Review: Nexus One

by Jin on February 8, 2010

in Android, Reviews, Smartphone

Note: The Nexus One in this review was connected to AT&T’s network. As most of you know already the Nexus One does not connect to AT&T’s 3G, not yet anyway, just EDGE. So, I will not talk much about the data connection speeds as EDGE does not even compete in the same league as 3G.

A bit about the Nexus One: It is one of the fastest Android-based smartphones on the market, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon running at 1GHz. The Nexus One was manufactured by HTC with a lot of guidance from Google. RAM and ROM are at 512MB each. There are the usual array of sensors: light, proximity, accelerometer; nothing you haven’t seen on other smartphones. Connectivity options include: HSPA-capable GSM, WiFi and AGPS. A 4GB microSD card comes with the Nexus One but you can replace it with up to a 32GB version.

Here are some of my observations in no particular order:

External Design: The Nexus One is quite slender and is about the perfect size. The edges are a bit more curvy than I’d like but that’s me. To give you an example of my bias, one of my favorite designs on a car is the 1997 Volvo 850 R precisely because of the boxy design (and power). I wish the Nexus One, as well as the iPhone, was a bit more boxy like the 850 R and the Droid. The color of the Nexus One is questionable. It isn’t bad, but if I could have it my way the color would be pure aluminum, white or black. I’m not even sure what the two-tone colors are on the Nexus One: titanium bronze and metallic charcoal?

This also is a personal taste of mine: I like objects that are symmetric. The iPhone 3GS is symmetric. The top and bottom bezel has the same thickness on the iPhone, and this is important to me as it brings a sense of balance. But it’s more than that. The iPhone is often used in landscape mode and the symmetric design works very well and was probably a requirement precisely because Apple knew the iPhone would be used that way. The Nexus One, on the other hand, is not symmetric and has a lot more stuff going on below the display relative to above it. In landscape mode you’re not quite centered. I really like the buzz switch on the iPhone and wish the Nexus One had one too. There are two more niggles and they are on the back: two holes. One is a horizontal slit and the other is just a small hole and I don’t know what these are for. I forgot the small hole was a hole and tried to rub it off thinking it was debris. Despite the external design being far from what I would consider ideal, the Nexus One looks quite nice. The Nexus One is slightly thinner than the iPhone 3GS, a bit taller, and a bit narrower. Overall I think the Nexus One feels more solid than the iPhone 3GS. And strangely, probably because of it being compared to the Nexus One, the iPhone 3GS feels more like a toy.

Battery Cover: The battery cover is ill-conceived. The mechanism is simply terrible. I do not know how much force I should apply to slide the cover off. And once it is off the process of getting it back on is frustratingly difficult. I’ve been messing around with high-tech gadgets for quite some time and it isn’t because of the lack of dexterity that makes opening and closing the battery cover difficult; it just is. There must be a better way. I also do not understand why the camera and LED flash covers are part of the battery cover. I think it would be a better and more solid design if the camera and LED flash covers didn’t move at all. A weird design choice in my opinion. My RAZR V3 is really old but the battery cover design, I think, is much easier to understand: there is a little shiny button you push to open the battery cover. There is nothing like that on the Nexus One and because of it, it isn’t as good. But there’s more evidence that HTC or Google or both didn’t think this through. A lot of smartphone users want replaceable batteries, right? And so the Nexus One allows for that. Great. But, I don’t think an extra battery can be purchased right now but let’s say for the sake of argument you can. Then what? Is there a battery charger? No. You have to go through the tedious process of charging the extra battery inside the Nexus One. I hope a charging base with a slot for an extra battery is coming soon.

Touch Buttons: I don’t like the non-responsiveness of capacitive touch buttons. I don’t like the four touch buttons below the display and only because they don’t work all the time. That’s big since buttons should simply work. I would rather have four real buttons. I’ve seen video after video reviews of the Nexus One and everyone has had to “press” those buttons more than once to get them to work. Real buttons please.

Display: The Nexus One makes use of a rather large 3.7-inch OLED display. The OLED is of the PenTile Matrix variety originally developed by Clairvoyante, which Samsung purchased, and is now renamed Nouvoyance. OLED is a different type of display than the LCDs that we are used to. The main difference being that OLEDs emit light while LCDs have a backlight. Black on an OLED display is simply turned off, and that’s why black is really black on an OLED. Looking at the Nexus One in the dark is fantastic. Increase the brightness to its full level and the OLED becomes more brilliant than any other display that I’ve seen on a mobile device. I’m sure owners of a KURO plasma TV would be able to relate. Not everything is perfect. Colors are exceptionally vibrant but red looks too red, a bit over-saturated. Most of this past week has been overcast so using the Nexus One outside didn’t pose any problems for the OLED display. It was sunny yesterday and the OLED display required that I look at it a bit more carefully, probably due to a lot of light reflecting off of the OLED display.

