miamime

provocations & observations by William Plasencia 

Sony Ericsson: What were you thinking?

In my seemingly never ending quest to find the right smartphone to replace my aging Blackberry, I decided to try out an Android phone: Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

The verdict: nice phone, decent price, but it has the feeling of being only half-baked. And Sony Ericsson's promises to make it whole ended up being hollow. Here's what I found:

I knew going in that the Xperia X10 ran on the older Android 1.6, but Sony Ericsson had confirmed it would push an update to make the phone run on Android 2.1 by the end of September. So, it was a good bet. That didn't happen -- more on that later.

Let's start with the hardware: The screen is crisp and bright and I didn't have much trouble using it out in the sunlight. Some people have complained that it smudges easily but I didn't find the X10 to be anymore smudge-prone than the iPhone. The build seemed solid and the curve of the unit is a nice change from other, boxier phones. The 8-megapixel camera took great photos in normal light, though the shutter lagged a bit [sluggishness is an endemic issue.] And the lack of flash made me recall how much I disliked taking photos on older generation iPhones.

The otherwise solid construction was marred by two things: The volume during calls was at times too low to make conversations audible in a noisy room, and the speaker was completely sub-par making it usable only in the quietest settings. I had trouble hearing phone calls in my car using the speaker and had to break out the Sony Ericsson-supplied earbuds that thankfully were very good. But no excuse for the bad sound levels.

Also, I could foresee the buttons along the bottom of the phone wearing down from use. They had an uncomfortable feel to them that was out of place on the otherwise cushy X10.

Now for the OS: Android really is a great mobile operating system in large measure because of the way it integrates with online services from Google and others. It was a snap to sync my email, contacts, and calendar, which I all have on Goggle Apps for Business. But when it came time to sync my Gmail account, I figured out the real big problem with running Android 1.6: No support for multiple Google accounts. This meant I needed to choose which account to sync using the Gmail app, which integrates with all other Google apps, and which to sync using the built-in Sony Ericsson email handler.

The company must have included its own app as a stop-gap measure until it could get the Android 2.1 update out to users. But because of that limitation I couldn't use certain apps like Google Listen, which will only sync on regular Gmail accounts and not an Apps account.

The older OS also meant that I couldn't run some apps like the official Android Twitter app, or the beta of Tweetdeck. In fact, you couldn't run any betas because AT&T doesn't allow you to download any app that's not on the official Android Marketplace. Rooting the Xperia X10 might allow this but according to the forums a practical solution for rooting is a long way off.

The overall performance of the phone is just ok. I was expecting something entirely snappier considering the X10 has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. In fact, the phone was downright sluggish at times with the aforementioned shutter lag and screen swipes that took longer than usual. Battery life was not bad. It's about what you expect from a recent smartphone, which is to say that you better have a power source nearby if you want to get through a work day using your phone. I liked the fact that you could snap the back off rather easily and swap batteries if you needed to.

Let me say a word about Timescape and Mediascape -- Sony Ericsson's overlay to the Android OS. They suck. I'm sure the engineers must have patted themselves on the back about how pretty and ingenious their efforts were, but I doubt that much real-world field testing was done. I want granular control over what's shown on my screen at all times, and the UI for sifting through emails, tweets and text messages is cute for about 10 seconds but it becomes tiresome when you want to find something quickly. Take a cue from WebOS -- they got it right. Hell, or just look at the HTC Sense overlay, which is great on the Sprint EVO I tried.

Oh, and a word about software updates. A few people on Twitter warned me beforehand that Android updates were hit or miss depending on the manufacturer. HTC seems to push them out fairly regularly, though carriers like AT&T and Sprint have the final say on when users can have them. But Sony Ericsson, which released the Xperia X10 back in March has so far had a terrible record of keeping up with Android updates. That promised September update: it's now been pushed to late October, and that's when the carriers get it so users may conceivably have to wait until late November to see an update that most Android users have had for months now.

I could never recommend this phone in its current state -- not at any price. That's not to say I wouldn't buy another Sony Ericsson phone, but the company would have to win me over again.

Here's a more thorough review of the Xperia X10 hardware and software and the writer takes an opposing view to mine.

Comments [0]

Miami App Developers: Sprint wants to give you money

I got an email from the awesome Crystal Davis over at Sprint, and she asked me to encourage local app developers to enter to the Sprint 4G App Challenge.

The contest is running through Nov. 5, and the prizes are pretty sweet. Top submitters in each of five categories – entertainment, gaming, productivity, social networking and multimedia – can win:

· A $50,000 grand prize, an HTC EVO™ 4G with one-year of Sprint service (includes applicable taxes and surcharges).

· One-year membership to the Sprint Professional Developer Program (including 250 hours in the Virtual Developer Lab).

