The Best Of Everything (Tech Edition)

A blog post by my good friend Cam in which he mentioned some of his favorite tech, er, things,  inspired me to write what I consider to be the best of everything techie...

Best Phone: HTC Desire HD. See my original post here

Best Phone Operating System: Google's Android. Again here

Best Non-Game App: FaceTime (iPhone 4). Full Skype-like capability on your phone. Even though it's limited at the moment (you can only FaceTime with other iPhone 4 users), it's still a game changer in the world of apps

Best Game App: Angry Birds. The best, most fun and most addictive game out there...so much so, that PS3/360 versions are in the works. Sorry, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 users, you're not at the party!

Best Video Games System: Nintendo Wii. Love the Sony PS3 and the Microsoft XBOX 360 is also very good (but will ALWAYS lose to the PS3 due to lack of built-in Blu-Ray), but for sheer all-round fun that appeals to ALL ages, nothing can yet beat the Wii

Best Video Game: Guitar Hero/Rock Band series. Probably most responsible (okay, okay, along with Wii Sports) for the transformation of the Video Games System from kid/nerd-centric time waster to dinner-party-replacing social entertainment must-have for grown ups

Best Laptop: Apple MacBook Air. I don't personally own one and have a VAIO (that is awesome, btw) myself. However, I've used one and for portability (which is what laptops were invented for), aesthetics, ease of use, hardware and software, this can't be beaten

Best Computer Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7. Though it's catching up, in terms of pure functionality, MAC OS X Snow Leopard still doesn't compare to Windows' best. W7 takes the best features of Vista (which, for my money, were ample) and leaves the worst (which were also ample)

Best Media Player: VLC (VideoLAN). If you download movies from places other than "official" channels such as iTunes (which I, of course, would NEVER do), then there is simply no substitute. Able to play literally ANY video or music file, this beats the piss out of both Windows' and Quicktime's Media Players

Best Web Browser: Google Chrome. Mozilla's Firefox was once cutting-edge (such as the ground-breaking tabbed browsing). Now everything it offers is bettered by both Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (never mind 9!) and Chrome

Best Tablet: iPad...for now. By the end of this year I'm sure I'll be able to properly answer this

Best MP3 Player: None. Seriously, with smartphones now able to do everything the best iPod/Zune can do, who the fuck even HAS an MP3 player anymore?

Best TV: Sony Bravia LEDs. Though I just bought a brand-new 42" LG LCD (which, with it's 200Hz refresh rate, built-in Internet and multitude of connections is the best TV I've ever owned), even I know that nobody makes TVs with the quality, lastability and functionality of Sony...I just couldn't afford one with the specs I wanted! Note: I don't include 3D here, as I believe it's silly

Best Way to Watch Movies/TV: HDD/Internet TV. Seriously, if you still watch DVDs or Blu-Ray Discs, you lose. If your TV doesn't have built-in Internet or USB inputs for direct hard-drive connectivity (shit, at least hook your laptop/PC up to it, via HDMI, of course), well, you're just letting the best in life pass you by...

The Guardian Kinda Reinforces My Smartphone View...

Just came across this article in The Observer (UK newspaper and The Guardian's Sunday issue) this morning.  A lot of the content seems to echo my earlier post about Android vs. iPhone. I would also say it's telling that the article mentions neither BlackBerry nor Windows 7 Phones. My assumption is that BB is no longer a major player in the smartphone wars and Windows 7 Phones have some growing to do (in terms of everything) before they're able to compete with the big two.

Interesting...

(the bold sections were highlighted by me)

The iPhone: It's chic, smart and cool, but is it about to lose its mojo?

Paul Harris in New York

The Observer, Sunday 16 January 2011

A growing number of tech experts are predicting that the iPhone is in danger of losing the "smart phone wars" to an upstart operating system from Google, in a dramatic reversal of fortune for one of the world's coolest hi-tech products.

For many people the iPhone is still the last word in digital chic. Its sleek style and touch screen changed the way many used their mobile phones.

Next month Apple's device will be launched on a second phone network in the US, making it available to millions more customers. The news has created a huge buzz and some have whispered that Apple might one day become the first trillion-dollar company in the world. So this should be a great time for Apple's irascible chief executive Steve Jobs. Or it would be if not for the growing commerical clout of Google's Android.

"Too late for the iPhone," read one headline last week in a Daily Beast column by tech writer Dan Lyons. Many experts agreed. "Android has taken over from what I can see," said Will Sullivan, founder of the website Journerdism, which is studying the mobile technology industry. Some commercial statistics bear that out. Android phones are now outselling iPhones in the US. Latest figures from the US show the Android and iPhone neck and neck in market share – but with 40.8% of new smart phone sales in the six months to November going to Android and 26.9% to iPhones.

