Time Inc.’s, Fortune Magazine is now available on the iPad. It appears Time is betting on digital magazines and the iPad as the future of print. With interactive ads and new content these magazine are becoming more popular as the user now can experience print magazine’s in a whole new way.
[via 9to5 Mac]
Today Apple released the iPhone upon the rest of the world, or least almost all of it. The iPhone which has sold over 3 million units so far looks to continue its domination over the rest of the planet.
While this is on schedule with what Steve Jobs mention during his presentation regarding Antenna-gate, the white iPhone still is a no show. One could only imagine how the sales would look if the people who are waiting for the white model could actually buy it.
Well hot on the heels of my review for the EVO 4G, comes news that Sprint will be dropping Android 2.2 on August 3rd. Engadget broke the story first with news that it could be dropping tomorrow on the 30th but they’ve updated their site stating that was officially announced for August 3rd. Hit the link for their story. See below for the image from Sprints powerpoint slide.
This is good news and as a new Evo owner, I’m excited to see the improvements on my phone.
I’ve broken this review down into several parts to allow you to skip to a section that may interest you more then the others, so without further ado, the EVO 4G Review.
Display:
First thing about the EVO 4G (just calling it the Evo after this reference) is obviously the size. Compared to most phones on the market (excluding Dell’s newest offering, coming soon, the Streak) it’s one of the biggest. The screen size on the Evo is 4.3” (same as the Motorola Droid X) with an 800×480 resolution. The text on the screen is crisp and clear. While it may not be Apple’s iPhone Retina Display, let’s be perfectly clear, it’s nothing to sneeze at. The resolution looks fantastic on the Evo and brightness is also very nice. Overall, the screen makes web surfing, email and basically anything you do on the phone a pleasure. With more screen real estate you are able to view more of a non-mobile formatted web page with ease. The pinch squeezing (for enlarging and shrinking) works nicely but could be a little smoother in some areas, it also depends if the page is still loading. Apple really has this down pat in their iOS, but Android is getting there quickly. One thing that does bother me a little is when you double tap on the screen to do an automatic zoom of text, sometimes it crops text off in odd spots requiring you to manually move the page around to view it just right.
Overall: A beautiful screen that would make any owner proud. Unless you’ve previously owned an iPhone 4 or used one for an extended period of time you’d be hard pressed to notice a difference.
Build Quality and Body of the phone:
HTC has done a really nice job differentiating themselves from other phone manufactures with very nice designs. The Evo is no exception. The phone feels nice and solid in your hand. It doesn’t have a cheap feel at all. Let’s start with the back of the phone. It’s back cover is actually a very thing piece of plastic that is easily removed by just prying it off after you’ve place your finger nail in a spot designed for it at the top of the phone. Once you’ve started to pop that part out the rest just comes off quickly and easily. The backing itself like I said is thin and on the outside of it has a nice “rubber-ized” feel to it. There is a hole that’s just shy of a half-inch in diameter for the camera lens. Once the back is removed you’ll immediately notice that the guts (inside) is colored red. I mean everything, the plastic, the battery, the metal ring around the camera lens, it’s all red and it really does look cool. This is purely cosmetic, as the color doesn’t serve a purpose. The guts of the inside are tightly squeezed together and there is no breathing room. In order to find and remove/replace the memory card (Micro SD card) you’ll have to remove the battery and then click a small switch up to release it, very simple. Just put the card back in the slot and push the button down and it’s locked back in place. To the left of the camera lens are two, count them, two , LED Flashes for the camera. WARNING you could potentially blind someone or thing with these babies. They are very bright. So far in the tests I’ve done they are better used when someone is standing at least 4ft away, if not, they’ll bleach out the color someone’s face. On the other side of the camera are 17 tiny holes that represent the speaker. This is used for ringtones, music and other sounds. It can get pretty loud as well. So that’s the back of the phone.
The front is pretty much all screen, it is 4.3” after all. Aside from the screen, there is a nice long silver mesh speaker that runs horizontal at the very top of the phone for listening to phone calls and voicemail. In the upper right hand corner is a small 1.3 mp camera used for video conferencing. On the bottom half-inch are 4 touch-sensitive buttons standard to Android phones, Home, Menu, Back and Search from left to right respectively.
