Droidax PortaCharge Gadget Charger – Review

The ability to charge two gadgets at once helps the Droidax PortaCharge stand out from the crowd.

It seems the more powerful our smartphones, tablets and other gadgets become, the less likely they are to make it through the day without a recharge. This is where the Droidax PortaCharge can come to the rescue, as it’s a portable battery with connectors for recharging your various gadgets while you’re on the go.

You can charge up the PortaCharge’s built-in battery via its micro-USB port, either from a power point or a USB port on your computer (it’s faster to charge from a power point using the supplied AC adaptor). The PortaCharge contains a 5400 mAh battery, so it holds more juice than most portable chargers of this size.

Once the PortaCharge is fully charged you can slip it back in its carry case and drop it in your travel bag. Now when your smartphone needs a top up, you can use the supplied 10-in-1 USB adaptor to plug your phone into the PortaCharge. You should be able to recharge your smartphone at least three times before the PortaCharge needs a recharge. An LED readout on the front tells you the percentage of battery life remaining so you’ll have some warning when the PortaCharge is running low.

There are plenty of portable gadget chargers on the market, some of them specifically designed for gadgets such as iPhones, but the PortaCharge stands out for several reasons. Firstly the 10-in-1 adaptor is compatible with Apple gadgets as well as a wide range of other devices thanks to mini- and micro-USB. This is handy if you’re travelling and need to charge up a wide range of gadgets such as smartphones, tablets, e-book readers, MP3 players, handheld games consoles and Wi-Fi hotspots.

Regardless of whether you’re an Apple or Android fan, the PortaCharge should meet your needs. If your device isn’t compatible with the 10-in-1 connector, you can just throw the device’s USB cable in your bag and charge its straight from the USB port on the PortaCharge.

Another of the PortaCharge’s strengths is that it features two USB ports for charging two devices at once, once again handy if you’re trying to support a wide range of gadgets while you’re on the road. The second USB port offers 2 Amps rather than 1 Amp to support more power-hungry devices such as the iPad.

The PortaCharge only weighs 168 grams and its flat design means it could easily slip into a jacket pocket. Unfortunately the 10-in-1 USB adaptor is a little awkward, but thankfully you’re not wedded to it. The days when you’re only looking to charge one device, such as an iPhone, it might make sense to leave the 10-in-1 USB adaptor at home and just slip a retractable iPhone cable in your pocket.

The PortaCharge’s final strength is its pocket-friendly price tag. Considering that competing chargers tend to cost a lot more and do a lot less, the Droidax PortaCharge is pretty hard to beat.

The Droidax PortaCharge sells for $49.95 (with free shipping). For more details visit www.droidax.com

Australia Gets More 4G, But It’s Still Confusing Stuff

Telstra was first to market with a product it’s calling “4G” late last year, but it’s just recently been joined by Optus — sort of. That’s a horribly qualified statement, but then there’s little about 4G in Australia that’s all that clear.

For the moment, every carrier that wants to run at 4G service is limited by the spectrum that’s available to them. Telstra (and now Optus) opted to deploy LTE (Long Term Evolution) services over spectrum in the 1800Mhz waveband, because it was available to them. This has led to certain issues, the most pertinent of which has been that virtually nobody else on the planet was using 1800Mhz for the provision of 4G LTE services! That having been said, it’s not as though there’s wide agreement on 4G anyway; there’s a variety of different spectrum setups that are sold worldwide as “4G”, up to and including the 850MHZ 3G services sold in Australia by Telstra (as Next-G) and Vodafone. Ultimately there’s no clear definition of what 4G “is”, beyond being a marketing term, although a few high-speed LTE services may end up being “officially” recognised as 4G, but not just yet.

The issue with 1800Mhz — aside from the fact that it’s not quite as solid for things like building penetration as lower frequencies — is that there aren’t many chipsets that support it. Apple’s “iPad 4G+WiFi” hit a snag with the ACCC recently, as the commission wasn’t impressed with Apple’s use of the 4G term for a tablet that can’t connect at 1800Mhz — and thus couldn’t connect to any Australian 4G network. That one’s still playing itself out in the courts, although Apple has said it’ll offer refunds to anyone who bought a new iPad on the basis of 4G connectivity.

That iPad will connect to 4G LTE services operating on the 700Mhz band, but that frequency is currently being used across Australia for analogue television signals. They’re scheduled to be switched off gradually across the country, freeing up the frequency, which should be auctioned off some time this year; at best we’ll see 700Mhz services (depending on who buys the licences) sometime in late 2013 — at an optimistic estimate.

