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Google have released fantastic news for smartphone users who have the Android 1.6 operating system or above with the launch of Google Maps voice guided navigation software available FREE of charge for users in the UK and Ireland. Popular smartphone models such as the Desire, Xperia X10 and the Milestone can all take advantage of this great offering from Google.
The features included rival those available on dedicated navigation devices. Searches can be made via text input, voice command and by double tapping on contacts with address information. Knowing the address of desired destinations is of no consequence, guided navigation can be activated with either a business name or type of business.
When nearing a destination the display changes to the highly publicised Street View. Handy additions also include traffic awareness as the road ahead is highlighted in green, yellow or red to give forewarning of traffic congestion. Multiple levels of information layering can also be added with the 3D-satellite view and optional icons for petrol stations, restaurants and parking, etc.
Time to get excited? Well maybe if the rumours of specifications and pictures of the new 2010, Apple iPhone are correct. The latest engineering marvel from Apple appears to have a high-resolution touch-screen display (640×960 pixels) that indicates a possible name change to the iPhone HD. The camera has been upgraded and a much-needed flash has been included. The front face of the handset also includes a camera to support video calling.
The call quality should be excellent with the addition of a second mic and longer use between charges can be achieved with the new battery that is 18% larger than the previous model. The new iPhone also utilises the latest technology by using a MicroSIM card and with SIM card readers available or by using wireless Bluetooth, transferring information from an old SIM card shouldn’t cause too much of a problem.
Having taken a detailed look at the pictures it is apparent that the iPhone 4 commands a high quality finish. With no sharp edges the metal frame and ceramic or glass fascias blend seamlessly together. The slimmer frame includes a power button and audio jack on the top and volume keys on the side.
A full news release is expected from Apple on the 22nd June to confirm full specifications.
The new iPhone OS v4.0 is set for release in the summer and offers over 100 new features for iPhone owners. Important additions include homescreen wallpapers, spell checker, tap to focus on video, playlist creation, geo-tagging of photos, Bluetooth keyboard compatibility and gift apps, a great new way to give gifts to friends and family. Apple has cleverly developed the operating system to handle the latest apps in an intelligent manner to provide a performance far above the rest. The new developments fall into 7 categories and the highlights of each are discussed below.
Multitasking: By far the most important development that has been available on other operating systems but Apple have added their own unique perspective and engineered a service that doesn’t drain battery life or slow down the system. Users can for example listen to the Pandora Internet radio whilst playing games or using Tom Tom for turn-by-turn navigation. Voice over IP services can be used whilst multitasking and Skype whom connect 1 in 9 of all International calls in the World can now be left silently running in the background to ensure calls are never missed. Apps that take time to complete tasks like uploading photos to Flickr can also be left running in the background freeing the user to continue using other services.
Folders: Applications can now be moved into folders via drag and drop to simplify the 11 page menu screens. Additionally restrictions to only 180 apps have been hugely increased with the aid of folders to a massive 2160 apps.
Mail: A unified inbox now handles all email accounts in one location. Streamlining the service further, ongoing messaging can be organised into threads and if desired fast inbox switching can be used to return to a specific email account.
iBooks: With tens of thousands of books available from the iBookstore, many of which are free, making this a great addition. Books can be searched for by author, title or genre and displayed on a virtual bookshelf. Sample pages can also be viewed for many of the books available for purchase.
Enterprise: With a growing number of companies using iPhones, security has been enhanced. Lots of useful features have been developed including wireless application distribution.
Game Centre: Access is provided to over 50,000 games and entertainment titles that now have enhanced features. Social gaming networks allow the user to challenge friends and view leaderboards. The matchmaking service will also connect similar users together for multiplayer games.
iAd: Mobile advertising is not to be shied away from here as the App Store (now boasting over 185,000 apps) can bring more free apps by utilising ad revenues. The true power of interactive ads was nicely displayed at the iPhone OS 4 launch using Toy Story 3 as a demonstration model. Banners at the base of the apps store can be clicked, and instead of being guided away from the app the interactive ad services run from within it where access to free games, game downloads, video clips, wallpapers, character info and cinema locations are provided.
The new iPhone OS will be available on the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS (new services are model dependant) from summer and on the iPad from autumn.
Yet to be officially announced, the hotly anticipated Nokia N8 (previously known as Nokia N98) will be a powerful smartphone with an amazing 12 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera. Sporting the Symbian 3 OS the N8 will offer improved networking making it ideal for streaming high definition multimedia files. It’s also rumoured to have HDMI support for an enhanced television playback experience. The 1GHz processor coupled with multi-touch input offers a new level of interaction.
The 3.5 inch touchscreen boasts a nHD resolution of 360 x 640 pixels for amazing clarity with 16 million colours. The fantastic screen should make web browsing with 3G HSDPA a dream and with GPRS/EDGE and Wi-Fi also included you can be sure to get online quickly wherever you are.