On the bottom of the Evo are two ports; the micro USB and the HDMI out. On the right side of the phone is your volume control with a toggle bar for up and down. Finally on the top is a 3.5mm standard headphone jack and a power button.
Overall: So far, I’ve come to find the build quality very strong and solid. Nothing feels cheap or out of place. Anyone could use this phone and have it feel perfectly natural to them in terms of the button layout.
Camera(s) and Video:
The Evo’s (main) camera is an 8MP (megapixel) camera with auto focus and optical zoom. The camera controls are very easy to use with just simple on screen tapping. If you want to focus, just simply tap on the item you wish to focus on in the view finder and boom it will automatically focus on that item. You want to zoon in, just tap the +/- button and then what looks like a digital zoom wheel will appear on the left of the screen, just roll it up to go in and down to zoom out.
The camera app itself feels very robust compared to the iPhone’s. You can pick several options for picture types; sepia, black and white, posterize and more. You can also mess with gamma setting, exposure and white levels. This is all much more then the iPhone’s current offering which is sad considering how much Apple loves photos. Speaking of Apple, the iPhone’s 5mp camera with its backlight sensor does, I repeat does, take better pictures. This is one feature I miss about my iPhone 4. The shutter is faster on the iPhone and the video recording shoots in 30fps compared to the Evo’s 24fps. While HTC has said the Evo can do up to 60fps, it’s a software issue and it will be addressed in the future (possible Android 2.2). But since its not available now I have to give the iPhone credit where credit is due. With all that said the Evo still does take beautiful pictures. Is it a full replacement for a point and shoot, for me, yes, but that’s because I hate carrying around multiple devices so I’d make due. For some photo aficionados out there, the answer is no, but for that matter neither is the iPhone 4.
The Evo comes pre-loaded with a program called Qik, a video recording progam. (note: after your Evo is set up go to the Android market and download Qik that’s made for the Evo specifically. This has features the pre-loaded one doesn’t have.) When you install and run Qik you’ll be asked to register with them and by doing so you gain a website such as, www.qik.com/
You can also use Qik with the Evo’s front facing camera. This 1.3mp camera while is not the best for photos, it does do a decent job of allowing users to use Qik as a video call. The best part it can work from a phone to acomputer as well as phone to phone over wi-fi and 3G (something the iPhone 4’s facetime can not do.)
Overall: The camera takes nice photos that will make most users happy but is not a replacement for a point and shoot and it has awesome video options for sharing with friends and family. Only negative is video is shot at 24fps, with an update coming down the road. The video calling is sweet especially since it can be done from anywhere you have service.
Android OS (broken into parts):
This is my first time using Google’s Android and I have to say so far it’s been a nice change after spending 3 years with Apple’s iOS. There are some similarities and then some very stark differences.
For anyone coming from an iOS device, expect a little learning curve with some of this stuff. With web browsing the things you’d expect are there like pinch and squeeze to expand/minimize the webpage, double-tapping the screen for auto zooming and auto fill for words in the address bar. What’s gone is the bar on the bottom of the screen with the + to add a bookmark or the double squares representing the option to add a new window and the little book for your bookmarks list. Instead the screen is completely filled with your webpage, even the top. Once you starting scrolling down the address bar stays at the top so the farther you go down the higher “it” goes. This can be annoying. In the iOS you can tap the bar at the top and your page will quickly and automatically scroll back to the top of the page. In Android you give up that feature for full screen browsing. If you want your new window button, bookmarks or to add a book mark you have to tap the touch sensitive button “Menu” below the screen. After a few times of using this while searching you acclimate pretty quickly. Everything else is virtually the same; want to save a picture, tap and hold, and a menu comes up and you just select your option, tap your finger on a word of text to place the cursor where you want it so that you can edit a word you may have misspelled.
