Nokia

Two Lumias One PIMP

The day my Nokia Lumia 710 had been waiting for is today. This morning, as per my daily routine since the end of January, I checked for updates for the Lumia 710 and this time was greeted with the black Zune update screen.
Finally!
I went through the update process. I actually went through the update process five times. My Three UK Nokia Lumia 710 initially updated to OS version 7.10.8779.8 and then to 7.10.8783.12. These were both updates to Windows Phone 7.5 Tango which had never been pushed to the device. After the first two updates Zune prompted me to update again to 7.10.8858.136 (Windows Phone 7.8) and then to 7.10.8860.142 and 7.10.8862.144 ("bug fix" and "quality improvement" updates).
My Nokia Lumia 710 running Windows Phone 7.8
So now my Nokia Lumia 710 had updated to Windows Phone 7.8 I was happy. But not as happy as I would have been if the update had arrived sooner. Why was I not elated I now had the update that brings Windows Phone 8-like tiles and live tiles and a suite of improvements? Well, I have to confess, yesterday I went and purchased another Lumia, one running the full Windows Phone 8 operating system and with model numbering 620. 

Yes I now have two Nokia Lumias. They are similar on the surface but very different devices in under their plastic shells.
Move over, "colleague".
Nokia's marketing department made a bit of a faux pas when naming their line of Windows Phone devices and choosing the name Lumia. In Finnish it is noun, a partitive plural form of lumi which means snow. In Latin lumia is the word for the citrus fruit called lime in English. In Spanish on the other hand it is a synonym for prostitute/whore/hooker. I played on this Spanish meaning of Lumia when I "broke up" with my Nokia Lumia 710 in February. So excuse me while I go ahead and do so again in the next paragraph.

I'm now in the situation where there are "Two Lumias One PIMP". PIMP is an acronym for "Person Into Manhandling Phones". Yes, it is going to get messy.

Once you have got over the cringe-worthy joke, if you haven't already clicked away, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below.

Breaking Up With My Lumia

At the end of January Microsoft started rolling out the Windows Phone 7.8 update for devices that had previously been running Windows Phone 7.5. Windows Phone 7.8 is an update that gives you a Windows Phone 8-like homescreen, a slight rebranding to make the UI more similar to Windows Phone 8 and some other minor features. Once again, my Nokia Lumia 710 seems to be one of the last devices to be updated in the rollout.
Lumia - No SIM
I have a Nokia Lumia 710 which until not long ago was one of my main mobile devices. The frustration of not receiving the Windows Phone 7.8 update and my acquisition of an Intel powered Orange San Diego and a Google Nexus 4 made me stop using the Lumia 710. This is because as well as not having enough SIM cards to run all these smartphones simultaneously, I have fallen out of love with Windows Phone.

I really liked Windows Phone. This time last year I really had hope and expectation that Windows Phone on Nokia devices would be a success and satisfy my smartphone needs. I was so enamoured with the potential of the platform that I got a Nokia Lumia 710 which had Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) running on it. One of the promises of Windows Phone on the Nokia Lumia line was that it would always get updates promptly, as the updates are pushed by Microsoft, so that there shouldn't be delays due to carriers and/or manufacturers. I was really enjoying using Microsoft's new mobile operating system, and the idea that there would be less of a fragmentation issue. (I had previously been scarred by my experience with an HTC Desire and slow updates to new Android versions)
Almost a year on I have fallen out of love with Windows Phone. When Windows Phone 8 was announced in 2012, it was also made abundantly clear that existing hardware running Windows Phone 7.5 would not be upgraded to Windows Phone 8. Details of the Windows Phone 7.8 update leaked and then were announced, but I still was disappointed by the no Windows Phone 8 issue.