· An invitation to WIRED’s VIP party during the 2011 International CES in Las Vegas.

To register for the contest and access rules, regulations and additional information developers can visit www.sprint.com/appchallenge.

"Submissions will be scored based on four criteria – creativity, intuitive navigation, functionality and design. The panel of judges will comprise product and technology executives from Sprint, editors from WIRED and its partners at Reddit and Ars Technica. Finalists in each category will have their apps showcased at the WIRED Store, an interactive shop and gallery in New York, on Dec. 16, during which winners will be announced," she wrote.

Go for it!

Comments [0]

Dear Palm: It isn’t you, it’s me.

Two weeks ago, a package arrived with the new Palm Pre + I ordered after spending a lot of time researching, talking to friends who have one and handling the phone at my local AT&T store. For me, it was like coming back home after many years of using Palm products but after having spent the last five on a Blackberry.

Ok, call me crazy, but it’s a great phone OS. I need to make that distinction because you can make the world’s greatest phones (Nokia, I’m staring at you) and have them run on the crappiest operating system, or you can do what Palm did and create the WebOS, which I consider a superior mobile OS every bit as good, and in many ways better, than the iPhone’s iOS – except, it runs on mediocre hardware.

I tried to love my Pre. I did, really. But after two weeks of anxiously keeping it on a Touchstone charger, and running low on battery life more times than I care to admit, I began to have doubts that this was my time to come back to the Palm fold.

Several other reasons factored into my decision to send the phone back today, and they should give Palm pause to think and also give the company some hope that it can woo back people like me who want a modern, flexible and accessible mobile device whose OS doesn’t force the user to conform to working in one particular way (Yeah, Apple, I looking at you. What of it?)

I work my phones hard. I talk, surf the web, and spend all day on Twitter and Facebook. All I ask for is a universal inbox, a good web browser, a Facebook app that doesn’t suck and a Twitter app that lets me interact quickly. The Pre and its WebOS give me all except the latter.

The WebOS Twitter apps don’t compare well to what’s available for the iPhone and Blackberry phones. I tried three different apps (and paid for two) and they both lacked what Ubertwitter and TweetDeck offer. [SocialScope is the gold standard] Simple things like Reply All and autofill of names are missing or executed in a clunky fashion.

So when I emailed one of the WebOS Twitter app developers to ask him when he was planning on implementing those elements, his response left me cold: “Reply-All is on the list, but honestly, it's fairly low (based on user requests). Auto-completing of names is difficult given how Twitter's API works, but this is also on the list.”

Mobile app designers, if you’re reading this, remember: EVERY tap and keystroke counts. We’re in a hurry. Don’t make us click and tap several times to do simple chores.

The nail in the coffin was a burst of tweets this week from vocal Palm advocate Rahul Sood, HP’s CTO of gaming, and a blog post he later wrote expanding on those tweets. What I took away from what Rahul wrote was that we shouldn’t hold our breath for new hardware from Palm. And that’s significant because without new, compelling hardware, developers aren’t going to create more and better apps for the WebOS.

It’s chicken and egg. And I’m not willing to wait – at least not for my phone. This is where the hope comes in.

It’s clear that Palm has found a good home in HP – a company with a record of creating solid hardware and a distribution network to sell it all. When Palm and HP come out with a WebOS tablet next year I’ll be one of the first in line to buy one. 

Spend any time at all with a WebOS device and you’ll see this is an operating system made for the big screen. It’s easy to navigate, it makes sense, it’s quick, responsive and with a user interface that allows people to customize it to a large degree. That last point will really attract a lot of folks who chafe under Apple’s velvet yoke.

So, Palm, goodbye for now. I’ll call you.

Filed under  //   iphone   palm   smartphone   webos  

Comments [1]

Adapting in the New World

Watching this video it struck me that what Kindred's Director of Social Media, Paul Armstrong, wrote in the PR Week Blog this week also applies to journalists. We need to adapt. Faster. Read Armstrong's blog post here:
http://bit.ly/bB1iwb

Comments [0]

My Smart Business column: For Miami’s tech community, how much stock is in a name?

Miami has long wanted to be counted alongside the burgeoning technology centers of New York, Boston and, probably the most notable of all, Silicon Valley. For South Florida, the effort has been a series of lurches, quick sprints and dead stops, spurred on by a business climate that rewards entrepreneurs.

It is that entrepreneurial spirit that allowed the tech community here to continue to grow despite the South Florida economy suffering disproportionately more than other regions around the country. And it’s that same scrappy, bootstrap mentality that perhaps is holding the region back from realizing its ambitions.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in Miami’s struggle to forge an identity for itself as a technology leader.

This is the second of my monthly column on South Florida for Smart Business magazine. This month, some area social media dignitaries make an appearance, including the Startup Forum's Seth Elliott and my friend Alex De Carvalho.

