into Mobile is what we will get then I am willing to spend what the Tab costs right now.
So do we have any other option if we want an Android tablet? Yes, we have Archos tablets, the Viewsonic G Tablet and if we are willing to get our hands dirty, we have the Nook Color. I was in the market for an eReader and about to get a Kindle 3rd generation. From my point of view, the Kindle is the best eReader out there. But if you want to get something more than a reader then consider the Nook Color. What do we get with it? Well, Barnes and Noble has done a great job with the second generation of their eReader. The first thing you will notice will be the 7in screen with a 1024 x 600 resolution. Sounds fancy but is it that good? It is. It has the iPad resolution in a smaller screen which results in a higher pixel density (169 ppi). It also feels good in hand and built with high quality materials. By no means it is light but it is not as heavy as it looks. It is also thinner than the Galaxy Tab.
What do you need it to make it a real tablet? Well, as with any iOS and/or Android device you need to jailbreak/root it to get the most out of it. But do not be afraid. The process is really really simple. Maybe not as much as the Unrevoked one click root but still fairly simple. Basically you download a boot image that you will put into a SD card and use it to boot your NC. The only downside of the process is that while rooting the device, you do not have any feedback on the progress. You get kind of nervous when your brand new NC has a black screen for more than 2 minutes. But after it boots up, you get your reward.
The best thing about rooting your NC is that you do not lose any of the B&N software. Every application is there and if you like the homescreen that comes by default then you can still keep it. If you also want to install an alternative launcher like ADW of LauncherPro you can do it and then switch between the stock launcher and the one you installed. Maybe the biggest limitation you will find is the lack of physical keys. You do not have the regular 4 keys to navigate through the Android OS. This is greatly worked around by an application called Softkeys. It takes some time to get used to it and it is also buggier than you would like it to be. But if you are not a picky user then you will be fine.
The performance after rooting is somehow inconsistent. Some times it is really snappy but other times it has some problems handling some applications. Users who have rooted their NC have also noticed that after the root, it may reboot on itself while sleeping. I have seen this twice with my NC. I think all of these inconsistencies will be over once a custom ROM is released for it. We just need to be patient for someone to release it. I personally would love to see CyanogenMod running on this device but I guess it will not be soon. The CM team has been really busy with the Gingerbread release and all the devices that they support.
I have been using my NC for two weeks mainly for Google Books, Google Reader, Twitter, Last.fm and Gmail. I could not be happier. It is great to have a bigger screen (when compared to my Nexus One) to read on but at the same time portable enough to get it around the house. As a reader it behaves great and as a tablet you can install whatever Android app you can think about. That is my next point. Somehow I thought that its graphic processing power will not stand up for the big tasks. That opinion changed once I installed Dungeon Defenders: First Wave. This game was released on Dec 23 for Android devices. I loved the game. Graphically speaking it looks great and it is using the Unreal engine. However, the game has some minimum requirements to run. Two days ago I played it with a friend. He has a Sammy Epic and I can tell you there were some differences between the performance seen in the Nexus One and the one seen in the Epic. It runs much smoother on the Nexus. Maybe it is because of the GPU included in the Hummingbird processor. I decided to install the game on my NC to enjoy playing on a bigger screen. I can tell you that it works great. The performance is really good and the graphics look awesome.
Answering to the post title, is it any good as an Android Tablet? It is. For $250 it is the best Android tablet you can get and once we get a custom rom running on it this device will definitely rock.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Is there anybody out there?? CR-48 and Google TV update
Hi there,
This is my debut in blogging, so please be nice :). I've had the curiosity to explore this, until now, unknown territory but I have never been brave enough. However, as the time has been passing the desire to write about anything has been increasing. So I started to think about what should I write about. And then I decided to write about what I feel more passionate about; and that is mobile technology. After college I worked for Nortel Networks (now sadly been teared apart and officially bankrupted) and somehow I ended up working in a whole different industry, BI software. Anyway, I have always followed how mobile technologies and mobile operating systems have evolved.
I brought up mobile operating systems because that is related to the first topic I would like to write about. There has been so much fuzz about the mobile OS wars. Something like iOS vs the world. Let me get something clear. I don't think that affirmation is quite accurate. If we get the data we will see Symbian as the king of the world. Yeah I know Nokia has been losing some ground and the Symbian Foundation is not in its best shape but they still rule the world. Don't get me wrong, I don't like, at least not anymore, how they operate. In fact I currently own a Nexus One and I couldn't be more satisfied with my cellphone.
But let's start to talk about what the title was about. What is the matter with Google? Seriously, are they trying to take over the world? This week I was lucky enough to get a CR-48 prototype in the mail. Wow, I was so excited to test this prototype. I still have some doubts about what is Google strategy for Chrome OS and Android. I think that in general they are targeting different markets; but at some point they are OS's that require being online everywhere and all the time. Would you prefer to carry a Chrome OS netbook or a new Stingray tablet? What is the future? Netbooks were really common some years ago but they never settled in and it seems that we are getting into the tablet era. Tablets have also existed for a while but it was not until the iPad arrived that everyone got interested in these devices. Apple may have a lot of defects but we have to admit that their marketing methods work.
