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		<title>Second Chances: T-Mobile Tries Again</title>
		<link>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20090721/second-chances-t-mobile-tries-again/</link>
		<comments>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20090721/second-chances-t-mobile-tries-again/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:08:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katherine Boehret</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://solution.allthingsd.com/20090721/second-chances-t-mobile-tries-again/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A review of T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google, the second “Google phone” to be released.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. But it never hurts to try. This week, I tested the T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google (GOOG), which is the company’s second chance at introducing a “Google phone” to the masses.</p>
<p>Google’s first device, called the T-Mobile G1, came out in October and was less than a sensation. The phone had a touch screen and a handy slide-out physical keyboard, but it was bulky and unattractive. It came with just one gigabyte of memory and lacked important features like compatibility with Microsoft Exchange for use with work email. Its app store, called the Android Market, offered only about 50 applications. The G1 launched with surprisingly few accessories.</p>
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<p>The $200 (with two-year contract) T-Mobile myTouch 3G (t-mobilemytouch.com) available Aug. 5, has fixed many of these problems. Its new design uses an on-screen keyboard, which gives it a thinner, more stylish build that feels great in the hand. It now comes with four gigabytes of memory, works with Microsoft Exchange and can record and play back video footage. The Android Market has increased its number of apps to about 6,300, and the myTouch will hit stores with accessories like designer shells and docking stations. Its combined voice and data plans are at least $25 less per month than what AT&#038;T’s (T) plans cost for users of Apple’s competing iPhone.</p>
<p>But while using it, I couldn’t help thinking that the myTouch felt less like a new device and more like what the G1 should have been in the first place.</p>
<p>The myTouch, which is built by HTC of Taiwan, runs on an improved version of Google’s operating system, that performs tasks faster has a more streamlined look and supports stereo Bluetooth connections. But it carries on many traits of its predecessor. It still synchronizes over the air with Google account information including email, calendar and contacts. Swiping a finger to the left or right on the myTouch’s home screen will still open other screens, with space for icons representing apps. And its handy window-shade-like Notifications menu can still be pulled down onto the screen at any time to show a list of new messages.</p>
<p>The most dramatic difference on the myTouch is its on-screen keyboard, which may frustrate some people who liked the G1 for its because it had a physical keyboard and a touch screen. Like on Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, the myTouch keyboard corrects words as you type, recognizing you’ll make more mistakes on it than you would on a physical keyboard. The keyboard suggests words in a horizontal bar that appears above the keyboard and below the text area. You need only type “Washi” and the word “Washington” appears in this bar for you to select. These shortcuts speed up the otherwise frustrating process of on-screen typing.</p>
<p>Unlike on the iPhone, the myTouch keyboard’s keys don’t get larger as your finger hovers over them so as to help you touch the right key. Nor does a word become magnified when you’re trying to place the cursor at a certain spot. The myTouch’s trackball can be used to pinpoint a specific letter but I usually forgot all about the trackball, opting to use the responsive touch screen for navigation.</p>
<p>T-Mobile offers much less expensive monthly plans for the myTouch than AT&#038;T offers for the iPhone. The cheapest voice and data plan from T-Mobile costs $55 compared with AT&#038;T’s $70. Unlimited data and messaging plus minimum voice plans total $65 for T-Mobile and $90 for AT&#038;T. And AT&#038;T’s messaging is currently limited to text, while T-Mobile messaging includes text, picture and video.</p>
<p>On the other hand, T-Mobile offers 3G coverage in far fewer cities than AT&#038;T. The myTouch comes with only a fourth of the built-in memory of the same-priced the 3GS iPhone, and half the memory of the 3G iPhone model, which is costs half the price. And myTouch offers only about a tenth of the apps the iPhone offers, and has a smaller screen.</p>
<p><a href="http://solution.allthingsd.com/files/2009/07/pj-aq590a_pjmos_ns_20090721191636.gif" rel="lightbox"><img src="http://solution.allthingsd.com/files/2009/07/pj-aq590a_pjmos_ns_20090721191636-250x294.gif" alt="pj-aq590a_pjmos_ns_20090721191636" title="pj-aq590a_pjmos_ns_20090721191636" width="250" height="294" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-743" /></a></p>
<p>T-Mobile wants myTouch users to understand apps and download them, starting with the AppPack: a package of eight to 10 apps that T-Mobile will send to myTouch customers via an SMS with a link. Customers can peruse this list of apps and download just the ones they choose. While some people may not appreciate receiving apps suggestions, it could also introduce apps to people who didn’t know how they worked.</p>
