The marketer in me slightly bristles when I see an aspirational product name like the Droid Incredible by HTC that Verizon released a couple weeks ago. So when the folks at Verizon offered to let me try the Android-powered phone for a week recently, I jumped at the chance. As a newly converted Android user I was interested to see how Android 2.1 worked in comparison to my 1.5 powered Motorola CLIQ XT. I also wanted to check out what twice the processor and memory would do to the Android experience.
In short, the Droid Incredible is a fantastic phone that more than lives up to it’s name. Let me compare and contrast what I found using it side by side with my current Android phone.
First, the Droid Incredible feels very solid in the hand with styling that makes the handset distinctive to it’s cousin, the Google Nexus One. The large AMOLED screen is bright and looks fantastic indoors and is acceptable on overcast days while on the go but is almost unreadable in direct sunlight without turning up the brightness significantly. In a side by side comparison with my CLIQ XT, the normal LCD display on the CLIQ was much more readable in direct sunlight. But for most people this will not be a big deal as we tend to mostly use our phones indoors.
There are two issues I’ve found with Android; battery life and OS stability. Neither of these issues presented themselves when using the Droid Incredible. In fact, I never had to kill a process to prevent sluggish performance or to keep the phone from crashing. More surprising was the battery life which was at least 50% better than what I’m used to but with no savings measures in place. I think I might have gotten 2 full days of pretty heavy use if I did any power management but since I’m used to plugging in my phone at night I never got around to stress testing the battery. On my CLIQ XT, I have to aggressively kill background processes and use 2G edge networking to get a full day on a charge. But the speed and fluidity of Android on the Droid Incredible is what will be the main thing most users will notice.
Both the Droid Incredible and the CLIQ XT have enhanced user interfaces. The Droid Incredible comes with HTC Sense while the CLIQ features MOTOBLUR. Hands down the Droid Incredible is better in design and utility over the social network heavy Moto interface. Together with Android 2.1, the Droid Incredible shows that Android can meet — and in some cases exceed — the iPhone 3GS. The Sense UI makes the Droid Incredible much more polished than stock Android with expanded home screens and a ton of widgets for displaying all communications and social network data. To be fair, MOTOBLUR does a pretty good job displaying the same items on your home screens but at a cost of battery life and sluggish performance. In my week with the Droid Incredible I filled all seven home screens up and never noticed any performance issues or problems with battery life. This alone makes the current iPhone OS seem somewhat dated and will attract many mainstream customers to the Droid Incredible.
But what makes the Droid Incredible live up to it’s name is the stunning 8 megapixel camera. Still shots look as good as many pocket digital cameras and the video quality will encourage you to leave your Flip camera at home most of the time. While not HD, the videos look great and are very usable for YouTube and similar applications. Although the Ustream Broadcaster app was not compatible during my testing, Qik worked fine and was used to cover parts of this years Comcast Cares Day. To support these activities, HTC has included 8 GB of on-board storage along with micro-SD capabilities of up to 32 GB. Having 40 GB of space on your phone opens up a lot of possibilities for the content creator.
Verizon’s 3G networking was faster and more reliable than T-Mobile’s network. Where I live about 25 miles south of Minneapolis the T-Mobile 3G coverage starts to get spotty. I never saw the Droid Incredible drop out of 3G and in speed tests it was always noticeably faster than T-Mobile whether it was in suburban locations and when in downtown Minneapolis or St. Paul. Wifi is also available and worked as expected but I spent most of my time working with just 3G networking active.
So is the Droid Incredible the phone of my dreams? Yes. Will I have one in my pocket everyday? No. But it’s not due to the quality of this phone. If it was on T-Mobile and I could port into my existing family plan, I’d be all over it. If I wasn’t already on contract I’d very much consider the move to Verizon, family plan and all. Yes, the phone is that good. But I will be content to sit with my first generation Android phone and see what develops as the Droid Incredible demonstrates how great the Android experience can be.
