Popcorn Hour A-200

A while back, I bought a Popcorn Hour C-200, which is a very fancy (and big) media player.

Fast forward to a new house, another TV (32" Sony BX300), and a requirement for another media player. My desired device was the Popcorn Hour A-200, and first contact with the local agents was that the device would be R4500! That was a bit steep, so I decided to go buy a Mede8er, which is actually a cool device; its better than the Popcorn Hour in that the interface is cleaner / easier to use, the preview features are awesome (compared to the lack thereof on the PCH), and the device is nice and small.

Unfortunately, it irritated my wife to no end that the user interface was different, and there was a different mechanism to view the same content as the C-200. It also didn't help that it suffered to playback some really good quality large MKV's across a gigabit network. I phoned the local agents again, and discover they had made a mistake with the price of the device, and it would only be R2100, which is what was paid for the Mede8er; I promptly sold the old device and bought the new one.

There isn't much to say, other than it does the same job as its bigger brother, in a much smaller form factor. And the wife is happy too :-)

 

PS

 

My home network is a gigabit Ethernet network, with Apple Airport Extreme base stations for local access, and wired access to a MacBook Pro which has a Drobo connected to it via Firewire 800 for storage. A desktop PC running pfsense protects the environment. It works quite well.

 

PPS

 

The new TV (46" Sony EX700) is being installed tomorrow. Watch this space for a review!

Android 2.1

Given my unhappiness with Android 2.01, I was surprised at how boring the upgrade would be. I connected about 3 weeks back (on a Windows machine), did the 2.1 upgrade, and realised not much had changed.

Oh well, it seemed pretty important at the time. Now, not so sure. It does bring a lot of stability to the device, at the cost of the occasional reboot. Progress!

Android 2.01

After voicing my irritation, I upgraded to Android 2.0.1, which is essentially a set of bug fixes for Android 2.0. Hooray. Only 2 months after the Droid.

I have also used market-enabler after rooting my device to make it more useful and let me see all the apps - paid and otherwise.

Now there is the news that the bootloader is signed; this means no custom firmware; sigh. This made the press.

In the mean time, its been announced that the Droid will be updated to Android 2.1, albeit with unconfirmed details. Its amazing how badly an old-school manufacturer gets it so wrong so consistently.

Should have bought a Nexus One.

Motorola is usless, but Google is downright naughty

Maybe Motorola should have shut down its mobile division.

While it has produced some great Android devices, tech support for them outside the US has been non-existant. While US consumers have the Droid, EU customers have the Milestone; one is CDMA-based, the other GSM-based, but the insides are technically the same.

But, US consumers have a device running 2.01, and us EU customers have 2.0 ? Shades of Nokia, Motorola. Shame on you! Customers love the hardware, but not the rubbish software support. And going to a stupid Facebook page for updates is extremely poor.

And in addition, Google, you are naughty, naughty, naughty. You forced me to root my phone in order to install market-enabler, which allows me to buy apps from anywhere on the market. So I got the main app I was looking for.

Annoying!

Motorola Milestone

Motorola released a device called the Droid, exclusive to Verizon Wireless in the US. A short while later, they announced the Milestone, a non-Verizon-locked phone.

I ordered one, and have been playing around with it for a week (not long, but long enough).

So, some thoughts.

1. The initial thought is that all smart phones will come this way
   
   • the day of the monolithic phone OS and majority built-in apps is over
   • the phone OS will do very little, but will provide a platform
   • your functionality will come from apps that you download (free or paid)
   • your phone stability might be compromised, as could your information depending on the trust worthiness of the app provider
2. Its not better than my Nokia E75 in many respects, but there is the promise and hope of improvement in the very active Android Market, which is teeming with tons of apps (both rubbish and useful)
   
   • It doesn't allow you send/receive business cards via SMS or e-mail
   • You can't send a file to it via Bluetooth (or receive one)
   • You can't change the sort order from First Name, Last Name for contacts
   • You can't adjust the sync frequency for syncing to the various Google services (e.g. Contacts, Calendar, Mail) and corporate services other than, at most, 1 hour. Weekday/weekend, 4 hour and other options would be nice.
   • Battery life is just as rubbish - 1.5 days, maximum
     
     • But not bad considering its a much bigger screen
   • etc, etc
3. Its fast, and the on-screen keyboard isn't bad - I haven't yet had to resort to the physical keyboard
4. The IMAP and corporate syncing (read Exchange) support is superlative
5. It multi-tasks!
6. Android OS is still immature, and rough around the edges - that's why a manufacturer like HTC spends time and money developing their own UI

All points to a device that requires some polish, both from an OS and app provider perspective. Sounds positive! So what are the negatives ?

1. Come on Motorola, where is Android 2.1 ? Its been out now for at least a week, and this Milestone of mine is still running 2.0. Hell, I'd even be happy with 2.01
2. Come on Google, I thought you were all about "not doing evil" ? Why can I not buy paid applications from the Android Market ? Its only available in some countries.
   
   • There is a way to get around this; use market-enabler, which requires you to hack your phone, which I can't do yet because the phone is still so relatively new

Overall, I'm happy with the device. Should I have waited for the Nexus One ? Nah, I like a keyboard on my devices. I'll pass.

Lets hope Motorola and Google get their act together.

Blackberry Bold 9000

In a previous post, I spoke about how I was irritated by my phone device (Nokia E75), and was going to try out a Blackberry Bold 9000.

Well, I tried it. And I have been trying it since mid-December. And, I have to say, I get it. I get the whole Blackberry phenomenon. It does e-mail really, really well. Its simple to use, and has a decent superficial skin. Poke a bit deeper though, and you quickly hit the smartphone equivalent of a DOS prompt; long linear lists of text, with obscure configuration options with no decent help.

I have activated it using my employer's BES server, and thankfully, they haven't gone down the whole "lets lock everything down" route; its relatively untouched and was actually quite a slick process. There are some issues overall though.

• there is no way to switch off e-mail syncing - ever
• the battery lasts about 1.5 days if you're a light phone user, a day if you're a moderate user and not a minute longer
• if you use a BES, you are forced to browse and access the Internet through your corporate's network
• your device experience is only as good as your IT department's competence
• the default "blink red for every e-mail" notification is annoying, and should be disabled

My summary; I've put the equivalent of a pay-as-you-use card into the device, and will continue to use it as a "work" device. It fulfills this role perfectly, and if I ever go overseas, I know I'll use this device a lot because of the unlimited data plan. But as the overall personal/work device, this isn't there yet.

Mobile phone talk

As you might remember, a while ago I bought a Nokia E75.

In summary, its a rubbish device. It irritates me to no end, in spite of re-flashing it to not be a Vodacom-branded device. I updated firmware to 201.12.01, but this promised firmware update that solves all evils still doesn't fundamentally solve the major gripes; bad build quality, lethargic responsiveness and frequent "pauses".

Enough is enough.

So what I've decided to do is to go with the dreaded "two phone" model. I've gotten a Blackberry Bold 9000 to play with, and if I like it, I'll buy the updated 9700. This device will be used as the primary calling and e-mail device; something that Blackberry is apparently excellent at.

But its boring. And I (probably) won't learn anything. So I've also ordered a Motorola Milestone, otherwise known as the Droid in the US market. It looks hot!

• Runs Android
• Made by an old-school phone manufacturer who can't fail
• Has a keyboard
• Has a very cool multimedia docking station
• Is relatively cheap in ZA from Expansys

I know, two phones is dorky. But lets see how it goes. Anything beats my E75.