HTC G1

As a confirmation, you can see that the recently redesigned Univercell.in website shows the G1 as “coming soon” for a price of 25k INR. So fasten your seat belts and get ready for some serious Android action.

Update: 26 Nov 2008: Hmmm, may be I spoke a little too soon. This report from The Economic Times says that the launch of HTC G1 is now postponed to a future date which is not decided.

Post from Digital Rover

HTC G1, the Android Phone, soon in India!

Bookmark It

In case you are wondering, even though the iPod Touch has closed some of the gaps with the Nokia N810, N810 is still the best portable computing device which also doubles up as a multimedia powerhouse. I have also updated the post which compares the performance between these two, along with the Sony Mylo.

Post from Digital Rover

Product Updates: Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition now shipping

Bookmark It

So welcome Sony Ericsson to the Windows Mobile World.

With this pricing, I may never encounter a human being using the Xperia X1 in my country, just like I have’nt seen a soul using the iPhone 3G here.

Post from Digital Rover

Sony Ericsson XPeria X1 now widely available…

Bookmark It

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Why is it so? First of all, the pricing of this phone. The phone is all set to launch in India and a handful of other countries in a couple of weeks from now. At a price tag of only Rs 20000 (About 400 US dollars), the XpressMusic 5800 is a steal. This pricing is a sweet spot considering that other popular phones like Sony Ericsson’s K series and Nokia’s own entry level N series handsets start at this range. For most people who were disappointed with the high pricing of the iPhone in India, the 5800 is a relief, and is a better alternative in every sense. A friend in the mobile phone retail business reveals that there are already huge number of enquiries for this phone everyday. This phone will also be much more practical because of the availability of many local services, unlike the Apple iPhone. For example, Nokia Maps 2.0 will provide turn by turn directions with a highly detailed map for many cities in India, instead of the Google Maps on the iPhone whose use is pretty limited.

If pricing is clever, the positioning of this handset is an even a smarter move by Nokia. Even though feature by feature it matches everything on the iPhone and bettering it in many cases, Nokia still calls it a ‘mid range’ phone. This implies that there will be N series phone running the S60 touch, which will have much more features and functionalities, a better camera for example. Such handsets will pose real challenge to other mobile phone manufacturers. 2009 will be as interesting and exciting as 2008 in the mobile handset arena.

Post from Digital Rover

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic: A clever gameplan

Bookmark It

You will be happy to know that those days are now behind. Mandriva Linux 2009 claims to be highly tweaked to run efficiently on all variants of the ASUS Eee PC, Acer Aspire One and the MSI Wind.

Mandriva 2009: First Impressions

Mandriva 2009

After installing the Mandriva 2009 KDE version through a convoluted USB installation method, I was surprised to see that almost all hardware was detected and configured out of the box. The system boots in about 45 seconds, which is a far cry from the 15 seconds it takes for the Acer provided Linpus Lite, but still betters Ubuntu Hardy by more than 20 seconds. Apart from KDE4, I could also install the extremely light weight desktop environment called LXDE which takes only 5 seconds to load after the X sever is launched. The LXDE that ships with Mandriva 2009 is much more polished than the one available in the Ubuntu repositories.

I was also pretty much impressed by KDE4. It feels much more responsive than Gnome.

Coming Soon: Detailed Review

I am in the process of putting together a detailed review of Mandriva 2009 on Acer Aspire One including a how to on installation, tweaking and a quick start guide to urpmi, the aptitude equivalent on Mandrake. You can expect it before the weekend.

Post from Digital Rover

Mandriva 2009: The ideal netbook Linux distro

Bookmark It

So netbook it is. After some research, I shortlisted the following netbooks because of their easy availability in my country.

ASUS Eee PC 901
Acer Aspire One
MSI Wind

I went to some computer retailers to checkout these netbooks. While I couldn’t easily find a MSI Wind, the other two are easily available. Especially the Acer Aspire One which is in stock with every Acer Mall in Bangalore.

ASUS Eee PC 901

ASUS Eee PC 901

While 8.9” inch models like the 904 and 10” inch models like the Eee PC 1000H are available, I decided to look at the 901 because of the following reasons:

• Eventhough it has a screen that is 1 inch” lesser in size than the 1000H, the 901 still features the same resolution of 1024×600.
• It costs significantly less than the 904 which ships with only an Intel Mobile Celeron processor.
• The keyboard is as comfortable as the one on 1000H.
• The whole look of the device was little plasticky. I somehow felt that it was looking like on of those cheap Chinese “Children’s Laptop”.
• It came with a 6600 mAh battery!

ACER Aspire One

Acer Aspire One

As of now, only one model of Aspire One is sold in India. It is the hard disk based model featuring a 120 GB hard drive and 1 GB of RAM. It comes with Windows XP. After a little bit of probing, the Acer Mall guys revealed the availability of a non-Windows XP model also, which comes with Linpus Lite Linux. These are the following things I observed with Acer Aspire One:

• The Keyboard is very useable, except for the ESC key, which I found to be little small to my liking. All other keys are present in the
• The AAO had two card slots - a boon if you want to dual boot another operating system from an SDHC card or if you want to use Windows Vista’s ready boost feature.
• Only the 3 cell model was available.
• It did not have bluetooth.