If you are not encumbered by existing contracts and are looking for a new phone, Amazon has the Droid Incredible for an astonishing $149 for new or existing Verizon customers. Considering my recent upgrade cost $99 for what I consider a mature Android phone this is a steal for the state of the art that raises the bar for Apple to shoot for on the next iPhone refresh.
A week ago last Saturday I walked into a T-Mobile store in Orange, CA and walked out with my first Android phone, a Samsung Behold II. I had been thinking about making the move from my aging, but still quite usable, T-Mobile Dash for a while and it was a blog post about a trade-in offer for the Behold II that got me in the door. But after just a few days with the Behold II, I was ready to go back the the Dash or exchange for another Android phone. Why? No upgrade path and something called TouchWiz.
I spent some time with both the Samsung Behold II, the Motorola CLIQ and CLIQ XT before I made my choice. All these phones run Android 1.5 and sport the same processor as the venerable G1 but can be had for $100 or less on contract. When I picked up the Behold II it was $150 but the $75 smartphone trade-in made this what I thought was a pretty good deal. The phone felt good in the hand and the OLED screen was bright and very readable. For some reason, however, Samsung has skinned this phone with the same user interface as their feature phones. This TouchWiz interface is supposed to make things easier but for me it only made things more frustrating (and reminded me of the layers you sometimes have to dig with Windows Mobile 6.x). But the thing that had me returning the phone on day five was a show-stopper: no OS update.
I’m not sure if Samsung has made a definitive statement but it looks like the Behold II will be stuck on Android 1.5 for the duration which was enough for me. There were other issues besides TouchWiz. Battery life was terrible. The GPS only locked onto satellites outside and never in a building. The amount of available space for apps didn’t seem enough for what I wanted to install. So last week I returned that phone and exchanged it for a Motorola CLIQ XT.
The main selling point of the CLIQ XT, other than price at just $99 on contract, is the optimization of hardware and software. And it doesn’t stop with stock Android or their MOTOBLUR home screens. Unlike the Behold II with a pretty lame keyboard addition and little else, the CLIQ XT has some pretty compelling software included. QuickOffice is a welcome addition and saved me $10 but they have also included everything a social media connected person needs. Their social media client, Happenings, connects you with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more right from the home screen. And MOTOBLUR live updates all these services without going into any app. But the Swype keyboard is the most compelling addition here making this phone usable for more than just short text entry.
But all this has a downside as the battery life, without quite a bit of tweaking, is pretty bad. So I’ve turned nearly all of MOTOBLUR off to save battery, along with 3G, wifi and GPS when I’m in the house. Right now I get about 10 hours of runtime; I think I might be able to get something close to 20 hours with more optimization.
Android itself is very usable but still not nearly as polished as the iPhone OS. Yes, this is only Android 1.5 so I’m hoping many of these issues will be taken care of in the forthcoming 2.1 update. But the bottom line for me is that Android is a lot better than Windows Mobile 6.x so I’m glad I made the move. More to come after further use.
When Google Profile first came out, I looked at it and filled in a few details. Like a lot of social networking services, I lost interest and let it stay fairly sparsely populated as I didn't see a ton of value. If people wanted to know something about me they could Google my name and find my blogs, Twitter accounts, resume and other digital breadcrumbs easy enough. But my opinion of Google Profile changed over the past couple weeks with the launch of Google Buzz. And I think your Google Profile might be as valuable to your personal brand as your online resume and LinkedIn profile.
The genius of Buzz is that it's a part of Gmail, the online email service I've been using since 2004. There is no new login to remember, and no new profile to fill out; it's just a part of Gmail. And whether you think Buzz will be of value to you over Twitter or Friendfeed, there is a key difference the other services don't offer. They are not directly connected to the most dominant search engine on the planet.Â
This makes Buzz an interesting service to play with but the key piece to me is it's use of Google Profile as a landing zone for people to follow your Buzz account. Unlike other social networking profiles, Google Profile allows you to aggregate all your services on one, über-indexed, page. They make the Google services painless to add but any service or link can also be included. And all of them can be connected to the Google Social Graph API which immediately updates your profile when status is updated on a connected service. To me, that makes Google Profile my new resume.Â
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working with a local startup called Curation Station. Their web app makes it easy for marketers to gather, curate and share web content. These days that tends to be social media like blog posts, video, photos and tweets.