<p>The Android Market, where all apps for Google’s phones can be found and purchased,still isn’t as well organized as it should be. It separates games from other applications and organizes them by popularity and date, but doesn’t separate those that are free and those that must be bought. I downloaded several free apps including WordGame, Facebook, Twitter, Sketch-a-Etch and Sherpa. But I was especially irked by the way some of the apps I downloaded kept trying to get me to download additional apps every time I opened them. The Twitter app, which was listed as one of the most popular, displayed prompts to download browsers and RSS readers—even six days after I first used the app. An on-screen message gave me the option to “Ignore Forever,” but this apparently didn’t include prompts to download other programs. Any user would be confused and irritated by these unsolicited messages. Google said that was what the developer chose to do—a major downside to the Android’s open model.</p>
<p>The myTouch’s 3.2-megapixel camera and video camera worked well and started up quickly. An icon labeled Gallery neatly holds still images and videos. And the myTouch has simple ways to upload photos to Picasa or videos to YouTube.</p>
<p>A built-in tool for Google Web searches using voice commands worked remarkably well, even when I tried to trip it up by saying four words at once. It didn’t recognize my last name, but I’ll let it off the hook since it’s spelled differently than it sounds.</p>
<p>The T-Mobile myTouch 3G costs $50 more than the G1, but its extra features are worthwhile. Be ready for a frustrating first-time experience with the on-screen keyboard and try to read user comments in the Android Market to figure out which apps prompt you to download additional programs. </p>
<p>The myTouch is what we expected from Google the first time around. Time will tell if people are ready to give it a second chance.</p>
<p><em>—Edited by Walter S. Mossberg.</em></p>
<p><strong>Write to </strong><br />
                Katherine Boehret at <a href="mailto:mossbergsolution@wsj.com">mossbergsolution@wsj.com</a></p>
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		<title>New BlackBerry Offers Versatility   in Flip Form</title>
		<link>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20081014/new-blackberry-offers-versatility-in-flip-form/</link>
		<comments>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20081014/new-blackberry-offers-versatility-in-flip-form/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:18:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katherine Boehret</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://solution.allthingsd.com/20081014/new-blackberry-offers-versatility-in-flip-form/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Smartphones are masters of multitasking. They email, browse the Web, instant message, take pictures, run applications or play videos and music. So it's easy to forget how uncomfortable they are to use as phones.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Smartphones are masters of multitasking. They email, browse the Web, instant message, take pictures, run applications or play videos and music. So it&#8217;s easy to forget how uncomfortable they are to use as phones. Most are rectangular slabs that are awkward to hold against the ear, causing many smartphone users to also carry a basic cellphone just for calls.</p>
<p>At least one smartphone manufacturer is doing something about this. This week, Research In Motion (RIMM) introduced the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, available for $150 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile (DT). This device is the first BlackBerry in a flip phone, or clamshell, form. Like RIM&#8217;s mainstream, candy-bar-shaped BlackBerry Pearl, the Flip uses a SureType keyboard, which has condensed keys and relies on predictive text software.</p>
<div class="media-CENTER" style="width: 380px;"><a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/EI-AR531A_fl_Mo_G_20081014180335.jpg" rel="external" title="Click to enlarge graphic"><img src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/EI-AR531A_fl_Mo_G_20081014180335.jpg" alt="Pearl Flip" height="253" width="380" /></a><br />The Pearl Flip uses a SureType keyboard, which takes up less space.</div>
<p>After using the Pearl Flip for a week, I&#8217;ve found it to be a stylish messaging device that works well as a comfortable phone. I really liked its exterior screen, which is designed to show previews of incoming messages, saving people the trouble of flipping open the device. It runs on T-Mobile&#8217;s slow EDGE network, but has built-in Wi-Fi and the ability to automatically connect to saved, nearby wireless networks.</p>
<p>First-time smartphone buyers will likely find the Pearl Flip to be a good fit. When it flips open, a special hinge drops the top half of the device slightly behind the bottom half, and a handy trackball makes navigation easy. The Flip&#8217;s Web browser enables streaming videos that look sharp on its interior screen, and a microSD card slot supports up to 16 gigabytes of memory.</p>
<p>But current BlackBerry owners who want to switch to a device with a more comfortable phone may have trouble adjusting to the Pearl Flip&#8217;s SureType keyboard &#8212; especially if they&#8217;re used to a device with a full QWERTY keyboard. Though the Pearl Flip&#8217;s keyboard is a generous size and its keys are flat and easy to press, its SureType design assigns two letters to almost every key, which can be frustrating to use when predictive text guesses a different word than that which is intended.</p>
<div class="media-CENTER" style="width: 262px;"><img src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AN424_pjMOSS_DV_20081014144527.jpg" alt="Pearl Flip" height="394" width="262" /><br />The Pearl Flip 8220 is RIM&#8217;s first flip phone BlackBerry.</div>
<p>The Pearl Flip supports T-Mobile&#8217;s Unlimited HotSpot Calling, a service that doesn&#8217;t use any minutes on phone calls begun in Wi-Fi zones. Even if a user leaves the Wi-Fi zone in which he or she started a phone conversation, the call passes over to the T-Mobile cellular network without dropping out. This service costs $10 monthly in addition to regular service charges.</p>
