Viewty LG KU990 - Better than the iPhone?
11 November 2007
With all the hype of the current release of the Apple iPhone you would be forgiven for not being familiar with LG's latest offering, the LG KU990 Viewty. As with the iPhone handset the Viewty allows you to navigate its menus and features with the touch of a finger. But LG have added a few features to the Viewty that the iPhone is sorely missing. Could this touch screen technology underdog really be better than the iPhone?
The LG KU990 Viewty is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera including a xenon flash and auto focus which puts Apple iPhone’s 2-megapixal offering to shame. The camera can also be switched to capture high speed motion footage and includes a unique feature that allows you to watch the video replay in slow motion. Combine this with the option to automatically upload to YouTube and you can plainly see why the Viewty is genuine competition for the iPhone.
The Viewty allows you to browse the Internet through a fast GPRS or 3G Internet connection with an innovative web browser that allows you to zoom in on areas of web pages and then use your finger to drag the page across the screen. This function is useful as the handset screen is small and trying to read a full webpage without the zoom would be almost impossible. Surprisingly the Viewty is missing a Wi-Fi option, a feature which has become very popular and almost a ‘must have’ on new mobile phones as Internet browsing becomes more popular.
The onboard 170MB memory is generous but the microSD memory can only be expanded to 2GB which is really poor when you consider that the Viewty is going to be used for capturing high quality photographs and video. In comparison with the iPhone’s standard 8GB the Viewty falls short by a long way.
The onscreen buttons and menus are easy to navigate and the photo gallery neatly allows you to drag and drop photos as if you were shuffling through a bunch of photographs laid out on a table. As with the iPhone there are some traditional buttons located under the screen that allow you to quickly answer calls or direct you to the main menu. There is also a selection of buttons on the side of the handset which allow easy use of the camera options.
At 103.5 x 54.4 x 14.8 mm the Viewty handset is smaller than the iPhone but slightly thicker. The battery life is good for a regular phone but with the other technologies included it will be necessary to regularly recharge especially if you have set the phone to vibrate each time you select a button on the touch screen.
In conclusion the Viewty is not just a clone of the iPhone. Yes the iPhone will be a lot more popular and will sell many more units due to a frantic advertising campaign and brand awareness. Yes the iPhone does look beautiful and operate a lot slicker than the Viewty. Yes the Viewty is missing Wi-Fi, but there are a few features that will help the Viewty compete with the iPhone. It has a far superior camera which includes video capture, the Viewty is open to networks other than O2 and the handset costs are likely to be significantly less than the Apple iPhone. The Viewty is kind of like the footballer playing for a small team who scores a spectacular goal but is overshadowed in the media by the big team player’s strike.
3 Mobile Launch Skypephone
01 November 2007
3 Mobile have teamed up with Skype to offer free calls across the Internet using their new Skypephone. The Skype network has, within a very short space of time, become hugely popular for making free Internet calls through handsets that are attached to your PC and has built up a large customer base that recently prompted a buyout by eBay. If popular, this brave step by 3 could induce the end of pay as you talk tariffs and push other mobile phone networks into action to try and offer similar competitive deals.
The new Skypephone from 3 has all the functionality you would expect from a modern day mobile phone including 3G, a 2-megapixel camera, mp3 player, mobile TV and internet plus the handset looks stylish and comes in either black or white with pink or blue trims. The Skypephone includes 16MB internal memory and comes with a 256MB micro SD memory card which is also expandable up to 1GB. The large Skype button in the center of the handset allows for quick and easy access to the Skype menu where you can simply make a free call or write a text message to people within your friends list.
The biggest challenge for the 3 Skypephone is encouraging people who are not already signed up with Skype, or whose friends are not members of Skype, to buy the phone. If this hurdle can be cleared then it could create a domino effect which would push all other mobile phone networks to provide a similar service and may make Skype a major player in the world of telecommunications. Once you are signed up to Skype you will not only be able to call people using the 3 Skypephone but also talk to friends connected to Skype through their PC.
3 Mobile offer the Skypephone on either pay as you go or monthly contract deals. The payg deal currently costs £49.99 for the Skypephone handset and requires you to top up your phone with at least £10 credit for standard voice calls and texts. The contract deals start from £12 per month with a minimum tie-in of 18 months.
The Skype deal from 3 is also available with other compatible mobile phones such as the Nokia N95 or the Sony Ericsson W910i which makes the offer a lot more flexible and doesn’t tie customers to a single handset. For none 3 Mobile customers Skype is also compatible with mobile phones that run the Windows Mobile operating system, plus it is possible to connect to Skype using Fring (a third party mobile VoIP application) through a mobile phone with the Symbian operating system.
This fantastic offer could help encourage a reduction in prices of mobile phone calls and it is likely that other mobile phone networks will be keeping a close eye on how the collaboration develops. Flexibility is the key and by allowing customers to choose whether they make calls through Skype or through normal network services, the Skypephone should be a huge success.
