See what I did there? Anyway, came across this pretty cool app in the Google Play Store called AutoRap by Smule – the makers of the “I am T-Pain” App from a while ago. Their quest is to equip sucker MCs from their bad habits by auto correcting their raps and putting it to music.
You can record yourself and share with your friends as well as change the beat to lyrics you just made. You can save all your raps locally on your device to peruse at your leisure. It’s definitely not a cure for bad rapping, but it is pretty fun with a group of people.
Had a little time with the phone and a few things jumped out at me.
First was the screen. It will have a 4.6 inch HD Reality Display (1280×720) which looks awesome. Everything looks crisp and bright. Second was it’s ability to dock with the Sony Smart Dock and display phone content via HD Cable to your High Def TV. If it’s a Sony TV you can even use the remote to control content which was pretty cool though I would have much rathered a wireless connection. Then was the Playstation Certification. This means genuine PlayStation titles can be played through the phone which is pretty cool. Was playing Modern Combat on the big screen and it rocked. Though I had a tough time enjoying the experience because I had to keep looking back to the phone to figure out what the heck I was doing. I think giving the phone the ability to simply become the controller once docked with the TV would be a much more elegant approach. The key Details are as follows:
Playstation Certification
16GB internal memory with the option to expand up to 32GB via microSD.
12MP Camera
4.6″ 720p HD Reality Display
1.5Ghz dual core processor
One serious downer was the fact that this phone will not ship with Ice Cream Sandwhich. It will get the upgrade eventually, but who knows when. If the ION is something that tickles your fancy it will be available on AT&T exclusively on the 24th for $100 bucks on a 2 year contract.
We got a chance to check out the Xperia PLAY 4G for the last few weeks and I’ve definitely got some opinions on the phone. Read further to find out what they are!
Likes:
Design
When looking at the phone, it honestly looks like a business device. The chrome and shiny back really look sleek. The 4″ screen doesn’t look over-sized and it’s not a device you would be ashamed to pull out on the train or around others. You really can’t tell that this device is meant for gaming until you slide out the game pad.
Software Tweaks
Sony has skinned Android Gingerbread (Ice Cream Sandwich’s predecessor) and overall its pretty nice. It’s mostly visual tweaks like widgets and the way you get around the app-tray. None of these tweaks are groundbreaking but they add some extra pizzazz.
Games
This is what you’re waiting for no doubt. I really like the fact that there are games specifically designed for this device. They also have great titles. I’ve been playing Sims for the last week. The graphics for playing games like Asphalt 6 were great and the phone rarely stuttered in those high-speed moments. This phone really takes you away from the lower quality games and makes you want to spend money investing in decent games because you can play them better with a direction pad, touch pad and physical buttons.
Dislikes:
Size
The look of the device is great, but it’s pretty heavy and the game pad really makes the device look thick. I totally understand that the space is needed for physical game buttons, but it really detracts from the beauty of the phone. If this phone could slim down, it would look a lot nicer.
Buttons
I’m really talking about the the Android buttons here. They are really thin and are situated in a sort of arc at the bottom of the phone which is kind of annoying. It’s really hard to hit any of them without looking since they are so close together and not linear. I also didn’t like the left and right bumper as well as the volume rocker all on the same side. It’s really cluttered on the right side and the left side is pretty much barren except for the micro USB slot and 3.5 mm jack. I really would have liked to see the bumpers a little smaller and perhaps doubling as the volume rocker when a game is not being played. Or maybe even one of them as a physical camera button when in camera mode. I definitely understand the need for the game buttons to only have in-game use, but they are just so big so you really can’t ignore them. so why not use them?
Touch Pad
The two touch pads are really neat, but I just can’t get used to them. The area is so small it’s difficult for me to really game effectively. However, it is more sensitive than the D-Pad I’ve found, but I’d rather have a more sensitive D – Pad in the end.
