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Google’s New Android Nexus Nexus

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Alex Angove

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is about to take a very different approach with its flagship Nexus devices. Instead of partnering up with just one original equipment manufacturer (OEM) like HTC or Samsung, Google is apparently planning to team up with upwards of 5 OEMs for Android 5.0 Jelly Bean in order to provide a complete line of Google (Nexus) phones.

Not only this, but Google is reportedly planning on selling these devices straight to consumers in unlocked form. This means that Google will begin taking a direct share of the hardware sales profits and also circumvent network providers in the same move.

The implications of this move are many and far-reaching. In the US unlocked devices are quite rare, as US carriers have a huge amount of power when it comes to what will and will not be supported on their networks. This  kind of control allows carriers both within and outside of the US to not only dictate the kind of devices that are available, but also to cram said devices full of carrier-specific bloat-ware that ultimately serves no purpose other than to clog up the works and slow down the overall efficiency of a device.

By controlling not only the distribution of a device but also its software content, carriers will have to compete by both providing a timely release and limiting the amount of useless bloat-ware found on their handsets. This is basically good news no matter what country you’re in, as these are two problems that Android smartphones have been facing since the inception of the popular mobile operating system (OS).

Google will also be circumventing much of the need to cut the carriers or larger retailers of the world in on much of the end-profits when it comes to smartphone sales of the Nexus line.

Fighting Fragmentation

Another connotation of this move we’re considering is that of Androids seemingly never ending fight against fragmentation. Every time Google releases a new Android update it takes months to roll out to existing devices, sometimes never reaching them at all. A good example of this is that with Android 5.0 Jelly Bean right around the corner many of the world’s Samsung Galaxy S II users are yet to gain access to the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update, with their GS2s remaining stuck on 2.3 Gingerbread. This example is even more fitting when one realises that just a year ago the Galaxy S II was the hottest-selling smartphone in the world and the undisputed king of the Android market, yet it is still to receive an update that was announced well over half a year ago.

Traditionally Android Nexus devices have been the only Android devices that have received updates in a timely fashion. This isn’t some form of favouritism, rather it is simply a question of ease. An Android OEM, in order to distinguish itself from the competition, will usually paste a unique user interface (UI) on top of the Android platform. This means that an HTC or Samsung owner will have a uniquely Samsung or HTC experience, even though they may both have Android devices. Unfortunately this UI must then be made compatible with each successive update to the Android operating system, which takes a lot of time.

Then, after this has finally been achieved each carrier must then analyse the Android update for each individual device to confirm that it will work on their network. Carriers are also suspected of failing to push out timely updates in the hopes that customers will become tired of their old phone and buy a new one, rather than having their old phone suddenly refresh and offer an updated and better experience.

A Google Nexus device does not have this unique OEM-specific UI pasted on top of it. It instead sports the basic Google Android interface that each Android update is designed specifically to work with. Carriers have little excuse to delay these updates and thus they tend to roll out in a timely fashion.

If Google is truly to offer up an entire line of Android 5.0 devices at once, that whole line would foreseeably enjoy a rapid update to Android 6.0 when it is eventually announced another year down the line. This would create a bigger gap between OEM branded and Nexus branded phones, with the Nexus line clearly in front. Our hopes are that this will encourage OEMs to make their skins more easily adaptable to future Android updates.

This projection does have one slight humorous flaw, however. It’s intriguing to note that the current version of Android, Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ (ICS), was designed to be the one Android version that would bring them all and (in the darkness) bind them. The idea with ICS was that, by bringing some more stringent guidelines within which an OEM could act, successive versions of Android would be able to be accepted more easily, finally ending the fragmentation problem and offering a more unified Android ecosystem. Why, then, would Google feel it necessary to release an entire line of Nexus phones in order to fix the Android fragmentation problems if ICS was supposed to have already done the job? The question is unfortunately unanswerable at the moment, but it’s still an interesting one nonetheless.

Unifying UIs

The idea of a more unified Android UI experience, with the stock-standard Google-defined UI leading the charge, is slightly reminiscent of the Windows Phone approach taken by Microsoft. Windows Phone, much like Android, relies entirely on 3rd party OEMs to make devices for the platform. However, Windows Phone has very strict rules under which OEMs can operate, one of which is that the Windows Phone UI is the one and only UI that shall be used. As such any Windows Phone, no matter which brand you buy, can look very similar to any other Windows Phone to the untrained eye.

Will, then, Android begin to take a similar approach. We’ve already spelled out the advantages, but one of the strengths of Android has always been its entirely open nature. Manufacturers can play around with the OS as much as they want in order to provide a unique and innovative experience. If things start to become too uniform there’s a slight chance that Android may find itself on a path to becoming the next Windows Phone.

Multi-Market Nexi

One thing we really like about this reported move by Google is the kind of choice it can potentially offer, despite the concept of a uniformed UI. Traditionally Google Nexus devices have always been high-end, meaning that people looking for lower-end phones have had to either miss our to buy a generation behind. A Nexus line could suggest devices of multiple sizes and pricing. We could see big-screen high-end smartphones as well as smaller budget models and anything in between.

Android Tablets

There’s also the potential for helping out the tablet market. Android tablets have been getting destroyed both in-store and in the courts. If Google has a greater control over a line of Nexus Tablets then they can not only ensure that the chances of patent infringement is minimal (we’re looking at you, Samsung), but by providing a stable framework from which the Android Tablet market can grow.

Currently Android tablets offer a huge range of different user experiences, which is great in theory but is failing in practice. This is because potential customers become too confused as to which model to buy and end up either grabbing a sub-par one or giving up and going over to the iPad. Providing a unified tablet experience will allows users to get used to the idea of Android tablets. The differences between models of varying prices will be more obvious and the capabilities of each tablet, capabilities that would hopefully be more unified and comparable, can be more easily understood.

After a generation or two of this OEMs can start going back to making weird and wonderful Android tablets with a potentially larger and more well-educated Android user base.

The Nexus Nexus

At the end of the day we think this would be a pretty smart move on behalf of Google. But what we’re really interested in is seeing what kinds of repercussions come about as the result of Google selling its products directly to users in an unlocked and unified form. It could be just what Android needed to take the next step in the smartphone market, or it could end up restricting OEMs too much to provide a rich variety of products. We’ll just have to wait and see.

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EU to Cap Data Roaming Charges

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Alex Angove

The EU already had restrictions regarding data roaming charges, limiting users to a maximum roaming fee of €50 within a month before data roaming was cut-off. Recently Europe has voted to take it one step further regarding the price-per-megabyte (MB) that roaming users are required to shell-out.

Currently those prices can be higher than €1 per MB in some cases, as there is currently no limit placed on providers as to how much they can charge for roaming fees. With the new regulations coming in to effect data roaming will be capped at no more than 70 Euro cents per MB as of July 1st of this year. That price will then drop to 45 Euro cents one year later, then down once again to a staggering 20 Euro cents on the 1st of July 2014.