Apple iPhone to Launch in the UK
30 October 2007
Excitement is building with just over a week to wait until the launch of the Apple iPhone in the UK. O2 have signed a deal with Apple which guarantees the network exclusive rights to provide contract deals for the iPhone and will surely produce a huge surge in customers. Other retailers such as The Carphone Warehouse are already providing customers with a preview of the handset price and O2 tariff options.
The Apple iPhone looks fantastic. If fact it looks and works so good that Apple has decided to base future iPod designs on the iPhone. The touch screen interface is revolutionary in the world of mobile phones. Although it has been done before on other mobile phones and PDA’s, it has never been quite in the same style or manner that the iPhone offers. The Apple iPhone brings all the capabilities you would expect from a top of the range iPod including music and video, a 3.5-inch widescreen display, an 8GB flash drive and allows you to connect to your iTunes library. The battery life is far better than a normal mobile phone and allows up to 8 hours talk time. WiFi and GPRS connectivity allow for fast email and Internet browsing within the simple and easy to use Safari browser.
But the Apple iPhone is more about the experience. Apple has spent a lot of time getting their user interface just right and the result is sublime. For starters the iPhone automatically recognises whether you are holding and viewing the phone horizontally or vertically and adjusts the screen accordingly. The touch screen does not only respond to simple button touches but also to finger movements. For example to scroll through your contacts or play lists you simply slide your finger across the screen and the iPhone responds as a computer software program would when you use the scroll bar. There are also certain finger actions which allow you to zoom in and out when viewing web pages or photos. Even the keypad lock is operated by sliding your finger across the phone to prevent you from mistakingly using the iPhone’s touch screen buttons. There is one single traditional button at the bottom of the iPhone which allows you to quickly return to the main menu.
The Apple iPhone only includes a 2 megapixel camera which is far behind the current technology supplied through other mobile phone manufacturers. Surprisingly there is no option to capture video through the iPhone camera which, when you consider that Apple products focus a lot on allowing users to watch video, seems very peculiar. This gives you the feeling that the camera was a last minute add-on and was not entirely thought through properly.
The iPhone breaks the mold and has created a huge jump in mobile phone user interface displays which other mobile phone manufacturers must be scurrying around to try and catch up with Apple. Although there are currently some other fantastic phones on the market, such as the Nokia N95 which offers greater technology, the Apple iPhone is about to become the best selling mobile phone of the year, partly though the hype it has received but mainly because it is such a fantastic revolutionary product.
Google Mail For Mobile Phones
28 October 2007
With the introduction of fast Internet connections for the majority of new mobile phones (either through 3G networks or wireless LANs) application providers such as Google are working hard to develop mobile versions of their current online offerings.
Google Mail has recently been released to allow users to connect and read their email wherever and whenever. Many people already have a Google user account set up which not only allows you to access email on the Internet but will allow you access to applications such as Adwords, Analytics, Webmaster Tools and much more. This Google user account can now be used to log in to you email through your mobile phone.
As usual Google keeps it simple. There is a single fast application download which will install Google Mail on your mobile phone and adds a launch icon to a relevant location within your mobile phone menu. As soon as you launch the application you are taken instantly to your email Inbox which displays all your latest emails. By clicking on one of the emails in the list you open the email in your mobile window which you can then read by using the scroll button. There is a menu which gives you all your options such as reply, delete, archive and everything you would expect from an email client. You can also use this menu to navigate to other folders such as starred or sent items. The compose window is again simple and clear. You are offered a ‘To’ text box which allows you to enter a recipient or search through your contacts. All you have to do then is add a subject title, write your email in the area provided and then use the actions menu to send. Links within emails are preserved and this allows you to click through to websites and view them in you mobile phones web browser.
One thing that the mobile version of Google Mail does currently not allow you to do is create your own folders for storing emails, though it does display the starred folder and folders you may have created within the original online version. Images are stripped out of the emails to allow them to fit within your mobile phone window and a general problem with mobile phone emailing and web browsing is that it is still a lot slower typing using a mobile keyboard compared to a normal PC.
All in all it looks like Google have done it again. They have taken something that everyone else tries to overcomplicate by adding all fancy features and have kept it simple. The interface takes what is necessary and presents the email client in a clinical user friendly manner. Web mail has become a lot more popular in recent times with the introduction of unlimited server space, the development of this and other mobile email clients will only further enhance the usability and popularity of these applications. Rivals Yahoo! should take a leaf out of Googles book and stop trying to pack everything into a single application. What’s relevant to one person is not always relevant to another, not everyone wants news, maps or to search the Internet via their mobile. Yahoo! packs all these into their mobile phone email application and overcomplicates the user interface slowing down email access time.
Google mail gets a big thumbs up and we highly recommend (if you have not already) creating a Google user account and downloading this application for your mobile phone so that you too can access your email on the move.