Summary:
I love the concept. It’s a phone that plays games. Well. It has a directional pad built in along with the other bells and whistles that come with a normal game controller. But it’s also a phone. This is awesome, and if you like to play games on your mobile device you should really consider this phone. However, I found that the phone and game portions of the device didn’t mesh as well as they could. You really can’t use the directional pad or touch pad anywhere other than in a game. For the rest of the time, half of your phone is unusable which I think is a real shame. I think Sony Ericson should have ditched balance and went with one of the characteristics. A gaming device that makes calls or a calling device that plays games with an emphasis on one or the other, but this phone seems to be balanced exactly 50/50 which I think hurts it a bit. But what do I know – check it out for yourself!
Got a chance to play with with the Samsung Infuse for ATT. Off the bat I was smitten with the beauty of the phone. I think I like where Samsung is going with their design direction. The phone is slim and sleek with a 4.5 inch screen. Read on for my impressions of the device.
Likes:
Form Factor
this phone is definitely not the biggest phone, but it is still up there among the big boys at 4.5″. At first glance it looks like only the manliest of men will be handling this phone. However, when you pick it up, its not heavy at all and its very thin. This gives the feeling that the phone is manageable for those of us with smaller hands. A few of my female coworkers remarked how well it fit in the hand.
The back cover of the device is still plastic, however, its sort of recessed in the back taking up very little space. The rest of the phone is solid. The speaker worked better than I thought which I attribute to the thin plastic back cover.
Battery Life
I played around with the phone for two days straight which, sorry to say, is unheard of for many Android devices. I kept gps, auto-sync, and wifi on. The brightness was about medium. I didn’t do a huge amount of calling but did do a bit of internet surfing and it performed well.
4G Goodness
Pulling up websites was pretty snappy with AT&T’s network. I had no major issues with it in NYC and found it to add positively to my experience with the phone. Videos came up quickly and was even able to video chat without wifi using Tango and Qik though it was a little choppy at times.
Dislikes:
OS
I am an Android fan, but Google updates so frequently that new phones feel obsolete in mere months. This phone is based on Android 2.2 (Froyo) which is already behind Android 2.3 (gingerbread). Since Samsung skinned it with their touch flo UI, Infuse users may have to wait a bit until the phone OS is upgraded. This can be a pain when you have a lot of power under the hood but have to wait a bit for the latest and greatest.
Screen Resolution
The 4.5 inch AMOLED screen is quite beautiful to behold. It’s super bright and makes all the icons and videos come to life. However, when comparing to other phones with smaller screen resolutions like my G2 the Infuse’s images look slightly blurred. The resolution is 800×480, which is pretty good but for some reason I felt like something was missing while watching video clips.
Summary:
Overall, I really liked using the phone. I was most impressed by the phones sexy curves and slim physique. Was a little let down that it was running on Froyo rather than gingerbread, but there really isn’t a huge difference functionality-wise. I just have to have what the Jones’ have! With an 8 MP camera with LED Flash and front facing 1.3 MP camera as well as 4.5″ inch AMOLED screen and a 1.2 GHz processor under the hood – you really can’t go wrong.
I got a chance to take a look at Nokia’s E7 and I had a blast doing so. It was cool getting stares and having people ask what type of phone it was. I have the lowdown on what it was like to actually use the phone. Though my relationship was short-lived, about two weeks, I had some ups and downs. Read on to find out what they were.
Likes:
Form
So did I mention this phone is sexy? I got the Austin Martin Grey (ok I made that up). The phone just looks and feels nice in the hand. It has gentle angular curves on both ends of the device much like the N8 which no other device really has. It’s not the thinnest device, but it doesn’t feel flimsy at all like the Nexus S or the Galaxy S. In fact, it’s sturdy enough to hang out in the pocket all day and come out unscathed without the aid of conventional phone armor. I’m still not a fan of the slidy-nob to unlock but at least the center button serves that function as well. There is also another slidy-nob on the top right of the device that serves as a zoom in/out or volume control which I found clever. I also loved the slide-out sim-card trey. It keeps you from having to open the phone for switching sims if your into that kinda thing.