Despite this huge drop, keep in mind that 20 Euro cents per MB is still quite a bit of cash to fork out for internet usage, but at least roaming users in Europe will be getting, in some cases, more than 5 times the bang for their buck as of mid-way through 2014.

Voice and text caps are also dropping down over the same 2 year period as well. 1 minute voice calls will drop to 29 cents on the 1st of July and then 19 cents two years later. The current maximum is 35 cents. Text messages will fall from a current maximum of 11 cents to 9 cents on the 1st of July this year and then 6 cents two years later in 2014.

On top of all this consumers will have the option of choosing an operator from outside their national network to provide their roaming services. This will not affect their usage in their home country, only when they’re visiting other nations and are thus subject to roaming.

The idea is that this will not only bring better value to consumers, but also increase competition

From 1 July 2014, customers will be able to buy their domestic and roaming services separately, from different operators, if they so wish, whilst keeping the same phone number. They will not be charged for switching providers and their home country provider will be obliged to inform them of this right.

Furthermore, as from 1 July 2012, virtual mobile network operators (MVNOs), i.e. those who do not have their own networks, will have the right to access other operator’s networks at wholesale prices in order to provide roaming services. This will encourage more operators to compete on the roaming market.

- Source

This really is the kind of thing we love to see. Not only will customers be getting better protection against bill shock and significantly more value for their money, but having the option to choose a different carrier for your roaming services is a nice little cherry on top. Now, instead of providers competing within the borders of individual countries, telcos must now compete internationally when it comes to roaming coverage and plans. Don’t think this is just some esoteric option that most consumers will never hear about, either. Providers will be required by law to inform customers of their right to have a foreign teclo handle their roaming services.

More choice means more competition and when there’s more competition the customer always wins. It means a push for both better services and better prices in order for companies to remain competitive.

We also feel like this is just another logical progression in our shrinking world. Modern technology is helping to connect us with people of different nations with greater success than at any point in history. It’s reassuring to see it being taken further than the internet, with governments actually agreeing to standardise the use of communication technology across multiple nations when one is away from home. In a way, this new legislation encourages people to leave the digital world that is helping to connect us and actually form real-world physical relationships with other places by making it not only more affordable, but easier to understand how we can continue to use our personal technology once we get there.

Posted in Broadband, Mobile Phones |
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HTC One X Review

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Alex Angove

The HTC One X is HTC’s new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) flagship device. Not only that, but the One X was the world’s first widely-released quad-core smartphone. As such it represents the next generation of the smartphone market and is an exciting indicator of things to come. For the meantime we got our hands on one to find out if it’s all that it’s cracked up to be and if the One X has a chance of taking some of the Android game back off of Samsung and delivering it to the waiting hands of HTC.

HTC One X Physical Design

The HTC One X represents a new approach taken by HTC towards case design. Taking a leaf out of Nokia’s Lumia style-book, the One X is crafted out of a single piece of machined polycarbonate. That means it’s light, feels great to hold, has a smooth surface that doesn’t appear cheap or glossy and it can be colourised without relying on paint. It’s also quite durable, as polycarbonate is capable of absorbing some of the shock. Even if it is scratched the nature of its manufacturing materials means that the obviousness of any external damage will be minimised, as the case is the same colour the whole way through so no discolouration should be evident.

The shape itself is still very HTC, but different enough for us to take notice. From the side the One X almost appears to be convexly curved like the Galaxy Nexus, but in reality the screen is almost flat. We say almost because at the edges there’s a slight fall-off, once again reminiscent of the Nokia Lumia line. This mild rounding makes for an incredibly comfortable experience when holding or using the device. It’s one of those small differences that helps draw the line between a solid smartphone and a premium flagship device.

Being a single piece there’s no tri-colour rear plate this time; the One X is the same colour the whole way around. The front and side edges have been glossed, making for a shinier appearance than the back, but it’s not particularly noticeable.

The USB charging port is found on the left, the volume rocker on the right and the power/lock button sits atop the device. It can occasionally be a bit difficult to hit the power button, but that’s more due to the large size of the One X, rather than any mechanical design flaws.

The speaker at the top of the handset falls away from the screen ever so slightly, allowing the One X to sit quite snugly against the ear without any discomfort. In fact, rather than a raised lip or bezel as we often see, the screen is actually the highest part of the device when sitting flat on a table.

One small problem is that the battery is not removable. It’s not an issue for most users, but a lot of people like the option of grabbing themselves that extra battery for those times when they spend a while in-between charging stations.

Folks with smaller hands should also be weary of the HTC One X’s size. It’s 4.7 inch display makes for a formidable form-factor. We didn’t have any problems with our large, clumsy hands, but we suggest actually physically holding either this phone or one of similar dimensions before deciding on a purchase. You might find it to be just a little too much of a stretch at the end of the day.

Overall we’d have to say that the One X features a wonderfully functional and stylish design. However, we did wonder at the inclusion of the 3 capacitive buttons sitting below the display. As we saw with the Galaxy Nexus, the ICS operating system (OS) allows and even anticipates the implementation of virtual on-screen buttons. We’ll get in to how this affected the user interface (UI) later, but for now we’ll just say that we found it intriguing.

Display and UI

The 4.7 inch 720p HD display of the HTC One X is simply gorgeous. Colours were vibrant, whites were impressively crisp and blacks were handled quite well. Viewing angles were also something that surprised us; the One X’s display didn’t seem to have any angles at which it began to lose image quality. At times it was almost like viewing an incredibly bright sheet of paper and bright it was. The default brightness setting was set at around to thirds of the potential brightness and even that was difficult to view straight-on in anything other than direct sunlight. We ended up setting it to just below half brightness and found that to be more than sufficient for our regular viewing needs.

The One X comes running the Android 4.0 ICS operating system underneath HTC’s very own Sense 4 UI. The mix makes for a wonderfully smooth and visually impressive experience and is probably the best Android interface we’ve used to date.

The standard HTC multi-purpose Lock screen is still there with its shortcuts to Email, Messages, Phone and Camera, as well as the option to simply unlock the phone. With ICS has come the new ability to pull down the notifications bar without first unlocking the phone. This is a fantastic addition and we can’t for the life of us figure out why it hadn’t been implemented on a wide scale before Ice Cream Sandwich. Obviously if you have password or face protection on then the ability to pull down notifications is blocked until your password has been entered or face has been recognised.

We love the idea of resizable widgets brought in with Ice Cream Sandwich. Not every widget can do it just yet, but those that can are customised easily enough. Simply tap and hold the widget, after releasing it small arrows will appear on each side. You can just drag these arrows out to resize. Adding new widgets to Home Screens is easy too. Tap and hold on any Home Screen and a widget menu will pop up. You can add widgets to any home screen from this menu, meaning that you can add multiple widgets to different screens without having to manually switch between them.