Using the Nokia Lumia 710 on a daily basis, alongside at least one Nexus device (a Nexus S, then a Galaxy Nexus and now a Nexus 4), I had a few little things that kept on annoying me. First off using Gmail was overall a pretty good experience, apart from slightly slower updates than on my Android devices and that any time I replied to an email from the Lumia 710 I broke the conversation in web view for myself and everyone else. Secondly there is a lack of apps to satisfy many of my online needs. No Google Plus app, and having to fall back to a horrible web experience through Internet Explorer mobile was a real pain. No Instagram, painful Twitter experience, no Google Maps app and for a while no Google Maps through Internet Explorer mobile was annoying. The lack of an always on instant messaging client made things worse. One of the few reasons I stuck with the Nokia Lumia was that I always had an Android fallback device to do what I really wanted to do.

This time last year the user experience on the Nokia Lumia 710 was better than on most Android devices. The device and UI seemed more responsive and fluid. The Live Tiles UI was interesting and different as well as great for one hand use. Now, through Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and Android 4.1/4.2 (Jelly Bean) updates, lag on Android seems to be a thing of the past. The Android User experience is now superior and polished. The appeal of Windows Phone has faded.

It is sad, but on Saint Valentine's Day 2013 I'm officially breaking up with Windows Phone. I hope we can still be friends. I may make a booty call from time to time and pop my Micro SIM card into a Windows Phone to try it out or to review an app or service on it. My Nokia Lumia 710 may try and win me back if it ever updates to Windows Phone 7.8, if it succeeds I might blog about it through the Official Blogger App for Windows Phone (unlikely to ever be released).

I have to admit, I really am in love with Android.

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below.

Huawei Ascend Y201 Preview

I've been playing around with a Huawei Ascend Y201 on Tesco Mobile recently. Here are some snaps of the device, the accessories that come with it and the device beside some of my other devices.
Huawei Y201 Homescreen
The Huawei Y201 has a 3.5" HVGA (320x480) screen, 800 MHz Cortex-A5 processor, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM (with 146MB available to the user) and a MicroSD slot. I've tested the device with a 32GB MicroSD card and it works fine. Out of the box, the Huawei Y201 is bundled with a 4 GB MicroSD card. On the back there is a 3.15 MP camera with no flash
Huawei Y201 Homescreen

Huawei Y201 customised Android app drawer

Huawei Y201 back

Huawei Y201 top with on/off button and 3.5mm headphone jack

Huawei Y201 bottom with microUSB port

Huawei Y201 clean side

Huawei Y201 with Galaxy NExus

Huawei Y201 with Nokia Lumia 710

Huawei Y201 with HP/Palm Pre 2

Huawei Y201 with Huawei G300

Huawei Y201 with Huawei G300 (backs) 
Huawei Y201 customised Android lockscreen

Huawei Y201 weather widget

Huawei Y201 "About Device"
The Tesco Mobile Huawei Y201 runs on Android 2.3.6 and has a designated model number of U8666-1. I believe this to be a rebranded Huawei Ascend Y200 for Tesco Mobile.
Huawei Y201 dialer

Huawei Y201 bundled headphones

Huawei Y201 bundled mains/microUSB charger

Huawei Y201 packaging

Huawei Y201 back removed
I'll be writing a full review soon, so check back on www.todoleo.com before the weekend.

Nexus 7 Review: No More Manbags

It has been two weeks since I took delivery of my Nexus 7 tablet, so I now give you my review of the device.
My Nexus 7 with my Galaxy Nexus
Before I start, here's the background that influences my subjective view of Google's Jelly Bean running 7" tablet: I'm an Android fanboy and have been since 2007. I love tinkering with Android devices, much in the same way as I do with Linux on laptops, netbooks, nettops and desktops. My main device is a Galaxy Nexus, which has a pure Google Android experience, and no custom ROM. Since October last year I have also been using an Android tablet, an Archos 80 G9. While not as shiny as other tablets at the time, price and specifications were the main reason I chose the 80 G9. Very few customisations by Archos on Honeycomb meant that the 80 G9 had as close to a pure Android experience as possible, and that also made it fast for Archos to push the Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update.