Which brings us back to the issue of what 4G actually is. For now, it should define a network with faster data speeds than existing third generation (3G) networks, but that could come from a couple of different technologies. Voice as yet isn’t part of the 4G package, but a 4G phone still acts as a phone; it just uses older technology to deliver your voice and text messages.

Optus’ implementation is the same 1800Mhz LTE as Telstra’s, but as mentioned above it’s both here and not quite here yet. When Optus first announced it was working towards a 4G network, it said it would launch 4G in the Newcastle NSW region in April, and then across capital cities mid-year. It’s just squeaked in the first part with a 4G Newcastle network, but not as a full commercial product; instead selected users will be given free 4G devices to test the network out with. Presumably you had to already be an Optus customer; there certainly wasn’t a signup process.

What then of the third network, Vodafone? It had initially said that it would launch a 4G network by the end of 2011, but that certainly didn’t happen. Its most recent communications have centered around it improving its existing network, especially with the rollout of 850Mhz services; 4G is still on the radar but with no stated public timeline.

So should you buy 4G? Telstra’s implementation is still the (theoretically)  most widespread, and it was no coincidence that in the week Optus announced its soft launch, Telstra announced it was expanding its Newcastle coverage. All 4G devices launched to date do drop down to 3G where 4G isn’t available, so in one sense there’s relatively little risk. Likewise, though, I’ve seen some wildly varying 4G speeds, even within coverage zones. If you’re in need of a new phone or wireless dongle 4G isn’t too much of a risk, but it’s probably not worth upgrading yet if your existing kit is still humming along nicely.

Set up a Wi-Fi hotspot on your Smartphone

If you’ve got a fancy smartphone, it’s easy to share its internet access with your other gadgets.

Australia’s high-speed mobile broadband networks make it easy to stay in touch when you’re out and about. Telstra’s super-fast LTE network offers phenomenal data speeds of more than 40 Mbps in the inner cities, but so far we’ve only seen a handful of compatible devices. Thankfully you’ll also get decent speeds out of the HSDPA mobile broadband networks, particular using the new iPad Wi-Fi/4G which can’t connect to LTE in Australia but can hit almost 20 Mbps thanks to DC-HSDPA.

Fast internet access is great for a 3G/4G enabled smartphone or tablet, but it’s easy to share that mobile broadband access with your other gadgets such as notebooks, tablets, e-book readers and handheld games consoles. The trick is to dip into the menus and set up a Wi-Fi hotspot. Sometimes this can rely on your handset maker or network provider enabling the feature, so you should check with them if you’re unsure.

Before you start, it’s important to remember that creating a Wi-Fi hotspot chews through your monthly mobile broadband allowance. Keep a close eye on how much data you use. You’ll probably have a fixed mobile broadband allowance each month, but if you go over your limit the excess data charges can be hefty.

It’s also important to password-protect your Wi-Fi hotspot, so people nearby can’t “borrow” your internet access and leave you holding the bill.

Setting up a Wi-Fi hotspot on an iPhone is pretty easy. Under iOS5 you’ll find a Personal Hotspot setting on the main Settings page. You can tap on this and then toggle Personal Hotspot to “on”. You should also tap on Wi-Fi Password to create a password for your new wireless network.

Apple has added Personal Hotspot features to the new iPad Wi-Fi/4G models, but unfortunately it didn’t add Personal Hotspot to the earlier Wi-Fi/3G models with the latest firmware update.

Android users will find Wi-Fi hotspot features built in Android 2, 3 and 4 smartphones and tablets. The process can vary between devices, but generally you launch the Settings app and then select Wireless & Networks (sometimes followed by Tethering & Portable Hotspot). Here you can tap on Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot to turn in on. You’ll also want to dip into the Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot Settings to set the name of the network and set the password.

Built-in Wi-Fi hotspot support was introduced with Android 2.2. If you’re running an older Android device which can’t be upgraded, you’ll find tethering apps in Android Market (which recently changed its name to Google Play).

Some Windows Phone 7 smartphones can also create Wi-Fi hotspots after the Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” update. Under Settings select Internet Sharing, turn it on and then select Setup to configure the wireless network name and password. A few Windows Phone 7 devices such as the slick new Nokia Lumia 800 are still waiting for Wi-Fi hotspot features to be enabled.

Music To Your Ears?

Fifteen years ago, if you wanted music for your computer, it was a pretty simple affair. You went out, and you bought a CD from a shop — or  perhaps via mail order if you were a serious distance from the nearest CD store.