The UI itself was quite smooth, but we did find a few problems to do with lag time between making a command and it registering with the handset. Often within an app we would hit a tab, or press the back button and have to wait a few seconds before anything would happen. This became increasingly frustrating when, after a few seconds of nothing, we would hit the back button again several times only to have a chain of ‘Back’ commands suddenly fly out in rapid succession and we’d find ourselves back at the home screen.

Oddly enough, despite the powerful quad-core processor, this is the most lag time we’ve ever experienced with an HTC smartphone between input and registry. At first we considered that it might be due to HTC’s tendency to clutter up the available Home Screens with active and power-hungry widgets. However, after removing as many as we could we noticed no visible improvement in performance in the troubled areas.

To clarify, it’s not as if the HTC One X is a laggy device; far from it. It’s just that within certain apps, even common ones such as Words With Friends, we found it to have considerable lag on occasion. We adjusted to it quite quickly and after a short while it wasn’t so frustrating any more, but it remains nothing short of a curiosity that such a powerful handset would suffer from these kind of problems.

Overall apps launched and closed very quickly and multi-tasking didn’t seem to be a problem. The multi-tasking button that has replaced the Menu button in ICS didn’t actually require that much attention, as the One X seemed to be powerful enough to ignore running any number of processes simultaneously.

Concerning the lack of a Menu button, we were once again thrown in to the realm of minor confusion by the One X. It’s in no way HTC’s fault that Google decided to do away with a static Menu button and introduce the Multitasking key instead. However, Google seems to have intended any issues that would arise from this decision to be tackled by the use of virtual keys.

Virtual keys are what the Galaxy Nexus employs instead of capacitive buttons. Basically a virtual key does the same job as a capacitive button, except it is part of the main display and not a separate and static section of the interface. Virtual keys can change in size, light up when they are pressed, disappear when they are not needed and even have other keys appear alongside them when contextually relevant. This last bit of handy functionality is where the HTC One X seems to fall short.

Due to the lack of a hardware menu button and also the lack of ability to squeeze and on-screen menu button in beside the 3 main keys the One X was often forced to include a black button that ran the length of the bottom of the screen in situations where a menu button was necessary. This might not seem like much, but when one of the selling points of a device is the size of its screen then it would seem appropriate to make best use of that feature, rather than filling it up with unnecessary on-screen buttons. Obviously this was not a fatal flaw, but it’s still a minor issue that we feel could have been easily addressed by HTC.

Don’t let our moaning fool you; the HTC One X functioned quickly, smoothly and admirably for the most part. We might sound like we’re complaining a lot, but that’s just because the One X was such a premium piece of smartphone that all of the little flaws really stood out every time we encountered them. Like we said it’s probably the best Android experience we’ve had to date in terms of general UI navigation and the large 720p display was the proverbial HD cherry that really sealed the deal for us.

Camera

The One X is one of HTC’s new line of smartphones that carries the fancy ImageSense imaging chipset. ImageSense is HTC’s way of finally stepping up to the plate and attempting to wrestle the title of ‘best mobile camera’ from Apple.

Even so, HTC isn’t quite there just yet. The 8MP shooter on the One X was far better than anything we’ve seen from HTC thus far; it’s just not quite as good as the iPhone 4S’ offering just yet. Shots in well-lit areas came out fantastically and dimly-lit situations turned out better pictures than we’ve yet seen on Android with any kind of reliable regularity. We did notice some pretty intense light bleeding for shots with varying brightness, such as an indoor shot with bright sunlight bursting through a window in the background.

Photos could also be taken in rapid succession with an impressive degree of quality, depending on the lighting situation. Shots with flash came out well with minimal discolouration and video quality was comparatively equivalent to picture quality (ie: good in well-lit situations and tolerable in the dark). All in all we’d definitely give the One X’s camera a big thumbs-up and we hope to see this kind of progress continuing on in the Android market.

An added bonus to all of this was that our One X came with an added drop-box perk. Drop-Box is a cloud storage service that, in the context of the One X, acts as a backup for all of your photos and videos taken on your smartphone. Generally Drop-Box subscribers have to pay a fee to get anything over a 2GB storage account, but HTC One X owners will apparently get a full 25GB for no added cost. We, unfortunately, weren’t privilege to this perk as ours was just a review model, but we’re assured that

Battery Power and Heating Issues

Every manufacturer has its demons and for HTC it’s battery power. Traditionally HTC smartphone have suffered from significantly inferior charge retention to their contemporaries, but it’s definitely something that HTC has been making great strides towards improving of late.

The One X is a great example of an HTC smartphone that doesn’t suffer from the mistakes of its forebears. It may boast a large, HD screen and a quad-core processor but it still easily lasted a day when we hit it with medium-to-heavy use. As always removing any unused widgets from the Home Screens is advisable (especially the full-screen animated weather widget), as it will noticeably improve battery life further.

As we expected the HTC One X did have a few heating issues when pressed. Whenever we pushed it with a graphically intensive game, or when it was unsuccessfully searching for an internet connection, we found that the top of the handset heated up quite a bit. It wasn’t as bad as some other devices, such as the Galaxy S II or the Motorola Atrix, but it was still noticeable and, at times, uncomfortable. It’s not a deal-breaking issue but it’s definitely something to keep in mind.

Music and Video

Video playback on the One X was, unsurprisingly, awesome. The incredibly bright 720p display made for fantastic visuals and the large screen really allowed us to immerse ourselves in whatever we were watching. Not much detail to go in other than the fact that colour saturation was great and there was minimal-to-no image bleeding.

We did like the added touch of being able to take a screenshot whenever we wanted. Tapping the screen would bring up the standard menu, with a little shutter button that had been added to the right-hand side. Tapping said button would produce a freeze frame that saved itself in to your video folder. We can’t think of too many uses for it but it’s still a nifty little addition.

The music player was more than functional. It boasted a few aesthetic changes when compared to previous versions of the Sense music app, but overall it was the same old reliable system.

The main screen had 3 options up top: My Phone, SoundHound and TuneIn Radio. My Phone links to your own personal music selection. SoundHound is a music identification program, ie: activate SoundHound whenever you hear a song you want to know the name of and SoundHound will listen in and try to identify the artist and song title for you. TuneIn Radio is your basic modern smartphone Radio app. It has a variety of choices, but we mostly just stuck to our own personal selections.

Browsing and Keyboard

Browsing on the HTC One X was absolutely fantastic. The lengthy screen coupled with vibrant colours, potentially-blinding illumination and 720p HD resolution provided clear and easy website navigation, even on non-mobile sites.

The quad-core processor made short work of pinch-to-zoom commands and the HD resolution meant that even at maximum zoom text came out sharply with barely a whisper of visible pixilation.

On top of processor speed, we found the browser to be generally faster at loading web pages than other high-end devices that we’ve tested on the same network. We’d have to say that this was one of the best mobile browser setups that we’ve ever encountered.