Multitouch: There is none. Update: Now there is, finally. Google started to update batches of Nexus Ones over-the-air. I haven’t been able to test it since I’m connected via AT&T and I don’t think Nexus One over-the-air firmware updates are sent out via AT&T. Read Nexus One: Finally, Multitouch.

USB Connection: You would think if you connected the USB cable that came with the Nexus One to your computer something would happen. That is the correct assumption but then you would be staring at your computer doing nothing. That’s what I did. After realizing that the MacBook Pro wasn’t going to do anything I went online and searched for a solution. It turns out you need to pull down a drop-down window from the top of the Nexus One and then mount the phone. Once you mount the phone it shows up on your computer. What you see is access to the microSD card that is inside the Nexus One. A crude method. Google will need to make this process more seamless. Not only that, after having copied some photos into the microSD card, I dismounted the Nexus One from my computer, and started up the Gallery app. It was empty. I was wondering what was going on. I searched online but could not find an answer. So I did what all old-time PC users do: I rebooted the Nexus One. Guess what? That did the trick.

Android OS Version 2.1: I don’t have much experience with Android prior to 2.1 so I can’t say much about the improvements. I wanted to like Android. Unfortunately, the Android OS is simply too crude and unpolished, especially as it is compared to the iPhone OS. On the last day of January, I took the Nexus One to church and piqued one of my friend’s interest. He is an IT guy and works for a fairly large company that supplied a critical part to the Nexus One but yet the Android OS was not as intuitive as it should have been for him: it took many different attempts for him to unlock the phone. It was funny to watch him try all sorts of things. I wonder if him being a BlackBerry user made it more difficult. It took my wife, who is not a technology geek and dislikes anything that is complex, all of a few seconds to get going on my iPhone: she had not touched an iPhone prior to that moment. Besides the less-than-intuitive unlocking procedure, there are many more areas where Google needs to pay a bit more attention to. For instance, there’s the home screen. Why does the home screen have just Messaging, Market, Phone, Contacts, Browser and Maps apps as default? Most of the screen is blank. I don’t get why the rest of the apps are hidden. Maybe I’m just used to the iPhone but I really don’t see a reason why I need to tap a button to get to all the other apps. And then there is the relatively massive Google search bar on top that could have looked a bit more integrated with the home screen and with the other icons. I get that animated wallpapers are cool but the coolness wears off in about two minutes. I had to fiddle with the UI a bit to figure out how to change the background wallpaper (just press an empty portion of the background and you’ll be greeted with a pop-up with options). I think Android is for those who like to tinker a bit. Me? I used to tinker but now I just need to get things done.

Virtual Keyboard: Shift-slide-key doesn’t work. Yes, I know, it might be an iPhone thing but I’m just so used to it that not having it makes pushing the shift key and then pushing the letter you want capitalized tedious. I found the virtual keyboard to work quite well but not as easy as on the iPhone. Another big omission (or maybe I wasn’t able to find it in one of the many sub-menus) is international keyboards. Sure, I can switch my default language but I want to type something in Korean mid-sentence and then back to English. I don’t think Android lets you do that. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Trackball: Why? Maybe there is some setting that will allow it, but I can’t use the ball to turn on the Nexus Phone. It doesn’t act like the “Home” button on the iPhone. All it does is move the cursor up/down and left/right. Actually the ball does pulsate, letting you know that it is sleeping. I don’t think we really need this feature. As far as I can tell there is no real use for this trackball. If the Nexus One came without this trackball I think it would have looked a lot better; might have been less expensive to make too. The ball should be removed in the Nexus Two.

Taking Pictures: The Nexus One has a 5-megapixel camera and a LED flash. We all know by now the number of pixels on the image sensor does not necessarily mean better picture quality. With that said the Nexus One took very good pictures when there was plenty of light. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very many nice pictures when there wasn’t enough light. Like typical phone-based flashes, the LED flash blows out the subject and produces merely passable pictures. I don’t think I need to conduct any additional tests as Andy Ihnatko has done a fabulous job of comparing the Nexus One and the iPhone 3GS. To summarize:

The Nexus One took much better pictures than the iPhone 3GS when there was plenty of non-tricky lighting but when lighting was not ideal neither were the pictures it took.

