HTC Titan II Review

HTC Titan II

The HTC Titan II has already gone through the Fly or Die ringer, but the real determining factor for these phones is the level of competition surrounding them. In the case of the Titan II, the HTC/Microsoft partnership is most threatened by more HTC and Windows-powered phones, namely the Lumia 900 and the HTC One X.

So what do these phones have that the Titan lacks? How does the Titan wipe up the floor with them?

Well, that’s why I’m here, and why we’ve made this lovely graphic for you.

Truth be told, specs really don’t matter anymore, especially specs like processor clock speed and (I’m sorry to say it) megapixel count on cameras. What really matters is your preferred operating system, display size/resolution, and comfort with design.

When weighing these three phones against each other, the similarities are abundant, as are the subtle differences. For example, the Lumia 900 will net you $100 less than either of the other two phones. At the same time, it’s a touch smaller than the Titan and the One X, and if you prefer HTC hardware to Nokia’s then that doesn’t really matter.

I happen to be a pretty huge fan of the Lumia 900 simply because Windows Phone can pull off its stupid 480×800 resolution requirement on a 4.3-inch screen much better than it can on the Titan’s 4.7-inch display. Past that, the phones are quite similar. The Lumia feels a bit more premium in the hand, yet HTC does an excellent job of making even their plastic phones feel high-end.

If Windows Phone is your flavor, this is definitely a tough call. Good luck.

If it’s HTC that tickles your fancy, it all comes down to the OS. Do you prefer Sense 4 on top of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, or would you prefer to play with Microsoft. The One X specs slap down the Titan II like Daniel LaRusso at the beginning of The Karate Kid, but as I mentioned earlier, specs matter less and less these days. Where you’ll really win with the One X is the 4.7-inch 720p display. If you can tote it around comfortably, it really doesn’t get much better than that.

The ball is in your court, my dear readers. Choose wisely.

Macintosh iPhone Case

iPhone cases available in subway stations, convenience stores, and probably in those claw games where you try and pick up the stuffed animals, there would really have to be something cool about one for me to want to post it.

Ok, maybe this one will only seem entertaining for the amount of time it will take me to finish this, click a few category boxes, enter a few “tags” and hit submit, but dammit I’m going to revel in these next 5-7 minutes. The Retro iPhone case reminds us gen X-ers where the whole Apple craze started, giving it that old school look that has become oh so ironic in this day and age, while teaching the 25 and under crowd that they’ll never be true OG’s like us old people. The case takes on the 1987 Mac look, complete with Rainbow logo, ADB, SCSI and stereo earphone ports. Like most licensed Apple products things associated with Apple, this case carries a pricetag that could probably be lower, but if you have a bit of an infatuation with the most mobile of all your Apple products like I do, (*ducks* ) then you’ll buy it anything that makes it look cooler, even if it’s only to you. Compatible with the 4 and 4s, you can grab one of these here for $44.95 plus shipping and handling. PS- I still think it’s cool right now.

“NEW” HTC EVO 4G LTE

The original HTC Evo 4G had a 4.3-inch screen, which would need a kickstand for support. Now the kickstand is coming back for the HTC Evo One 4G LTE on Sprint, which will have a 4.7-inch display.

The Evo was the fastest selling device when it was released. The past versions of the Evo brought 3D display capabilities and a 4G connection to Sprint customers before other carries. The HTC Evo One will be available for presale on May 7th for a price of $199.

The Evo One screen has 720p resolution, Android 4.0.3, and the HTC Sense 4.0 interface. It also has a rear 8-megapixel camera with an f/2.0 lens, front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera, and Beats by Dre audio.

The phone also has HD Voice, which has multiple microphones and software to cut out background noise.

The phone will run on Sprint’s upcoming LTE 4G network, which will launch in the middle of the year in 6 markets…Atlanta, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Kansas City and Baltimore.

So if you’re one of the first to buy this phone and you live outside those areas, your HTC Evo 4G LTE will be stuck using a slower 3G network until Sprint finishes building out the network elsewhere.