The Extras
Again, I love the fact that it comes with a mini HDMI slot and adapter for Hi Definition output. Dual LED lights for a nice bright flash instead of the commoner’s one LED light source. Really spacious and well thought out keyboard that slides into a provocative pose. Though it takes a little getting used to at first, the sliding mechanism is quite sturdy and unique. Most people I showed the phone to were pleasantly surprised with the hidden keyboard. These are the little things that make the phone pleasant to use. The 4″ AMOLED screen certainly doesn’t hurt either. The display is quite bright and is makes video playback look great.
Staying Connected
You can stay connected through your OVI password. I liked being able to stay logged into my facebook and twitter and get updates via the widget on one of my homescreens. You also get updates from your different email accounts as well as messages from contacts.
Dislikes:
Audio
On more than one occasion, I did notice the phone quality seriously depreciate. The audio would sort of pop, almost like an old vinyl record would. Not sure what that was about, but it wasn’t often. However, I did notice it and thought it worth a mention. Other than that the audio quality was on par with my other phone experiences.
Browser
I’m not clear on what the vision is for the Symbian browser, but I wasn’t too impressed with the browsing experience. It was fairly fast on my T-mobile “3.5g” connection, however, I found it cumbersome to navigate. It would give me a list of sites to navigate, but it always felt like I was doing too much work to get from one place to another. The phone never really supplied me with possible sites I was trying to type out, nor was it visually engaging. Of course you can bookmark, the surfing with more than one window open wasn’t very elegant and was definitely difficult to do while on the go. You had to stop what you were doing in order to navigate and that can be a little annoying in a city like NY where I need my info ASAP while I’m on the street.
Data Input
The keyboard definitely helped with text input but I am still unsure of why Nokia doesn’t just break down and add a full digital keyboard for both portrait and landscape modes. Why do I have a number pad in portrait mode? It’s useful when talking with the drone on the other end of the phone when trying to pay a bill or turn the cable back on, but that’s about it. Wish there was at least an option to switch between keyboards. I also didn’t like being taken to a text area when typing up an email or response to a text. I think it would look better if I would see the text right there next to the original received message without first going into that text box. It feels like an extra step which ads to the time it takes to get simple things like that done.
Camera
Why oh why did you skinch on the camera for the E7? Give it the bulgy eye like you did with the N8. I don’t care if you guys were concerned about the slimness. I like my phones with curves in all the right places! I thought 8 Megapixels was good, but no true focus killed it for me. All of the pieces for a great shooting experience and no control over focus ruins the fun. It’s like going to the mall on a shopping spree and only having a dollar to spend. Ok I’m being a bit dramatic, but it did feel funky. I ended up wanting to wait till I got my true camera for picture taking.
Overall:
Overall I enjoyed the device and I can’t sing enough praises about how well made and beautiful the device looked and felt in hand. Other than a few funky sounding calls, and camera disappointments, I enjoyed using the phone and wouldn’t mind owning the device. However, I must say that Symbian is beginning to feel a bit aged, especially when I compare it to iOS or Android. It’s a shame because the phone itself is a true beauty.
We tagged along with some folks from Sony to see some of their upcoming titles and gear, and we were not disappointed. They have a great line-up coming down the pipe and they are really putting some muscle behind 3D Technology. To be honest, I’m not sold on 3D just yet, but last night was definitely an eyeopener. I got to demo Virtua Tennis 4, Kill Zone 3, along with U.S. Navy Seals all in 3 D and they all looked fantastic.
Kill Zone 3:
This game is awesome! Not only were the graphics visually stunning, gameplay was relatively smooth and intuitive. I got to play with the Sony Move Sharpshooter apparatus which gives you the ability to play the game standing up and pointing a gun towards the screen. It has shooting options such as automatic, and semi-automatic, and you can reload by striking the bottom of the apparatus as if you are actually changing a clip. Very cool.