The keyboard also benefitted from the large screen. Portrait-mode wasn’t incredibly easy for our large fingers, as the display is still quite thin compared to its length. However, we didn’t have any problems outside the norm and when switched to landscape-mode our clumsy digits flew across the screen with reassuring accuracy.

We never found the keyboard the lag behind our typing and switching between portrait and landscape was as fast as it was smooth.

The larger screen obviously made tasks like reading emails or messages very easy as well, adding to the overall air of simplicity.

The WhistleOut Opinion

Despite some the occasional bit of lag when executing a command the HTC One X was a simply fantastic smartphone. It looked great and really felt like a premium device when held in the hand. The user interface was, for the most part, smooth and functional. The display was astounding and online activities were functional to awesome. The camera was a significant improvement over previous models and the media integration was solid.

Obviously the heating issue is something to be mindful of, but we didn’t find it to be particularly worse than the current generation of dual-core smartphones so it’s in a way forgivable.

At the end of the day we’d definitely recommend that anyone looking for a new top-end smartphone give the HTC One X some serious consideration. It might be worth waiting till the end of May to see how the Samsung Galaxy S III fares, as well as what Apple has in store for us with its next generation of iPhone come mid-June. But if you’re absolutely after an Android smartphone right now we can’t think of anything better than the HTC One X.

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Nokia Lumia 710 Review

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Alex Angove

The Lumia 710 is the mid-range forerunner of Nokia’s new Windows Phone (WP) Lumia range of smartphones. The new WP focus for Nokia brings with it not only a change in overall user experience, but some unique approaches to external design and a subtle feeling of style not seen for a while in the Nokia range.

Physical Design of the Nokia Lumia 710

At first glance the 710 can come off as unremarkable in appearance. If you’re viewing one of the two tonal options – white or black – with a matching back plate then the immediate impression is of a small and standard monochrome smartphone. However, it’s important to note that the 710 has some interesting options for customisation when it comes to the external casing.

While we were unfortunately only graced with a solid black unit, the 710 has a swappable rear plate. The back casing of the phone can be easily removed and replaced with another of different colour. This allows users a form of customisation that hasn’t really been seen before in the mobile market: the ability to customise and personalise the external appearance of their own phone.

We love the idea, as we believe that oftentimes a change is just as good as a holiday. Switching up the colour scheme of your device can actually provide the impression of a new experience and can serve to spice up what you may be beginning to perceive as a stale user interface. It’s not a particularly game-changing innovation, but we are already starting to see companies like Sony follow suit in this department.

Shape-wise the 710 is fairly standard. It’s a bit wider than we’ve come to expect from a smartphone of its size but that can be forgiven when taking the price range in to account. The rubberised rear-plate also seems designed more for impact dispersal and grip rather than keeping a slim profile.

Overall the device is quite small, sporting only a 3.7 inch display. This coupled with the rubberised rear plate the Lumia 710 provides an extremely sure grip. The curved design also provides for a comfortable experience.

One point of interest is that below the screen there are three hardware buttons. Usually with modern handsets we’ll see capacitive buttons here, with perhaps only one physical button in the middle. The three hardware buttons of the Lumia 710 (Back, Home and Search) are all part of the same raised panel. This can actually create a small amount of difficulty when trying to input a command on the fly. We found that we would occasionally press to close to in-between two of the keys and hit the wrong one. It wasn’t a major issue, but we feel like the phone would have benefited by 3 totally separate buttons, rather than 3 buttons sharing one clickable panel.

Display and UI

The display of the Lumia 710, while still offering a resolution of 480×800, is immediately and obviously of lesser quality than the AMOLED screen of the Lumia 800. That’s not to say that it’s a bad screen; it’s actually quite adequate. But colours just don’t share the same vibrancy as found on AMOLED variants. For a smartphone in its range it’s still a solid offering and a resolution of 480×800 is in no-way a drawback when crammed in to the smaller 3.7 inch display of the Lumia 710. Basically it’s a good screen, just not an overly impressive one.

We did find that the Windows Phone UI was a bit less immersive due to the lack of vibrancy from the 710’s non-AMOLED display. We also found that it suffered from the same cramped-feeling that we got from the Lumia 800 – the Windows Phone UI just feels like it was designed for a slightly larger screen. However, the WP user interface is still a relaxing and beautiful experience, even on a standard and small LCD like that on the Lumia 710.

The UI is the standard user interface for the Windows Phone Mango platform. WP boasts a much more unique experience than that found on the iPhone or Android devices, due to its stylish layout and intriguing integration systems.

Third party services like Facebook still manage to give off a very Windows Phone-esque feel when you’re using them. This is because that same WP font is implemented, as well as a similar style of picture and text layout is generally kept across the entire user experience.

Users also have the option of pinning a specific website, or even a page within said website straight to the Home Screen as if it were just another Live Tile. This, coupled with the font and layout retention mentioned before, gives the feeling that you’re never really leaving the Windows Phone system. Rather, the user is left with the impression of a uniformed and complete experience instead of a haphazardly thrown-together mess of separate functionalities.

Notifications are handled similarly to the Android and iOS (iOS 5 or later) operating systems. A drop-down bar appears whenever a new notification is received. This bar can be tapped on to reveal the notification, or ignored and addressed later.

Themes and customisation is one area in which Windows Phone seems to have earned itself an ill-deserved shady reputation. Many users assume, incorrectly, that the WP platform suffers from a crippling lack of options for personalisation. This is most likely because that WP, unlike Android and iOS, does not allow users the option of implementing their own background. Instead, WP uses a colour theme system.

Colour themes come in two varieties: background and foreground. For the background there are the two options of white and black, or “light” and “dark”. The foreground options refer to things like Live Tiles and the Notification bar. There are a variety of colours to choose from. It sounds restrictive, but the first time we tried out this system we actually found it to be a pleasant change of pace. Simply messing around with different background and colour combinations actually provides a surprisingly diverse range of motifs, each of which adds its own kind of character to the interface. It also works fantastically with the idea of changeable rear-plates, as users can easily customise their on-screen aesthetics to match or compliment that of their exterior case.

Camera

The 5MP shooter on the Nokia Lumia 710 is quite passable. As far as 5MP smartphone cameras go we found it to be somewhat above par, but in no way incredibly so. As can really be expected from a mid-ranged device it took good photos in well-lit areas and started to lose quality as it was exposed to more and more dimly-lit situations. We did find that photos taken with flash were of a higher quality than we expected, but once again it wasn’t a high-point of the overall experience.

For video-capture we’d give the Lumia 710 a solid ‘OK’. Once again in well-lit situations it’s capable of turning out decent image quality, but anything darker than a mildly overcast day and it begins to lose image clarity. Auto-focus is also affected in dimmer situations, causing the camera to spend too much time adjusting to new angles or light levels.