Conclusion: The Nexus One isn’t for everyone; it is for those who are a bit more techie and know their way around operating systems. If you insist on getting the Nexus One, make sure you know what you’re doing, or make sure you know of someone nearby who knows what they are doing. If you have a problem with the Nexus One the best way is to Google it. You don’t have the option of taking it to T-Mobile. You can email Google but plan to wait a while, longer than you’d want.

The external design is solid but far from perfect. The OLED display is superb but not out in the sun. The 5 megapixel takes great pictures but only when there’s enough light. Android works but could be more polished and intuitive. Overall I think the Nexus One, a.k.a. the Google Phone, represents one of the best iteration of an Android smartphone, but there is more work to be done if Google wants non-techie average folks to use one.

Charlie Rose on the iPad: Walt Mossberg, David Carr, Michael Arrington

by Jin on February 8, 2010

in Tablet PC

Charlie Rose sat down with David Carr (The New York Times) and invited Walt Mossberg (Wall Street Journal) and Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) to discuss Apple’s iPad. I’ve jotted down some notes from the almost 24-minute show (paraphrased):

Mossberg: The key thing is the services and software. Feels great in the hand and wicked fast. There’s a big hurdle: the first time Steve Jobs will need to market for this size. When Steve Jobs said $499, I was amazed. There is a weakness: no webcam. No video chatting and it is a shame that it doesn’t have it. Google, Mozilla and Apple are supporting HTML5 and moving away from Flash. iPod touch has sold like hotcakes and many use them for gaming, without Flash. Hulu could certainly do its videos without Flash. Consumers don’t care about formats they just want to watch the video. Amazon will not be standing still. Jobs is gambling that you’ll need just 10 hours and then recharge at the end of the day. Amazon can certainly build an iPad-like device with a LCD. There is a chance that Apple will cut the price based on whether internal sales projections match actual sales. Steve Jobs is not a market research driven guy. He tries to figure what people don’t know what they want yet and then do it in a beautiful way and make them want it. He is not shying away from big bold risks: Apple, Pixar. That’s how he operates as a business guy.

Arrington: Personally I think people are going to love this. I think Apple will make plenty of money on the iPad. Probably sell millions in the first year. I don’t like that it doesn’t support Flash. This device is perfect for watching videos on Hulu. Without Flash you can’t watch movies or play games. I think we are at least a good two years away from having a HTML5 version of Hulu. Magazines will be introduced, absolutely. HP, Dell and something else from Amazon in addition to Apple’s iPad will be available by the end of the year. I want something like this on the airplane. Apple has a long-standing relationship with AT&T. I wish Apple would have offered an unlocked version like the Nexus One. Steves has had a couple of mis-steps including the Apple TV. Apple will likely need to quickly develop the next iteration of the iPad. The timing is right for a device like the iPad: low-power high-performance chips combined with large-screen capacitive technology makes this type of device possible.

Carr: The gadget disappears. It’s all about the software. There are two killer apps. One is gaming and the other is books. I don’t think many users will purchase the $499 version. There is no multitasking so you’re not inundated with stuff: you can lean back and experience it. This will be a more viral gadget than most because it is so large. Embedded multimedia in publications are great. The month-to-month service is an indication that Apple is aware of users’ dissatisfaction with AT&T.

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber pointed out Carr’s comment on the iPad’s hardware disappearing so you’re immersed in the software. Carr’s exact words:

One thing you have to understand about this gadget is that the gadget disappears pretty quickly. You’re looking into pure software.

I might also add that if the display was terrible no matter how good the software there is little chance you’d get immersed. Gruber then shares his experience with the Nexus One:

An Android gadget never disappears.

I absolutely agree. The experience on the Nexus One, so far, is not as intuitive, smooth, or immersive compared to the iPhone. But, the experience using an iPhone would be significantly enhanced if it had the superb OLED display used in the Nexus One.

2010 MacBook Pro: IPS, Core i7

by Jin on February 7, 2010

in Notebook PC

Geekbench (via MacRumors) reported benchmark performance numbers for what seems to be an unreleased MacBook Pro running a 2.66GHz Core i7-620M (dual-core) CPU, which sport Turbo Boost and Hyperthreading. The final Geekbench score of 5260 is quite a bit higher than a current MacBook Pro running at 2.66GHz with scores in the range of 3700 – 4000. It is about time Apple updated its unibody MacBook Pros. A quad-core MacBook Pro is probably not in the works as it poses two challenges: heat & battery. It has been reported that HP’s Envy 15 sporting a quad-core i7 CPU generates enough heat to make the underbelly uncomfortably hot. Battery life is dismal too. Although I believe Apple has superior ability to develop hardware with better thermal & battery management, I don’t think the end result will meet the company’s minimum specifications for its MacBook Pro line.

