February 6th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Jason Harris
Like many other states, Oregon has a new handsfree law. This means we are now disallowed to drive while holding up a mobile phone to our ear. The new law, effective 1 January 2010, requires all drivers, except for a few exceptions, to drive with a Bluetooth or other headset.
As a result, I’ve received many requests for suggestions on Bluetooth headsets from Oregon folks and others who want to go handsfree. Today, I’m featuring another option that doesn’t involve sticking an awkward headset into your ear.
Introducing the BlueAnt S1
The BlueAnt S1 could easily be confused with a normal garage door opener. The S1 is a Bluetooth speakerphone that clips on to your sun visor in your car.
At first look, the S1 looks pretty intriguing. It has 4 buttons on the front that facilitate four separate functions: call send, call end, volume up and volume down. The buttons send button doubles as the power key as well.
Features and Capabilities
The S1 has a whole slew of features that try to win you over. First of all, the S1 tries to make sure you don’t have to take your hands of the wheel by enabling you to use your voice as much as possible. For example, when paired with your phone, when a call comes in, you can simply answer the call by saying the word “Answer”. Also, if you have voice dialing on your mobile phone, the S1 supports this feature as well.
The BlueAnt S1 features A2DP streaming capability. Like Bluetooth headphones and some other devices, you can stream music from your iPhone or mobile phone to the S1. This might be of use if your speaker system on your phone is not up to par (which is very likely). Also, this enables you to utilize the S1 with your dashboard GPS such as a Garmin Nuvi or TomTom device.
The S1 has phenomenal battery life. BlueAnd advertises 15 hours of talk time and 800 hours of standby time.
BlueAnt equipped the S1 with noise cancellation, to cut down on noise whilst in your car. This is an important factor for noisy cars, such as my Honda Civic. Lastly, the S1 features “multipoint” technology – meaning the device can be paired with multiple devices, even 2 devices at the same time. This might be useful for two folks who have a phone each and want to utilize their phone while in the car at the same time.
Setting up the S1
After you open the box, the S1 requires to be fully charged. Once you charge it, the S1 is ready to pair with your mobile device. Setting up the S1 is very easy, as fluid as pairing any Bluetooth headset with your handset. I was able to easily pair the S1 with many different devices, including a Motorola Droid, iPhone, Nokia N900 and N97.
Using the Device
So, the S1 has all sorts of great bells and whistles, but how does it sound while making calls? In a word, it sounds OK. When I called folks on the S1, they sounded pretty good to me. BlueAnt did a great job of making this Bluetooth speakerphone very capable as a speaker phone for you, as a caller.
However, when I had folks call me from the S1, the sound quality left me wanting more. When my wife, who drives a relatively quiet Ford Escape, called at low speeds, she sounded distant and at times, I had to really concentrate to understand her. I was able to hear her words in most cases, but BlueAnt needs to refine the noise cancellation on the S1.
One area the S1 shines is battery life. I can’t verify the 15 hours of talk time, but in my estimates, I have easily gotten 13 hours of it on a single charge. It is so nice to be able to just leave the S1 on at all times and not fuss with having to turn it off and on. The S1 has such remarkable battery life that there’s no need to concern yourself with having to manage the power settings on the S1.
I was able to utilize the multipoint technology, which was nice as I was testing a Motorola Droid recently and it was nice to be able to pair with both of my phones.
Conclusion
All things considered, should you buy the BlueAnt S1? One must consider the great features including music screaming, long battery life, and ease use. With these advantages, you must balance these against the OK audio quality.
Above all this, you must consider the price point. A recent search revealed that the S1 is available for around $50 US. I would say at this price, the S1 is worth the money. Not everyone wants to fuss with locating their Bluetooth headset, putting it in your ear, and shouting into your car so that folks can year you.
The S1 is a no-fuss solution for talking on your phone, freeing you from headsets, bad battery life, and awkward looks when you have a headset in.
For those looking, the S1 is available from Amazon for about $54.
Posted in: mobile, product reviews, tech news/notes
Tags: blueant, Bluetooth, handsfree, S1
February 4th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Jason Harris
While perusing CNN.com recently, I saw a list of “America’s Biggest Rip-Offs“. Number one on the list is text messaging (or SMS for those outside the U.S.).
The markup collected by mobile carriers such as Verizon and AT&T, according to CNN, is 6500%. While that sounds like a huge number, it’s true. Here in the United States, we pay around 20 cents per message, coming and going!
Additionally, since SMS takes virtually no overhead to service and deliver, this number is pure profit to our mobile carriers. This is why so many of us opt for text messaging bundles, whereby we pay $10 for 1000 message and so forth.
Apparently, the U.S. mobile carriers are trying to guarenteed a monthly revenue stream by making texts seem inexpensive by bundling them into packages.
I have been saying for years that SMS is way too expensive in the U.S. and it’s nice to see the mainstream media picking up the theme also. My hope is that with enough people complaining about it, change may happen.
(Photo credit: Flickr User Wayan Vota)
Posted in: grandcentral, mobile, tech news/notes
Tags: sms, Text messaging
January 28th, 2010 / 1 Comment » / by Jason Harris
Yesterday, Apple announced their iPad device. To those unaware, the iPad is basically a huge iPod Touch featuring a 10″ screen and 10 hours of battery life. For more about the iPod, check out extensive coverage elsewhere – it’s been covered heavily.
Here’s my angle: I’m very disappointed they have chosen AT&T 3G for their US telco provider. As many iPhone customers can tell you, AT&T’s 3G network in the United States is absolutely terrible. I can guarantee that when you get iPads hitting their network, the 3G bandwidth will suffer even more.
