Mobile gadgets running Blackberry & Android OS'
Archive for July, 2010
Charging is different on laptop vs the electrical outlet?!
0574 days
Why? Lately I’ve been complaining that my Desire’s battery is only running a 5,5 hrs charge with my usage, which means I started holding back on “Internet consumption” and talking on the phone. And that’s not right: I use it because it’s a smartphone and I want to do more with it, not less! And I’ve tried everything: car charger, switching off applications, various juice-saving applications, turning the light down, switching off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, not to mention I don’ t use the GPS module because of the power issue. Nothing. If I use the Desire just for a few short phone-calls and some emails, I get 12 to 14 hours out of it. But then it’s just a dumb Nokia 1100! If I wanted a damn calling brick, I’d have surely gotten one! I thought I’d do a little experiment: USB cable charging from the computer versus he electrical outlet! I use the same USB cable; for the electrical outlet plug, I just insert it in a plug adapter. And it’s like this: 40 minutes charge with the phone connected to the electrical outlet resulted in 35% surge. 40 minutes charge with the laptop USB cable resulted in a 13% surge. Why, oh man, why?!! Why is the Desire different than any other mobile I know (except for the Nokia crap)? I wish I had an electrical outlet everywhere I go but I don’t. Is HTC aware of that?
Later update: I found the answer: Aragorn’s . Quite simplistic but it illustrates the solution perfectly.
Switching is happening all over again.
2577 days
In February 2009 I left the Symbian UIQ 3.0 O.S for BlackBerry. Of course, some of my friends knowing me and using more or less the same Symbian platform ( UIQ 3.0 and/or S40, S60 Nokia) were skeptical: “BlackBerry is a professional platform, a closed and rigid environment, no way you can thrive under that rock” they said. What they didn’t know is that at the time R.I.M already decided to go forward with the plan to conquer a new kind of customer with the multimedia phones: the much-debated Storm 1, the Bold 9000, eventualy the Javelin and the Tour later on. Platforms are becoming more and more multimedia and social cause that’s where the money is today.
And that was exactly what made me go first BlackBerry and now, Android: while the UIQ 3.0 was great and rich in applications (O.K, maybe not so rich by today’ standards or by iPhone/Android markets standards), it lacked the new applications for the social media. The only reason I kept it until February 2009 is the hacking community. They “developed” the O.S much more than Symbian itself did and a lot more than the developers did. While BlackBerry had all these applications, it lacked the diversity one enjoys on Android and iPhone. In BlackBerry’s case, the developers deserted the booming wonderful community formed around R.I.M’s products. Or maybe I am wrong; I know there aren’t many developers pushing-out BlackBerry applications. The applications themselves are rare and expensive. The price is the main issue: while an average app for Blackberry is 2.99$ (price imposed by BlackBerry App World) , the others go as low as 0.99$. This happens EXACTLY because there aren’t many developers (anymore) and the remaining ones they profit on the fact that the demand surged. But even with this situation, the BlackBerry users aren’t benefiting much. For almost 2 years I look for a working Call Filter aplication. Because I was paying for it, I asked for a few features (existing already on Symbian S40 and UIQ 3.0 for years!) like:
- accept all calls
- reject all calls
- accept phone-book only
- drop unwanted calls and/or mute the ringer
- reject Black List numbers and accept White List numbers
- automatic profile switch based on time schedule
And that was about it. All of the above were supported by other applications, most of them free or charging very little money. And I’ve tried half of those while using the Sony-Ericsson P1i and afterwards, even on BlackBerry. On BlackBerry, I couldn’t find a satisfactory application. Most of them are very basic and extremely expensive – 19,95$ I had to pay for mCall Manager Light (sic!), the only one working as it should but without the scheduling. After I updated from 4.7 version OS to 5.0 OS, the app stopped working and when they did update it (3 months later) it wasn’t working properly anymore. This experience sums-up all my experiences with BlackBerry applications.
And then there is the support issue: being so fragmentary as it is, the BlackBerry application market is divided between some developers interested in keeping the customer happy and the rest. The rest don’t give a shit about the customer. It’s enough if you buy it once and never comeback ever again, 10$ from each customer is more than enough for a single application. I bet there are a lot of “developers” hitting the market only once with one single (bad) product and then move on to another platforms; from what I’ve been told developing for BlackBerry is neither cool or money-rewarding.
And now it’s time for a new challenge: the Android O.S. I’ve been playing for a few months with a T-Mobile Pulse but in order to enjoy the full-power of the new O.S, I had to go full way. And I chose the HTC Desire
. While it lacks stamina ( my usage will kill the battery in just a bit over 5 hours!), I have faith in the platform and its ability to deliver a better product later on with rooting, custom ROMs and Froyo later on.