Instagram for Android is now available

After 18 months as an iPhone exclusive, photo-sharing app Instagram arrived for AndroidTuesday. Instagram allows you to take photos, apply a variety of filters, and easily share your work to many different places, including Instagram’s own home-built social network.

I’m a frequent—okay, obsessive—user of Instagram on my iPhone, so I was curious to see how the Android version measured up.

I downloaded the Instagram for Android app from Google Play onto the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) and the Samsung Galaxy Blaze 4G (running Android 2.3 Gingerbread) and gave it a spin on both phones.

First things first: This app took up nearly 17MB of space on my Galaxy Nexus, so if your phone is running short of storage space, be aware. Also, before you get too excited, check to see what version of Android you’re running. If it’s below 2.2, you won’t be able to use Instagram–and you should probably check to see if there’s an update available for your phone!

Once I logged into the Instagram account I use on my iPhone, I felt right at home using Instagram for Android. The same feed I see on my iPhone was right there on my Galaxy Nexus, complete with all my friends’ most recent photos featuring Instagram’s well-known image filters.

Fragmentation Bites

The process of capturing, editing, and sharing a photo in Instagram for Android isn’t always what it’s like on the iPhone. On the Galaxy Nexus, things were pretty similar, though: Clicking the Camera/Share button in the center of the Android app’s toolbar brought me directly to a picture-taking screen. Just as on my iPhone, I had the option to either view the existing gallery of photos on my phone (represented on Android by a box with a mountain in it, rather than the interlocking squares on the iOS app). I also had the option to switch to the front-facing camera, turn the flash on or off, or cancel out of camera mode entirely.

But the camera mode experience on the Galaxy Blaze 4G didn’t match up to what I experienced on the Galaxy Nexus. Yes, this is Android fragmentation at its finest! On the Galaxy Blaze 4G, when I tried to take a photo, a dialog box asked me to pick a source: Camera or Photo Gallery. When I picked Camera, I was switched to the Galaxy Blaze’s native photo app. That familiar Instagram camera interface I’ve come to know and love was gone.

You can tweak these settings to force the app to take pictures itself by going to the app’s settings on the homescreen. This only seems to work on certain phones, however. On the LG Marquee, the app crashed when I tried to open the Instagram camera. Instead, I had to take my photo in the native camera app and crop it, and only then was I switched back to the Instagram user interface.

Then again, maybe it doesn’t matter much where you shoot your Instagram photos on Android right now. That’s because, unfortunately, Instagram app for Android is missing a feature recently added to the iOS app: The ability to view a live preview of a filter before you shoot. You can still add one after you shoot, but I’ve gotten used to being able to mess around with filters before I take my shot.

Also missing from the Android app is the Tilt Shift/Blur feature, which lets you selectively blur out certain areas of your photos. This function is really cool, as you can fake a shallow depth of field in your photos or blur out the background of your photo to focus on a single object.

Familiar Effects

After you take your photo, the options are pretty much what iOS users have come to expect: Instagram gives you access to a series of image filters that let you stylize your photo. You can add or remove a frame that’s added to your image by some of the filters, and you can rotate or brighten your image. The filters are almost identical to the iOS version, though I noticed one funny difference: There’s an X-pro II filter on the iPhone and an X-Pro filter on Android. The Android filter looked a little darker.

Once you’ve applied an effect, you can share your photo from your Android phone to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Foursquare. You can share to all these networks on the iOS version, but additionally to Flickr, Posterous, or via e-mail. And given that this is Android, I would have also loved to see some Google+ integration here.

Viewing the feed containing your friends’ photos is basically the same on both platforms. You have the option to Like a photo, comment on it, share it, or delete it. When you click Share on the Android app, you have the option to share it via Bluetooth, Gmail, Message, and—hey, look at that, now you can share it to Google+.

It is worth mentioning that quite a few photography apps are available for Android that offer more filters and better effects than Instagram, including Camera360 and MagicHour. Instagram also isn’t the first photo-sharing site for Android. The Lightbox photo community has been around for a few years and was specifically designed for the Android platform by a former Google employee. And I like its interface for Android better than Instagram, though the user community is a lot smaller.