While a hardcore Android/Linux nerd, I'm also a bit of a closet Windows Phone user. I enjoy Metro UI and like the service tie ins with Xbox Live. The Nokia Lumia 710 I'm using is a good piece of hardware, and just like my Android devices has replaceable batteries (unlike the Lumia 800). Windows Phone is different from Android, and I can see how it is less suited to the tinkerer than any Android phone, but is a very pleasant smartphone experience. I have to admit, at the moment I'm a bit of a BiOS smartphone user. (Just to make it clear, I don't partake in any of the Apple iOS tomfoolery, that's just not to my liking.)

So, back to the Nexus 7 review. After Google IO (end of June), I placed a pre-order for the Nexus 7 (the 16GB model priced at £199 in the UK) on the ebuyer.com website. At the time I had to choose between the direct Google channel and third party retailers. I ended up choosing ebuyer.com, because of their excellent service in the past. ebuyer.com was also a reasonable choice because they have had a good relationship with ASUS for years (ASUS is the company that manufactures the Nexus 7). As a result, on the morning of Friday 13th 2012, I had a knock on the door from Parcelforce and came into posession of a Google Nexus 7 tablet. (It was a lucky date for me!)

For those of you just wanting to get the specifications and then jump to the conclusion, here are the specs:

SCREEN
7” 1280x800 HD display (216 ppi)
Back-lit IPS display
Scratch-resistant Corning glass
1.2MP front-facing camera

SIZE
198.5 x 120 x 10.45mm
WEIGHT
340g
WIRELESS
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth
MEMORY
8 GB internal storage (actual formatted capacity will be less)
1 GB RAM
USB
Micro USB
BATTERY
4325 mAh (Up to 8 hours of active use)
OS
Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
CPU
Quad-core Tegra 3 processor
FEATURES
Microphone
NFC (Android Beam)
Accelerometer
GPS
Magnetometer
Gyroscope


The Nexus 7 is a 7" Nexus tablet running Jelly Bean (Android 4.1). A Nexus device is made by a third party manufacturer (in this case ASUS) for Google, who have close input on device design and specifications. Google use Nexus devices to showcase/ship the latest version of Android and also jolt the rest of the market into upping their game.
My Archos 80 G9 next to my Nexus 7
The 7" form factor may seem strange to those who are used to larger tablets but after using it for a while I understood that it made more sense. The Nexus 7 is well built and feels solid to hold, and the rubbery back makes it feel less likely to slip out of your hand than other similar devices. I love the fact that it fits perfectly in a jacket pocket, eliminating the need for a man bag for me. The Archos 80 G9 has an 8" 4:3 screen, so won't fit into the same pocket. Another advantage of the 7" form factor is that when typing holding the Nexus 7 in portrait orientation, two thumb typing is pleasantly simple.
No more man bag for me
The screen is an LCD IPS backlit one, this means that it has in plane switching technology, which gives you great viewing angles. Colours on the screen are good and the high number of dots per inch (216) means images on the screen are nice and crisp. While not the best LCD display I've seen, in a sub £200 device it is phenomenal.
A phenomenal screen for a sub £200 device.
The Nexus 7 has a front facing 1.2 MP camera, which is great for videocalling. I've used it with both Google talk and Skype and the only complaints about image quality were probably due to a slow internet connection. Again, the 7" form factor of the Nexus 7 is great for long video calls. Whereas with larger/heavier tablet computers hands/arms get tired after a while, with the Nexus 7 I haven't had this issue, and I do tend to do a lot of video calls on it. Unlike other tablets on the market at the moment, the Nexus 7 doesn't have a camera on the rear, so you won't lose any street-cred using it to take pictures at parties. There is actually no software on the stock Android Jelly Bean shipped with the Nexus 7 to use the camera as a camera. Thankfully Paul O'Brien from MoDaCo.com has a solution for this if you really want that feature.
Jelly Bean, Android 4.1, is the operating system running on the Nexus 7. Coupled with Nvidia's Tegra 3 chipset and 12 core GPU the device is buttery to use. Google had people working on the UI smoothness and responsiveness and the differences from ICS (4.0), while not immediately apparent, are enormous. The user interface paradigm remains the same as on Ice Cream Sandwich, with a few subtle improvements such as icon and widget automatic rearrangement. The notification system has been augmented from ICS and made more expansive with snapshots and previews. I like this notification system improvement, especially because it includes Google Now notifications.