Critics say that the iPhone's launch on the Verizon network is too late and that it relied too long on the patchy service provided by AT&T. That has allowed Android to take off at such a speed that it has left the once cutting-edge iPhone in its wake. "It was almost comical how much people said they hated AT&T," said Rob Jackson, editor of Phandroid, a tech website that tracks the Android market.

But the greater problem lies with the real differences between iPhones and Android. While the iPhone is the whole package of network, technology and phone, Android is an operating system that many different phone models can use. That gives users of Androids a huge variety of choices about how complex (or not) they want their phone to be. Meanwhile, iPhone users are essentially bound to what Apple alone allows them to do and buy.

"Personally, I prefer Android. I like to change things around to suit my needs. But if I was recommending my mom to have a phone I would recommend an iPhone," Sullivan said. In his article for the Daily Beast, Lyons was even more succinct about the limitations of the iPhone. "[It] is a bit like the situation you had with Henry Ford's Model T, where you could have any colour you wanted as long as it was black," Lyons wrote.

Indeed the iPhone has always had critics. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, last year took to his own Facebook page to slam the device for having a poor battery and dropping phone calls. "I got four chargers so I can keep it charged everywhere I go and a landline so I can actually make phone calls," he posted.

But not everyone is writing Apple off. Verizon will open the iPhone to 100 million new customers in the US. There is also no doubting the excitement that many people get from products created by Apple. "It arguably has the strongest brand in tech. It is cool. It stands for more than just a phone. It is a fashion statement. It is a lifestyle," said Jackson.

That is important. For one of the great ironies of the development of the smart phone market is that making phone calls on the devices has been supplanted by email, instant message and chat. A vast business ecology of "apps" has also grown up allowing smart phones to do anything from checking the weather to picking out a local restaurant. In this new world of mobile communications many think it would be foolish to make firm predictions. "So much can change again in five years that I just don't know what will happen," Jackson said.

The Battle of the Smartphones, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Touchscreen

It was that magical moment in life when your mobile phone (and contract) was due for an upgrade and there were many lovely, shiny new phones from which to choose...

In deciding which new phone to get (I was upgrading from my Blackberry Curve 8900), I decided to look at the top phones currently on the market, the BlackBerry Torch, the HTC Desire HD and the iPhone 4.  Here's how I made my decision:

Since '05, I've only used BlackBerrys. I work for Vodafone, so as well as having a personal BlackBerry, I also have a work BlackBerry. Also, during my time in the US Air Force, I worked in IT from '04 to '07 and was the lead "BlackBerry guy" at RAF Lakenheath (one of the larger bases in the AF).  Thus, I've been able to have and use many different versions of the famed smartphone (including the 6230 [this was the first BB I ever used...it had a *gasp* black & white screen!], 7230, 7250, 8700 [these three were the BBs of choice among Commanders on Lakenheath during '05 to '07], the first "Pearl" 8100, the Curve 8320 [my first work BB], the Curve 8900, the Storm 9500 [ugh!] and the Bold 9700 [my current work BB]).

I've always loved BlackBerry phones and it's true that they were, and still are, the best smartphone around for email (especially for businesses utilising a BlackBerry Enterprise Server).  Also, of major importance for me was that BlackBerrys have full physical Qwerty keyboards.  I type fast, and had never previously been able to find a phone with a touchscreen that allowed me to type fast and not make tons of mistakes.

There are many more things to consider in a smartphone, though. For me, they are:

Screen (size and quality)
Camera
Camcorder
Email
Apps
Operating System
Ease of Use
Processor
Keyboard

It used to be that all were of equal importance and that the BlackBerry was great at some and not so at others.

There were then three paradigm shifts in the past few years to affect not only myself but many smartphone users: the rise of the App, the improvement of touchscreen keyboards and the advent of social networking on smartphones.

It is without question that the variety and quality of available Apps are among the most important things to now consider when buying a new smartphone. Whether it is for communication (Skype, Google Talk), games (Angry Birds, Robo-Defense), utilities (Google Maps, Sat-Nav, Google Translate), etc., Apps used to be a "cool" thing to have...they're now essential. Now, I know that Apps aren't the most important thing for some smartphone users (read: Windows 7 and BlackBerry users!) and that for some, voice quality and signal capabilities (HSPA, 3G, etc.) are still the number-one consideration when buying a new phone, but if call quality is your most important factor, why are you wasting your time with a SMARTphone? Buy something cheaper!

