Posts Tagged smartphone
Wrapsol Skins Protect Your Gadgets and Phones
Now that you’ve got that shiny and expensive new gadget in hand, how are you going to keep it from getting all scratched up and smudged? Do you really think your electronics are any match for the rigors of the road? A protective skin from Wrapsol can be a great investment in protection.
I haven’t jumped on the iPhone bandwagon for a lot of reasons. The main one is that in the U.S. the phone is sold locked into the AT&T monopoly, which is getting ready to drop its unlimited data plan (because it can) and they suck from your wallet like nobody’s business if you dare try to use it internationally. Another key reason is the truly sucky battery life. I do have an iPod Touch, however, which is almost an iPhone but without the phone part and the hefty ongoing charges every month after purchase. (Think of the iPhone as a timeshare with maintenance charges, the Touch as a condo.)
So when the Wrapsol people offered to send me one of their skins to review, I slapped one on my new iPod Touch and have been using it ever since.
I like these transparent skins a lot. They let you retain the sleekness of the original Apple design instead of mucking it up with something bulky, like a rubbery case. The screen touch functions work just as well as they did before the skin application, but with no fingerprints on the screen. I can wipe this on my shirt without any worries about scratches. And if I drop it, which is going to happen sooner or later, there’s added shock absorption built into these Wrapsol skins. If your kid drops food or juice on your expensive device, there’s extra protection. You can see a video of how they work here.
They don’t just make the skins for Apple products though. You can get one to fit a Droid, a Blackberry, a Nexus One, even netbooks, Kindles, and cameras. The skin comes pre-cut in the exact right dimensions, with all the necessary holes already in place. This template below shows what you get for the Droid Eris that Kara reviewed a while back.
As you’ve probably started to realize, the hard part of this is actually getting that skin perfectly aligned onto your device. I’ve tried this with three different brands now and I never seem to get it 100% right. This Wrapsol version is repositionable to an extent, so you can nudge it a bit one way or the other during the process, but it’s still hard to line it up perfectly, even on the sleek Touch.
That process involves wet fingers and a little squeegee too, so don’t think you can just pop this on as you’re walking out the door. (Unlike with the BodyGardz brand I reviewed before, there’ not a spare skin in the box with these, so you have to get it right the first time.)
If you’re patient though, you’ll get it close enough to be be able to get to all your buttons and then your fancy new device will stay scratch-free and protected. See the whole line at Wrapsol.com. If you buy direct they’re $25 to $30, but at online retailers the price drops significantly.
Get the iPod Touch version at Amazon.
Get the Wrapsol Kindle cover at Amazon.
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Posted by Tim in Business Gear, General Gear, Kids and Family on June 3rd, 2010
Review: CoPilot Live GPS for Smartphones
If you’re still using your cell phone just to make calls, it’s time to say goodbye to the ’90s. And if you’re directionally-challenged like me—and your phone has a GPS—CoPilot Live mobile navigation from ALK Technologies can make your travels easier.
It works on the iPhone, Windows Mobile and Android phones as well as notebooks and netbooks. CoPilot Live will give turn-by-turn directions to just about any destination and also includes an extensive points-of-interest database to help find restaurants, landmarks, gas stations and more.
Using the new Version 8 on my HTC Tilt2 smartphone, I was impressed with the graphics and 3D driving view. The menus are fairly intuitive so there’s little need to break out the manual once the program is set up and running. It does almost everything a typical standalone GPS would do and even more than some. Text-to-speech, which allows CoPilot Live to speak street names instead of just saying “turn now,” is offered as a free upgrade.
Advanced features include adjustable speed-limit alerts, a lane-indicator display and a walking mode that includes foot paths.
The “Live” part of CoPilot goes beyond the points of interest that are stored in the phone memory or on an expansion card. Using the GPS, Live provides location-based services such as weather, traffic, fuel prices and will also show the location of friends who are using the program. It will search for nearby restaurants, hotels and more.
Driving around Texas, I did find an odd glitch with CoPilot Live. When I tried to select one particular street, it was not in the database so I could not set it as a destination. The odd part is when I drove there, the street name showed up on the map. But it still could not be selected as a destination.
CoPilot Live is one of several turn-by-turn solutions available for smartphones and other mobile devices.
Garmin Mobile offers competing solutions for smartphones. Garmin has some nice features, but I just don’t think the company is aggressively pushing the envelope with updates and development for smartphones. Garmin’s own phone, released on the Sprint network, hasn’t been a major hit.
ALK seems more aggressive in pushing the limit and releasing updates for its smartphone programs, which is a good sign for the future.
The downloadable version of CoPilot Live v8 for Windows Mobile is reasonably priced at $29.99, with an extra subscription charge for traffic and fuel-price info. The iPhone version is $19.99. The Android version is available through the Android Market.