<p>When I made calls on the Pearl Flip, friends on the other line noted how crisp and clear our connection sounded. And best of all, the Pearl Flip&#8217;s long, clamshell profile was easy to hold and fit snugly and comfortably between my ear and shoulder when I needed two hands to carry things.</p>
<p>BlackBerry&#8217;s signature red light blinks in this device&#8217;s top corner to indicate new messages. The 1.6-inch exterior screen displays about 25 words (give or take) from newly received emails, instant messages, SMS, MMS, calendar notifications and task reminders. If a message is received from a contact to whom a photo is assigned, that photo also shows up on the external screen to identify the sender. Side buttons let users scroll up or down through these previews.</p>
<p>This display is designed so that the same message being previewed externally will appear on the internal screen as soon as the Pearl Flip is opened. This makes sense because people will want to reply to some emails or read their entire contents after seeing a short preview. But my device didn&#8217;t do this at first; instead, the internal screen seemed completely unrelated to the external screen. I finally got this feature to work after my external screen froze and I rebooted the Pearl Flip. RIM said it hadn&#8217;t seen this behavior before, and wasn&#8217;t sure what had caused it.</p>
<p>The interior screen measures 2.4 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 240&#215;320 pixels, which is a larger, higher resolution screen than most basic cellphones. While using Wi-Fi, I pulled up YouTube.com and watched a video. It played without skipping or stopping while streaming directly from the Web. A higher-resolution video, which was saved to my device, automatically played in horizontal mode so as to take up the entire screen; YouTube videos play vertically, without using the full screen.</p>
<p>Up to 10 email accounts can be set up on the Pearl Flip; I had no problems using Hotmail, .Mac and Gmail accounts. I also signed into AOL Instant Messenger and Google Talk on the Pearl Flip. Along with these messaging programs, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and BlackBerry Messenger also come pre-installed and ready to use.</p>
<p>If my Pearl Flip was closed and I remained signed into an instant-messaging client, notifications appeared on the external screen telling me who was sending an IM and what it said. When I opened the device, I was automatically directed to the screen where I could reply to the instant message.</p>
<p>I tested the T-Mobile Unlimited HotSpot Calling feature by starting calls using a Wi-Fi network and then leaving the network&#8217;s range. The calls remained steady without dropping or fading, and if I were a paying customer, I wouldn&#8217;t have been charged minutes for those calls. Calls that start out of Wi-Fi zones and end in Wi-Fi zones do deduct minutes. My Pearl Flip had no trouble automatically moving from the cellular network to a Wi-Fi network.</p>
<p>All T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, such as at airports or in Starbucks (SBUX), automatically work with the Pearl Flip if you&#8217;re registered for the $10 monthly Unlimited Hotspot Calling.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re considering taking the plunge into the always-connected world of smartphones, or if you want a more comfortable phone in your smartphone and don&#8217;t mind the quirks of SureType, the Pearl Flip 8220 may be the BlackBerry for you.</p>
<p>&#8211; <em>Edited by Walter S. Mossberg</em></p>
<ul>
<li>Email us at <a href="mailto:mossbergsolution@wsj.com" rel="external">mossbergsolution@wsj.com</a>. Find this and other columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: <a href="http://walt.allthingsd.com" rel="external">http://walt.allthingsd.com</a></li>
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		<title>Getting Mobile Novices to Check Email</title>
		<link>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080923/getting-mobile-novices-to-check-email/</link>
		<comments>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080923/getting-mobile-novices-to-check-email/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:00:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katherine Boehret</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080923/getting-mobile-novices-to-check-email/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Are you a member of the "I-check-my-email-constantly-even-when-I-know-no-one-has-emailed-me" club? If so, your mobile email device is never far and you've found yourself wondering how other people can leave unread emails sitting in their inboxes all day.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Are you a member of the &#8220;I-check-my-email-constantly-even-when-I-know-no-one-has-emailed-me&#8221; club? If so, your mobile email device is never far and you&#8217;ve found yourself wondering how other people can leave unread emails sitting in their inboxes all day. On the other hand, those seemingly unplugged people are likely puzzled by BlackBerry addicts, wondering what could possibly be so urgent that they need to know about it the second it happens.</p>
<p>This week, I tested Peek, a device that might bridge the gap between these two camps. It&#8217;s made for those who don&#8217;t intend to become consumed with mobile email, and don&#8217;t need a combination phone, Internet, digital camera and email gadget. Yet from time to time, these people wish they had a better way to check emails without going home and turning on their computers.</p>
<div class="media-CENTER" style="width: 262px;"><img src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AN284_MOSSBE_D_20080923133309.jpg" alt="Peek Gets Mobile Novices to Check Email" height="174" width="262" /><br />The $100 Peek (GetPeek.com) sends and receives emails for $20 a month.</div>
<p>Since I fit the constantly-checking-email description, I enlisted the help of someone who falls squarely into the category that Peek is targeting: my mother. Mom is constantly on the go, working on one project or another, and she doesn&#8217;t have time to consistently check her email. On more than one occasion, I&#8217;ve had to call her to talk about emails I sent that she didn&#8217;t yet read.</p>
