What would a week of “Smartphones Now” be without a review of a smartphone? A terrible one, I’m sure. So what are we going to look at today? The Duo from Pantech for AT&T. Not exactly the hottest smartphone on the market, but it does have a few qualities that are quite endearing. I’m also jaded and hate all phones to begin with. Heh. That’s not entirely true. I just hate the iPhone. That one’s for you, dwalk.
The most significant feature of the Duo is its dual slider design, which it borrows from its bigger brother over at Helio, the Ocean. The main difference and unfortunately the biggest pitfall for the Duo is the lack of spring assist for the QWERTY. You see, the Ocean has spring assist in both directions. You may not think it’s necessary but it is. Sliding the Duo to get to the QWERTY is painful and gritty. Of course, if you’ve never touched the Ocean then you wouldn’t know any different. It’s something you can get used to, though.
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If you’re thinking we’ve been on smartphone overload this week, you’re right. We’ve been rounding up all of the best and worst in the smartphone world and giving you the goods and bads in general terms. Your next phone will likely be a smartphone. There are more options than ever before, and they literally now fit into any budget.
They’re not for everybody, sure, but if you do more than call Mom once a week so she knows you’re alive, then it’s time for you to get your QWERTY on and do more with your handset, and this guide is here to help.
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Ask the average American about Symbian and they’ll look at you blankly. In the grand pantheon of mobile OSes, it is the dashing, shadowy figure with the charming accent to sneaks into your life through Nokia and some Sony Ericsson phones.
At its core, Symbian is fairly basic. It works as equally well on a basic candybar phone as it does on one of S-E’s high end personal communicators. Interestingly enough, Symbian — not Sybian (do a Google search) — is also showing up on some Samsung models, mostly in Asia, and partners shipped 20.4 million Symbian smartphones in Q3 adding to the 165 million Symbian phones in circulation. Trust me. You’ve seen a Symbian phone.
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The average cell phone user probably can’t name the OS running on their phone. Millions of consumers couldn’t tell you what Symbian is, whether Windows Mobile is troubled by bloat, or even whether they’re excited about the possibilities of Android. However, the capabilities of regular mobiles are limited and the stresses put on them by their users even more so. When you enter the smartphone arena, the OS running on a phone makes a lot of difference.
The speed and usability of the UI, the amount of applications available and likelihood of further apps being released, and the limitations imposed by the OSes’ creators all have their place in smartphone shoppers’ considerations. In a way, the smartphone market is more like the PC market, and so it makes sense that as Linux challenges the dominance of the established OSes in that market, so it should in others.
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This is an odd duck out of left field, if you’ll allow me to mix metaphors like I mix a cocktail. The HOP2001 by Hop-On is a Windows Mobile 6-based smartphone with a Treo-like form factor that can be used for either AT&T or Verizon Wireless, due to it’s fairly unique dual-mode GSM or CDMA architecture.
While GSM/CDMA Frankenphone’s are unheard of, Hop-On nearly is, notable for making disposable cellphones not long ago. The company also specializes in mobile gambling technologies, and is aiming this phone at those who like to wager.
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Can anyone truly define what a smartphone is? It’s been something I’ve been asking everyone at CG and no one seems to know exactly what it is. Just about every phone on the market can be considered a smartphone if you believe it to be something that does anything other than making calls, but that’s obviously not it. It’s essentially any device that gives you the impression that you’re on your PC. It has its own OS (WinMo, Symbian, Linux, Palm and RIM) and allows for third-party software. They also should have Office and Exchange integration right out of the box and system-wide copy/paste. As Matt put it: “well, smartphones are like porn: you can’t really define it, but once you see it, you want to put it in your pocket to show off to your friends later.” Well said Matt, but there are some not-so-smartphones that give off the same impression and do just about the same things.
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The tricks contained within this post probably aren’t going to be revolutionary to most seasoned Windows Mobile users but if there’s one thing I can’t stand about the operating system, it’s how many steps and/or the amount of extra software it takes to do simple things sometimes. Here are five tricks that don’t require any extra software and should each take under a minute to perform. Feel free to leave any of your own dead-simple tricks in the comments below.