SMS and MMS also work pretty much the same with again some difference, some a little more annoying than others. First, you know on the iPhone (for those who have used it) that if your phone is in sleep mode with a blank screen if you receive a text message a box shows up showing you the partial message then a few seconds later goes dark again. The Android doesn’t do that you will either hear a chime or if it’s on vibrate, feel a small buzz. This took some time to adjust too as well. But to trade off what Android does do is if your holding the phone using it for something and you receive a text rather then pop up in your face and interrupting your previous objective, it scrolls across the top where your signal bar, battery and phone mode are displayed, then once it’s scrolled by those features pop back up. This is a nice little touch that’s less obtrusive. The other text message features are pretty standard that most people would be familiar with if you’ve used a smartphone. The only difference is if the person is in your contacts list and has a picture attached it puts their picture for them and yours for yourself.
Next up, the HTC Sense and scenes. Sense is a UI (user-interface) skin that HTC has placed over the stock Android 2.1 (Éclair) operating system. Basically, it’s a way for HTC to differentiate itself from other Android phones on the market. Motorola does the same thing with what they call MotoBlur. Sense is either a love it or hate it experience. The big thing it does (or doesn’t) is slow down the upgrade process when new versions of Android (like 2.2, aka Froyo) are release. HTC then has to put its skin on top of the new version and make sure everything works. If you’re not impatient about getting releases quick then this shouldn’t bother you. I tend to like the look of the Sense on my device. I can’t say it works the same way for other phones with smaller screens but for the Evo it looks really nice. I use the widget that shows the large “flip” clock on the front with the weather in the middle. The weather app built into it is rather cool, it can be set two ways; one, your current location, so if you move it moves with you and gives you the weather wherever you are; or two, a city by name or zip code. Another really neat feature about the Widget is if it’s thunderstorming your little sun is now a patch of clouds with a lightning bolt. When you bring the phone out of sleep and unlock it clouds will form on the screen and flash lightning and then fade away. If it rains your screen will have drops appear and slide down the glass. Does any of this make the phone better? No, but, it does make for a nice user experience. When I showed this to my wife who is using her iPhone 4 she agreed that it was pretty cool.
HTC has their own apps on the phone as well as the stock Android apps. Like Peep, HTC’s twitter client. For the most part you can disable them all and run as bare as you want. That’s the other nice thing about Android, don’t like the set up of the UI, change it. It’s completely open. Widgets and Icons are easy to remove, just tap and hold till the box around it turns green and drag it down to where it says remove, done. If you want to add widgets, tape the + button next to the phone button and pick the widget you want then just drop it in it’s place.
Scenes are exactly as they sound; they are different ways to view your phone. You have six side screens and one home screen. Each screen can be set up with a number of different apps or widgets, and then you can save them to a scene. Let’s say you use your phone for work and you have a lot of apps you use for your job like maps and navigation and so on. Well you can set those to your home screen and spread them out as you wish and then save them. But you also use your phone as your home phone as well, simple, you save a scene for apps and widgets you use on your personal time. Now you can get up in the morning and activate the “Work” scene and all the apps you need are right there… but come 5:00pm your off, now just change the scene to “home” and boom your personal stuff is right back. They really make using this phone fun and easy.
With sense you also get a cool visual bookmarks page that show’s small ¾” squares of your bookmarked webpage’s. Simply click one and your browser launches that page. There’s also FriendStream, a widget that incorporates Twitter, Facebook and Flickr all into one little easy to use program (I still prefer the official Twitter for Android app). With the Evo supporting 4G you’ll see (standard when you get the phone) a button on the first left screen. You can turn 4G reception on and off with a tap of a button. Below that is a button for Wi-fi, Bluetooth and GPS, all activate and de-activate with just one tap.
The mail program is pretty basic but also just as robust as other email clients. I have used MobileMe since Apple released it and chose not to use my old Gmail account and was happy to see Android did not only support it but made it very easy to set up. It didn’t ask for all that mail.blahblah.com and smtp info, it just required my email and password and it took care of the rest.