<h5 class="subhed">Stylish and Simple</h5>
<p>Peek is a stylishly thin device that, to a mobile email novice, could pass for a BlackBerry. It receives and sends email, period. Peek doesn&#8217;t have a Web browser, phone or built-in digital camera. It&#8217;s sold for $100 at Target and GetPeek.com, and costs $20 monthly for contract-free service. Most email accounts work with this gadget, including Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and AOL, and up to three accounts can be set to work on each device.</p>
<p>Peek Inc., a New York company that was started by former Virgin Mobile USA (VM) employees, mailed a Peek to my mom in Pennsylvania, and she has been using it for about a week with positive results.</p>
<p>I, too, tested a Peek, but I was more interested in my mom&#8217;s feedback since, prior to this test, she hadn&#8217;t used a mobile email device and I use two different ones &#8212; regularly. Overall, I&#8217;d suggest waiting until November to buy a Peek due to a handful of improvements that the company plans to add by then.</p>
<h5 class="subhed">Winning Over a Novice</h5>
<p>My mom got the hang of Peek almost instantly and found it both helpful and relatively easy to use. She liked its full keyboard and the way most of its keys lit up and were familiarly placed like those on a computer keyboard &#8212; a feature I take for granted on my BlackBerry. Its price and stylish, thin look appealed to her, too. She tested an Aqua Blue Peek &#8212; though the device also comes in Black Cherry and Charcoal Gray. I knew Mom was catching on when she casually sent a message from her Peek late one night using the subject line, &#8220;What&#8217;s Up?&#8221;</p>
<p>My mom suggested a few improvements, and I agreed with all of them. The Peek can vibrate, chime and glow blue when new emails are received, but none of these indicators are particularly noticeable. For example, the chime sounds only once and neither my mom nor I could always hear it &#8212; even at its loudest setting &#8212; especially if it was in a purse. A blue indicator light on the Peek glows once every 10 seconds for 10 minutes after an email is received, but goes idle after that.</p>
<p>The font used on the Peek&#8217;s screen could stand to be a little bigger. My mom found words typed in all capital letters were easier and faster to read than the regular font, but she thought most people wouldn&#8217;t have too much trouble while using their glasses.</p>
<p>Peek Inc. says that by November, it will have added a louder chime, a constantly blinking indicator light and a larger font to the device. Also in November, people who purchase 12 months of service at once will get an extra month free.</p>
<p>Compared with my BlackBerry Curve, the Peek was thinner but I found its buttons and side scroll wheel a bit stiff. And Mom and I both found that the oft-used Space bar key was too tough to press down.</p>
<h5 class="subhed">One Inbox, Three Accounts</h5>
<p>The Peek&#8217;s straightforward system uses one inbox view (in which up to three email accounts are combined), one menu and a side scroll wheel for selecting commands. And though my mom didn&#8217;t seem to mind, the device&#8217;s overall navigation system came off as a bit clumsy to me. For example, rather than selecting an email to read it, I had to select an email, and then choose &#8220;Open Email&#8221; from a menu list. On most other devices, this can be done with one step.</p>
<p>But some BlackBerry tricks are built into the Peek, such as touching &#8220;T&#8221; to automatically go to the top of an email or inbox; &#8220;B&#8221; to go to the bottom; or &#8220;N&#8221; to move to the next email without navigating back to the inbox list. Likewise, the space bar serves as a built-in Page Down button. And holding a letter down will capitalize it.</p>
<p>Photo attachments can be easily opened on the Peek, though attached documents from programs like Word and Excel won&#8217;t open up.</p>
<h5 class="subhed">Synching Contacts</h5>
<p>A simple step lets users synchronize their email account&#8217;s contact list with the Peek. My mom did this with an AOL account, and I did it with Hotmail, Gmail and .Mac accounts. Peek devices automatically check for email every two to five minutes, or if users can&#8217;t wait two minutes, they can initiate a Send/Receive manually and see an up-to-date queue of emails.</p>
<p>Peeks each have eight megabytes of usable memory, which can hold about 5,000 emails. Once a device reaches capacity, an on-screen prompt asks permission to delete the 500 oldest emails. Peek Inc. says a full battery charge will last about five days if a device handles around 10 to 15 emails a day; power users who send and receive 200 to 300 emails a day will get about two days of use from a full charge.</p>
<p>When asked, my mom concluded that she would probably buy a Peek, but said she still wasn&#8217;t sure that she had an urgent need to see email all that often. She also noted that Peek could become a Pandora&#8217;s box of sorts for people who, as they use it more often, might want to get more out of it &#8212; such as Google searches or other Web browsing.</p>
<p>Peek serves a purpose: It gives those who don&#8217;t belong to the &#8220;I-check-my-email-constantly&#8221; club a way to &#8220;peek&#8221; in on their emails and not feel so unplugged from friends and family. That alone, is reason enough to buy my mom one of these devices.</p>
<p>&#8211; <em>Edited by Walter S. Mossberg</em></p>
<ul>
<li>Email us at <a href="mailto:mossbergsolution@wsj.com" rel="external">mossbergsolution@wsj.com</a>. Find this and other columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: <a href="http://walt.allthingsd.com" rel="external">http://walt.allthingsd.com</a></li>
</ul>
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		<title>HTC Can't Disguise Windows Mobile Flaws</title>