A version of CoPilot Live is also in development for the Apple iPad tablet computer. But see my previous thoughts and the comments of our readers on whether the iPad is a useful device for travelers. In my opinion, it’s not.
CoPilot Live can turn many kinds of smartphones into full-featured GPS navigators. And just think of all the time that can save—no longer having to stop and ask for directions.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear on May 18th, 2010
iPad a Must for Travelers? I’m not Convinced
So am I the only traveler who didn’t run out and buy a new iPad? I don’t think so.
Apple’s latest entry into the tablet market does have its strong points. With a larger screen than the iPhone or iPod Touch, Web browsing and multimedia become better experiences.
Anyone considering buying an e-reader for the road might want to take a look at the iPad. But there’s a whole new crop of e-readers coming out, too, at some competitive price points compared to the iPad. And some e-reader software works surprisingly well on the iPod, iPhone and other smartphones.
Apple fans will like the design and the “cool” factor and the very nice 9.7″ (diagonal) screen. There are some fans who will buy any new product from Apple and line up to be among the first to own it. I do carry an iPod Touch on the road and enjoy using it, but I’m not one of those who must have the newest anything from Apple.
From a practical standpoint, there are some things that bother me about the iPad.
First, to do any serious typing, I need a real keyboard—not the on-screen variety. Okay, so a hardware keyboard for the iPad will be available from Apple. That makes it (almost) as good as my 12″ Dell laptop that I carry on just about every trip.
But wait. For a multimedia machine, there’s something missing from the iPad. A camera. My laptop, however, has a built-in camera and microphone for making Skype video calls. Advantage, laptop.
Suppose I did get an iPad and a hardware keyboard so I could type up a few files on the road. But the iPad won’t take a memory card and has no USB ports for printing or storing files to a flash drive. So I’d have to e-mail the files from a Wi-Fi hotspot or over cellular data channels in a future model.
The laptop’s starting to look better and better.
When my laptop battery runs dead, I can plug in a spare. Not with the iPad, though the iPad does have a longer battery life. Still, I’ve never understood why Apple doesn’t have user-replaceable batteries on the iPhone, iPod and now the iPad. I suspect it’s because replacing batteries becomes a revenue stream for Apple.
There’s another weakness in the iPad. While it’s promoted for Web browsing, it won’t work with sites using Flash video. My laptop doesn’t have any problems with Flash. Neither does a 10″ netbook, which in many cases would be less expensive than an iPad.
And, like the iPhone, the iPad can’t run more than one app at a time.
Sure, the iPad is handy for e-mail. But I’ve already got that covered with my HTC smartphone, which receives important work e-mails instantly and stays with me all day. My calendar and contacts are also on my phone, right where I need them.
Investors are throwing a lot of money at developing applications for the iPad and I’m sure there will be some good ones coming out. But with the device’s limitations, I’ve got to ask myself—do I need to spend $499 or more for something that can’t even keep up with my laptop and smartphone?
Given Apple’s sound financial structure and marketing clout, I’m not going to predict whether the iPad will be a success or failure. I just haven’t seen anything that compelled me to run out and buy one. And I truly don’t see how the iPad lives up to Apple’s marketing hype of being “magical” and “revolutionary.”
Am I missing something? Share your comments below.
Update 4/8/10: One of the iPad limitations is supposed to be addressed this fall, when Apple promises an update to the operating system to allow multitasking.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on April 5th, 2010
DROID ERIS by HTC Smartphone
Here’s my disclaimer right off the bat: I’m a relatively new smartphone adapter. I just got a Blackberry in the fall of 2009. I don’t regularly review “tech” items; I leave that to my in-the-know colleague John, who is great at writing about phones, apps and netbooks. (Me? I dig covering cute capris and flip flops.) Generally speaking, I’m a luddite — though my mom thinks I’m a tech genius since I know how to upload photos to Shutterfly. (It’s all relative.)
That all said, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to check out a touch-screen phone with the Google Android operating system — specifically, the DROID ERIS by HTC. This phone is really, really cool — it’s got some amazing capabilities and personalizing features. It syncs with your Google and Facebook accounts with the press of a button — all of your Gmail contacts are instantly loaded. You can share images you’ve taken with the phone’s camera to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Picasa easily — it really connects beautifully with the major social networks out there. It organizes all of your “communications” with each of your contacts by person — so you have a running log of all phone calls, texts and Facebook interactions with each of your friends.
But what I found after using this amazingly capable smart phone is that I don’t need all these bells and whistles. When I’m traveling — whether it’s to a foreign country or down the road to the grocery store — all I really want is to have instant access to a phone and email. (Twitter is a distant third requirement.)
I don’t need the thousands of nifty applications available via the Android Market, even though there are some silly games that my young kids downloaded that kept them occupied on a recent road trip. There are hundreds of free apps in the “Travel” category, from hotel finders to NYC subway maps to English-Spanish dictionaries, but none are “must have” items for my phone. I’ve gotten along without them for years; I really don’t need them now.