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It’s Smartphones Now week here at CrunchGear, and as you can tell there’s a lot to know and a lot to gain from them. In fact, you could say with some conviction that anyone who is not using a smartphone at this point is either cheap, foolish, or a completely technophobic luddite. I kind of admire the stand you’re taking, guys, but it’s time to acknowledge that you’re fighting the future, and not the way Mulder and Scully did in the X-Files movie. This is a statement of fact: Everybody needs a smartphone, and if you don’t, you’re doing something wrong.
Smartphones are like custom Nikes in a world of 10-peso tourist-shop flip-flops. I can’t think of a reason to pick the flip-flops unless you’re going swimming, and that doesn’t even make sense for the purposes of this metaphor. The point is that smartphones do everything regular phones do, but better, faster, and harder. And entirely separate from that fact, they also do things regular phones don’t even dream of. But Let’s at least be fair and look at the reasons why you might not have a smartphone. Read More
Let’s be perfectly honest with each other for a few minutes: most built-in mobile Web browsers make me (and probably you) want to scratch my eyeballs out. Any Java-enabled device not running Opera Mini is a travesty. You’re just not living and there are no bones about that. Not only is it faster, but it doesn’t take up a whole lot of space on your device’s already limited memory capacity.
I’d like to think most of you are savvy enough to know how good Opera Mini really is and you’re already running it on your device of choice, but if you’re just joining us or have no idea what it is then step into my office and let’s rap about this for a few.
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Palm, as a company, should need no introduction. The chameleon of a technology company has changed hands more times than a Hilton’s phone number, and is used just as often, too. The company essentially founded the concept of modern handheld computing back in 1996 with the Pilot 1000, and kept the platform evolving into what it is today, the secret behind the best-selling and popular Treo line of smartphones.
Sadly, the OS hasn’t developed much in the last few years. We have Palm (at the time Palm One) selling off the operating system to Access a couple of years ago to thank for that. Access has shelved the operating system to focus on a next-gen, Linux-based version. And while we like the idea, there has been little fruit borne from the labor. Read More
My dad is an inveterate pack-rat and when I was home this weekend I was going through a copy of Bon Appetit from 2001. Don’t ask me why. On the back page was an ad for the Handspring Visor. It showed the Visor in four configurations — phone, black and white camera, MP3 player, and I think GPS. Each of these features required a separate piece of hardware along with some software. Seeing these four Palm-powered devices made me tear up a little. I believe I was still using a Palm V back then, adding and deleting contacts with abandon and scribbling my calendar on the Palm V’s dark screen. Palm — and Palm OS — wasn’t just a trademark back then. It was part of the zeitgeist. It was part of our culture.
That, sadly, is no longer the case.
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Smartphones and not-so-smartphones are gaining popularity and the necessity of finding a decent plan is becoming more and more important. Not every carrier is really providing a good price point for first adopters or really, even slightly economically-minded smartphone users. What we’re looking at today is what the Big Four carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint) have on offer. It’s not a comprehensive investigation, just a look at what you’d probably want to get if you signed up with one of these suckers today.
What we’re looking for is basically a decent unified plan with a fair amount of voice (around 1000 minutes, we’ll say), unlimited or near-unlimited messaging and e-mail, and unlimited data. Because really, it’s almost 2008, we shouldn’t need to be counting our bytes when we’re paying hundreds for these high-tech phone-PDA hybrids. Read More
The whole idea of smartphones is that they should help to make your life easier. But sometimes it can be a daunting task to figure out which third-party applications are worth the time and money to install and use.
These eight great apps are easy to install, easy to use, and should help you be more productive from day to day.
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It’s that time of year again… Smartphones Now time! Smartphones Now is our annual discussion of all things smartphones and will detail the ins and outs of a turbulent and exciting year, a year eclipsed by an 800-pound gorilla and witness to some spectacular flame outs. This is a year of transition, a time when Apple redefined the market and Microsoft played catch-up. New interfaces and gesture-based systems were taken out of labs and universities and smashed into smartphones that are better — or worse — for the effort. Things are changing, and this is just the beginning.
We’ll talk about Palm, Symbian, Palm OS, and WinMo. We’ll talk about the iPhone — is it really a smartphone? We’ll talk about the gadgets and gear we played with all year and predict, pontificate, and do penance for our lack of foresight. Welcome to Smartphones Now.
Have any smartphone horror stories? What is your favorite phone? The worst phone you used this year? Drop us a line at tips@crunchgear.com.