Overall, I liked the Aspire One better than the Eee PC. It was also lighter and looked attractive. So I finalized and bought the AAO. Been using it for 3 weeks now and I am more than happy with it. I wiped the Linpus Lite it came with and installed Ubuntu 8.04.1 with Netbook Remix on it. Expect a lot more tips and tricks of using the AAO on the coming days.

Post from Digital Rover

Buying a netbook: Acer Aspire One vs ASUS Eee PC 901/904

Bookmark It

The delay of WinMo 7 reminds us of the bad phase that Palm is going through. After hiving off the software division, Palm hasn’t been able to release a new operating system in almost 5 years now. To stay current, Palm started shipping Windows Mobile handsets. This strategy is not going to help any longer as the Windows Mobile operating system is also not seeing any upgrades in the near future, even evolutionary. With an antique browser and its poor internet capabilities, the current version of Windows Mobile can no way match the feature set, not to mention the fit, finesse and polish the competitors like the Android or the Mobile Mac OS X are offering.

It is hard times for Windows Mobile ahead. It is even more harder for Microsoft’s partners as the delay in new operating system release could mean that they have to put up with the WM 6.1 platform for a much longer time. To differentiate themselves, they have to continue with the tweaking of the UI, which has already reached tiring levels and makes the ODM’s life difficult. If the scheduled release of WM 7 is moved to mid 2009, we won’t be seeing a WinMo 7 handset till the last quarter of next year, which is a very long time in the technology world.

Post from Digital Rover

Windows Mobile and Palm OS: Together we die

Bookmark It

Sony Ericsson XPeria X1

HTC always had the upperhand when it came to releasing high end Windows Mobile handsets in the market. That may change with the entry of Sony Ericsson,  who will soon be releasing a fantastic new handset based on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition. The closest Windows Mobile handset that can compete with the SE XPeria is the HTC Touch Pro. Here is a detailed comparison of the specifications.

HTC Touch Pro

Size comparison of the X1 with HTC Touch Pro

As you can see, there isn’t much to differentiate these two handsets, except for the higher screen resolution on the XPeria X1 and the lack of US 3G on the standard version of HTC Touch Pro. (There is a different version of Touch Pro for the US market which supports the 3G bands used in the country). Audio enthusiasts should note the presence of a 3.5 mm audio jack on the X1. The Touch Pro multiplexes the USB port for headphones, which is now becoming a kind of standard in all HTC devices, which I hate because it does not allow you to charge the device and listen to music at the same time, without using an ugly adapter.

In terms of size, the XPeria X1 is slightly bigger in dimensions than the Touch Pro.

The XPeria X1 comes out as the winner, since it offers everything that the Touch Pro offers and more with a high resolution screen and the 3.5 mm audio jack. The slide out keyboard is also ergonomic and stylish becuase of the way the display curves upwards.

Trivia: The Sony Ericsson XPeria X1 is also made by HTC.

Post from Digital Rover

Sony Ericsson XPeria X1 vs HTC Touch Pro : Comparison of specifications

Bookmark It

What does this mean for Apple? Well, Apple is 1500 closer to the 10 million mark that it is planning to achieve by this year end. Also, less purchasers means less people to piss off when they announce an inevitable price cut. Go Apple, Go!

Post from Digital Rover

iPhone sets new sales record in India

Bookmark It

Surprisingly, advertisers are also leaving the Windows Mobile bandwagon. This has resulted in the popular Smartphone and PocketPC magazine to down its shutters. The Smartphone and PocketPC magazine awards were considered prestigious and developers used to compete fiercely for it. You can see the awards being proudly displayed in many Windows Mobile developer websites. This is indeed a sad day from many Windows Mobile developers and enthusiasts. The magazine promoters have announced that they will be publishing an iPhone quarterly instead.

Last Issue of Smartphone and Pocket PC magazine

If we analyze this situation, it will become apparent that Windows Mobile advertising has a much larger potential than the single vendor produced iPhone. With large phone companies like Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, HTC and Palm making windows mobile devices -in addition to the plethora of accessory manufacturers for these devices- one can’t help but keep wondering why there isn’t much interest to advertise these products, especially considering that Microsoft sold close to 20 million devices last year. This is an indication that the ecosystem is slowly falling apart. It is high time that MS wakes up and brings confidence back to the developers, manufacturers and the consumers. Just claiming that a Windows Mobile can do much more than an iPhone will not cut it anymore. With the scheduled release of WM 7 almost a year away, MS will need to do a lot to sustain the interest.

Post from Digital Rover

Is the Windows Mobile ecosystem falling apart?

Bookmark It