Virtua Tennis 4: It looked great in 3D and can definitely become a good work-out with the playstion Move Controller, especially if you play against anyone good! They have completely revamped the Virtua Tennis world and you can now look at a map of events which makes it feel RPG-ish. Your character suffers from fatigue as times goes along as well. There are also a bunch of mini games to sharpen your skills.
U.S. Navy Seals: I was most impressed with their use of 3D with this game. There are images on the screen that represent where your team is and enemies as well as ammo etc that seemingly float above the action. So your most important information is right on the screen with you, but not in the way. The shrubs and other objects in the game really pop out at you and I enjoyed sneaking up on enemies and executing a well thought out plan with my computer teammates!
We did get to check out the XPeria Play which is Sony’s Playstation phone. I think it looks great and it will definitely resonate with gamers who want a more serious gaming experience on their phones. It runs Android Gingerbread which is the latest Android release from Google, and also sports full directional and action button pad. It also has two analog stick touch areas which I thought was a great addition. It will be coming out for Verizon fairly soon.
The Motorola Xoom tablet is now available for online order, or you can pick one up at a best buy. It ships with Google’s new Honeycomb OS which is basically Android for Tablets. The Xoom has a lot under the hood that makes it comparable to iPad like 4G from Verizon, Flash, and a larger display (10.1 inches). It’s also got a 1GHz Tegra dual core processor and 1GB of RAM to boot. Not bad Motorolla not bad.
Notion Ink Adam
This tablet was the first of the bunch to actually go on sale. It boasts a Pixel Qi screen which allows you to turn the back light on and off enabling daylight reading. It also has a custom Android interface and will be upgrading to Honeycomb. Ad to that a 1GHz Tegra dual core processor and swiveling 3.2 MP camera and you have an inexpensive rival. The most expensive 3G + wifi version will run you only 500 bucks. Plus its got a whole slew of ports including HDMI, USB (x2) and Micros USB.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 will have Honeycomb with Samsung’s “Touchflo” customization. It will be super thin at only 8.6 mm which is slightly thinner than the iPad2 which comes in at 8.8mm. It also has a dual core 1GHz processor and front and rear cameras of course.
Playbook
The Playbook is RIM’s definition of a tablet and I think its a pretty good one. The OS will be RIM’s so it’s neither Android or iOS. It’ll be a little think at 10mm in depth. It’s also smaller coming in at a more mobile 7 inches. It will also have a 1GHz processor with 1GB of RAM. Front and rear facing camera, 3 and 5MP respectively, however, the difference lies in its ability to sync with your Blackberry. We are talking contacts, calendar appointments…the works.
G Slate
The Gslate is another Honeycomb tablet that will be running on Tmobile’s 4G network which means 1GHz dual core processor, 1 GB Ram. The screen will not be as big as the other guy’s (only 8.9 in) however the display will be HD. Nothing out of the ordinary except for they sucker punch you with this little trick. It will have dual rear cameras for 3D and HD video capture. Booyah.
We happened to get our hands on Google’s new phone made by Samsung called the Nexus S. It’s running the company’s latest version of Android…Android 2.3. Check below to see what we thought!
Likes:
We loved the overall sleekness of the design. I’m a simple man and I was totally impressed with the form factor. It’s all black and unassuming, yet when you look at it, you know there is something special about it. The buttons capacitive buttons light up only when the device is on so when it’s asleep it’s just a dark black device in your hand. When you turn it off, it kinda flickers off in the same way your old CRT TV used to which we thought was a nice touch. There is also a really cool burst of orange (wish you could change the color) that happens when you get to the top or bottom of a long list…i.e the bottom of your contact list. It’s those little things that let us know that the folks over there at Google are doing good work.
The phone is really thin and light weight. This can go either way, but I don’t mind light devices if they work though the phone did almost slip a few times with simple gesturing. The call quality is nothing special, but the speaker phone was a little better than I was expecting. It’s by no means the best speaker phone we’ve ever heard but it held it’s own which was surprising. These light-weight devices usually have terrible speakerphones.
