Hi there, Ed Hodges here. From the videos! Well, more precisely, from the recent Phone Calling Under Water video feature that Ewan published last month.

I’ve just got my hands on Ewan’s very own G1. I have to say the software’s brilliant! AND I love the response the handset gives to the touch with smooth scrolling and responsive ‘touch-thru’ to the next screen. Even more impressive is the speed it loads Google’s applications. For instance, opening Gmail (which being Ewan’s has thousands of messages in it) occurred instantly, then, setting up the ‘Compose’ screen took milliseconds too…. beautiful – Something Microsoft Windows would do well to heed. So far the software reacts at the speed of thought

However, the hardware is different, it’s nice and all that, but very ‘plasticky’ (spelling?). I’m also not that fussed about the resolution of the screen, it doesn’t take much to see the pixels and many of the icons can look blocky. The screen rotation mechanism is good, giving a satisfying ‘snap’ when opened or closed, however, it feels a touch insecure when open. The biggest let down about the whole experience is the QWERTY keyboard. The tiny keys are more or less flush and take a concerted effort to locate visually rather than semi watching the screen. They don’t give particularly good feedback and I felt I was typing slower than I would normally with more nispakes.

Finally, the phone feels unbalanced when using the keyboard, the base of the phone which sits on the right hand side when in landscape, forces your hand away from the keyboard and makes it more difficult to use fast – while on the left hand side there is a lot of space between the edge of the phone and that fat part of your palm below your thumb (what’s that called? anyone?). As a result, you can find yourself pushing the handset across from the right to left when trying to type fast or reach keys/the screen with your right hand.

So, software is bloody impressive, as we’ve all established and swapping between applications and screens is super fast – brilliant! The handset…. meh, next! With HTC bringing out such beauties as the Touch Pro and HD, I don’t know why Android was put in that brick.

That said, I’m looking forward to the upcoming Mobile World Congress, which is where, I suspect the next announcements about new handsets and perhaps Android upgrades will appear. After all, you’ve got to allow time for handset manufacturers to work out the best form factor for such an amazing open platform…

I’m looking forward to seeing what Samsung have to offer in terms of Android. What about you? Have you used or seen a G1? Viewpoints? I’d like to hear them!

Ed

MobileTechAddicts got hold of a leaked internal memo and have published the full text on the site. 

Internal Orange Statement on the Bold:”Following reports of software issues with the BlackBerry Bold handset across a variety of mobile operators, Orange has decided to act in the interest of its customers by suspending shipments of the device in the UK. We are currently awaiting feed back from RIM as to when an industry wide fix for these issues will be in place, and expect this suspension to be an interim measure.We apologise for any inconvenience this issue may cause you.”next stepsBlackBerry/RIM are doing everything they can to resolve this issue and will be completing full testing and validation to ensure future handsets do not have any quality issues.  This may take a couple of weeks so it’s up to us to do what’s best for our customers.

Interestingly, the exact cause/nature of the “software issues” is not known.

• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

We just got information that the SlingPlayer Mobile has now been announced for Symbian UIQ phones. It’s been a while that the folks at Sling Media have toyed with us to give the UIQ version of the player. If you are as psyched as I am, head over to their site as they have a free trial for everyone. The new version is compatible with the following UIQ phones.

• Sony Ericsson P1i
• Sony Ericsson P990i
• Sony Ericsson W960i
• Sony Ericsson W950i
• Sony Ericsson M600i
• Sony Ericsson G700
• Sony Ericsson G900
• Motorola MOTORIZR Z8
• Motorola Z10

Over to Mike…
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Is the iPhone 2.0 Software to Blame for Bad Battery Life?

What most bloggers seemed to have missed in their complaints over the new iPhone 3G’s battery life, is that this is a problem affecting people with first-gen iPhones as well (ever since the 2.0 update). I suspect that the reason why this leitmotif hasn’t picked up in the blogosphere is because most bloggers have already upgraded to 3G.

At first when I downloaded and installed 2.0, I saw an immediate reduction in battery life. I chalked it up to the fact that I was going crazy with apps, downloading and playing with them with abandon the first two days. Then, once I became app-jaded, and the PhoneSaber lost its sheen, I noticed that I still got shit battery life. And no, before you ask, bluetooth and WiFi are both off on my phone (well usually WiFi is off, but the point is my behavior didn’t change after the software update, but my battery life did).

A couple of nights I’ve noticed that I’ll go to bed with just a tick under a full charge and then when I wake up, having had the phone sit unused all night, I find it just a tick over the 20% battery remaining part (that warning would pop up on my way to work). My friend, also a first-gen iPhone owner told me he’s experienced the same thing.

So basically, what I am saying, is that if you are disappointed with your 3G battery life, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe with the release of the 2.1 software, the chaps at Apple will have found their battery sucking bug, and thoroughly squashed it.

According to Red Bend, the company will use the investment for sales and marketing to try to expand further into the mobile and machine-to-machine markets, as well as licensing its software for new devices like 3G data cards and embedded modems. It will also use the funding for more R&D work.

It’s easy to see the potential for products that can manage software and applications over-the-air without the user having to take any action, especially as operating systems get smarter and operators push more and more online services. It’s also a major plus for the enterprise market, giving companies the ability to lock down their users’ devices without having to get them all back to the office.

Finally, it’s good to see UK companies start to look at QR codes. Only, as The Times points out, there’s one problem with a QR campaign: only a small percentage of phones have QR code reading software on them. That said, it’s a bit chicken and egg: why install the software until there’s something worth reading and why put QR code on anything until people have the software to read it? Kudos for Harrods for experimenting with the codes – and where Harrods go, other retailers are sure to follow.

Apparently, according to Microsoft, acquiring Danger will let it “deliver cool, new, fun mobile experiences”. Cool and fun aren’t words I’d associated with Windows Mobile in a million years – can you be fun if you’re part of a team in a unit within a unit within a unit – but fingers crossed Danger can do something about making Windows Mobile a little bit more intuitive and, who knows, maybe take Microsoft out of its business mobile straightjacket.

Microsoft, along with the University of California, is looking into ways to recover information, like checking a calendar or contacts list, while you’re on a conversation and can’t look at your phone screen. Instead, the idea is you get is the details delivered audibly, while you carry on your conversation.

I can’t decide if this is a great idea or an awful one – no need to ring someone back while you dig out that phone number you promised, which is handy, but then again do you really want to be trying to listen to that phone number in one ear and a conversation in another?