Comments [0]

My Smart Business column: China & South Florida At the Crossroad

Miami, long a gateway to Latin America, is hoping to parlay that access into a cozier business relationship with the Far East. In particular, business leaders here have China in their sights.
That was the predominant buzz at this June’s annual Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce goals conference, where the prospects were laid out for more trade and investment with China, Taiwan and Japan. But while there are hopeful signs that the local economy is rebounding and infrastructure projects are underway to help Miami compete for Asian business and investment, most here agree that there is a long way to go before a new “silk road” is created.


“The opportunity for Miami will mostly be to play the role of an aggregator for Latin American businesses that want to do business in China,” says Ray Ruga, principal at the marketing firm CVOX Group LLC, which focuses on helping Latin American and Miami-based companies promote their businesses in China. “That role isn’t assured yet because Miami’s relationship with China is still new.”

Read more at Smart Business magazine http://www.sbnonline.com

Comments [0]

My Test Drive: the HTC EVO on Sprint

The HTC EVO 4G is everything a smartphone should be except for one fatal flaw that makes it difficult for me to recommend this phone to any road warrior or person who heavily uses the web. For the casual user, or less mobile people who can readily charge the phone, the EVO is perfect. Read on and I’ll explain.

The fine folks at Sprint let me borrow an EVO for week-long test spin earlier this month. I just happened to be travelling in the Baltimore area – where Sprint has a strong, high-speed 4G network – so I got to really put the EVO through its paces.

The short of it is: The combination of Sprint’s great, reliable network and the EVO’s fast processor and beautiful screen make it a really formidable phone, especially since Sprint’s data and voice plan is currently one of the best deals around. But all that power comes at a price and it shows in the EVO’s lackluster battery life.

By now, you’ve probably seen lot of images of the EVO. It’s much larger than its rival the iPhone, with a beautiful screen to boot. The picture and video clarity on the EVO are really outstanding, preferable to the iPhone 3gs though I haven’t spent much time with the iPhone 4, so I can’t compare those two. Streaming music and YouTube videos on the 4G network were blazing fast. Personally, I found it awkward to carry such a large phone in my pocket, but you get used to it and it’s surprisingly light. I recommend you not put a case on your EVO unless you plan to carry it around in a bag or purse.

I set up my EVO to connect to Gmail, my work email server, Facebook and Twitter. They all worked seamlessly. What I love about the Android OS is how well it works with all of Google’s services. I don’t have to sync: the EVO just pulls the info in from all the sources without a fuss. I didn’t try Google Voice on the EVO but I’m hoping to with the next phone I test drive. HTC, which manufactures the EVO for Sprint, puts an overlay called Sense on Android that does make it a little easier and more iPhone-like to navigate around the phone.

One Sprint-only feature that saved our bacon when we got lost in D.C. and in Baltimore: Sprint Navigation. This turn-by-turn GPS software is really useful and much better than relying on Google Maps. Worth the price of admission.

If you use your phone camera like I do, you won’t be disappointed with the quality of the photos the EVO takes. Even in low light situations, the camera performed very well and the photo quality is great, though there is a noticeable lag between snapshots that was a bit annoying. Keep in mind that the flash does eat into your battery life.

And that leads me to the Achilles’ heel of this phone. I started off at 9 a.m. with a fully-charged EVO and by 2:00 it needed a charge. Keep in mind that around noon I switched down to 3G speeds to conserve power. Now, I’m not a typical user: I’m on Twitter all day, I get a million emails and I surf the web constantly. But so do a lot business people on the go. That said, one of my best friends has an EVO and his solution is to carry around an extra battery, which I do too for my Blackberry. But for some reason HTC didn’t think of that when designing the back of the EVO, which is difficult to remove and replace.

For my friends who live in the Caribbean and in Latin America, the EVO should work fine for you in a lot of places. Sprint has good coverage in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru as well as the Dominican Republic. You can go on Sprint’s International website to see a coverage map for where you live or travel.

Bottom line, I loved the EVO but I wished I could love it longer. As for Sprint: I miss you. Please get a phone that I can work with (no sliders) so I can switch. 

(download)
Click on the gallery to see some examples of photos taken with the EVO.

 

Comments [0]

Time for a change

I'm going to bring willplasencia.com down for the weekend while I redo the site. What I've found out during the past year is that dedicated blogging services like Posterous and Tumblr really do most of what I want. Not that I'm abandoning Wordpress. I'm just going to reconfigure my site to reflect more of the work I do now, and I'll leave the blogging for offsite. Stay tuned.

Comments [0]

TRON Legacy: So want to see this

Comments [0]

And you win some...soap. Brilliant

Comments [0]