My Samsung Galaxy S II Ice Cream Sandwich Impressions

By now you've probably read numerous reviews on Samsung's Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) firmware for the Samsung Galaxy S II or read over the manual.  So I won't cover the big changes here but look at the minor changes from version 2.3.4.

*UPDATE - ICS 4.0.4 fixes many of the issues listed below*

Firmware
Source: Samsung Official Kies
Android version: 4.0.3
Build Number: IML72K.XWLP7

Here's the high level of what you get:

• Faster web browser with added features
• Slightly better graphics performance
• Stereo sound video recording
• SNS integration into phonebook
• Better UI for switching apps and killing them
• Face unlock
• Built-in data usage monitor
• Brighter Screen
• Ability to run Google Chrome

Here's Samsung's Guide to ICS for the Galaxy S II:


Now for the subtle differences:

• WiFi connection drains battery faster
• Auto Display brightness is brighter in dark rooms
• Laggy response - clicking on less frequently used apps on the homescreen takes a while to start
• Laggy transitions - certain closing animations are slow but changing the "Transition animation scale" in the Developer options helps reduce the transition length
• Less responsive touchscreen - the lock screen takes a split second before registering pin input
• ICS Email app loses calendar invite "When" and "Where"
• ICS calendar sync defaults "In case of sync conflict" to "Update to phone".  You should switch that to "Update to server", otherwise you may accidently send everyone "odd" meeting changes
• More confirmation prompts - turning on silent mode from the power button prompts the user, turning on "Airplane mode" as well
• Font changes - Default (roboto), Choco cooky, Helvetica S
• Ability to add Weather to the lock screen
• Adds the alarm and, if charging or low, the battery
• Adds following games: Archipelago, Bubble Defense 2, Parachute Panic
• Adds Google apps: Google +, Messenger, Play Books, Play Movies
• Adds AllShare (Sharing content via WiFi)
• More Developer Options like Force GPU rendering (doesn't help the UI too much), Window/Transition animation scale, etc.
• Notifies the user when roaming and data roaming is disabled and WiFI network requires login
• Adds WiFi Direct
• Adds "Back up and reset"
• As with 2.3.5, scrolling to the end of pages no longer have the "bounce" effort but use a blue highlight
• Faster status notification animation
• Copy and paste implementation has changed to standard Android
• Screen capture changed to standard Android which is hold volume key down and Power button at the same time
• Scrolling in the native browser is no longer prefers scrolling left, right, down, up but scrolls based on your exact finger swipe motion - makes scrolling straight down a zoomed in page more difficult unless you have steady hands

Bugs:

• Infrequently, WiFi doesn't turn on when toggled on at notification bar.  The WiFi icon will show up at green but the bar will appear grey.  Occasionally hitting the power button to turn off the screen will cause the phone screen to turn off but it's not possible to turn the screen back on with the home key or power button.  Toggling airplane mode On then back to Off will re-enable WiFi but you'll need to do this every time until the next time the phone is restarted
• Native mail client crashes when viewing attached HTML
• Native mail client stops syncing with Exchange 2010 via 3G - it'll work for a while then suddenly stop

*UPDATE - ICS 4.0.4 fixes many of the issues listed above*

Right after I upgraded, I did run into the Exchange and Active Sync e-mail read flag issue where reading it on my computer didn't update my phone but switching the "In case of sync conflict" option to "Update to phone" in Accounts seemed to solve that issue.

Although the homescreen remains the same on the Samsung Galaxy S II with the TouchWiz layer, the settings and Google apps have all been updated.  Samsung had added a lot of custom elements to Gingerbread to improve Android usability and Google has now added it Ice Cream Sandwich so you won't lose much functionality but see a difference to how it's implement (i.e. taking screenshots with volume key and power key).  You'll also notice subtle differences such as better screen color rendering but also shorter battery life.  Samsung Galaxy S II gets about 20% less battery life than Gingerbread.

In the first day I had Ice Cream Sandwich, I wish I had an option to downgrade back to Gingerbread but after a few days of use, I'm liking Ice Cream Sandwich for the faster browser and the screen does look a little better.  Is it worth upgrading?  You won't notice that much differences from Gingerbread but if you're on the fench it's worth a try if you can live with the few bugs.  If you haven't thought about upgrading, I don't recommend bothering.

Generic UK Samsung Galaxy S II 4.0.3 ICS Released

If you've somehow resisted the urge to flash your generic UK Samsung Galaxy S II (GT-I9100) with one of the numerous Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) ROMs waiting for the official ICS release then your wait is over!