And I really missed the button keyboard on my Blackberry. After three weeks of using a touch-screen keyboard–even with its “word prediction” and “spell correction” — I think I’m a much more accurate typist on my not-near-as-sleek Blackberry Tour.
Here are a few more observations — and I do recognize that it’s apples to oranges when I compare the DROID ERIS to my Blackberry, but, hey, it’s all I know.
The DROID ERIS is super-slim and attractive. I love how it feels in my hands. The home-screen graphics are crisp and clean and downright cute. (The little, green, droid alien guy appears when you power on and off and it’s on the Android Market widget.)
Set up is easy. I have always had my husband deal with calling our phone provider (Verizon Wireless) to set up new cell phones. But I insisted on doing this one, and it was painless. Syncing my Twitter, Facebook and Gmail accounts was a piece of cake with step-by-step visual cues.
You can personalize seven home screens. I fit all of my must-have widgets and contacts on one screen, but for users who are in constant contact with several friends, you can load their info in a easy-access widget and store it on one screen you might use for “play.” Store work contacts on your “work” screen. Put the kids’ favorite game apps on another screen. Put your web browser — if you use it frequently — on the other. You get my drift. You can really customize your phone the way you like to use it.
The Twitter application, Peep, failed a lot. As I mentioned above, I use my smartphone to make calls, check email and send Twitter updates. So it was a bummer when I often got fail messages. I also prefer Blackberry’s Ubertwitter to the Droid’s Peep. In Ubertwitter, you can scroll over (via the trackball) to a URL and it will take you to the site via the phone’s web browser; in Peep, you have to touch the screen “just right” to get a URL to work. I also never figured out how to search Twitter in Peep; in Ubertwitter it’s more obvious how to do that.
You have to charge the DROID ERIS nightly. I ran out of battery power if I was away from my home office most of the day and checking email frequently, or my kids were running down the battery playing games on the phone. I just don’t have that kind of battery drain with my Blackberry. On the DROID ERIS, the screen goes black to save battery power after mere seconds; annoying if you’re checking email a lot (like I do).
In the end, I really don’t think I’ll miss my sample DROID ERIS after I send it back to the manufacturer next week. I’m so glad I now understand what it’s like to use a touch-screen Droid phone with incredible social capabilities, but I’m fine with returning to what I think is a simpler phone, for my simple smartphone ways. My children, however, think differently — they’ll miss the Snake, Guitar Hero and Light Racer 3D game apps they’ve been playing for weeks.
The DROID ERIS is currently solely for Verizon Wireless customers. It’s $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with new two-year customer agreement. Buy at Verizon Wireless stores or online.
Posted by Kara in General Gear on February 26th, 2010
OtterBox BlackBerry Commuter Case
I’m a new smart-phone user — I just got my BlackBerry Tour a couple months ago and immediately fell in love with it. What I didn’t love was the generic case it came with; so I didn’t use it much, and then my beloved BlackBerry felt naked and vulnerable without protection. Thankfully, OtterBox offered to send me a new case from its Commuter series, and I’ve been using it for the past few weeks.
What I like about the OtterBox is that I don’t have to pull my BlackBerry in and out of a case. The OtterBox comes in two parts: a snug-fitting, custom-molded silicone sheath and a hard plastic shell. All of the phone’s ports (for headphones and chargers) are covered with soft, easy-to-pull-out attached plugs, and a separate clear film covers the screen. I’ve dropped my phone a couple times, but didn’t freak out (that much) because the case protects from bumps, shocks and scratches; my BlackBerry still (seems to) work fine after some abuse in the OtterBox case.
A couple of things that bummed me out about the clear screen film: When I applied it to the screen, some residual adhesive from the paper it had been stuck to remained on the film (the side that faces out, not the side that stuck to the screen). I tried to remove it with my fingernail and a washcloth, but resorted to hard-core adhesive-removal solution to get it off. (Yes, I’m talking about a solution you’d buy from a medical-supply company to take off adhesive that remains after removing a long-time Band-Aid. I was not happy to be applying that near my BlackBerry keypad.)
The film has also bubbled at the edges. I can’t get it to smoothly stick down. (Maybe has something to do with my applying the solution!)
I’m also a little bummed that my BlackBerry doesn’t smoothly slide into the fleece-lined pocket of my Overland shoulder bag anymore. The case — although it is advertised to have a “slick” exterior — can’t match the smoothness of the BlackBerry itself.
Other OtterBox BlackBerry cases include the rugged Defender series — a bit bulkier than the Commuter, offering more protection — and the Impact, which gives less protection.
The Commuter case retails for $34.95 on OtterBox.com, but you can find it much cheaper on Amazon.com.
Posted by Kara in General Gear on November 20th, 2009