More importantly I would like to see Apple continue its focus on using high-end display panels. I believe the 9.7-inch IPS LCD is the smallest in quite some time and so size is not a limitation. With the development of e-IPS (read LG Display 23-inch e-IPS 1080p LCD Monitor Panel and LG Display e-IPS LCD Panel Update), LG Display was able to reduce the design complexity, lower component costs (especially of the backlight unit) and lower power consumption. Best of all prices are not much more than run-of-the-mill TN displays. By combining exceptional viewing angles, lower power consumption with the benefit significantly outweighing the additional cost, I expect the entire MacBook Pro line to transition toward IPS LCDs.

Qualcomm Mirasol Brings Color to E-Book Readers

by Jin on February 6, 2010

in Display Technology, Ebook Reader

Qualcomm’s Mirasol display technology can display full color consuming very little power. It consumes no power when the display is not being updated, just like E Ink displays. Add to that video playback capability thanks to a response time that blows any LCD out the window and Mirasol technology is already better than E Ink by a big margin. Qualcomm is planning to produce a 5.7-inch Mirasol display with a pixel format of 1024 x 768. That’s interesting because the much larger 9.7-inch TFT LCD used in the iPad sports the same number of pixels. Imagine a Kindle 2 with color, video playback capability, and touch (read Amazon Buys Touchco). Yowzer! Source: Wired

Windows Phone 7

by Jin on February 6, 2010

in Smartphone

Windows Phone 7: Very similar to Zune HD. Complete revamp of start screen. “METRO” UI that is “very clean”, “soulful”, and “alive.” No multitasking and no Flash. Full Xbox gaming and Zune integration. The METRO UI is expected to be unveiled at Mobile World Congress, not hardware.

I must say Zune HD has more hardware firepower than the iPod touch. If only Microsoft had something as big and good as the iTunes Music Store the Zune HD would see considerably more sales. I am not surprised to see that a future Windows Phone 7 will make use of the Zune HD as well integrate Xbox gaming. The Zune HD UI is quite nice and simple and generally works quite well. There’s also a fairly large Xbox following. Taking advantage of just those two would be a solid start for Windows Phone 7.

Apple doesn’t have an Xbox-equivalent gaming experience. Sure the iPhone and iPod touch can game but the experience falls short of an Xbox or a PlayStation. I’m not a hardcore gamer but my preference is to mash a physical button to kick things into gear. Unfortunately the Windows Phone 7 will lack that physical connection too. But I have hope, in a Xbox controller you can stick the Windows Phone 7 into. Or maybe you can use a Xbox controller to control the Windows Phone 7. I’m sure there will be an enormous number of possible solutions, all being rather inelegant but utilitarian.

The METRO is codename for the UI that will be better than what you find on the Zune HD. I’m not sure what I should think when I hear words like “soulful” or “alive” to describe a UI. But here’s hoping the METRO UI will be a worthy competitor to the iPhone OS or webOS. I don’t doubt it will be infinitely more polished than Android since Zune HD’s UI is much better already.

Lastly, I hope Microsoft sees it fit to change the entirely awkward Windows Phone 7 name to something more cool. How about something like Xphone? Source: PPCGeeks via Engadget

Cell Phone: Health Hazard?

by Jin on February 5, 2010

in Market Research, Medical, Mobile Phone

Christopher Ketcham in Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to Your Health writes about damning evidence suggesting your cell phone may cause brain damage:

Though the scientific debate is heated and far from resolved, there are multiple reports, mostly out of Europe’s premier research institutions, of cell-phone and PDA use being linked to “brain aging,” brain damage, early-onset Alzheimer’s, senility, DNA damage, and even sperm die-offs (many men, after all, keep their cell phones in their pants pockets or attached at the hip). In September 2007, the European Union’s environmental watchdog, the European Environment Agency, warned that cell-phone technology “could lead to a health crisis similar to those caused by asbestos, smoking, and lead in petrol.”

The entire article is a must-read, so brew your coffee and set aside about 30 minutes and try to soak all of this in. Then, think of ways to minimize the risk.

Microsoft: Self-Destruction

by Jin on February 5, 2010

in Gaming

Frank X. Shaw in Measuring Our Work by Its Broad Impact makes the case that innovation is about making a positive impact in the world. (Internet Explorer and Windows Vista come to mind.) The piece by Shaw was in response to a former Microsoft employee, Dick Brass’ op-ed piece Microsoft’s Creative Destruction in The New York Times that argued Microsoft has become a “clumsy, uncompetitive innovator”:

Its products are lampooned, often unfairly but sometimes with good reason. … Its marketing has been inept for years; remember the 2008 ad in which Bill Gates was somehow persuaded to literally wiggle his behind at the camera? … Despite billions in investment, its Xbox line is still at best an equal contender in the game console business.