So I thought I would explore curation and apply it in a couple side projects. The first is called Padable (yeah, I know) and is a cross between Minimal Mac and Lifehacker focused on Apple’s iPad. Right now it’s mostly curated media coverage but I will write original content regularly there as well.
For this site I’ve used Tumblr as the CMS. After considering my regular CMS of choice, WordPress, I wanted something that didn’t require any administration so I could focus on the content. After using it for over a week, I’m pleased with this choice since Twitter integration is super easy and posting can be done via bookmarklet, email and their very nice iPhone app.
I have another idea with one of my wine domains that I might start up if Padable builds a following. I’m hoping that with community involvement my curation will improve. Take a look and let me know what you think. Be gentle, it’s only an experiment
About 4 hours from now the technology world will turn their attention to an Apple event in San Francisco. Like others over the past 30 years, Steve Jobs will take the stage and announce some new products. But today’s announcement seems as game changing as the iPhone three years ago; perhaps more so. And like that announcement, the hype leading up to the event tells us that Apple will unveil a new type of personal computer based on a tablet design.
Tablet computers have been made for over a decade in one form or another in the PC industry, usually relegated to vertical, form-heavy applications. I’ve seen them used in hospitals and car dealer service centers. They are only mildly interesting since Windows has not been changed much to accommodate the required pen input device. These tablet PC’s are also quite expensive which makes them a niche item with consumers.
By all accounts, the Apple tablet (rumored to be called the iSlate) will be a full-on consumer device. A fusion of iPhone, ebook reader, personal video player and MacBook. It will run on some sort of tweaked iPhone OS ensuring it will have tens of thousands of apps on launch later this spring. Connectivity will be provided by standard wifi and optional 3G from multiple carriers. Content subscriptions will be available via iTunes for movies, TV shows, newspapers, magazines, ebooks and, of course, music. The iSlate will change the computing paradigm forever just like the iPhone, Mac and Apple // did.
The only problem is all of this is rumor and speculation. Mr. Jobs has a history of canceling announcements at the last minute due to leaks. And I expect there will be a slew of other announcments today. Things like the 4th gen iPhone (probably available on all U.S. carriers), rethought Apple TV, updated iWork and iLife, speed-bumped MacBook Pros. These alone would count as “new creations” and cover the announced theme of the event.
As I write this post, the top half of Techmeme is all about this mythical Apple tablet. Clearly the hype machine is preparing us for something big today. If this device is an overgrown iPod Touch or iPhone, many will be disappointed (not me, that’s exactly what I would like to see; $399, please). But if anyone can meet and even exceed pre-launch hype it’s Steve Jobs. I know I’ll be watching at noon for what he’s got in store for us.
First, the Droid Incredible feels very solid in the hand with styling that makes the handset distinctive to it’s cousin, the Google Nexus One. The large AMOLED screen is bright and looks fantastic indoors and is acceptable on overcast days while on the go but is almost unreadable in direct sunlight without turning up the brightness significantly. In a side by side comparison with my CLIQ XT, the normal LCD display on the CLIQ was much more readable in direct sunlight. But for most people this will not be a big deal as we tend to mostly use our phones indoors.
I’m not sure if Samsung has made a definitive statement but it looks like the Behold II will be stuck on Android 1.5 for the duration which was enough for me. There were other issues besides TouchWiz. Battery life was terrible. The GPS only locked onto satellites outside and never in a building. The amount of available space for apps didn’t seem enough for what I wanted to install. So last week I returned that phone and exchanged it for a Motorola CLIQ XT.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=0165d398-41e7-4019-96db-79f85899807a)
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working with a local startup called 
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=06278afc-2ba6-44c4-9b3d-23f24d300aec)
About 4 hours from now the technology world will turn their attention to ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b3fe7ecf-da56-4fa3-a244-e69d22c4dad7)