Syncing videos and pictures to a desktop or computer is a bit restrictive. Much like with the relationship between an iPhone and iTunes, Windows Phones have to be synced via the Microsoft Zune Player application. It’s not a difficult experience and less-experienced users will probably find it helpful. But anyone with a bit more experience with file access and transferal may find the whole process limiting. However, it’s no more limiting than some of the other mobile options out there and definitely shouldn’t prove an issue to the greater majority of users.

Music on the Nokia Lumia 710

Music is one area where Nokia Windows Phones actually manage to really set themselves apart from other Windows Phone devices. The Nokia Music app offers a unique music experience for its users, namely through the “Gigs” section.

With Nokia Music, users can look up and view upcoming gigs in their immediate vicinity. Right now the acts that are usually included tend to be on the larger-side, but you still get the odd small event thrown in there and we actually noticed an increase in postings since we reviewed the Lumia 800 only a few weeks ago. This gigs section isn’t going to be for everyone, but we honestly love this kind of integration. Making live music gigs more openly available is a great way to get users to go out and experience new social events. We actually found ourselves browsing the gigs section on more than one occasion and taking down mental notes for future performances in our area.

Other than Gigs Nokia Music is quite similar to the standard WP music player; it’s a solid portable music service that can lag a little at times when it comes to switching between menus, but overall works well and plays music smoothly. We appreciated the visuals as well. It’s great to have whatever artist is playing pop up as your lock screen, it adds an element of personalisation that changes depending on what mood you’re in and thus what kind of music you’re playing.

One great piece of functionality for Windows Phones is Zune Pass support. Zune Pass is the subscription-based service offered by Microsoft. Basically users pay a monthly fee and are granted unlimited downloads from Microsoft’s Zune store. These downloaded albums or songs can be installed on either 5 or 7 devices (depending on when you signed up). The catch is that if you ever cancel your subscription they will immediately stop working.

However, for your subscription fee of between $12 and $15 (prices vary depending on region and with time) you’ll also be given a free downloadable album that’s yours to keep forever each month. So basically for the price of one album per month you get one album per month, plus unlimited access to millions of songs as long as your subscription is still valid. It’s a smooth and easy-to-use system and, so far, it’s one of the better streaming services that we’ve sampled on the web. We wouldn’t exactly recommend it for anyone who doesn’t have a Windows Phone, as they wouldn’t be able to take their music with them. However, with Windows Phones having Zune Pass compatibility it suddenly upgrades from a good service to a great one in our books.

Apps and Gaming

As usual apps and gaming on the Windows Phone platform was a little meagre. Being a new operating system (OS), Windows Phone is still in the process of building a solid base of app developers. That being said there is still a large number of games and apps to choose from, you just probably won’t find some of the bigger titles that have become cross-platform between Android and iOS.

One thing that Windows Phone does have going for it when it comes to apps and games is its fantastic try before you buy system. Most titles have a “Try” button sitting next to the “Buy” option. Hitting “Try” will usually give you access to either a demo version of the program, or the full program but with a limited timeframe in which you can use it. What’s great about this is that, say you download a game and spend a couple of hours playing it, if you decide at the end of the trial period that you want it all you have to hit is “buy” and you can usually continue on your way. You won’t have to start again and you generally won’t even have to download anything extra. It’s a solid system that takes a lot of the guess-work that is usually associated with purchasing new games and apps.

Of course the pricing in the Windows Phone Marketplace tends to be a bit higher – around $3.49 for the average title. But we found that the added surety given by the trial system allowed us to decide for sure whether or not we really thought each product was worth what was being asked, making for an overall satisfied experience on our behalf.

Keyboard and Browser

Browsing in Windows Phone is smooth and responsive. The Lumia 710 handles pinch-to-zoom commands quickly and keeps its percentage of screen-width cover constant when switching between portrait and landscape modes.

We’ve become accustomed to larger screens lately and we have to say that switching back to browsing on a 3.7 inch is difficult. A larger screen means more room for text and images, as well as being easier for typing. Even those of us with better vision had trouble reading the captions below images when the 710 was kept in portrait mode, but when we switched to landscape there were no problems.

They keyboard was equally responsive and didn’t once manage to raise our ire. We found the auto-correct function to be satisfactorily intuitive and the software keypad managed textual input at high speeds. Once again in portrait mode we had a bit of trouble typing, as our large fingers felt cramped on the 3.7 inch display. But in landscape mode things were much easier and we could type away merrily as quickly as we pleased.

The WhistleOut Opinion

Overall we were pleased with the performance of the Nokia Lumia 710. For a mid-range device it was fast, responsive, smooth and as always the Windows Phone UI offered a pleasant and stylish experience.

The camera was at times lacklustre but we didn’t feel that it fell short of the mark for where it sits in the overall smartphone market.

We love the idea of the interchangeable rear-casing for switching up your style and personalising your device just that little bit more. It’s a fantastic premise that we hope to see implemented on more devices in the future and, for a mid-ranger, it should be enough of a feature to make the Lumia 710 stand out more prominently against its competitors.

If you’re after a solid mid-range smartphone then we definitely suggest giving the Lumia 710 a serious look-over during your comparison process. It’s no top-end device, but it certainly offers a solid and smooth experience for the casual smartphone user.

Check out Nokia Lumia 710 Prices, Plans and Deals

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Samsung Galaxy S III Announced

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Alex Angove

The rumour mill can finally take a rest with the unveiling of the new Samsung Galaxy S3 flagship phone in London. The highly-expected Android superstar might not have lived up to some of the more far-fetched expectations surrounding it, but it still hasn’t failed to impress those that have seen it in action.

Talk of a ceramic external case was almost accurate, with Samsung showing off a new seamless ‘Hyper Glaze’ design that gives the phone the feel of being one single unified piece. Reports right now suggest that most users will want to grab a case with the Galaxy S3 for nothing more than to improve grippiness, but a case is generally a good idea anyway.

Display

As with all high-end Samsung smartphones the screen is really where most of the attention falls and the Galaxy S3 isn’t letting anyone down. The 4.8 inch 720p display is, by all accounts, amazing. A few people are getting hung up on the missing “Plus” at the end of “Super AMOLED”, but to be realistic it really doesn’t make a huge difference. Yes, you can see it when comparing a S-AMOLED Plus against a S-AMOLED if you hold them next to each other, but we’ll take a severely improved resolution over an almost unnoticeable increase in colour vibrancy any day of the week.

Power and Internet

As we expected, the Samsung Galaxy S3 will come toting a quad-core 1.4GHz Exynose processor. That puts it up around the same kind of speed as the HTC One X and other quad-cores. What it has over them all, however, is that unlike the NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip, the Samsung Galaxy S3’s quad-core can support 4G LTE wireless broadband.

That’s right. It’s a quad-core device with real 4G internet. US customers will most likely be happiest to hear this one, but countries like Australia and the UK that have their own fledgling or soon-to-be-launched 4G networks can still appreciate the inclusion of 4G.