That last bit about the Xbox prompted Shaw to respond:

… Xbox 360 was the first high-definition console. It was the first to digitally deliver games, music, TV shows and movies in 1080p high definition.

First, this doesn’t make sense at all: music … in 1080p high definition? I’ll just chalk it up to Shaw making a simple mistake. But games in 1080p high definition? I wasn’t quite sure so I checked. According to Wikipedia:

While most games are rendered natively at 720p, the video from all games can be scaled by the hardware to whatever resolution the user has set in the console’s settings; from 480i NTSC and 576i PAL all the way to 1080p HDTV.

Technically speaking most Xbox 360 games are not natively in 1080p format, but in 720p. You’re just scaling it to 1080p. Not the same thing.

Let’s move to movies. I am fairly certain that Xbox 360 does not contain an internal Blu-ray drive. I don’t think you can connect an external Blu-ray drive to the Xbox 360 either. This is partially the result of Microsoft picking the wrong side (HD-DVD) but the company has yet to embrace Blu-ray for its Xbox 360 system. Yes, Shaw did mention digital delivery of 1080p movies and that means you’ll need to use the Xbox LIVE service, which introduced 1080p movie downloads in June 2009. For comparison, Vudu started streaming 1080p movie in October of 2008.

My intention is not to completely discredit Shaw; I merely wanted to get some facts straight. I agree more with Brass that Microsoft needs to shape up. Take this startling revelation about Microsoft’s tablet PC initiative back in 2001:

… the vice president in charge of Office at the time decided he didn’t like the concept. The tablet required a stylus, and he much preferred keyboards to pens and thought our efforts doomed. To guarantee they were, he refused to modify the popular Office applications to work properly with the tablet. So if you wanted to enter a number into a spreadsheet or correct a word in an e-mail message, you had to write it in a special pop-up box, which then transferred the information to Office. Annoying, clumsy and slow.

That’s interesting: you could use those three words to describe a few more Microsoft products. via Daring Fireball

Movist: Mac Video Player

by Jin on February 5, 2010

in Software

Federico Viticci in Movist: The Real Alternative to VLC for Mac:

Where Movist really outstands the competition is in file support. It’s the only app that played my .mkv files perfectly, even when VLC was crashing. Not to talk about .mp4 and .avi support, pretty obvious. Moreover, Movist plays .wmw files faster than Quicktime, and you can also switch from FFmpeg to Quicktime playback with a single click on a toolbar button. Awesome.

I’m not sure if Movist is really that awesome. I wanted to check this new video player for myself. Upon download I ran it and opened an .avi file created from a Canon SD1000. I tried to open a few on Movist and all crashed after spinning the ball a bit. QuickTime Player version 10.0 (90.3.1) opened and played the same .avi files without a hitch and very quickly I might add. I mostly have just three types of video files I need to play back: .mov, .mp4, .avi. If you need movie files in other formats (e.g. .wmv) to run you might want to consider Movist, but crashing with .avi files is problematic to me. via Daring Fireball

Apple iPhone #3 in 2009

by Jin on February 5, 2010

in Market Research, Smartphone, iPhone

According to IDC’s Apple shipped an estimated 25.1 million iPhones in 2009, a significant increase from 13.8 million in 2008. In the last calendar quarter of 2009 Apple sold a record 8.7 million iPhones. In 2009 Apple’s share of the “Worldwide Converged Mobile Device Market” was 14.4% in the #3 spot. That’s quite a bit of growth from 9.1% in 2008. Research In Motion (RIM) also experienced substantial growth and took 19.6% market share solidifying its #2 position (was 15.6% in 2008). The top dog was Nokia with 38.9% of worldwide unit shipments in 2009 (was 40.0% in 2008), shipping 67.7 million total handsets.

But success isn’t solely based on how many devices a company ships. More importantly, success depends on how much profit the company generates from participating in this business. For tables with more brands and numbers hop on over to AppleInsider.

Samsung SHW-M100S

by Jin on February 5, 2010

in Android, Smartphone

Samsung’s SHW-M100S is an Android smartphone sporting a 3.7-inch OLED display. The OLED makes use of PenTile Matrix technology that provides an effective 800 x 480 pixel format. You can take 720p HD video. Connectivity options include WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and DMB. The SHW-M100S also runs Android 2.1. Source: Akihabara News

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