		<link>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080903/htc-cant-disguise-windows-mobile-flaws/</link>
		<comments>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080903/htc-cant-disguise-windows-mobile-flaws/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:20:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katherine Boehret</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[It's exciting to think about iPhone competitors giving better software a real try. But HTC's Touch Diamond doesn't hide the outdated Windows Mobile well enough or often enough for a user to want to buy a whole new device.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>New iPhone competitors continue to crop up, though most are mobile devices from companies that simply slap on a touch screen in hopes of fooling consumers. The real key to the iPhone&#8217;s success is its software, and finally, signs indicate that other companies are starting to pay more attention to making good software to go along with their hardware.</p>
<p>One welcome sign is an effort by companies trying to improve Microsoft Corp.&#8217;s (MSFT) Windows Mobile operating system, which has a reputation for confusing navigation and hasn&#8217;t had a major update recently. Kinoma Inc., for example, recently released an application called Kinoma Play that runs on Windows Mobile devices and gives users a markedly better way of handling photos, videos, music and Web browsing.</p>
<div class="media-CENTER" style="width: 300px;"><img src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/PJ-AN171_MOSSBE_NS_20080903145847.jpg" alt="HTC Touch Diamond" height="354" width="300" /><br />The HTC Touch Diamond, due out this month from Sprint, tries to hide Windows Mobile software.</div>
<p>This week, I tried yet another software program that is designed to run on top of Windows Mobile software. But this time, the software is at the heart of a device designed by the same company: HTC Inc. I tested the HTC Touch Diamond, due out from <a href='http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&#038;symbol=S'>Sprint</a> (S) sometime this month for $250 (after a $100 mail-in rebate) with a two-year contract.</p>
<p>Taiwan-based HTC started out in 1998 as a maker and designer of mobile devices for other companies. A year ago, HTC launched the first device under its own name in the U.S., and now, Sprint, AT&#038;T (T) and T-Mobile (DT) sell HTC-branded devices. The Diamond incorporates HTC software, as well as software from Sprint, MobiTV, TeleNav and others. But it isn&#8217;t a stretch to imagine HTC trying to create a fully end-to-end model (hardware and all software) in the future.</p>
<p>The Diamond has a touch screen, but it&#8217;s smaller than Apple&#8217;s (AAPL) iPhone &#8212; 2.8 versus 3.5 inches. This screen lacks the iPhone&#8217;s multitouch functionality, and its smaller size robs space used for touch gestures like flicking or scrolling with a finger. Yet like the iPhone, it relies solely on an on-screen keyboard for all text entries. Even with the Diamond&#8217;s stylus, the keyboard felt small and cramped. Using just your fingertips was next to impossible.</p>
<p>After using the Diamond for a week, I can say that despite its handsome TouchFLO 3D software and animated icons like photos that flip from one to the next with a flick of finger, this device failed to disguise the frustrating interface of Windows Mobile often enough for my taste.</p>
<p>It reminded me of the brown paper bag book covers my Dad helped me make for schoolbooks when I was a kid: They looked great on the outside, felt sturdy and clean and created a blank canvas for homemade doodles that were often more interesting to me than the books they covered. But my book covers couldn&#8217;t change what was underneath; pages of frustrating algebra were just a flip away.</p>
<p>HTC&#8217;s sleek software tries to hide Windows Mobile, but menus from the Microsoft operating system are constantly popping up. HTC&#8217;s email program, for example, is represented by an animated envelope icon that, when selected, cleverly flips twice before sliding an email message half-way out and giving you a three-line peek at what&#8217;s inside. If only reading and responding to email were half as entertaining. Selecting the animated envelope opens the old, cumbersome Windows Mobile email program.</p>
<p>Also, the touch capabilities of the Diamond&#8217;s screen didn&#8217;t work as well as they should. Finger flicks that should have scrolled through lists instead seemed to select individual items in a list, as if they were sticky.</p>
<p>The Diamond isn&#8217;t all bad, of course. Plenty of people will like its smaller size because the iPhone and RIM&#8217;s (RIM) BlackBerrys seem too large and brick-like to hold up to an ear for phone calls. Next to my BlackBerry Curve, the Diamond was of comparable thickness but measured smaller in width and length.</p>
<p>Despite its size, the Diamond is packed with features. It has a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus that doubles as a camcorder, and comes with four gigabytes of internal memory and a removable battery. I taped short videos &#8212; something the iPhone can&#8217;t do &#8212; and found the sound and video footage to be adequate.</p>
<p>HTC touts the Diamond&#8217;s browser, which is based on the Opera browsing engine but is designed for HTC. It opens Web pages in views that fit the screen and text is automatically resized as users zoom in or out, though this resizing was sometimes slow.</p>
<p>Unlike the iPhone, Web sites that are opened on the Diamond&#8217;s browser don&#8217;t resemble the actual site as you would see it on your computer. I opened CNN.com (TWX) and WSJ.com (NWS), two sites that are packed with text and graphics on a regular browser. On the Diamond, they quickly were rendered in list format with mostly text-only. I easily touched the screen to follow links to full stories.</p>