The camera was ok – I really liked the HD2’s camera to be honest, but this one will do. Still 5 MPs with single LED flash. Some devices have dual LEDs which is nice, but I didn’t find myself missing the second LED.I found the shutter a little slow but I can’t really complain too much because its a phone however, some mobile devices are getting better at this. I also liked the front facing camera, though it may not be of much use if you don’t know anyone with compatible software.
The Operating System is great. It was quite zippy and I had no problems scrolling through long lists. As you may know, Android offers near seamless integration with your Google life. It picks up all of your Google Contacts, Calendar Appointments etc… This pure Android experience also offers wireless tethering to other devices via wifi or a hard connection. I wish there was a quick shortcut to the tethering functionality like the palm devices on Verizon, but a hotspot is a hotspot and I’m not complaining. We didn’t get to try out its NFC powers, but we knew it was there. We think this will be big in the near future, though it’s not very prevalent in other devices just yet. However, it may be something you wish to think about when making your next phone purchase.
Dislikes:
Data speed. I have a G2 and though it’s only coming in at 800 MHz while the Nexus S has a 1 GHz processor yet many times the G2 felt faster because I spend a lot of time downloading information on the web. Because the G2 takes advantage of Tmobile’s 3G+ network, I was bringing up pages and downloading apps much faster on my G2. This is the one jinx in the armor so-to-speak for the Nexus S. I also didn’t like the plastic feel of the back cover. It makes the device quite light in comparison with other smart phones in the same size range, but it makes the phone feel a little cheaper than it should. Also, Samsung – please stop putting the lock button on the right side! I ended up going into the Android boot-up sequence by pushing the power button and the down volume button at the same time! I also kept changing my sound settings accidentally because of this.
Lastly, my 3G conked out towards the end of use. Not sure if this was because the phone was a trial phone or what, but after a while, I was unable to reach 3G speeds at all on the device.
Overall:
Overall, the device is solid and would love to have it for the front-facing camera, sleek look and feel, along with the pure Google experience. Other than a few hang-ups like network speed, I found this phone to be quite useful and a pleasure to use. Not sure about that 3G issue though. That may be a major issue if it is widespread. However, if it’s isolated – then I’d just replace the phone for a new one as I found very little to be disappointed with.
So I know a lot of you use Tango to video chat with that significant other. I’ve used it and it’s not bad. The program allows you to use your phone’s camera to video chat with another person. Its fairly new and I can’t wait for more updates to get the kinks smoothed out, but its got real potential. Actually, there’s really little downside to the app as it can be downloaded on both the Android and iPhone OSes. You can use it on the new iPod touch, iPhones, and Android phones along with Android tabs like Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet. Not only that, but you can talk across platforms as well. You don’t even need a front facing camera on your device as it can use the back facing camera to stream images to the other side. Sounds pretty good right? Well it doesn’t stop there. The app also works over 3G, 4G, and WiFi allowing it to function over virtually all networks.
The application has gathered a large amount of downloads, me being one of them, and I have been made privy to a new promotion they will have going on for Valentine’s day. It will be called “Tango Hearts”. Word has it that if you double tap the screen on Valentine’s day, little hearts will appear as you chat. It’s a neat little trick that may impress your lady friend. If your girl is like mine however, that definitely won’t replace the standard fare. Don’t be cheap and chuck the chocolates guys! I’m just saying!
If you have been following this tablet at all, then you will know the events of the past week or so. The Adam, running Android 2.2 with custom UI, just went up for pre-order. It was a disaster, and many blogs including androidpolice.com were calling NI out for what looked like scammish behavior. However, Rohan reached out to them, and they have an interview which can be found here. Strangely enough, because of their bad-mouthing, they also got exclusivity to a video of the device working in all its naked glory. I think it’s a great start, however, the lack of a marketing team, or a strong one, is pretty evident but to be truthful – I’m not getting this device because of how well it was advertised that’s for sure! The video shows off the custom UI, it’s multiple ports, web-browser, and custom email app to name a few.