Google Now is a new way for interacting with Google services. A sort of predictive search, it presents you with information before you start searching for it. When I'm at work for example, Google Now will give me bus timetables and an estimated time for me travelling home, and a weather forecast. Presented as cards, the Google Now screen can be pulled up as an offscreen gesture swiping upwards from the bottom. This is a very WebOS like gesture, I wonder how much of Matias Duarte's input there was for this... You can find out  more about Google Now here.
The Nexus 7 is an NFC device, which means that it can be used to share/use information shared via near field communication technology. Often if I get an email recommending a Youtube video, and I just tap my phone with the open link to my Nexus 7 and boom, the video opens up on my Nexus 7. Lovely but limited feature at the moment, as time goes by it will be a standard on many devices.

On the Nexus 7 you have access to the Play Store. Any applications/services you have purchased from the Play Store previously are available to you on the Nexus 7, provided the application/service is compatible. Most of my favourite apps work just fine on the Nexus 7, but some don't. Flickr for example does not work on the Nexus 7 yet, but I'm sure it's just a question of time before it does. Google state that for a limited time Nexus 7 buyers get £15 of Play Store credit. £15 credit with the £159 (8GB) and £199 (16GB) price tags just makes the value proposition of the Nexus 7 go up.
The Nexus 7 has WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC connectivity. There is no 3G (cellular) option, but tethering to a smartphone is easy peasy. I tether with both my Galaxy Nexus and Nokia Lumia 710 without problem.

Battery life on the Nexus 7 is excellent. I've used my device regularly both at home and at work and never had a problem with the battery running low. I usually charge the Nexus 7 overnight if needed, but usually it lasts me at least a couple of days. The Nexus 7 has a beefed up USB charger which juices up the device through the MicroUSB port. Sadly some existing MicroUSB chargers for phones and/or Kindles do not work with the Nexus 7.

OK, for those of you who skipped to the conclusion from the specifications, you can start reading again.
Overall the Nexus 7 is a fantastic device. Form factor and excellent operating system make it a delight to use. Google's services run impeccably on the device, as you would expect them to. For under £200 there isn't anything on the market that can offer you as good value for money, and the £15 Google Play Store credit is just the cherry on the icing. I love my Nexus 7, and know it will be an amazing success for Google, ASUS and the retailers selling the device.

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below. Bear in mind this review is my personal view on the Nexus 7 and that as I stated at the beginning I'm pretty biased because I'm an android fanboy.

My Nokia Lumia 710 is now running Tango! (Finally!)

I've been moaning about how slow Nokia/ThreeUK were to roll out the Windows Phone Tango update to my Nokia Lumia 710 recently.
Last Thursday the update was finally pushed to my device, and through Zune I finally updated.
The Windows Phone Tango 7.5 update brings two main changes to the phone, and others are marked as coming soon. The most important change is the addition of an "Internet Sharing" function (which can be accessed in the settings menu). Internet Sharing is essentially tethering, I can now connect my shiny Nexus 7 Android tablet to the internet using the Nokia Lumia 710 as a WiFi hotspot.
New option in the Settings menu: Internet Sharing
The other big change I have noticed is the change of the icon for the Windows Phone Marketplace. It may sound silly to you but this has great importance to Nokia, Microsoft and consumers who are just buying a phone and who don't worry about smartphone operating systems, software version numbers and service/hardware ecosystems. The Marketplace now has a Nokia logo'd shopping bag, which means the Finnish phone manufacturer has taken a big slice of Microsoft's brand value of the operating system as its own. This is a pretty loud statement from Nokia, as if they were saying "This is a Nokia smartphone, it just happens to be running Windows Phone." Apart from the icon, the Windows Phone Marketplace is much the same as it used to be. Nokia Collection is still a section of the Marketplace, but the Camera Extras are not available there yet.
New Marketplace icon. Strong statement from Nokia?
Apart from these two big changes (in my view), I haven't really noticed any other changes from Windows Phone 7.5 Mango to Windows Phone 7.5 Tango. It may be that the battery life is slightly better, but that may be because I have been using my Nexus 7 a lot and haven't had the need to tether, pardon me use Internet Sharing, much. The Nexus 7 is a fantastic bit of kit, I'll be blogging about that here soon.

