Living with the Sony Xperia Z1 pt 3

There maybe trouble ahead

...continued

Having been much more impressed with the battery now its been through a few recharge cycles, we managed to get 14hrs from the Z1 with around 5hrs of screen time. 

Although a couple of issues have started to pop up,

- STAMINA mode doesnt seem to be 100% reliable, the same way it wasnt in the original Z

- The heat generated by the handset is phenomenal, at one point the top half of the back and front were almost untouchable after downloading a movie from SEN.

The issue with STAMINA mode on the last Sony handset was that it didnt always kick in if it couldnt end an app, however at least it had the decency to tell you its not working. Even if you couldnt do anything about it. You have no idea this new version is working or not other than the icon at the top of the screen, a test would be quite nice to have as an option.

Heat generated from the Z1 has caused us a few problems with the cover we have on it. Its well. Melting the cover slightly. We are assuming this will be fixed in a firmware update. 

One thing we have noticed over the last week is how slippy this handset is, get some decent insurance because it has next to zero traction on a surface. It doesnt grip on a car seat, a sofa of any material, wooden tables or coffee tables. Another reason for it to have a cover not only to stop the glass smashing to bits, fingerprint prevention and stopping the Z1 from being uber slippy.

Oh and get good insurance !!!

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Samsung Omnia II Verizon Wireless

Like many of the touch screen smartphones available today, Samsung Omnia II (Verizon Wireless) has a candy bar design but it is slightly on the bulkier side at 4.69 inches tall by 2.35 inches wide by 0.52 inch thick and weighing 4.76 ounces. However, theres good reason for the extra size and thats the gorgeous 3.7 inch WVGA (800x480 pixels) AMOLED touch screen. When compared with the first Omnia and other touch screen smartphones, videos and photos look amazing on Samsung Omnia II (Verizon Wireless).

It has a smoother picture, wider viewing angles, and higher contrast. Also, a built-in accelerometer changes the screen orientation when you rotate the phone for certain applications like the Web browser, messages, photos, and video. Also, while the smartphones touch screen is resistive and requires a bit more pressure than a capacitive touch screen to move among various home screen panes, we found it quite responsive and didnt require the precision of a stylus to select items.

We should note that the touch screen was a bit temperamental when we first used it, but after realigning the screen with the stylus, everything was fine. Below the display, you get Talk and End or Power keys and a Main Menu key (more on this later). There is an OK button, but its on the left side of the phone along with the 3.5 mm headphone jack and volume rocker. The microSD expansion slot is also located on this side but youll have to remove the stylish red battery door to access it.

On the right spine, youll find the stylus, a Micro-USB port, a lock key, and a camera activation or capture button. Last but not least, the camera and flash are located on the back. The only thing we missed was having a back button for returning to the previous screen, since an on screen option wasnt always available. While the physical aspects of Samsung Omnia II (Verizon Wireless) arent radically different from the competition, the smartphones does have some unique "design" features are beneath the surface.

For one thing, it offers an on screen portrait and landscape QWERTY keyboard with Swype technology, which Webware previewed a while back. Instead of pecking at individual keys, Swype lets spell out a word by dragging your finger on the keyboard from letter to letter. Swypes algorithm then does its best to figure out what word youre trying to input it also automatically enters a space after you complete a word and includes certain tricks, such as circling a key to input a letter twice. Admittedly, we were very skeptical of Swype.

However, to our surprise, it worked and was mostly accurate. We ran into some problems when entering terms that werent true words, such as an IM handle, though Swype will try to come up a list of possible results. It also takes some adjustment to enter long words since you have keep your finger on the screen the whole time. Still, we were always amazed when it came up with the correct word. Samsung also completely redid the main menu page. Pressing the menu key below the display will bring up a grid view of all your phones apps. There 12 icons per page and each page is customizable so you can rearrange the apps in the order you want.

All you have to do is press the Edit button on the bottom of the screen and at that point you can move the icons to any position on any menu page. Pages will be added as you add more applications to your phone, and you can move among pages by swiping your finger left to right or vice versa. Right next to the Edit button is one of our favorite additions the new Task Switcher function. This feature shows you all your running applications in thumbnail visuals and lets you easily switch between tasks, exit out of an app, or end all running programs. It alleviates one of the biggest problems of Windows Mobile, which was multitasking. In fact, TouchWiz 2.0 in general does a good job making the OS more easy to use, so much so you can hardly tell its a Windows Mobile smartphone.

Finally, like the Samsung Behold II, Samsung Omnia II (Verizon Wireless) offers the 3D cube interface for the phones various multimedia capabilities. However, unlike the Behold II, there is also a toolbar on the where you can launch the same entertainment apps with a simple tap, which is much more functional than the gimmicky cube. Overall, TouchWiz 2.0 makes much more sense and is more useful on Samsung Omnia II (Verizon Wireless) than the Behold II, as it provides the customization abilities that Windows Mobile lacks and offers a much more intuitive user interface.