The only real negative thing I can say and this isn’t Android’s fault, it’s more Sprint’s and HTC’s, is when you turn the phone on for the first time and tap the button to see your Apps, there is quite a list. A lot of them I don’t or didn’t want, it’s like getting a PC from Dell and getting AOL and every other pre-loaded software crap. You just need to take the time and delete them off.
I will say the first App you want to/should install is “Advanced Task Killer”, there is a paid and free version. Just get the free one; you won’t be bothered by the small ads at the bottom. This is a program that you want to leave running. When you use it, it shows you all the current running app/widgets on your phone. Simply click (check mark) the apps you want to kill and leave the others unchecked. When you tap Kill Applications all those running you selected will be killed and free up ram AND save you battery life. Leading us to…
Battery Life:
Gotta love segways,. Anyway, since I’ve started using my phone I’ve pushed it hard to see how long I can get that battery to last. With a screen as big and bright as this one it’s to be expected that it will not get the same length as an iPhone or smaller screened phones. But it’s not bad at all. Using advanced task killer periodically throughout the day to minimize unneeded apps and auto-brightness I’ve gotten a full days use each time. That’s about 9-10 hours of normal every day use before I come home and plug it in to charge. Sometimes I’ll plug it in my car charger on the way home from work and that little bit will carry me over till I go to bed. If your going to be watching a lot of movies and net surfing then yeah bring an extra battery or plug it in when your done, either to a house or car charger. Either way I was surprised and happy with the battery.
When you use 4G it will use more battery so I only use it when I’m surfing the net and want to do it quicker and then turn it off to save battery life.
4G:
I guess I’m one of the lucky few that has 4G in my area. Apparently living near Baltimore has some perks. When using 4G you will see a dramatic difference in speed. Pages load almost instantly compared to 3G. While it’s not quite that of Cable speed it’s near DSL. Is it worth 10 bucks a month, eh, yes and no. No, for the simple fact that it drains battery more then 3G and while I have the coverage it can be spotty depending how far I get from Baltimore. Yes, when Sprint starts making coverage wider and maybe even more when HTC releases Froyo (2.2) and I guess better battery life from that so it will be a trade off, or at least I hope.
Android Market (finally):
While the Android Market (AM) is not Apples App store, it is getting better and better. With over 70,000+ apps and growing it’s catching up to Apple very quickly. Almost every MAJOR app that’s by a large studio or company can be found on the AM and if it’s not odds are it’s on the way. The AM is setup kind of like the App store, when you launch it you’ll see a list of featured or popular apps. On the top right is a magnifying glass for searching. Below that is a bar with 3 choices, Apps, Games and Sprint (if your on Sprint, otherwise it’s your carrier if they’ve decided to use that spot, if not it’s apps you’ve downloaded). Then the featured apps are in a list below. When you tap on Apps, you are taken to a new page and a list of categories like All Applications, Comics, Communication, Entertainment and a few others. Pick one of these and you’ll see the pages changes to a list of Apps available with a bar labeled Top Paid, Top Free and Just In. That’s pretty much it. The games section and Sprint are the same way. But if you’re not content on browsing the Market by categories then just use the search button and try generic terms or actual names. While it doesn’t sound as deep as Apples, to me it feels fine. Apps are easy to find.
Once you find an app you want, tap it. You’ll come to a product page. The AM actually shows you in a bar across the top how many downloads that specific app has had in a range from say 10,000-50,000. It also shows ratings and user comments as well. Across the bottom of page is a button that either says Buy or Install depending if the App is free or not.
NOTE: If you plan to purchase anything though the Android Market (as of right now) you will need a Gmail account, they are free, you can get one at gmail.com. There are rumors as of right now that Google is looking to change the billing options to allow you to bill your purchases through your wireless carrier. So things could change.
Extras:
Lastly, I’m just going to brush over some other features. The music player on the Android is not an iPod. But it’s nice and easy to use ( The HTC sense version is much better then the standard Android version). You have something similar to cover flow or you can pick songs and artists via the menu. The music player much like all apps on the Evo run in the back via multi-tasking so you can play music and surf the web and check email all at the same time. Want to pause, either go to the page that your music widget is on or from the home screen swipe the top bar down and it shows you a list of your current apps running. Tap music there and the app will come up and just tap pause.