Camera

The camera on the Galaxy S3 isn’t the immensely megapixeled monstrosity we’d heard about, but that’s ok. MP is at best a wildly inaccurate way of judging a camera’s quality so we weren’t too taken aback to hear that the GS3 would be sporting something a little more trimmed-down.

What we were intrigued about is some of the features included with the GS3’s new camera software. Among the new goodies is the auto-detection of your friends’ faces. Taking a picture of a friend, or group of friends, will prompt you to send the photo to the people in question, or ask you if you wish to share. You can also tap on their faces and bring up their facebook profile, email or sms from which you can send them the photo or a message regarding the image.

This is both a little creepy and very cool. The idea of Samsung being able to tell who all of our friends are and link it with their contact details is unsettling. Of course we know that companies have been able to do this for a while, but it’s obviously getting to the point where manufacturers like Samsung don’t feel as though they need to keep to the shadows when using their ability to detect and identify everyone in your life from a photograph.

The prompt to send the image to them, or the ability to access their profiles straight away by tapping their face is actually pretty cool. While it’s still part of the whole creepy factor, it cuts out a lot of steps in the social media sharing process. It’s a great idea by Samsung and we hope that it works reliably.

S Voice

S Voice is Samsung’s answer to Siri. Absolutely no word just yet on how well this technology works, as demonstrations have been indefinite at best. More on this at a later date.

Other Features

Perhaps the two most notable other features are the eye-tracking ‘smart-stay’ software and the ‘direct call’ function.

Smart Stay is a feature whereby the screen remains unlocked so long as you are looking at it. The phone actually uses the front camera to track your eye movements and will not lock while you’re staring at the screen. Creepy? Check. Awesome? Check.

Direct Call is a more simple bit of functionality. Go to call someone, get their number on the screen and then simply lift the phone to your ear. This cuts out exactly 1 tap, meaning that you don’t have to tap on a number once you have it displayed.

Overall So Far

So far the Galaxy S3 sounds like a fantastic contender for the Android throne. One paper it has almost everything that the HTC One X has, but edges it out with more features and 4G LTE support (with a quad-core processor). It even has a slightly bigger screen.

It’s  not the incredible super-phone that many fans were hoping for, but big-release smartphones almost never live up to the hype. We definitely expect the Galaxy S3 to retake Samsung’s position at the top of the Android ladder. The real question now is: can it take on the iPhone 5? In quality, probably. In popularity, almost definitely not.

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Sky’s Cap-Free Fibre: Good Idea?

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Alex Angove

As the nation makes more headway in to the age of fibre-optics, leaving our copper-based past behind, we can obviously expect to see internet speeds, coverage and general usage increase. It should come as no surprise, then, that companies like Sky want to get in on the ground floor and offer their own fibre-based services before competition becomes to fierce.

What is surprising is that Sky is planning to offer fibre connections of up to 40Mbps speeds with no download limit. Sky Fibre Unlimited is available to customers for just £20 extra per month when purchasing Sky Talk and line rental.

More surprisingly Sky has stated that this new service will eventually be available to a full 30% of all homes in the UK, making it a pretty massive undertaking.

We’re still hung up on that ‘cap-free’ part, though. While it’s not unheard of for providers to offer unlimited download options for broadband, they’re usually pretty pricy. This is to ensure that only a small number of customers could potentially make use of this service, lowering the chances of it being abused by mega pirates and download junkies.

Rental of a Sky line is just £12.50 per month, bringing the whole package up to £32.50. It’s not exactly the cheapest plan in the world, but for unlimited downloads at 40Mbps it’s surprisingly inexpensive.

One of the main reasons for our concern is that with today’s ever-increasing use of personal broadband in our daily lives countries like the US that have traditionally offered cap-free subscriptions are now having to seriously rethink their sales model. Some of the top US carriers are starting to feel the strain of their unlimited data allowances and imposing new and ill-received restrictions on their users.

While it’s true that Sky doesn’t have as many subscribers as a US company like AT&T we can still see the potential for some pretty serious over-indulgence by chronic downloaders. But hey, if Sky wants to offer cap-free 40Mbps broadband for around £32.50 per month then who are we to question them?

Gamers, downloaders, streamers and social media addicts alike can all benefit from faster speeds like this. You might not think that faster internet will do that much for you now, but trust us; once you get used to faster speeds you’ll begin to wonder how you ever survived without them.

If you’re already a Sky customer, or live in a supported area, then we seriously suggest you pay this offer some serious attention while the going is good. It’s entirely possible that Sky might find that this kind of thing is simply not supportable moving forward, so you don’t want to miss out just because you waited too long.

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The Psychology of Plugging In

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Alex Angove

Image Credit: TZA on Flickr

If you’re on our site then we assume that you’re at least a passing fan of technology. It’s certainly no secret that we love our smartphones and we usually do our best to make sure that you end up with one that you love too. However, can too much of a good thing affect us psychologically?

Recent research is beginning to suggest that our modern plugged-in lifestyle may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. Sherry Turkle, a noted MIT professor of psychology, and Dr. Harry Brandt of The Center for Eating Disorders at Sheppard Pratt have noted some concerns regarding our increasingly shared online lives.

Before you sigh and roll your eyes we’d encourage you to hold off on your judgement. Professor Turkle’s TED talk is well thought out and persuasive and Dr Brandt’s theories, while a bit less thorough, still raise some valid points.

Professor Turkle points out that through our increasing desire and ability to control where and when our attention falls that we’re losing the potential to be bored and alone. This might sound like a great thing, but Turkle is concerned that, especially amongst adolescents, boredom and solitude and important for self-reflection and the establishment of personal identity.

Turkle argues that this idea of never being alone and remaining connected is actually contributing to an increased sense of loneliness. In many instances we replace intimate face-to-face conversation with online connectedness. We’re also never found in a situation where the only thing to do is sit and think about ourselves as we always have little games to play, people to chat to and statuses to check wherever we are. Instead of really getting to know someone else through a live conversation some of us only ever received a diluted or augmented version of who they really are through their own self-editing process.

She also raised concerns over our newfound ability to ‘edit’ our personality by only showing the photos of us that we find best, by taking as much time as we need to carefully word a text message, email or instant message before responding and to even delete anything after we’ve posted it if we decide we don’t like it later. Instead of taking time to reflect on ourselves we instead paint the best picture we can without actually evolving our psyche in any meaningful way.

The notion of “I share therefore I am” was also raised as an example of our desire to always be heard. While technology gives us a voice that can be heard by hundreds, what we’re often only doing is speaking to a machine. Through our devices we feel that we will always be heard and never be alone. But sacrificing that intimate, face-to-face conversation for a simpler and more edited version can hinder our own processes of self-reflection.