Photos taken with the N8 should have fantastic detail, with the 12 megapixel camera that features Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus and LED flash to give picture perfect results every time. The camera can also capture live action with HD video recording at 30fps and HDMI support (to be confirmed) allows you to view the results on your HDTV.
Every entertainment option you could ever want and more is included with the multimedia player, FM Radio with RDS, document viewer and photo/video editor. The super sharp screen, superior 12 megapixel camera and fluid OS make the Nokia N8 the ultimate multimedia device, in a sleek and tantalising form.
HTC continue to amaze with their latest offerings the Legend and Desire. Both handsets offer a fast processor and the intuitive HTC Sense interface. These powerful Android smartphones have very similar specifications, with the same processor, OS, 5 megapixel camera, HSDPA web browsing and GPS.
So which road to take?
The HTC legend is simply stunning, formed from a single piece of aluminium giving it a premium polished look. The 3.2 inch AMOLED touchscreen has a resolution of 320×480 pixels, giving images a sharp appearance. The handy Friend Stream feature brings all your social networks together in one place with updates and posted images brought into a single stream on the homepage. The 5 megapixel camera has autofocus, LED flash and widescreen photo capture. Photos can be uploaded straight to Facebook and Flickr. The Legend also has GPS with Google Maps and a digital compass.
The innovative G-Sensor lowers the ring volume when the handset is picked up and mutes the ringer when the phone is put face down. Entertainment features are abundant on this phone and include an FM radio, video player and MP3 player. It’s quad-band for international roaming and has Bluetooth, as expected. The HTC Legend weighs 126g and measures a compact 112 x 56.3 x 11.5mm.
The HTC Desire offers all the same great features of the Legend with a bit more oomph. The Desire features a larger screen at 3.7 inch that excels when viewing videos and web content. The optimised browser offers seamless content loading and the text reflow feature allows you to zoom into text at a size you want for easier reading. It still has a great look and at only 12mm thick its very pocket friendly. The Desire is a little heavier at 135g and is slightly larger (119 x 60 x 11.9mm) to incorporate the bigger screen.
If you are looking for high-end specs and don’t mind the larger proportions the Desire would be the best choice for you. If you admire the finer things in life and don’t want to compromise on functionality then the Legend’s blend of beauty and power is the way to go.
A nexus is a link or means of connecting things; it can also mean the core or centre of something. So the first significant mobile event of the new decade: the launch of Google’s initial Android phone – the eagerly awaited Nexus One – pieces together almost all that is great and good in the mobile device world. This is undoubtedly a superb piece of engineering. The bar gets raised yet again and we’re hardly out of the starting blocks for the year!
Ergonomically, the Google Phone as it is being called, just slips naturally into the hand with its all-round soft curves rather than the hard edges of, say the Motorola Milestone. At 130g the Nexus One is lighter than an iPhone (136g) and Milestone (170g) as well as being narrower and thinner (at 11.5mm) than these two most striking competitors.
All the boxes of a futuristic smartphone are ticked – albeit with a few compromises and zigs where some people would prefer to zag. Not least is the fantastic 3.7 inch widescreen, AMOLED screen, delivering 720×480 pixels resolution. Arguably crisper and clearer than any other display on the market, it delivers touchscreen responsiveness definitely in the ballpark of the iPhone and, moreover, it is fast.
The combination of Android 2.1 sitting above a Snapdragon CPU clocked at 1GHz with 512Mb RAM and ROM really does enable you to zap through opening up applications and then moving between them, even on EDGE, where 3G is unavailable.
Its multimedia credentials, are quietly competent rather than superb – such as the 5 megapixel, autofocus camera with LED flash and its 32GB memory card capacity. Among the bells and whistles is an interesting Android application called Google Goggles: it tries to recognize what is in photos then generates search results about them. Goggles can currently recognize landmarks, books, contact information, artwork, places, wine and logos at the moment and Google is apparently aiming to add other types of objects, such as plants!
A lively little feature that has certainly captured the blogosphere’s attention is what are called “live wallpapers”, already featured on Motorola’s Droid. Nexus One has a choice of 10 such animated images that can evolve throughout the day, for example. Probably more significantly, it offers excellent noise cancelling, a proximity sensor (so you don’t accidentally press buttons when it is up to your ear) and a highly effective speakerphone.
Where the Nexus One really impresses, though, is in what could be called its charisma – if it could walk into a crowded room, heads would most definitely turn. Its Teflon-coated back and sides are simultaneously rubbery and tough yet soft and almost sensuous – a strangely compelling tactile experience.
The Nexus One has scrambled up to the top of the greasy pole for now. We await what Samsung’s new Bada operating system will deliver in the Spring or early Summer. So 2010 looks set to be, if not exactly a space odyssey, then a fascinating journey though all that is faster, snappier and wow-ier in the mobile device world.