The Evo has visual voicemail. Just tap the number of previously missed call and listen, pretty standard.
One of my favorite features is “Live Wallpapers”. These are wallpapers that are fully animated and run in the background. While it may sound simple it’s something to behold on this screen. I find myself searching for more Live Wallpapers then games. Sure they use more battery but who cares, they look awesome and WOW your friends when they look at their boring mundane phone.
Lastly, like I said in the beginning the Evo uses MicroSD ram so its removable. With 1GB on board and up to 32GB on a card that can give you 33GB, if you want to get technical it’s 1GB more than any iPhone (touché). With memory like this the EVO is easy to sync to your computer and get movies or music. Simply plug the EVO into your computer via microUSB and on the phone screen it will give you a few options; charge only, HTC Sync, Mount as a Disk Drive and Internet Sharing.
Quick note: Internet sharing allows you to use your phones Internet to the connected device. Thus giving your PC or Mac wireless Internet.
If you mount the phone as a disk drive an icon will appear on your computer desktop and you can open it and see all the directories. Media and Music, simply drag music to those folders. Unlink your phone and go find your files with either Music or Movie player and your good to go. (another note: Movies need to be in a file format that the phone can read, Google how to load music or movies on the Evo 4G for more information)
Conclusion:
I’m sure I may have let something out, and if I have, please just email me or respond to this post and I’ll make amendment and add more information. While in some areas it lags behind the iPhone and in others it out shines it. I really like the complete freedom of the Android OS. Making my phone do and look how I want is very important to me. The EVO 4G is fast, beautiful and very customizable. It has a nice camera/video with awesome options for editing and uploading to the net. Blazing fast Internet on both 3G and 4G. One last thing I forgot to mention was the kickstand. Yes it has a kickstand so you can prop it up and watch movies. Awesome for plane and train rides. In the end, I think if you too came from an iPhone you’d be amazed how nice this phone really is and if you’ve come from anything else, you’ll be BLOWN AWAY.
Grade: A-
For those of you daring Incredible owners who are looking to Root (legally now) your Incredible you can have your Froyo and Sense too! The guys over at XDA posted a ROM at 1:30 this morning that allows you to take advantage of Froyo with HTC’s sense. At this time it appears that everything is running (including the camera) with some noted slowness with the HTC home pages (according to Androinica.) Overall the forums look pretty quiet in terms of actual complaints so that’s a good thing. If your Incredible is rooted or if you’ve been thinking about it and this is the push you needed, head over to XDA now and download it (Please note: Rooting your device can cause permanent damage so please if you do this it’s at your own risk).
[Via XDA Developers]
Photo Courtesy of Engadget
Well in the never-ending battle with ebook competitors (mainly Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apples iBooks) Amazon looks to be upping the ante again. This time they are going even cheaper with a $139.00 wi-fi only model and $189.00 3G wireless version. It’s name… simply Kindle, sans the DX. It’s 21% smaller and 15% lighter than it’s predecessor and has a 20% faster refresh rate using e-ink. The release date is scheduled for the 27th of August. All this along with a few minor cosmetic changes make a nice intriguing package, will you bite?
Check out Engadget for the full story.
If you’ve taken part in Apple’s free iPhone 4 Bumper (case) program, good news, reports are coming in that they have started to arrive. Right now it appears that it’s only in the United Kingdom for the time being. Also, its just for the Bumpers, not, the 3rd party cases. The 3rd party cases apparently haven’t shown any signs of shipping. If you picked a non-apple branded case and you notice any changes in shipping let me know or if you’ve gotten yours already snap and some pictures and send them to me at info at valaar dot com.
The latest build of Mozilla’s Fennec (aka FireFox for mobile) is available to Android users. Users can now enjoy Tab browsing and Home features. It’s nice to hear that the latest build is actually smooth for the most part, unlike previous builds.
You can download the file right here. If your viewing this site on your Android powered device just click the link and then click the fennec.apk file and it will download right on your device.
[Credit for this goes to Phandroid and Droid-Life.com]
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