CDs are all but dead in the market today; while it’s still possible to find music stores, they’re a dying breed, and the range they offer pales in comparison to the offerings that can be found online. Apple’s iTunes still dominates the local scene in terms of outright sales,  and while we’re stuck paying slightly higher rates for individual tracks than, say, American consumers  –an unfortunate legacy of the kinds of deals that Apple struck with the major name labels, although Apple clearly isn’t suffering for charging a little extra anyway.

But you’re not limited to iTunes, especially if you’re not fussed about music ownership anyway. No, I’m not advocating music piracy — far  from it. Recent months have seen a number of online music subscription services emerge in the local market, offering access to potentially millions of tracks for a single set fee. You don’t keep the tracks you’re listening to, but then you’re not charged by volume; instead simply a monthly fee for access, rather like PayTV. Sony has a service labelled as Qriocity, Microsoft has Zune Music Pass and Blackberry has the not terribly inventively named Blackberry Music locally; it’s expected that online service provider Rdio will launch in Australia sometime in the new year.

It might seem counterintuitive to pay for music on your computer (or smartphone, or tablet — most of these services will work across multiple devices, because you’re typically signing into a service rather than downloading a file) that you don’t get to keep, but the subscription model has some definite upsides. There’s the obvious appeal of having access to millions of tracks; while there may be thousands you don’t care for, that kind of wide spread virtually assures you of being able to find something you’ll like. Many of them will offer initial short trial periods, so you can ensure that you’re happy with what’s on offer. Access to lots of music is also a great way to widen your musical horizon, and most services will suggest similar artists to those you’re already listening to. That can have social aspects as well; the recently launched Blackberry Music does limit the number of tracks you can access on your smartphone, but cleverly allows you to “share” your collection with other Blackberry Music listeners. If you’ve got lots of friends, in other words, your collection could be massive — and you’ll also get an insight into their tastes along the way.

Talking about voice control

I’ve spent the last week talking to my phone. Not that revolutionary you might think; it is after all a phone, and voice has been part of the feature set right from the get-go. But in this case I’ve been testing out Siri, one of Apple’s key selling points for the iPhone 4S. Siri allows you to ‘talk’ to the phone in order to make calls, appointments, send messages and search for information.

In one sense this is nothing new; older smartphones, including those from other platforms have had voice control features for many years now. Where Siri makes it interesting is in its ability to handle natural language. Where most of the other systems rely on very simple phrases, Siri can handle longer contextual strings and a variety of voice inputs. So you could say, for example, “What’s the weather like in Melbourne”, and it’ll find a five day forecast; ask it then “what’s the time there?” and it’ll remember the context and give you AEDST time for Melbourne. It’s all rather reminiscent of Star Trek, frankly, speaking to a small computer in your pocket, although it does rely on having a net connection of some sort as some of the voice processing is done at Apple’s servers rather than in the device itself. It learns as it goes, according to Apple, so rather like products such as Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking, the more you use it the better it’ll get. It’s also got a specific setting for English (Australian), and it’s highly advised that you use it; the difference in its understanding of a strine accent and a yankee one is remarkable. There’s obvious scope here for use by those with physical ability limitations where typing is difficult or impossible, but even just as a cool gimmick.

Siri does have its limitations, especially locally. Ask it for any kind of directions, and it’ll sadly inform you it can only give directions when it’s in the US. That’s not reticence on its part; the directions part of Siri’s logic relies on a couple of US-specific services that Apple’s signed up to. There are words and phrases it’ll stumble on repeatedly, and because it learns its owner’s voice, it’s markedly less effective for other users if they borrow your phone. To be fair to Apple, it does mark Siri as a “beta” (that is, still in development) product, so there’s plenty of room for improvement.

There’s arguably a bigger strike against Siri to consider, however, and it’s true for any voice controlled product. Within the context of your own home or office, talking to a computer may feel a little odd at first, but generally you’ll have access to a keyboard anyway, which adds a layer of instant precision. Out and about, and you’re going to have to talk over the general chatter and noise of the world, which means relatively loud. All of a sudden, you’re getting Siri to calculate the interest on your home loan, or noting the times of your medical appointments in public. Most of us would rather keep that stuff private. There’s no easy way around that — it’s decidedly a public perception problem rather than a technology one.