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Happy New Year to all our readers

What a 2013 its been, back in Jan we moved from Tumblr to Blogger, and since then we have moved on from strength to strength.

Having seen many new gadgets arrive from +Kickstarter - +Google Glass getting additional features and gaining momentum plus many other developments in wearable tech. Later this year (2013) we had started to work on our own internal projects, we are working on hosting a +ROCKI party which will happen soon - not to mention a special announcement. 

February we will be in Barcelona for MWC, and of course coverage of the event.

Sometime in Q1 2014 we will be relocating to New York, something we are very excited about. 



Over 8,000 readers a day enjoy this blog and we cant thank you enough, every one of you, keep reading and keep giving us great feedback - we love it.

Happy New Year from everyone at ihaveagadget.com

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Wired Madonna Officially Out Of Ideas

In addition to revealing that Justin Timberlake would present her to the public at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Madonna let slip the title of her forthcoming album, which comes out on April 29: Its going to be called Hard Candy, just like that nail polish line and that old Ellen Page movie, and itll also have a track called "Candy Store."

According to Madonnas long-suffering publicist Liz Rosenberg, Madge "loves candy ... [The title is] about the juxtaposition of tough and sweetness, or as Madonna so eloquently expressed Im gonna kick your ass, but its going to make you feel good." Thats the type of personal-trainer-derived talk that almost makes you pine for the days of Licorice! Maybe Madonna figures that shes being transgressive in this lollipop-girl era by admitting that she actually eats junk food in her new albums title?

Source- http://idolator.com/361101/madonna-officially-out-of-ideas

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WebOS on PCs will be an integrated experience

HP blocked its recent "Think Beyond" event with a extraordinary announcement that webOS would be coming to PCs. How, accurately, the company considered on doing that has been a mystery. The Seattle Times just interviewed HPs CTO, Phil McKinney, who helped put to rest some premature speculation that HP would be dumping Microsoft Windows in favor of webOS while adding some clarity to its webOS on the whole thing plan. According to Phil, people still want an OS appropriate to PCs, tablets, and smartphones with webOS pulling it all together by "taking the existing operating systems and bringing WebOS onto those platforms and making it universal across all of our footprint." That doesnt signify that webOS will run as a virtualized instance within Windows. Phil says, "its not virtualization. Its an integrated WebOS experience were looking to bring." He then adds, "Were working with Microsoft on the future of Windows and were very optimistic on what that future is, but what we think is we can bring an enhancement to that." The goal is to create a large device footprint that makes webOS a very good-looking platform to developers -- "you can build up your WebOS app thatll run on your phone, your slate and your PC," according to McKinney. Hmm, apparently HP didnt get the Elopcalypse memo about the "three-horse race" that considers HPs and RIMs ecosystems irrelevant. Source

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Ericsson won broadband order in Nigeria

Telecom equipment maker Ericsson announced on Thursday that it had signed a deal to provide a network for 21st Century Technologies in Nigeria.

Ericsson, the worlds biggest mobile network maker, said in a statement the order was for a nationwide residential fiber-optic broadband network.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Will update you....

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Dell Inspiron 1420

This $799 retail configuration, called the Inspiron 1420-123B, offers a reasonable mix of components, including 3GB of RAM, but lacks the updated features found on Dells latest 15 inch Inspirons, including touch sensitive media control buttons and an HDMI output, making it look and feel a little dated.

Specification

• Price as reviewed $799
• Processor 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5750
• Memory 3GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz
• Hard drive 250GB 5400rpm
• Chipset Intel GMA X3100
• Graphics Mobile Intel 965GM Express
• Operating System Windows Vista Premium
• Dimensions (WDH) 13.1x10.3x1.5 inches
• Screen size (diagonal) 14.1
• System weight / Weight with AC adapter 5.5 / 6.3 pounds
• Category Mainstream
  

Because Dell has revised its 15 inch basic Inspiron chassis more recently than the 14 inch version, we end up with an unusual situation where the 1420 is actually a hair thicker than the larger Inspiron 1525. Still, it has a smaller footprint and is easier to tote around on a frequent basis than the bigger 15 inch version, which weighs 0.6 pound more.

The basic Dell laptop keyboard remains unchanged and is comfortable to type on, but the small square media control buttons look and feel dated compared with the touch sensitive versions found on even the cheapest non 14 inch Dell laptops.

The 14.1 inch wide screen LCD offers a 1.280x800 pixel native resolution, which is standard for budget minded mainstream systems, but may not offer enough screen real estate for busy students who need to have multiple windows open simultaneously. The configurable version available on the Dell Web site offers an upgrade to a higher 1.440x900 pixel resolution.

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