So how good is the CR-48? It is plain good. We have to consider that this is a prototype and Google has implemented a good testing strategy by giving away a lot of devices. I know three people who received one as well. With this strategy I hope Google can get a lot of feedback and keep polishing the experience. So what is good about it and what is not that good? Well in terms of hardware it is a fairly solid device. It feels good in hand. It is very light and thin. Since we don't have any disc reader and it comes with a solid state drive, the noise keeps low most of the times. It is just when the fan comes in that it makes some noise; but really low as compared to any other notebook, netbook, laptop, etc. The keyboard is what I would point out about it. It is great that Google has simplified it a lot. Obviously there is no Windows key. The function keys are now gone and replaced with keys to control the brightness and volume. It also includes a reload button, a back and forward buttons, a full screen button and the power key. Finally, as you have read in many other sites, the caps lock key has been replaced with a 'search' key. Well, what would you expect from Google? Finally, the touchpad is one of those you would find in an Apple notebook. No buttons at all, huge in size and with two points of contact. I have never had one of this in my previous notebooks and getting used to the scrolling gesture and the RMC was no problem at all.
The user experience can become frustrating some times. Flash performance is no good at all but at least Adobe has acknowledged it and is working on it. There are also some issues while loading some sites. In particular, I have seen that Gmail gets stuck more often that what you would expect. The Google Talk webapp is also one of the things that crashes on a regular basis or just become unresponsive. Facebook for example crashes more often that it would display fine. Those are three things that I have seen tend not to work as well as you would like to. So if some sites work that bad, what is good about it? Well, for instance the CR-48 boots really fast. Even in cold start it takes barely 10 secs to boot up. In hot start it is almost instantaneous. Gone are the days to wait up for your notebook to get up and running. Another thing to highlight is that it synchronizes with your Google account. So if you installed one app using your CR-48 and then open your Chrome browser in your desktop machine, you will find it there installed as well. Not everything will work on your not-Chrome OS machine. For example, the Google Talk webapp is designed for the Google OS and it will not open in not-Chrome OS machines. Or for example, the IE Tab extension will not work in the CR-48 (pretty obvious right? considering it uses the IE installation which you do not have on your Google notebook). I know this synchronization is not something new but it is good to see that it works great. The other thing I really liked about the OS is one of is testing features. And that is a shortcut to report any issues that you may find. After clicking on it you will get redirected to a site asking you for feedback. You will need to specify the category where the issue belongs, give a description and you will have the option to include an email, url, system information and also a screenshot. I think this will give Google a strong feedback to help them polish the user experience.
Moving forward, an update was pushed last week to Google TV devices. So what is included and what is still missing? Well, the thing that everyone is waiting for is still missing. No Android Market yet. What was included? Netflix got a revamped UI. If you have a PS3 you will be familiar with it. It is the same interface. The one which gives you the ability to search for movies and also add subtitles to some of the movies available in instant queue. The other thing that got updated was the PIP feature. Now you can resize and move the PIP window to the screen corner of your preference. Finally, one of the missing features got added. I know the Revue has had an Android and iPhone app for some time to control it. However, the owners of the Google TV Sony products were missing this feature. Now you can download the Android app from the market to control your device (iPhone users need to wait some time for it to be available in the Apple app store). The app works great but some people may have a hard time using the pad buttons. That is because you don't 'tap' the up arrow button to move up in the interface. Basically, you need to 'swype' the up arrow button to go up in the interface. I have read some people complaining about that but trust me, you get familiar in a couple of minutes. One other thing you get in the app is the ability to move the cursor using a 'touchpad' interface. If I can complain about one thing in the Sony remote is the 'mouse' button. It is hard just to control it. It is much easier to use the Android app so I really welcomed this feature. Another good thing about the app is that you can paired more than one phone with your Google TV device. That means you can control Google TV with more than one device. That has some disadvantages and some advantages. Now you cannot steal the remote so that no one could change the channel. I also noticed the interface to be more responsive. What used to lag before feels more snappier.
So that's it for today. I liked the experience of writing and I already have some thoughts on the Nook Color I am eager to share. Let's meet again in Another day in mobile tech...
Moving forward, an update was pushed last week to Google TV devices. So what is included and what is still missing? Well, the thing that everyone is waiting for is still missing. No Android Market yet. What was included? Netflix got a revamped UI. If you have a PS3 you will be familiar with it. It is the same interface. The one which gives you the ability to search for movies and also add subtitles to some of the movies available in instant queue. The other thing that got updated was the PIP feature. Now you can resize and move the PIP window to the screen corner of your preference. Finally, one of the missing features got added. I know the Revue has had an Android and iPhone app for some time to control it. However, the owners of the Google TV Sony products were missing this feature. Now you can download the Android app from the market to control your device (iPhone users need to wait some time for it to be available in the Apple app store). The app works great but some people may have a hard time using the pad buttons. That is because you don't 'tap' the up arrow button to move up in the interface. Basically, you need to 'swype' the up arrow button to go up in the interface. I have read some people complaining about that but trust me, you get familiar in a couple of minutes. One other thing you get in the app is the ability to move the cursor using a 'touchpad' interface. If I can complain about one thing in the Sony remote is the 'mouse' button. It is hard just to control it. It is much easier to use the Android app so I really welcomed this feature. Another good thing about the app is that you can paired more than one phone with your Google TV device. That means you can control Google TV with more than one device. That has some disadvantages and some advantages. Now you cannot steal the remote so that no one could change the channel. I also noticed the interface to be more responsive. What used to lag before feels more snappier.
So that's it for today. I liked the experience of writing and I already have some thoughts on the Nook Color I am eager to share. Let's meet again in Another day in mobile tech...
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