The future of flight looks noisy

One of the standards of modern air travel is that you’ll be asked — sometimes in multiple languages, depending on your choice of airline — to switch off all your electronic devices when taking off and landing as an added safety precaution. It’s OK to use electronics while in flight on most larger aircraft, but nothing with a radio, on the grounds that they may interfere with the in-flight electronics. There’s plenty of debate about how true that actually is, but for my money, I’m willing to forego a little inconvenience of switching to airplane mode in return for the plane not heading straight into a mountain. Call me fussy, if you must, but I think that’s a decent deal, even if the odds are slim that my device will interfere anyway.

Switching things off has only been a problem for me recently when it came time to switch off my (or any) e-Ink reader, as you’ll in fact use more power and signal fully switching the screen off rather than just leaving it on the standard screen image. Air travel has never been the most comfortable of pursuits — even if you’re wealthy enough to afford business class or better seating — but what it has typically involved has been cutting yourself off from the outside world for as long as your flight took place. Sure, in-flight telephones have been a stock standard on most planes for some time, but at the kinds of rates that more or less ensure that nobody uses them — or at least nobody I’ve ever noticed, and I’ve done more than my fair share of plane travel.

That’s something that’s changing very rapidly; many overseas flights are utilising in-flight Internet, and it’s something that’s being actively tested by the major carriers locally; both Qantas and Virgin are trialing in-flight Wi-Fi access. It’s initially only touted as a way to deliver entertainment from an on-board server, but both airlines appear to be investigating the possibilities for onboard net access as well. Qantas is also trialing iPads as delivery devices for entertainment services, although those will be rather heavily locked down units for entertainment only.

In-flight Internet’s a tricky thing to manage; not only do you have the grim spectre of folks accessing content of a dubious nature, but opening up the wider Internet also means potentially opening up conversation channels via applications such as Skype or Facetime. Suddenly, the normally relatively quiet plane interior could become a maelstrom of chatter. Given that longer haul flights often cross several time zones and Internet access means you’d be able to speak to anyone in any time zone, it even means that the airline-imposed ‘sleep times’ — typically when the lights are dimmed in order to encourage folks to sleep — might become interrupted on a rather regular basis.

I’m a little torn as to the utility in this case. I’ve no doubt that on longer flights — essentially anything longer than standard Australian domestic flights, so above five hours or so — I’d welcome Internet access as a basic way to divert myself by idly browsing the Web, keeping up with email and maybe doing a little light work. At the same time, I don’t welcome the idea of a plane that I’m stuck in for the next nine to nineteen hours being full of folks talking extra loud because they’ve already got headphones on and can’t hear themselves properly in the first place. What do you think?

Femtocell To The Rescue?

Optus recently launched a new product offering called the “3G Home Zone” to the market. It’s a small, router-like device that acts as a base station for your mobile phone signal within your home, tethered to an existing broadband service. So if you’re in an area with poor Optus reception, or the physical characteristics of your home make mobile reception a problem, the 3G Home Zone product will boost that by using your existing broadband service to bridge the gap.

The 3G Home Zone contains what’s known as a femtocell; a device designed to bridge the gap between fixed line (ADSL or Cable broadband, in other words) and mobile services. Optus isn’t the only femtocell carrier on the market; Vodafone have a similar offering, but at this stage it’s only open to business customers rather than consumers.

The prospect of improving your home mobile (both 3G broadband and call) quality is an appealing one, but there are some catches. The 3G Home Zone is offered on a 24 month contract term, which is a very long time in the life of mobile devices. There’s an associated cost as well; if you’re on a $59 or better tariff with Optus the 3G Home Zone costs $5 per month, while those on lower tariffs will pay $15 per month. That extra payment isn’t without some additional compensation, as it also comes with unlimited national calls bundled in with the 3G Home Zone femtocell, but only for a single Optus mobile handset; you can nominate up to 12 connected Optus phones, but only one of them will get free calls. Given the number of plans that come with either stupendously large caps or unlimited calls anyway, that’s not much of a deal.

The other trap is the data one. A femtocell works by leveraging an additional data connection; in this case it’s your home broadband. You’ll need a minimum speed of around 1Mbps for it to work at all, and all the time it is working, it’s also chewing through your data allocation from your ISP. Surprisingly, even if you’re with Optus for home broadband, they’ll still count the 3G Home Zone’s data usage against your data cap. In other words, you’re using your money and your broadband to supplement Optus’ network coverage. Optus has stated that they’ll continue to work to improve the network overall, and that femtocells are a solution in small locations and where home construction impedes any mobile signal. There’s perhaps a market there, but I can’t help but think that the carriers offering femtocells need to make them more appealing to end customers, either by lowering pricing — as you’ll still be using their services and generating revenue anyway — or offering better bundled terms.