<p>Like the iPhone, the Diamond has an accelerometer, though it&#8217;s called the &#8220;G-Sensor.&#8221; When it worked, this feature flipped the screen to match the horizontal or vertical direction in which the device was being held. Photos flipped instantly, but the Diamond&#8217;s G-Sensor took almost three full seconds to respond as I flipped from vertical to horizontal while using the browser. And some Web sites didn&#8217;t respond to the G-Sensor flips at all.</p>
<p>A special YouTube application developed by HTC was easy to find on the device and worked quickly. My videos were organized into categories for All, History, Bookmarks and Search, though this last category required using the finger-fumbling keyboard. In one step, I emailed a link from a YouTube video to a friend using the device, with a still shot from the video included in the message.</p>
<p>Overall navigation on the Diamond isn&#8217;t as intuitive as on the iPhone or iPod Touch, nor was it as easy as on a touch-screen Windows Mobile device running the Kinoma Play application. The iPhone and iPod Touch use quick double-taps on touch screens to zoom in or out, and multitouch capabilities resize images with pinching gestures; Kinoma Play uses a long touch to zoom in. The Diamond used double tapping on some screens, but not enough for me to grow comfortably reliant on it. A small, circular pad beneath the device&#8217;s touch screen provided a more dependable method for zooming in or out of screens: tracing the perimeter of this circle clockwise with a finger zoomed in; counterclockwise zoomed out.</p>
<p>The HTC&#8217;s software animation is put to good use on its Weather screen. Here, animated illustrations of each day&#8217;s weather appear on the screen: suns spin, clouds move in, rain appears to fall. Even moons appear on the device at night to accurately reflect the weather in a city at a specific time.</p>
<p>It is exciting to think about other mobile-phone companies giving better software a real try, especially those that attempt to improve Windows Mobile. But HTC&#8217;s Touch Diamond doesn&#8217;t hide the outdated operating system well enough or often enough for a user to want to buy a whole new mobile device.</p>
<p class="tagline">Edited by Walter S. Mossberg</p>
<ul>
<li>Email us at <a href="mailto:mossbergsolution@wsj.com" rel="external">mossbergsolution@wsj.com</a>. Find this and other columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: <a href="http://walt.allthingsd.com" rel="external">http://walt.allthingsd.com</a></li>
</ul>
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		<title>A Few Shortcuts to Juice Up a BlackBerry</title>
		<link>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080715/a-few-shortcuts-to-juice-up-a-blackberry/</link>
		<comments>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080715/a-few-shortcuts-to-juice-up-a-blackberry/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:36:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katherine Boehret</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Here are some useful shortcuts that come built into most of the BlackBerrys, even older models, made by RIM but not many owners actually use or know about them.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you&#8217;re a BlackBerry user, you&#8217;re probably getting tired of hearing about all the things Apple&#8217;s iPhone can do. Rumor even has it that a more iPhone-like BlackBerry is in the works. But don&#8217;t despond: Your current trusty emailing device has a few tricks up its sleeve that you may not know about.</p>
<p>This week, I gathered up some useful shortcuts that come built into most of the BlackBerrys, even older models, made by Research In Motion Ltd. but not many owners actually use or know about them. Ironically, most of these shortcuts are conducted using a BlackBerry feature that the iPhone lacks: its physical keyboard. (The iPhone uses a virtual keyboard that appears on-screen only when needed.)</p>
<div class="media-CENTER" style="width: 300px;"><img src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/AK-AH393_MOSSBE_20080715111852.jpg" alt="BlackBerry photo" height="200" width="300" /><br />Some useful shortcuts are built into most BlackBerrys, even older models, though not many owners actually use or know about them. Most of these shortcuts are conducted using a BlackBerry feature that the iPhone lacks: its physical keyboard.</div>
<p>Some of these shortcuts are seemingly obvious, like number or capitalization locks, but others are more obscure, like codes that can be entered to display the BlackBerry&#8217;s precise signal strength. Some shortcuts are performed with a single keystroke; others work in conjunction with a trackwheel or trackball, depending on your BlackBerry model, and still others work when two keys are pressed simultaneously. BlackBerrys with condensed keyboards that use auto-correcting SureType may require extra or different keystrokes.</p>
<h5 class="subhed">Navigation Simplified</h5>
<p>A series of keystrokes work in various BlackBerry applications to make navigation much faster. Pressing the Space bar works like Page Down on a computer keyboard, moving down one screen per press. Holding Shift while pressing the Space bar moves in the opposite direction, like the Page Up key. To quickly move to the very top or bottom of a page, press &#8220;T&#8221; or &#8220;B,&#8221; respectively. Another way to page down or up through lists is to hold the ALT key while scrolling with the trackwheel.</p>
<p>Users can toggle between the BlackBerry&#8217;s running applications without the extra step of navigating back to the Home screen. To do this, press ALT and the Escape key, then release Escape and use the trackwheel to scroll through a display of icons that represent running programs until you reach the desired program, then release the ALT key to select that program.</p>
<h5 class="subhed">Messaging Magic</h5>