Secondly, the improvement in the usability of touchscreen keyboards is incredible.  Even as recently as the iPhone 3GS, the greatest touchscreen keyboard in the world wasn't as good as the worst physical keyboard.  This is not so, anymore, though. While I would assert that a BlackBerry's physical keyboard is still better than any touchscreen, the gap is nowhere near as big as it once was. The responsiveness of the latest touchscreen phones is fantastic, with the iPhone 4, Samsung Galaxy and HTCs leading the way.

Lastly, the rise of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and, to a lesser extent, the ubiquity of IM applications such as the aforementioned Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Facebook Chat, etc., on smartphones have all put a huge "dent" in the frequency of my personal email use. In short, I rarely use email at all anymore (even on my home PC), except when signing-up for things online, for which you almost always need a valid email address. This means that BlackBerry's key differentiator of being "the best for email" is no longer wholly relevant outside of business use.

(As a side note, it must be said that the great strides made in the last two or three years in smartphone operating systems makes choosing the right OS for your needs an important factor as well)

Anyway, for me and many like me, because voice quality, email capabilities, cameras, network capabilties (such as HSPA, WiFi, etc.) are pretty much the same across most of the high-end smartphones, Apps and the OS are now the top considerations. This then, meant that in choosing a new smartphone, a new BlackBerry was no longer an option (lack of Apps or a cutting-edge OS) and neither were the new Windows 7 phones (lack of a wide range of Apps). So it was a direct choice: iPhone 4 vs. the HTC Desire HD. Why the Desire HD? As my provider is, of course, Vodafone, I wanted to compare the iPhone 4 with the best Android phone Vodafone offers, which is the Desire HD.

Luckily, Courtney wanted an iPhone 4, no question. So, in early December I got her one and was able to play with it and have a really good look at its capabilities before making my decision.

There's no doubt in my mind that Apple's iOS is great. It's user-friendly, intuitive and graphically attractive. This is not say it's without its faults, though.  The complex and sheer number of menus and sub-menus is a little off-putting, and the lack of a dedicated 'Back" button means navigation can be tiresome. 

Apple's Retina Display, though, is simply magnificent and the best display on the market, hands-down. Email is a breeze (thanks to the iOS finally allowing delivery of all email accounts into one inbox, a feature conspicuously missing from pre-iOS 4.0...) and the quantity of Apps is second-to-none.

However (!), Apple have, in my mind, done the unforgivable, and locked their device down so tightly that trying to sync or add/remove media is so fucking complex and long-winded, not to mention that it MUST be done through iTunes, that I wanted to throw the fucking thing out the window when I was trying to put some music on it! You see, I'd made the mistake of setting up the phone using my laptop and iTunes library. So when it came time for Courtney to use her laptop and her iTunes library, I had to metaphorically jump through flaming hoops of solidified dogshit for her to be able to do this.

This was a real turn-off for me and was one of the main reasons behind my deciding to say eff it, and go with Android (the other being the fact that it would be cool for me and the wife to have an iPhone and an Android phone, as opposed to the same phone), meaning that:

THE WINNER!

...I decided to pick up the Desire HD the very next day. So let's make this short and sweet:

The Good

Display - not quite as good as iPhone 4's, resolution-wise, but still HD and it's bigger

Apps - I would argue the Apps are better because 1) the native Google Apps are awesome and 2) many of the iPhone's paid apps are free here (such as Angry Birds). This is not to mention that Android are right behind Apple in sheer number as well

OS - y'know those issues I was having with the iPhone 4 being so locked down? Non-existent on Android...I can do whatever I want, however I want. Period.

UI - HTC's minimal overlay on Froyo is also very user friendly with the added bonus of having four dedicated keys (Home, Back, Menu and Search) that make navigation around the OS so much easier

Camera - 8MP and better than iPhone 4's

Camcorder - 720p HD (same as iPhone 4's)

Email - choice of dedicated apps OR single inbox (better than iPhone 4)

Speed - with the 1GHz processor and 750 MB of RAM (overkill? Perhaps...) the Desire HD is the fastest phone on the market

The Not-So-Good

Weight - Thing is heavy as shit! (But so is the iPhone 4)

Audio - seems a little low to me, but with HTC Sense (only available on Android phones) the phone knows when it's in your bag/pocket and so rings louder!

The Bad

Battery - I have to charge this damn thing anywhere from two to four (!) times a day!

No Front-Facing Camera - inability to do Video Calling is a big thing

So in the end, the choice was obvious, for me. I say "for me", because after all, that's what it's really about, isn't it? Many people I've spoken to since I got the phone have asked, "Which is better? Android or iPhone?" And I always say the same thing:

If you aren't a tech-geek or smartphone-savvy and you want a smartphone that has all the bells and whistles, you should always get the iPhone 4.

If you know you're way around smartphones and are tech/PC-literate, you should always go for Android.