Is the mobile office a reality right now?

Recently a journalist I know (full disclosure; he’s my brother) spent an entire week working purely from his smartphone — you can read the whole tale here: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/05/no-luggage-the-complete-series/. There was a little more to his plan; he also abandoned luggage in the interests of utility, and, I suspect, seeing how far he could push an idea, good or otherwise. But for the purposes of his week, his smartphone was his working computer.

Smartphones are getting smarter, and they’re also becoming quite ubiquitous. There are many models that start under $200 (some even cheaper, although at the sub-$100 price point you quickly outstrip the phone cost with the cost of your ongoing bills, making their limited utility a not-entirely-smart choice.). If you’re carrying one around with you, the temptation to check email or get other work (or personal) chores done is quite high. I know I’ve been guilty of that on more than one occasion. As they’re ramping up in power, with new models sporting dual core processors, dedicated graphics chips and expandable memory, the concept of carrying a single, small device to do all your on-the-go work is becoming more and more realistic.

I’ve also been testing out an interesting concept from Motorola that plays with this concept of the smartphone as the centre of your working world. The company’s new Atrix mobile looks very much like a plain smartphone. It’s an Android smartphone with a specific trick up its sleeve. Dock it into the $449 lapdock (an optional extra) and it’ll power up the lapdock to act as a regular notebook style computer.

It’s not a full Windows PC or anything like that; you’re still running the Android applications on the phone plus a small selection of applications that run on the desktop itself; most notably the Firefox browser. Within that combination, however, it’s entirely possible to get a lot of work done via online services such as Google docs, as long as the data quota on your phone is robust enough, or you’ve got access to a WiFi network to sidestep that issue. As an example — and for something of a test run — this entire article’s been typed out on the lapdock using the online Evernote service to synchronise it automatically back to my main work PC. Writing this way is certainly a lot faster than trying to type the same amount of content on a small smartphone touchscreen.

So does it work? Sort of. There’s a point where spending $449 on what is basically a headless notebook (on top of the phone’s asking price) starts to strain anybody’s budget; at sales you could score a full notebook (or pretty easily a netbook) for the same kind of money. The lapdock charges the phone when docked, which is very nice indeed, and there is utility in being able to switch from very small screen phone apps to their full-screen equivalent for some work types. But still, if you’re carrying the lapdock around, you may as well carry an actual notebook. It would make a great desk-based dock for your phone, but again, you could have a desktop or notebook in the same location. Given it’s not bundled with the phone I suspect Motorola won’t sell too many lapdocks, but it does point to where computing is heading in the not too distant future.

Did Smartphones Kill The Video Star?

Cisco announced recently that it’s pulling back its product lines to focus on its core competencies, especially in the consumer space. The first casualty of Cisco’s culling strategy has been a product that was always a slightly odd fit with the rest of Cisco’s lines, namely the Flip video camera.

The Flip, in case you’re not familiar with it, is, or should I say was, a pocket sized video camera with one particular redeeming function. It had one big red shiny button on it, used for recording and stopping recording. Yeah, that does sound rather simple, but then simple is the entire point.

The Flip did have other buttons, depending in the model, and a flip-out USB plug that meant you could never lose the cable. That’s where it got it’s name from, although plenty of Flip users tended to carry around a USB extension cable, as the flip-out USB connector is pretty short, and on some PCs that can make it a pain to plug in.

Since the decision to cull the Flip, there’s been plenty of online speculation about what ‘killed’ the Flip brand. Frankly, Cisco killed the Flip brand by deciding that it was so, and presumably there’s some tasty patents (or similar intellectual property) behind the brand, otherwise the smart thing to do would have been to try to sell the Flip business to other interested parties. There’s certainly a number of Flip competitors in the marketplace, some of which stand out for waterproofing features, dual screens (so you can film yourself while watching yourself) and even 3D compatibility. Somebody, somewhere would have offered Cisco money for it, but by declaring the brand dead, any such deal dies along with it.

The other line of contention here is that consumers don’t actually want dedicated pocket camcorders any more. Why would that be so? Simply put, because many smartphones offer video recording facilities. In the higher end smartphones, they’re even capable of high definition recording. I can see the appeal there, although I’m yet to find a smartphone that I’m truly happy to shoot video with. This has less to do with the quality of the lenses — by the time you get down to a lens that small there’s all sorts of compromises you’re already making — and more to do with the fact that smartphone batteries generally struggle to get through an entire day’s work as it is. Adding video recording to its list of tasks is a quick way to a flat battery in my experience.