<p>Shortcuts in BlackBerry messaging can be a real boon when you&#8217;re trying to get work done quickly. While looking at a list of emails, hit &#8220;C&#8221; to immediately start composing a new email. When a specific email is highlighted, pressing &#8220;R&#8221; will reply to that message; &#8220;L&#8221; will reply to all and &#8220;F&#8221; will forward it. Hitting &#8220;J&#8221; while an email is highlighted will jump directly to the oldest message in that email chain.</p>
<p>A list of emails can be more neatly organized from the message screen by holding the ALT key and pressing a letter. &#8220;I&#8221; will alter the list to show only incoming emails, &#8220;O&#8221; will show just those emails that were sent. &#8220;P&#8221; shows a phone log, including dates and times, and &#8220;s&#8221; displays all SMS messages made or received on the BlackBerry.</p>
<p>In the body of a message, pressing the Space bar twice inserts a period and capitalizes the next word. When the left Shift key and ALT are pressed together, the keyboard&#8217;s number lock is on; the right Shift key and ALT work as the caps lock. Holding any letter down will capitalize it, saving users from pressing another key to do so. To type a letter with an accent, hold the letter key down while scrolling up or down with the trackwheel until you find the correctly accented letter.</p>
<h5 class="subhed">Type Less, Say More</h5>
<p>While composing emails, a series of AutoText codes can be typed in the email body to automatically display certain phrases or information. Typing &#8220;mynumber&#8221; and a space in the text of an email will automatically display your BlackBerry&#8217;s phone number. Similarly, when &#8220;LD&#8221; is entered the local date is displayed, and when &#8220;LT&#8221; is typed the local time appears.</p>
<p>If your email inbox is full and you can&#8217;t send emails, find out the PIN of your recipient&#8217;s BlackBerry and use it to message the person directly. (To find your own PIN, type &#8220;mypin&#8221; and a space into the body of an email. This code can be used to send PIN messages from one device to another without using the device&#8217;s usual email system.)</p>
<h5 class="subhed">Geeky Codes</h5>
<p>If you&#8217;re just dying to know some techie details about your BlackBerry, the &#8220;Help Me!&#8221; screen will be right up your alley. To view the &#8220;Help Me!&#8221; screen, press ALT, Shift and &#8220;H&#8221; simultaneously. This displays data that won&#8217;t matter much to the average person, such as the device&#8217;s vendor ID, platform and free file space. But it also shows the exact percentage of remaining battery power on the BlackBerry, which could be helpful if you aren&#8217;t sure how to interpret the imprecise battery indicator bars at the top of the home screen.</p>
<p>Another way to geek up your BlackBerry is to change its signal strength indicator from bars to numbers that tell how many decibels per milliwatt the device is transmitting. To do this, go to the Home screen and hold down the ALT button while typing &#8220;NMLL.&#8221; My BlackBerry displayed a minus 75 when I made this change. Strengths of minus 50 to minus 90 are said to be good, while anything higher, like minus 100, isn&#8217;t. Though this numerical indicator won&#8217;t likely be of any practical use, you could use it to turn to a friend and compare reception during an excruciatingly boring meeting.</p>
<p>One way to impress a technophile on a date is by pulling up a BlackBerry&#8217;s Event Log. To do this, go to the Home screen and hold down ALT while typing &#8220;LGLG.&#8221; This retrieves a long list of numerous confusing codes representing the functions that were performed on your device. The Menu screen in the Event Log gives users the option to clear this log, freeing up some BlackBerry memory, while an Options screen lets people set the log up to record only certain kinds of activities.</p>
<p>Finally, to reboot your BlackBerry without removing its plastic back and taking out the battery, press ALT, Right Shift and Delete simultaneously. More codes can be found in the blogosphere or in a special section of RIM&#8217;s Web site: <a href="http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/blackberry101/tips/" rel="external">http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/blackberry101/tips/</a>. Adopting just one of these shortcuts can significantly change the way you use your BlackBerry.</p>
<p class="tagline">Edited by Walter S. Mossberg</p>
<p><strong>Write to </strong>Katherine Boehret at <a href="mailto:mossbergsolution@wsj.com" rel="external">mossbergsolution@wsj.com</a></p>
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		<title>Motorola ROKR E8:Hip and User-Friendly</title>
		<link>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080625/motorola-rokr-e8-hip-and-user-friendly/</link>
		<comments>http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080625/motorola-rokr-e8-hip-and-user-friendly/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katherine Boehret</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://solution.allthingsd.com/20080625/motorola-rokr-e8-hip-and-user-friendly/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Motorola's ROKR E8 is a head-turning phone with many built-in advances that give it a smarter interface than basic cellphones. Its standout feature is its keyboard, which dynamically changes to accommodate whatever you're doing.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Basic cellphones, unlike larger BlackBerrys or iPhones, are still favored by plenty of users who would rather carry a small device that feels more comfortable to hold to the ear. But the phones&#8217; size involves a trade-off: cramped keypads and clumsy software that can make these phones a pain to use for anything other than calls.</p>
<p>As technology continues to shrink, more features are being packed into these small mobile devices, making navigation and ease-of-use more important. This week, I tested the Motorola ROKR E8, which costs $199 with a two-year T-Mobile service agreement and makes a real attempt to be more user-friendly. The device, which comes out on July 7, isn&#8217;t much bigger than a typical cellphone but its standout feature is its keyboard, which dynamically changes to accommodate whatever you&#8217;re doing at the time, revealing only buttons that would be of use to that particular function.</p>