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below.

Picplz Shutting Down

Picplz was a photo sharing service similar to Instagram which had an Android client long before Instagram started being ported to Android. I have been using Picplz for years now, and am sad to find out that the service will be shutting down on July 3rd 2012.
The people running Picplz have very kindly set up a download service so you can download all your content from the site easily. Just go to Picplz.com and log in, follow the prompts and you will be able to download all your photos as a single .zip file. In my case there are 245 images, so the zip file was quite large clocking in at over 200MB.

It is a shame Picplz has reached the end of its service, I found it a useful way to avoid issues with rights to intellectual property (Facebook cough cough!), and to post images to almost all my social networking services at once (Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter etc...). I'm not totally bought into Instagram even now that there is a full Android client, and sharing through Skydrive from my Nokia Lumia 710 is a bit iffy.

I'll let you know how I get on finding a replacement photo sharing service as time goes by. As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below.


Nokia Lumia 710 And Ubuntu: They Speak To Each Other!

I've had a Nokia Lumia 710 for a while now.  This week I discovered I can use my Lumia 710 and manage media and content on it through my Ubuntu Linux machines, and I'm a very happy chappy as a result.

The Nokia Lumia 710 is one of Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 devices, the product of the Finnish company's leap of faith from a "burning platform" onto a lilly pad in the middle of a stormy ocean. Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft's smartphone operating system which it pitches as a competitor to Google's Android OS and iOS (which is shipped on Apple devices).
From the beginning of my ownership of the Nokia Lumia 710 I encountered frustration with some of the basic management of Windows Phone 7. Adding and managing media could only be done (up to now) from a Windows or OS X machine running the Zune software. Zune performs similar functions to iTunes, just that it uses a simplistically shiny UI which fits in well on Windows 8, but looks out of place and unintuitive on Windows 7. I have been an avid Linux user for many moons now, and Microsoft Windows is an OS I only boot into rarely if there is some slightly more complicated in phone rooting/ROMming that requires running applications on Windows. Hence my frustration: I have to restart my computer into Windows (7 most of the time on my desktop, 8 on my laptop), wait for the slower startup (it's so much faster in Ubuntu or Lubuntu!), update the antivirus (not an issue on Ubuntu or Lubuntu!) and open up Zune.

Zune is "shiny". I like it. I like it in the same sort of way that I like Windows Phone 7's user interface, and in the same way in which I adore the WebOS user interface. It's all about the UI, its fluidity and how intuitive it is. That's probably why I like the Android 4.0.x UI too: Matias Duarte, formerly of Palm where he designed the WebOS UI, is now the Director of Android operating system User Experience at Google.
Shiny! Shinier with Rachel Stevens
At the beginning using the Zune software didn't work for me. Plugging the Nokia Lumia 710 into any USB port (either primary or secondary) was useless, it didn't show up in the device manager and Zune didn't know there was a Windows Phone 7 device connected to the computer. Only after I had reinstalled Windows 7 on my desktop did I manage to get the Lumia 710 and Zune to talk to each other. Finally I was able to synchronise music folders and podcasts with the device. This was a relief because I had been streaming podcasts over the interwebs through a browser, and this was severely affecting battery life. Once I had got used to the routine of synching the Lumia on a daily basis, things were fine.
When on holiday in Italy I was using my Nexus S as my main smartphone and the Lumia was relegated to being a wifi device when at home for Skype calls, mp3 player functions and playing a fantastic Xbox Live game called Flowers.