It also makes me wonder how (and whether) people shoot video with small devices. Anyone with a full camcorder in a public place is quite obvious, but I don’t see too many folks doing that. Plenty of people take snapshots with pocket cameras and indeed with mobile phones, but how many people actually shoot video of where they are instead?

Smartphones Head To Head

If you’re in the market for a new phone, you’ve got two choices. Buy outright, or pick up a phone on a plan. If you buy a smartphone outright, you’re typically looking at between $500-$1000 out of pocket; there are models that are both cheaper and more expensive than that, but it’s a fair average across the most popular models. That’s why contracts make a fair amount of sense. Not only do you shift the handset cost over a longer term (and potentially gain the ability to write it off against tax rather simply under certain business circumstances — but check with your accountant!), you also get the most generously provisioned rates for calls and data compared to most pre-paid plans on a handset you own yourself.

The problem is, most smartphone contracts cost pretty much the same irrespective of the model of phone you choose. Entry level points are now down around twenty dollars, but those are typically last year’s handsets being rushed out the door while they’ve still got stock. Between fifty to seventy dollars a month can get you the handset of your choice, including cutting edge models. It’s easy enough to test the physical layout of a phone by simply gripping it, but what about on the software side? With so many choices, which smartphone operating system do you go for? Here’s a brief rundown of the most prominent smartphone platforms and their pluses and minuses.

Apple iOS

Representative Handset: iPhone 4

Pluses: The largest applications marketplace for any smartphone, hands-down, which gives iOS a lot more flexibility in what can be done with it, especially in the realm of entertainment applications. The fixed hardware platform — basically just the nearly-obsolete iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 — also means that all apps run optimally across handsets. iOS upgrades are regular and not subject to the approval of the carriers, meaning they’re usually a little faster than on competing platforms.
Minuses: Apple controls the iOS environment with an iron glove, which some folk plain don’t like; certain applications will never be approved for iOS as a result. There’s also no such thing as a “live” iOS application displaying twitter feeds, weather or the like. Everything is icon-based using push.

Android

Representative Handset: HTC Desire HD

Pluses: Google’s “open” smartphone OS is being rapidly picked up by just about every handset maker out there (excluding Apple and Nokia). That gives you a huge choice of handsets and price points, as well as a wide variety of features. Google’s tailored Android applications for its core search and gmail utilities are incredibly slick, and the applications market is growing rapidly. Applications can act as live widgets displaying up-to-date information constantly.
Minuses: The variety of handsets can make some applications behave in unusual ways, especially as application development isn’t a rigidly controlled as it is with Apple or Microsoft. Operating System software upgrades must be carrier approved before you can get them, which can lead to long delays in getting the latest version of Android for your smartphone — if it ever appears at all.

Blackberry OS

Representative Handset: Blackberry Torch

Pluses: Blackberry has long been the smartphone of choice for the business crowd, and its core competencies have remained the strength and speed of its email client, which simply blows the competition away. If you need email quickly (and want, on most Blackberry models, an excellent physical keyboard), the Blackberry is the one to get.
Minuses: Operating system upgrades are once again at the mercy of operators, and some handsets will get stuck over time. The excellent email service is part of a specific paid service, which (depending on the carrier) might not be the most cost-efficient way to get your email. The application library, like the devices themselves are largely productivity oriented, although this has changed slowly as more consumers have taken up the Blackberry brand.

Windows Phone 7

Representative Handset: Samsung Omnia 7

Pluses: Windows Phone 7’s “tiles” arrangement is amongst the simplest smartphone visual layouts of any smartphone platform, making it very easy to pick up and use. Xbox Live integration is built in for the gaming crowd, and the application market, while still quite small, is growing rapidly.
Minuses: There’s a relative dearth of available handset choices, although that’s likely to change with Nokia recently making the shock declaration that it would start building smartphones utilising Windows Phone 7. As yet for the existing models from HTC, LG and Samsung the full operating system upgrade path is quite unclear; even the patches to date have had a rocky history. At the time of writing, Cut & Paste functionality still wasn’t present, despite being promised as “coming soon” when it launched.

For any of these platforms it’s certainly well worth having a test run in a mobile phone shop to see not only which one may suit your needs, but also your style of smartphone use. Some users will prefer the full touchscreen setup of the iPhone or most Android models, while other users may favour the keyboards found on most Blackberry models.

Next Page »