Even so, it is exciting to see a longstanding iOS-only app finally make its way to Android. Instagram on Android is faithful to the original iOS version, but the company really needs to work on improving the consistency across various Android phones. It’s no good to have an app behave differently on different phones with the same operating system…but, then, that may say more about Android than about Instagram.

Fragmentation aside, I hope that Instagram will bring the Tilt Shift/Blur and live filter preview features to Android in a later update. Both features are a joy to use on iOS, and Android users deserve to have them, too.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus available in the U.S.

It took a while but it’s finally here. The highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be available in the U.S. starting TODAY (Thursday).

The smartphone — the first device to run Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system — will be sold at Verizon for $299.99 with a new two-year customer agreement. It will run on Verizon’s 4G LTE network.

Here are some of the phone’s highlights:

– Redesigned user interface: Software navigation buttons, a first for Android smartphones, and a dedicated recent apps button to make multitasking easy.

– Face unlock: Use state-of-the-art facial recognition to unlock the Galaxy Nexus.

– Android Beam: Share Web pages, apps, contacts and YouTube videos with friends by tapping two compatible phones together.

– Redesigned camera: Introduces panorama mode, 1080p video capture, zero-shutter lag for instant photo capturing and effects such as silly faces and background replacement.

– People application: Browse friends, family and co-workers, see their photos in high-resolution and check their latest status updates from Google+ and other social networks.

– Cloud services: Keep email, contacts, photos, music, browser bookmarks and other data synced to the cloud, available across multiple devices so customers never lose important data.

– Google Music: Upload up to 20,000 songs to the cloud and stream it instantly on Galaxy Nexus and from the Web for free.

If you want the phone you will have to get Verizon Wireless’ Nationwide Talk plans beginning at $39.99 monthly and a smartphone data package starting at $30 monthly for 2 GB of data.

You want it?

LG Nitro HD Review

 

To start, I want to say that this isn’t an awful phone and I want to applaud the fact that I think LG is moving in the right direction in terms of design. However, the LG Nitro HD simply isn’t the fastest, nor is it the most visually appealing phone on the market. LG made about as many good design choices as it did poor ones, in my opinion, and the software just doesn’t do anything to help it out.

The real shining star here is AT&T’s 4G LTE network, and unfortunately I’ve only been able to access that for a few minutes. That said, it seems to be rock solid showing download speeds between 17 and 20 megabits per second. Then again, there are only so many people playing on that network right now so it’s hard to make judgements.

Hardware:

The Nitro HD hardware shines in a few select spaces: the screen, the shape, and the textured back panel. Obviously the 4.5-inch 720p display can be considered the left cheek of this phone’s moneymaker (LTE being the right), and it does a good job at living up to the hype. We’re seeing great real-life color reproduction, and little to no differentiation between pixels.

The shape of the phone feels great in the hand, and this coming from someone who prefers boxier builds like the Droid RAZR. It has rounded corners and a flat face and back, which makes such a large phone a tad easier to grip. The top edge the phone has squared edges, and then curves off around the sides and on the bottom. It’s 10.4mm thick, which is the exact midway point between the HTC Rezound and the Droid RAZR. Not thick, but not anorexic by any means.

Then there’s the back panel. LG seems insistent on building plastic phones, which tend to feel a bit cheaper and less sturdy than phones made of metal. That said, the textured finish along the backside of the Nitro HD definitely makes the phone feel more solid and high-end than it actually is. Unfortunately, the majority of the phone, including that back panel, doesn’t take prints well at all.

But for all the good, there’s plenty of bad. The micro-USB port along the top has a plastic covering which will no doubt break off at some point. Plus, I’m not all that fond of placing a micro-USB port square in the middle of the top or bottom of a phone, as it makes it hard to do anything in landscape when the phone’s plugged in.

I’m also not all that thrilled with this strip of grey plastic connecting the black bezel to the rest of the phone. It simply works against all the work that textured back panel did to make this phone feel more high-end. In terms of sturdiness, I’m not all that convinced that the Nitro HD has the most solid build quality either.