After having updated my Ubuntu and Lubuntu partitions on my laptop and desktop to the newest version of the distribution (12.04 Precise Pangolin), I stumbled across the fact that the Nokia Lumia 710 could be mounted as a media player. Once mounted, I could read and write the contents of the folders, manage photos, music and podcasts to the device. On Ubuntu, it even offered to manage the media player in Rythmbox, the media management application bundled with the pinky-orange Linux based OS.
Now that I don't have to boot into Windows so often I'm a happier Wobbles feeder. I can also reply to John C. Dvorak who was reiterating the fact that you HAVE to use Zune on TWiT last week: not any more! You can now live a Windows free life with your Windows Phone 7 smartphone. Until the next OS/firmware update that is... ;-)

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions. I also started a thread on the MoDaCo forums about this so feel free to join the chatter about this there too.

Nokia Tune Remake Won By V@leric

Nokia held a very interesting crowdsourcing competition recently to come up with a replacement/remake for the classic Nokia ringtone.


The Nokia ringtone has been alerting/interrupting the world for well over a decade now first with its monophonic, then poliphonic, then mp3 versions of the same classic tune. The original tune was composed by Francisco Tárrega in 1902, and was the first identifiable musical ring tone on a mobile phone.


This year Nokia crowdsourced the Remake of the "Nokia Tune". The competition was won by V@leric (aka VAS_SD, aka Valerio Alessandro Sizzi) with this "Dubstep" remix:
Hipsters rejoice! Dubstep will soon be alerting/interrupting the world (if Nokia doesn't die of Windows Phone 7...).


You can listen to the competition winner and the other entries here.


As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below.

Nokia Developer Forum Website Hacked!

I just got an email from Nokia Developer regarding a security breach at http://developer.nokia.com/community.


Here's how it reads: 



You may have seen reports or received an email from us regarding a recent security breach on ourdeveloper.nokia.com/community discussion forum.
During our ongoing investigation of the incident we have discovered that a database table containing developer forum members' email addresses has been accessed, by exploiting a vulnerability in the bulletin board software that allowed an SQL Injection attack. Initially we believed that only a small number of these forum member records had been accessed, but further investigation has identified that the number is significantly larger.
The database table records includes members’ email addresses and, for fewer than 7% who chose to include them in their public profile, either birth dates, homepage URL or usernames for AIM, ICQ, MSN, Skype or Yahoo. However, they do not contain sensitive information such as passwords or credit card details and so we do not believe the security of forum members’ accounts is at risk. Other Nokia accounts are not affected.
We are not aware of any misuse of the accessed data, but we have identified that your email address was in one of the records accessed, though it contained none of the optional information, so we believe that the only potential impact to you may be unsolicited email. Nokia apologizes for this incident.
Though the initial vulnerability was addressed immediately, we have now taken the developer community website offline as a precautionary measure, while we conduct further investigations and security assessments. We hope to get the site back online as soon as possible and will post developments there in the meantime.
If you have any questions on this, please contact Nokia.developer-discussions-support@nokia.com.
The Nokia Developer website team.

Nokia Developer site hacked, and I didn't even get a Nokia N950 running MeeGo. Bad JuJu Nokia!

Please rectify the problem and send me a Nokia N9 and/or your first Nokia device running WP7 please! ;-)

Orange Monte Carlo - BAP [Pre Review]

I've had an Orange Monte Carlo for a couple of weeks now. The ZTE made follow up to the Orange San Francisco (ZTE Blade) is a ZTE Skate under its glossy fingerprint magnet finish. My affectionate name for the Orange Monte Carlo is BAP. BAP is an acronym which stands for Big Ass Phone.
The Orange Monte Carlo. BAP.