Turkle goes on to state that much of this is fine for those of us that have already developed social skills and the art of conversation. But increasingly she has seen evidence in adolescents of an inability to hold a conversation with any level of comfort. The younger generation is apparently turning more towards textual communication due to the safety blanket it offers regarding how we believe we control the way in which we are presented. This leads to difficulty when dealing with face-to-face communication, as that safety buffer has been removed.

Professor Turkle’s argument gives credence to that of Dr Brandt, who talks about possible links between Facebook use and eating disorders. It all ties back in to that idea of self-editing. We can try as hard as we want to only show our best side online, but pics of you that you dislike are always going to crop up and the best you can do is un-tag yourself so that it doesn’t show up on your profile, but they’re still always there and you know it. So in order to always appear as desirable as possible in any picture that might be taken we need to physically edit ourselves too. This can, of course, lead to a healthier lifestyle, but Dr Brandt feels that the more obsessive and unconfident members of our society may feel pushed in to taking it too far.

Moreover, where we could once limit our use of Facebook we’re now thrust back in to it over and over whenever we use it to log in to an online service or to a game on our phone. We see the carefully chosen display pictures of all our friends with increasing regularity outside of Facebook. I personally have the Facebook pics of my friends as their contact display-image on my phone. This increasing push to view and use social media brings with it the increasing pressure to make sure we appear in a way in which we find ourselves desirable.

Brandt doesn’t believe that those who are not already psychologically or psychobiologically at risk of developing an eating disorder will be affected. Rather he thinks that Facebook and other social media services would only affect someone for whom a disorder is a pre-existing risk. It’s a fair enough point. Subjecting someone who is already deeply self-conscious to an increasing bevy of self-portrayal has an obvious potential to spiral out of control.

Going back to Turkle, the Professor believed that rather than this being the fault of technology it’s rather our use of it that has created these issues. She states that we can employ our online lives in such a way that allows us to learn things about ourselves that we can reflect on once we disconnect. It’s the idea of disconnecting every once in a while that is important to the professor and we have to say we agree. Plugging in is great, but the idea of ‘too much of a good thing’ is a very old and very apt one.

So, maybe it’s time to go sit in a room somewhere and be alone for a while. According to Turkle a bit of boredom is good for the psyche.

If you’d like to check out Professor Turkle’s TED talk we suggest you do just that.

Now, how do we be bored again… is there an app for that?

Image Credit: User TZA on Flickr

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Samsung Planning iCloud Competitor

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Alex Angove

We’ve been hearing talk that Samsung is looking to release its own cloud service, currently known as ‘S-Cloud’, in order to compete with Apple’s popular iCloud. If the rumour turns out to be true and if Samsung is able to provide a solid cloud-based product then this is certainly good news for Samsung owners.

So far we’re not too clear about just what kind of stuff S-Cloud will offer. It could be a music and video service, or perhaps support photo streams. There are a myriad of things a new cloud service from Samsung could bring to its users.

However, one problem with a manufacturer-specific cloud like this is that it will likely only work on Samsung devices and desktops. While that may sound fine when you compare it to something like iCloud, which only works on iDevices and offers a more limited service to PCs than Macs, it’s a bit different when you’re talking about a relatively smaller range like Samsung’s. More comparable would be something like putting Android up against iOS, rather than Samsung vs iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch.

If Samsung’s cloud is only available on Samsung products then it will likely be a more scaled-down operation in terms of size. This does offer the benefit that it will cost Samsung less to maintain and thus could allow for a more in-depth service. On the other hand less devices means that you’re appealing to a smaller audience and as such returns may be lower, hindering Samsung’s ability and motivation to offer a premium cloud.

Of course all of this is purely academic right now and only time can tell what Samsung will bring out and what kind of service it will prove to be. The main thing we’re concerned over isn’t so much the idea of specifically a Samsung cloud, but with this increasing trend towards forced brand-loyalty in the tech market. While we have no problem with customers sticking with trusted companies or manufacturers that they feel have provided them with great service and products, what we don’t like is the idea of being obliged to stick with that brand even if you feel like a better product has come out from a different source.

Using the current iCloud setup as an example, you may have an iPhone and a Mac at home and now you’re looking to add a tablet to your collection. Where you may once have considered grabbing yourself an Android tablet you’re now much more likely to go with an iPad because of your pre-existing presence in iCloud. Syncing all of your products together under one cloud sees a great many more benefits than if you went with a more diverse option.

Another example is a person who loves iDevices, but doesn’t want a Mac. This customer can receive the benefits of iCloud to some extent, but will find a lot of the functionality is lost to them simply because they went with a different kind of desktop.

If you do decide to go with unifying your devices you’ll end up with all of your iDevices and your Mac synced flawlessly over iCloud. What happens if you want to switch handsets once your phone plan is up? You might find during your 24 month contract that the iPhone isn’t suiting all of your needs and want to switch to Windows Phone or Android. But now you have a Mac and an iPad both hooked up to iCloud. You already bought the iPad over an Android variant for the cloud service, so switching phones now would make that decision pointless.

The problem would be the same if you replaced iDevices with Android, Windows Phone or even just specifically Samsung gadgets. You can essentially choose to stick with one manufacturer and maintain a unified and easy experience across all of your technology, or go for a more fragmented experienced with disjointed gadgetry that refuses to play nice with its competing brands. At the end of the day it’s almost as if you’re being punished for wanting a wider range of technology in your life.

We don’t really expect operating systems like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android to get along when it comes to the cloud. We doubt we’ll ever see proper iCloud integration on an Android device or vice-versa, but when manufacturers within an OS start making their own clouds our brows begin to crinkle.

Android and Windows Phone are both great platforms that offer a wide range of functionality. The phones within each of these platforms work well together, as they’re all part of the same big OS family. But when you start segregating each manufacturer within an OS in to different camps, each with their own cloud services and fan-base, then the OS as a whole begins to lose cohesion.

Not only does each brand of phones now have a barrier between it and the rest, but the users who own said devices may now find it harder to move to a handset outside of their current manufacturer. If you’ve spent 2 years setting up your Samsung cloud just the way you want it, you’re probably less likely to consider an HTC or LG device, even if the hypothetical devices in question are superior to the Samsung option. In this scenario sticking with Samsung means that you don’t have to start on a new cloud service from scratch.

As we’ve stated many times in the past we like customers to have as many choices as possible. We try our best to remind consumers that there are always other viable options out there and just because your current experience is good that doesn’t mean you won’t be more suited to a different product next time around. Trying out new products is a great way to mix things up and keep your technological experiences fresh. It also keeps manufacturers from getting lazy, as they have to keep providing items of the highest possible quality in order to ensure they’ll maintain your patronage.

The kind of forced brand-loyalty that we’re beginning to see puts those walls that we strive to knock down straight back up again by simply making it too much of a hassle to switch between brands and refresh your tech life.