It creaks quite a bit when stressed, and if you put any pressure on the back panel you can feel it move around a bit, like it’s not securely latched on.

Software:

When speaking on software I must first do some back-peddling when it comes to earlier statements. I do, in fact, have some complaints when it comes to software performance on the Nitro HD. I didn’t notice when doing preliminary tasks just how much Android lags and stutters when switching between home screens and scrolling. Web surfing wasn’t any better, with the entire screen freezing up and then jumping into position during any form of pinch-to-zoom.

LG’s Optimus overlay isn’t all that bad, to my surprise. The weather and social networking integration baked right into the UI are actually quite pleasant and seem to function quite well. The UI itself isn’t terribly obtrusive, but I fear that it may be contributing to the annoying lag I’m steadily growing impatient with.

You’ll find a handful of AT&T bloatware-style apps, along with Amazon Kindle, Qik Lite, MOG Music and Zynga Poker HD pre-loaded.

Camera:

I’m actually pretty enthusiastic about the Nitro’s 8-megapixel camera. While it is a test in patience getting from home screen to snapped picture, the end product is exactly what you hoped it’d be. We saw really clear color reproduction, though the pictures do stray into greenish/greyish territory when using flash in low-light situations.

The video capture capabilities performed well, too. It normally takes a second for a mobile camcorder to adjust from a sunny scene to indoors, but the Nitro HD’s camera did it quite quickly.

Performance/Battery Life:

To start I have to say that the speaker (lower-right portion of the back panel) on this phone is pretty underwhelming. Watching YouTube videos and talking on speakerphone was a struggle. Even with the volume all the way up, it makes you wonder what the point of a 4.5-inch HD screen is when you’re constantly holding the phone up to your ear.

When you can hear it, watching video on the screen is a joy, as is playing games. The same lag that plagues the OS in general — from multi-tasking to opening/closing apps — doesn’t seem to be present during gaming or video playback. A nice change of pace.

I’m also impressed with the battery life on the Nitro HD. I got a solid eight hours out of it (around five hours of setup, browsing, talking on the phone, gaming, taking pictures and watching video; the rest was standby). This may not sound like enough, but the truth is that most 4G LTE-capable phones suck wind in the battery department and eight hours is saying a lot. It’s also worth noting that I had the screen brightness turned all the way up.

Conclusion:

The Nitro HD is like a box of chocolates, you don’t know what you’re going to get. While watching video and playing games was a great experience, doing simple things like browsing the web or scrolling through the phone book was tedious. Some design choices (like that micro-USB mess) we could’ve done without, while others (like that back panel) are a great step in the right direction for LG.

At $249 on a two-year contract, I’d say a lot is riding on whether or not you live in one of AT&T’s LTE markets and just how well AT&T’s LTE network performs. So far, things are looking pretty good on that front so I’d suggest doing a little research on whether you’re covered and perhaps picking up a Nitro HD (or a Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket or HTC Vivid) and seeing how you feel about AT&T’s new network.

BookBook for iPhone

Twelve South BookBook for iPhone 4/4S

We’ve all been there – arriving at work with a spring in our step, only to discover we’ve completely forgotten to wear anything below the waist. Nightmare! Come to think of it, that was just a nightmare… but it’s all too easy to leave your house in a morning and forget your important stuff. Thankfully, at least when it comes to remembering your wallet and mobile phone, life just got a little bit easier.

The BookBook for iPhone is a genuine leather case that not only protects your iPhone, but serves as a wallet too. With sections for credit cards, a clear window for your photo ID, and space to hold notes it has everything you need when you’re out and about.

Your iPhone slots snugly into the specially-designed pouch, with the BookBook’s oversized hardback covers protecting it on both sides. Thanks to this classic design, all of your iPhone’s essential ports remain accessible. So you can use all of the iPhone’s functions and discreetly listen to your music with earphones.

True to its name; when closed, the discreet case looks like a leather pocketbook – easy for would-be thieves to overlook and harking back to the days when we’d carry something similar for telephone numbers, addresses, notes and birthday reminders. Ah, how times change! Or not, as the case may be.