To give people an idea of what a BAP (Big Ass Phone) the Orange Monte Carlo is, with its 4.3" capacitive display, I took some photos of it with other devices. A full review of the BAP will be on todoleo.com soon. Here are the photos:
Orange Monte Carlo next to HTC Desire.
The Orange Monte Carlo next to a Nokia 1100.
Orange Monte Carlo next to an HTC Wildfire S.
Orange Monte Carlo next to Samsung Galaxy Pro.
Orange Monte Carlo next to a Royal Wedding Phone.
Orange Monte Carlo next to a HP Palm Pre 2.
Orange Monte Carlo next to a Nokia E71.
This post is a follow up to my original thread in MoDaCo Forums. As often happens, the excellent community at MoDaCo Forums is working hard on getting the most out of the Orange Monte Carlo (ZTE Skate) and a method for rooting the device as well as an early custom ROM kitchen are already available. Thanks to Paul and everyone involved in the MoDaCo community!

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below or on the MoDaCo Forums. I'm already bracing myself for intense criticism of my photography, lighting and @fatoldgingercat fluff in the photos. Just to let you know, I took the pictures, wrote and published this blog post while in and before getting out of bed this morning.

Oh, and if you liked this article, please also Google +1 it as well.

INQ Mini 3G [Blast From The Past]

Here's a small blast from the past: almost two years ago I got an INQ Mini 3G phone from a Three store in the UK. It was cheap (£39.99 at the time) but what interested me about the device was how easy it was to use Skype, Facebook and Twitter on it. In the second half of 2009 Android was still in its infancy and a Nokia was still my main handset (the mythical E71). The INQ Mini 3G offered easy access to Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and GMail. It was cheap and when used with my Three UK SIM card didn't cost me anything extra on data charges.
The INQ Mini 3G's front


In the second half of 2009 using Skype on a mobile phone was not as easy as it is today. The network operator Three UK made it simple by having their own system which used a normal voice call to a portal that then did all the clever VOIP stuff. If you wanted to use Skype (and I used it a lot) Three was the network to go with and usually relatively expensive Nokias were the handsets to go with. That's why the INQ Mini 3G caught my attention. Skype was just as easy to use on the INQ Mini 3G as it was on the much more expensive Nokia E71.
The INQ Mini 3G's back
The INQ Mini 3G is a simple candybar with a QVGA screen, a numeric keypad and a bright red back cover. I enjoyed using it and it was one of the devices that helped me get away from Facebook use and more into Twitter. It served me very well for a long time before being passed on to my parents who now use it when they visit the UK (Free Three to Three calls rock!).
The INQ Cloud Touch
Now INQ Mobile have moved onto making and selling inexpensive Android smartphones with deep Facebook integration, easy access to Twitter and Spotify. Soon I will publish my review of the INQ Cloud Touch here on Todoleo.com, so be keep your RSS reader and eyes peeled for the upcoming review!

ComScore's snapshot of UK Smartphone Users [May 2011]

Interesting data from Comscore regarding smartphone use in the UK.


"In May 2011, 42 percent of UK mobile consumers used a smartphone compared to only 27 percent a year ago."


Yes, charts and bar graphs make it easier to visualise. Who ate all the pie charts...?

Not only is it interesting to see that more people in the UK are using smartphones, but I think that the growth rate of the platforms is interesting: year on year Nokia's Symbian is down 10%, Apple's iOS is up 46% and Google's Android is up a staggering 634%. If those year on year growth rates are applied to the three months since that survey was completed (in May 2011) it is safe to say that Apple's iOS platform has been toppled as the market leader by Google's Android platform by now (End of July 2011).


RIM, maker of Blackberry smartphones and software, recently announced that it was cutting 2000 jobs in autumn 2011. Analysts are disappointed with the company's growth. The Comscore data indicates that in the UK things aren't that bad with a 59% year on year growth.


Well, I am smiling at the fact that the Android platform is doing so well. As most readers of this blog will already know, I'm and Android fanboy. (Consider this a sort of disclaimer)


Here's a link to the Comscore source.