Connect your SGS2 to Samsung Kies and you'll see the ICS available:

Here are the firmware details:

Last modified: 2012-04-09
Latest firmware: I9100XWLP7/I9100XEULP5/I9100XXLPS/I9100XWLP7
File name: GT-I9100_XEU_1_20120409121713_p7rvbh7ijr.zip.enc2
Version: Android 4.0.3

So go get it!  Stay tuned for my impressions.

Source: Samsung Kies, http://fus.nanzen.se/#GT-I9100

Three First Impressions of Windows Phone 7

If Microsoft is to have a fighting chance with Windows Phone 7 then it better make a good first impression.

Three reasons Windows Phone 8 Metro/Modern UI is bad

1. Poor use of display real estate poorly

• Menu title split across multiple screens isn't professional
• A big black bar on the home page's right side for just an arrow
• Tiles on the home screen are too big (lots of scrolling) and boring (like a static IE logo): Unlike what Microsoft tells you, bringing information to the home screen isn't unique, Symbian and Android have it via widgets
• Too much scrolling for the same thing: Text is way too large by default. Contacts that normally take a page on iOS or Android needs scrolling through 1.5 screens or more in Metro UI

2. Too much scrolling needed

• Page names are listed at the top but spread across the multiple screens so I can't see what pages are available to me without having to scroll through each one
• Unconsistent UI transition: When you click an option, the current UI will flip out to the left but clicking the back button doesn't cause the last page to flip back from the left to replace the current screen but shows the current screen flip back and the last page just blink in. 

3. Easy to quickly lose menu context

• Overuse of flashy transitions that aren't intuitive to the user what's happening and deep scrolling
• Small non-descript icons: In a few places in the UI, small + or arrows icons are presented but it's difficult to tell what each would do without clicking on each one

Nokia E71: Three Years in Review

Even surrounded by numerous 3.5+ inch touchscreen smartphones, the Nokia E71 still stands out as one of the best QWERTY keyboard equipped phones for me.

The Good
I'm still using it and nothing inside the E71 has failed on me.  This phone is like a tank and I'm fairly confident it could last me a few more years of use.  My usage pattern has likely changed in the 3 years I've had the phone, but at this point I mainly use the phone for company e-mail through Mail for Exchange (improved a lot since I had the E71), Smartconnect, Garmin XT (one of the best navigation software for a smartphone and still better than most available for Android), notes, texting, and making phone calls.  I no longer use it for browsing the web after I got a Nokia N900 and most web pages don't render properly in the old S60 browser.

In the 3 years, I've dropped my E71 a lot of times and the most I've got is chipped corners.  Definitely a tank.

Its design is timeless.  I still get compliments on the elegant, thin design of the E71.  It's unfortunate that most will not consider getting a Nokia and S60/Symbian is not easy to configure compared to an iPhone.

The Bad
In the 2 years since I wrote my first year of use review of the E71, a few things have changed from wear and tear:

1. After 1.5 years of use, dust was getting under the display through the 2.5mm audio jack:

I had to seal the 2.5mm audio jack with scotch tape.  It looks ghetto but I'd rather have the tape there than more dust.

2. A little after the 2 year mark, the included BL-4L battery couldn't hold more than a day's charge and started to bulge like most old lithium polymer batteries so I got another battery and it's back to normal again.

3. I get the random "out of memory" issue so it requires a battery removal.

Going Forward
After 3 long years of travelling the world with it, I've retired the E71.  The E71 reminds me of the time when Nokia was on top of the world with some great designs and some great devices.  I'll miss the comfortable keyboard and robust design.  So long E71, you'll be missed.

If you're still carrying around a Nokia E71, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the phone.

Saving RIM and BlackBerry

Once the darling of investors, RIM was riding high in 2008 with a share price of $148 and $412.5 million in profit for Q4.  Their low cost BlackBerry Pearl and Curve was impressive hits for the Canadian company with millions sold and introduced millions of people to the addictive BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). 

RIM's Strengths
Many people and companies adopted BlackBerries for their usage for its secure e-mail, comfortable QWERTY keyboard, and an easy to use UI for e-mailing.  For many it was their first smartphone and it's simple UI helped users punch out messages in no time.  Many corporate users had difficulty getting away from work now that their e-mails were available everywhere.