<div class="media-LEFT" style="width: 250px;"><img src="http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/AK-AH238_MOSSBE_20080624153243.jpg" alt="Rokr E8 photos" height="154" width="250" /><br />The secret sauce on the ROKR E8 is its keyboard, which changes when it&#8217;s used as a phone, music device and camera.</div>
<p>The surface of the ROKR E8 has no physical keys at all. In its off or resting state, in fact, it&#8217;s just a black surface with rows of tiny, unlabeled bumps. But this surface is actually divided into two: The top half works like a typical cellphone display while the bottom half projects virtual keys onto its surface and uses the rows of bumps to give these keys a physical presence.</p>
<p>When making a call or sending a text message, the ROKR&#8217;s surface displays a regular phone keypad. But as soon as a music shortcut button is pressed, the surface morphs into five buttons for music navigation: play/pause, seek forward, seek backward, shuffle and repeat. Pressing another shortcut button to start the ROKR&#8217;s camera mode shows four buttons for zooming in or out, switching to playback mode or changing to video. Motorola (MOT) calls this its ModeShift technology. Though the lower half of the ROKR can be considered a touch device, objects can&#8217;t be manipulated with gestures like pinching or dragging as with the Apple (AAPL) iPhone&#8217;s multitouch screen.</p>
<p>Overall, I found that the ROKR E8&#8217;s dynamic keyboard gave me a real advantage in figuring out how to use the multi-functionality of the phone. Its changing keyboard eliminated a lot of guesswork and time that I may have spent hunting through menus for a command. And true to its name, the ROKR (pronounced &#8220;rocker&#8221;) is focused on its music phone functionality with an FM radio, a neatly organized music menu and a speaker that has convincingly simulated surround-sound effects.</p>
<p>But this ROKR didn&#8217;t always jam out in perfect pitch. A touch-sensitive semicircle in the center is meant to make scrolling through long lists easier &#8212; much like Apple Inc.&#8217;s iPod wheel. But because this tool on the ROKR isn&#8217;t a full circle, scrolling felt unsatisfying. You also can&#8217;t buy songs with the ROKR, or even mark songs for purchasing later on a PC.</p>
<p>And while the morphing buttons look futuristic and hip, I experienced a few instances when the phone was slow to react after I touched a button, as when I touched the seek forward button while listening to music or when I chose to open an MMS message I sent to a friend.</p>
<p>Twenty-two tiny bumps dot half of the ROKR&#8217;s surface, and the surface below each bump vibrates when it&#8217;s touched to provide sensory feedback. Nothing is ever physically pressed down, though the vibration response leads you to think otherwise.</p>
<p>A smart switch on the side can be held down to turn it on or off, or switched into the upward position to lock the device, preventing accidental calls or battery drain.</p>
<p>The ROKR E8 runs on T-Mobile&#8217;s (DT) GPRS/EDGE connection, which felt sluggish at times. And not even the dynamic keyboard on this device could help make email or instant messaging easier.</p>
<p>It has a two-megapixel still camera with an 8x digital zoom that can change into video-camera mode in one step. Two gigabytes of memory are built into the ROKR, and more memory can be added via a microSD card slot, which is hidden beneath a back panel. A one-gigabyte microSD card comes with the ROKR. Without this card, the internal memory will hold about 1,500 songs.</p>
<p>With help from a USB cord and Windows (MSFT) Media Player 11, I transferred over 200 MP3s onto my ROKR. Album art that transferred with my songs appeared on-screen as songs played, and the speaker gave off a powerful sound. Built-in stereo Bluetooth can send tunes to Bluetooth-enabled stereo speakers, and it took me just a few seconds to pair my ROKR with Motorola&#8217;s EQ5 speakers.</p>
<p>A preloaded program by Shazam lets users hold the ROKR up to any speaker playing a song, and in 30 seconds, identifies the track title, artist, and album art. I held the ROKR up to my alarm clock radio and it worked perfectly. But once these songs are recognized, the track data can&#8217;t be used to buy the song or even to transfer a request to buy that song to a PC for buying online at another time.</p>
<p>The ROKR&#8217;s FM radio will work only if its included stereo headset is plugged in because the headset has the radio antenna. But once the headset is plugged in, the radio will play via the ROKR&#8217;s speaker.</p>
<p>The ROKR E8 has an audio technology called Crystal Talk, which Motorola says allows your phone to perform better in loud environments. Even if the person on the other end of your phone is in a noisy place, the company says Crystal Talk will raise the volume to improve the call. I tested this by speaking to someone on the ROKR while turning a hairdryer on beside the phone. I then used a regular Razr cellphone. The person on the other end said that the ROKR sounded slightly, but noticeably, better.</p>
<p>Motorola&#8217;s ROKR E8 is a head-turning phone with many built-in advances that give it a smarter interface. One might wonder what other ModeShift functions the company will integrate into its devices in the future, such as a full QWERTY keyboard. The overall idea of a dynamic keyboard is a step ahead for small devices. It forces the phone to work more intuitively and improves navigation while looking stylishly sleek at the same time.</p>
<p class="tagline">Edited by Walter S. Mossberg.</p>
<p><strong>Write to </strong>Katherine Boehret at <a href="mailto:mossbergsolution@wsj.com" rel="external">mossbergsolution@wsj.com</a></p>
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