We admit that we’re overreacting a little and that right now things aren’t really that bad. But we have noticed this little trend to be on the rise and it does have us moderately concerned. What if a customer doesn’t want to stick with Samsung, or HTC, or Apple for their next device? Variety really is the spice of life and while a lot of folk are fine to stick with the same familiar products others like to mix things up a little every now and then. We’d prefer our choices to be limited only by what we do and do not want, rather than the lengths we’re willing or unwilling to go to in order to set ourselves up with a new cloud network and be stuck with a more fragmented device experience.

 

 

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Should Windows Phone Adopt Kinect?

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Alex Angove

For a long time now there has been gossip about rumours of reports that the technology behind the varyingly popular Microsoft Kinect system is coming to Windows Phone. Kinect is an Xbox 360 accessory that quite literally turns your body in to the controller using advanced motion-sensing and voice recognition.

It’s an extremely impressive piece of technology, one that seems to have had more success in the hands of jailbreakers and hackers than anything we’ve seen from Microsoft. The problem with Kinect is that the games simply aren’t very good, in fact most are so bad that the Kinect has become somewhat of a joke in the gaming industry. But putting bad games aside, the technology is still there, waiting to be harnessed.

This was not overlooked by hackers and jailbreakers who took one look at the Kinect and started using it for a myriad of purposes. Some made rear-sensors for their car to assist with reverse parking, others have managed to include live CG effects in to video calls. At this point pretty much everything from using the system to play non-Kinect games to employing it as the eyes for an automated flying robot has been tried and done. All the while Microsoft seems to have been sitting quietly back and releasing bigger and worse game titles, each more poorly received than the last.

So here Microsoft stands, with a mechanical marvel in one hand and a so-far failed application of it in another. It stands to reason that Microsoft would look at all of these weird and wonderful uses of this incredible piece of failing technology and wonder if maybe they should try a different approach.

Of course you can’t fit a whole Kinect device in to something the size of a smartphone, we’re simply not there yet. But with Google trying its hand at facial recognition and Apple gloating over its ‘native speech’ Siri service there’s really no reason for Microsoft to not use what it already has to level the playing field.

This raises the question: once the voice and facial recognition software from Kinect have been integrated in to Windows Phone where do you go from there? Now that you’ve potentially matched both Apple and Google in two of the areas in which you’re currently being outpaced the next step becomes a little hazy.

The obvious answer would be the inclusion of the Kinect’s iconic gesture-based commands. But there’s no real point in being able to control something with non-touch gestures when you’re already holding it in your hand. Of course you could suggest that a Windows Phone handset could become a kind of TV or Xbox accessory in itself, allowing the user to control a viewing experience with gestures from the couch while the phone sits up on the TV console. But this is a very esoteric use and probably won’t go far towards marketing Windows Phone to the masses.

As a matter of fact, past the facial and voice recognition protocols utilised in the Kinect we can’t think of any other uses off the top of our heads that would appeal to the mainstream market. As such we’d have to say that if Kinect does come to Microsoft it’ll be more in the software than the hardware department. But there’s no telling with the tech industry, you never really know what’s around the corner.

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O2 Deals Up with EA Mobile Games

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Alex Angove

Telefonica, the owner of UK telco O2, has signed a deal with EA Mobile, giving it the right to run promotions that include popular EA Mobile game titles such as The Sims, Monopoly, Worms and FIFA.

O2 customers will be the first of Telefonica’s telcos to benefit from the deal, being granted free access to EA Mobile games for up to three months after their first game download. It’s a great deal for O2 subscribers and should provide a good bit of fun, but we’re more interested in what this development says about the mobile industry.

Smartphones are becoming a larger part of our lives at an accelerating pace. We use them not just as phones, but as mobile browsers, e-Readers, social media devices, PDAs and very often for gaming. The mobile applications industry is currently the largest online digital content distribution network in the world. The Apple App store by itself is the world’s largest vendor or software, add to that the application markets for other operating systems and you find yourself well within the definitions of ‘big business’.

Of the mobile application market the largest chunk of it by far is taken up by games, with the mobile gaming market expected to be worth as much as £8 billion by 2015.

Contrary to what some mobile developers and analysts would have you believe, this huge gaming industry is not comprised primarily of people that would be traditionally referred to as ‘gamers’. Console and PC gamers do play games on their mobile phones, of course, but they hardly make up the majority when it comes to casually passing time by playing Draw Something or Crime City.

No, this huge and very new kind of gaming industry, the industry of the ‘casual gamer’, is made up of people from all walks of life. Everyone from hardcore gamers to technophobic grandparents are in on the casual gaming revolution. Of course it’s an obvious enough trend that you didn’t really need to hear it from us, but we’d like you to think about the implications.

Gaming has been on the rise for a long time. It’s such a big industry that it has now been segmented in to different groups in order to avoid offending its customers by inferring that they’re the wrong kind of gamer. Traditionally the two opposing sides have been PC gamers and console gamers, with different consoles such as the PS3 and Xbox having their own opposing camps that only join together to rage against the PC supporters. Now comes along this new subset of the casual gamer.

PC and Console gamers generally have no problem being addressed as casual gamers when it comes to gaming on their handsets, as they don’t really expect much more from their mobile device than a casual experience. But just try and see what happens when you suggest that someone who spends 2+ hours a day on Angry Birds or Farmville is a ‘gamer’. The person in question would probably deny the label and any avid console gamer who overheard you would likely scoff and call you a scrub or a noob before listing numerous examples of ‘real games’.

With this in mind cast yourself back 10 or so years. Back in those days it was the console gamers who would deny the label of ‘gamer’ and only the PC camp who would be reciting ‘real game’ titles from memory.

Now we have this new kind of gamer; the kind that reserves their gaming for when they’re out and about. They keep their gaming experience confined to their smartphone and perhaps occasionally play the odd game on their browser. But does it really matter what kind of a system you play your games on? Whether it’s a PC, console or mobile device it’s still very much a video game.

The new class of casual gamer is driving the gaming industry just as much as the traditional kind. Their game titles may only cost around £1 but they are many and purchase new games often. Some pay for in-app items with real money and many of them log just as many hours on their ‘casual games’ as the guy next door who’s blasting away on the newest Modern Warfare release.

In this permanently plugged-in world gamers and gaming are everywhere and it’s only going to grow from here. It might be time we realised that video games have just become another form of entertainment, one that is no longer really deserving of a label. It doesn’t really matter what kind of games you play, when you play them or where. If you’re logging several hours a week on a video game of any kind then you may as well admit that you play video games for fun and that might just make you a gamer.

It doesn’t mean you have to start introducing yourself as one, after all folks who watch TV at night don’t call themselves ‘TVers’. Furthermore if you take even the most cursory of glances around a bus or a train you’ll see that you’re not alone. Almost everyone these days has played a game or two on their phone instead of reading a book, checking the news or even doing something useful like squeezing in some extra work

So what do you guys think, does clocking multiple hours on video games each week make you a gamer or do you hold to the idea that it’s the kind of game that makes the gamer?

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