With the classic looks of a well-thumbed tome and the functionality of a wallet and iPhone case combined; the BookBook is essential for those of us prone to leaving our lives in our other trousers. Now all you have to remember are your keys.

Nokia Lumia 710

The Nokia Lumia 800 might be the flagship Windows Phone handset for Nokia when it rolls out, but if you are on a tight budget and want to give Windows Phone a chance and yet do not know where to start, who do you turn to? Some say that you need not look elsewhere, as Nokia also has a more affordable model for those curious about Windows Phone, where Nokia World 2011 saw the announcement of the Nokia Lumia 710.

The Nokia Lumia 710 takes on a more youthful appearance, where it has the ability to exchange back covers in different colors to suit your mood and fashion sense for that particular day – bringing back memories of those Xpress On covers in the past. Well, enough about history – the Nokia Lumia 710 is clearly future forward in terms of software, which we will cover in greater detail after the jump.

 

Too bad it comes only in black and white colors, but at least the back covers have a far wider range to choose from – black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow. In front lies a 3.7″ display at 800 x 480 pixel resolution with a ClearBlack TFT which is touted to deliver great looking colors as well as readability in bright sunlight. When you flip the Lumia 710 over like a burger patty, you will find a 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with an LED flash that also does HD video recording at 30 frames-per-second.

Since nearly everyone and their dog has a social network these days, you will find the Nokia Lumia 710 accommodating in this aspect, boasting full integration of Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In, letting you share your freshly snapped photos with but a couple of taps on the screen. Internet Explorer 9 will be the mobile browser of choice, where it will also play nice with a gamut of modern HTML5 web apps.

Opening up the Lumia 710′s chassis will reveal the same 1.4GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor that is found on the Nokia Lumia 800, accompanied by 8GB of internal memory and 512MB RAM. Connectivity options include quadband radio reception, 3G up to HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Expect the Nokia Lumia 710 to hit Europe first for around $270, followed by other parts of the world later in the year and early 2012.

Press Release

Amazon’s Appstore for Android

Amazon has opened the Appstore for Android, providing another option for app shopping to U.S. users of smartphones with Google’s operating system.

Amazon is trying to lure users away from Google’s Market by offering users a free paid app every day. The first such application is Angry Birds Rio, which usually costs US$0.99, and is an exclusive for Android users via Amazon’s store. Users can also test applications with a feature called “Test Drive,” which runs applications on a simulated smartphone.

Amazon will also have an approval process for applications submitted to its store. The company will be testing apps to verify that they work as outlined in the product description and to make sure hat they don’t impair the functionality of the smartphone or put customer data at risk once installed.

In many ways Amazon’s Appstore for Android works in the same way as the rest of its store. Users can view app recommendations based on past purchases from Amazon and pay in the same way as if they were buying a book. Applications can be purchased from a computer, a smartphone or a tablet.

At about 1:30 p.m. Central European Time on Tuesday, the top five paid applications were Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, Fruit Ninja and Shazam Encore. The top five free apps were ZombieBooth, Angry Birds Seasons Free, Angry Birds Free, Amazon Mobile and Paper Toss.

Amazon has been trying to attract developers for some time. In January, the company launched a portal where developers can submit applications.

The app store is available to users in the U.S., excluding AT&T subscribers. However, AT&T is working to change that, and users can sign up at a website to be notified when the operator has finalized its plan, it said.

Amazon’s use of the name Appstore hasn’t gone unnoticed by Apple. On Friday, it sued Amazon, claiming rights to the name App Store.

HTC Thunderbolt now available

We knew it was coming and yesterday we had word that “tomorrow,” was the day, which means today it is here. Verizon Wireless is now taking online orders for HTC’s 4.3-inch Thunderbolt. The price is $250 on a two-year contract.

The handset comes with Android 2.2 as the OS underlying HTC Sense 2.0 UI, an 8 megapixel camera with HD video recording, 768MB of RAM, and a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 chip. If Verizon’s price seems high, the Thunderbolt has been seen as low as $180 at Amazon, although they have it on back order right now.

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