As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions. If you feel like it please Google +1 the post too.

Launcher 7 For Android

One of the great things about Google's Android operating system for smartphones is that it is an open platform. To explain this simply, if you don't like anything or you just feel like it, you can change it. This applies from the simple appearance to core functionality and applications.
One of the components of Android is an application called "Launcher" that deals with the main user interface and look and feel of the homescreen and application drawer. The most common launcher layout is usually a horizontal homescreen you can scroll through where shortcuts and widgets can be added and a vertical scrolling application drawer. This is the user interface that has been in use since the first Android device released to the general public in 2008, the G1.
A Classic Android Homescreen

An Android Application Drawer
When Android smartphone manufacturers personalise the Android operating system, they often change the launcher or replace it with a new one, usually with added functionality and sometimes changing the user interface. Most manufacturers only change things slightly and add extra functionality (such as HTC with their Sense user interface, Motorola with MotoBlur and Samsung with TouchWiz). This helps them differentiate and brand their products.
HTC Sense Homescreen
Samsung's TouchWiz Homescreen


Motorola's MotoBlur Homescreen
The Android developer community has also developed many different launcher applications that replace the ones that come preloaded on phones. Often they are variations on the same user interface offering easier theming (changing colours, backgrounds, icons), less usage of memory and processor power (my favourite is Zeam Launcher), or completely different user interface and functionality (such as SlideScreen).
Zeam Launcher's Homescreen
Slidescreen's Homescreen
For the last few days I have been using a new launcher that imitates the Windows Phone 7 operating system's user interface called Launcher 7. At launch, Windows Phone 7 was not customisable in any way by manufacturers as far as the user interface was concerned. It has a tiled, minimalistic but functional user interface. Launcher 7 is easy to download from the Android Market and install on your device. Once it is installed just hit the Home button and you are usually given an option to choose which launcher to use: the one that was in use up until now or Launcher 7.
Launcher 7 Homescreen

Launcher 7 Application Drawer
I enjoy the sense of humor of the author of this launcher because he has replaced icons on tiles such as the Internet Explorer one with a Google Chrome one, and the Windows Marketplace with the Android Market. Launcher 7 is extremely functional (as is the UI of Windows Phone 7), and runs very, very smoothly on my HTC Desire. It does get easier to operate once you are used to it, and it is fun to confuse other phone geeks with by making them think you are running Windows Phone 7 on your Android device.

There are a large number of settings that are personalisable, such as adding tiles, changing the tiles colours and how icons appear on the tiles. You can also choose to hide the Android status bar to have a full screen experience.
Launcher 7 Settings Menu
Launcher 7 is available to download from the Android Market, and is fun to play around with. Try it out and see how you like it. You may decide to stick with it, or maybe even change your mobile device for a Windows Phone 7 one... I'm definitely not going to do that unless someone gives me one for free! (wink, wink, nudge, nudge Nokia!)


Feel free to post comments/questions!

Blogging On The Move

I'm on my way to an appointment using public transport.

Using one of my older Android devices to post the entry using the Blogger app, I just want to point out how good the Nokia 5230 is as a portable media player.

The music player is fantastic. I'm listening to an episode of This Week in Tech (TWiT) which is quite long (2 hrs). Pausing, resuming and scrolling through the content is really easy. It's much easier than it is on my Android devices' media player software.

Just sayin'!


Todoleo Tech Blog App

I have just submitted my first application for approval!


Some of you may expect me to have prepared an Android application, a Linux one or maybe even a WebOS one. If you know me, you can remain certain that the application was definitely not for Apple's iOS, but strangely it was for the Nokia Ovi Store. That's right, the Nokia Ovi Store!




I've submitted an application called Todoleo Tech Blog. Users of the application will be able to keep up to date with this blog on their Nokia handsets.


Please keep your fingers crossed for me, I'm hoping to have the Todoleo Tech Blog application approved by the end of the week.