Eroding their own Profits
Unfortunately, the introduction of these low cost models drove the price of QWERTY keyboard smartphones and made it difficult for RIM to demand the high $499 with contract prices it had originally sold its BlackBerries reducing its profit margins.  In addition to that, competition was right around the corner with Apple and a legion of Android manufacturers.


The Competitors' Winning Formula
With the runaway success of Apple's iPhone in 2007, Google's Android smartphone operating system (OS) gravitated to a similar large touchscreen user interface (UI) and many manufacturers following suit.  Now all of RIM's competitors, Samsung, Apple, Motorola, and Nokia are all shipping sleek, large screen, simple UI devices with strong software support.  In 2010, Apple introduced a tablet powered by the same operating system as the iPhone, called the iPad.  Once again, Apple turned out a success and Google and gang follow suit with Android Honeycomb.

Moreover, Microsoft has refined with push e-mail and opened up their ActiveSync for synchronizing e-mail with Microsoft Exchange servers in the mid-2000 exposed RIM's BlackBerry Exchange Sever (BES) has an expensive push e-mail tool.  Although BES also managed devices but it saw little benefit to consumers.

RIM's Response to the Competition
RIM introduced the large screened BlackBerry Storm that failed to gain much acceptance from BlackBerry users due to numerous software bugs and loss of BlackBerry's signature keyboard.  The Storm ceased to be produced in 2010 with the Torch carrying on in 2010 with a large screen but with the addition of a slide out keyboard.  RIM also produced its own tablet to counter the iPad in 2011 with the introduction of the Playbook running a new OS called QNX.  It received harsh criticism for missing critical features such as e-mail and the highly touted Android application support.  RIM dramatically slashed prices on its Playbooks after a few quarters of poor sales.  With all these efforts, the Playbook and Blackberries failed to make any real impact on Apple's sales.

Where to go from here
With a failed Playbook, failed Storm, and ailing BlackBerry sales, RIM isn't in a good place and needs to leverage its core strengths to win back its customers.

1. Continue to drive down the cost of BlackBerries
RIM hit a sweet spot with its Curve and Pearl so it would be a good plan to keep going down market with their current BlackBerry OS to steal some of failing Nokia's bread and butter - especially in the emerging market.

2. Scale back on the Playbook and refocus it for industry use
Get Playbook working with BES so it can be managed by a company's IT department.  Build out a consulting team to help companies such as hospitals, retailers, and energy producers use tablets to increase process efficiency.  Many companies had purchased iPads but many don't know how they'll use it.

3. Accelerate the BlackBerry 10 devices and bet the entire company on it
The company is in need a halo device.  Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 has the Nokia Lumia 800, Google Android has the Galaxy Nexus, and Apple has their iPhone 4S and RIM has... the Torch?  It's not good enough against the competition.  Make a device like the Torch, a side slider, and finally a big quadcore touchscreen only phone.  And make sure the software and hardware is ready.  The market isn't going to accept a device that will require an update for promised features when all your competitors are polished and already ahead.

We all know RIM is doing #3 but I hope it realizes it needs to do more with what it has to maximize its profits.  Regardless of what RIM does, I hope they're successful for years to come.  If you have some suggestions to what RIM should do, feel free to drop a comment below.

Comparing Xenon Flash and dual LED - N8, N82, N900 Low Light Showdown - Part 2!

After two years, and much to the delight of Nokia euthusiasts, Nokia has finally brought back Xenon flash to its camera-centric phones. The only two other Nokia devices with Xenon are the N82 and 6220 classic.

As most people know, Xenon flash provides brighter and faster flash than dual LEDs which are popular for phones. Some reviewers have tried to say dual LEDs is a good compromise for phones but my comparison between the N82, N86, and N79 nicely showed off the ability of the N82's Xenon flash to light up a room and stop objects in motion and put the dual LED N86 to shame.

Nokia N8, Nokia N82, Nokia N900

It's been almost a year since my last review and Nokia has put out a lot of impressive devices so it's time to do another Xenon flash and dual LED showdown. This time I'm pitting the venerable N82 against Nokia's latest superstar, the N8, and the powerful N900.

According to Nokia program manager, Damian Dinning, the "N8 has virtually the same flash power as the N82" (source). So we should expect similar flash results from the N8 but, hopefully, better details with the N8's larger sensor and higher resolution.

The N900 did really well against the N82 in outdoor daylight shots but I have a strong feeling the dual LED is going to put the N900 out of the contest.

Finally, the N82, Nokia's night photo champion for a whole 2 years. Will it finally lose its crown to the sleek stylish N8? Let's find out!