Apple is releasing two versions of the iPad: one with only Wi-Fi to get online and a second with 3G data access alongside the Wi-Fi. My suggestion, if you want reliable 3G data access here in the States, opt for another 3G provider such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint.
This will require getting either a Mi-Fi unit from either of these carriers, but it will allow you to have multiple devices hooked up simultaneously. This gives you more options when hooking up to the mobile Internet, plus a very reliable and dependable 3G network.
Alternatively (this is the option I would choose), you can get any 3G dongle (as long as it’s not from AT&T) and hook it into a Cradlepoint router. This way, you’re not tied to a specific carrier, and if you change mobile Internet providers, you just pop in the new card into the Cradlepoint for easy and ubiquitous mobile 3G data access. For a good option for a Cradlepoint router, see my review of the CTR500.
As a third option, I would suggest an Overdrive device from Sprint. This MiFi like device will utilize 4G and 3G networks depending on your area. 4G for those unaware, is very very speedy mobile Internet access that Sprint has an exclusive on (amongst the 4 major mobile networks in the United States).
My advice: utilize the Wi-Fi that comes with the base model iPad to enable yourself to access better 3G options from other carriers. Apple may have gone with AT&T for the built-in 3G option, but with these other options mentioned above, you don’t have to rely upon AT&T’s shoddy 3G network for Internet access whilst on the go.
Posted in: apple, mobile, tech news/notes
Tags: 3g, 4G, apple, Apple iPad, at&t, cradlepoint, iPad, MiFi, sprint, verizon
January 25th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Jason Harris
Matt Radford recently posted a guest post over at All About Symbian that interested me. Matt talks about going to a N97 Mini after being a regular iPhone user.
He gives some great perspectives and feedback that I think Espoo (where Nokia is from) should pay attention to, mainly with regards to ease of use and user experience.
Matt talks about how the N97 Mini has some qualities that make the hardware better than the iPhone’s, but the overall experience made him conclude that the N97 Mini isn’t the device for him.
It’s interesting to get different perspectives…I enjoyed Matt’s!
Posted in: apple, mobile, nokia
Tags: apple, iphone, N97, N97 Mini, nokia
January 23rd, 2010 / 3 Comments » / by Jason Harris
Introduction
The Motorola Droid is the first handset offering from Verizon Wireless that runs the Android operating system. In the year since it’s release, Android has been available in the U.S. on HTC handsets branded by American mobile carrier T-Mobile. The Droid, from Motorola, was highly anticipated because it runs version 2.0 of Android and is backed by the nation’s best wireless network, Verizon Wireless.
What’s new in Android 2.0? Mainly some nice user interface changes that add some sparkle to the user experience. Also is the new version of Google Maps with full driving directions, much like your Garmin or regular GPS. You see, the older versions of Google Maps on the mobile give you driving directions, but can’t re-route you if you go off course and don’t provide real-time status of where you’re heading.
Opening the Box
The Droid is kept in minimal packaging, which is good for environmental reasons. After getting the back box open, you get your first glimpse of the Droid…a piano black lined phone that has a massive 3.7″ screen that dominates the front of the device. At the bottom of the front of the device are the conventional Android buttons including the universal ‘back’ button, menu key, home screen, and search button.
On the right hand side of the device you have the volume rocker and camera keys and the left side features the micro-USB port that is intended for memory card access and charging. The Droid can charge of a USB connection to your computer – which is a handy feature if you are without the AC adapter. The back of the device shows the 5.0 megapixel camera and battery cover.
The Droid has a unique feature: a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. Once flipped out, a directional pad is revealed for navigation on the screen. The giant screen should he highlighted as well as it is the best capacitive touch screen I have used outside of an iPhone. One advantage the Droid has is the haptic feedback when you press and interact with the screen.
It should be noted that not everyone digs the Droid’s styling – the form factor is dominated by black and gold, reminiscent of the 1970’s to some folks who I’ve shown the device to.
Features
The Motorola Droid comes stacked with hardware and software features that set it apart from the competition. The 3.7″ capacitive touchscreen is vibrant that colors pop off it’s screen because of its remarkable 480×854 WVGA screen. It has a 1400 mAh battery that gets you easily through a full day of use. Out of the box, the Droid supports Exchange email as well as Gmail and other IMAP/POP mail services. The Bluetooth stack enables you to do file transfer and A2DP full stereo for headsets and other device.
The onboard Google Maps application is augmented with an aGPS chip that quickly locks on to satellites for navigation. Also, for media purposes, a standard 3.5 mm jack allows for audio output. Utilizing the Bluetooth stack, you can also stream music to Bluetooth-capable receivers and Bluetooth enabled headphones.
The Droid features a 5 megapixel camera that is capable of “DVD quality video capture”. I never tested the video capability, but the pictures on the Droid were of good quality – not as great as a Nokia N97 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Lens, but definitely better than the iPhone’s camera.
Motorola outfitted the Droid with a rockin’ 550Mhz processor. This great move makes the Droid zip through tasks such as web surfing, email, and other intensive applications. The Droid excels at multi-tasking, a much needed feature that again differentiates this device from the iPhone.
Applications, Applications, Applications
One great feature of any Android-based mobile phone is its awesome app selection, thanks go the Android Market. Where the iPhone is known as the “app king” amongst phones, the Droid isn’t too far behind. Every must-have app that I utilize daily on the iPhone is available in the Android Market. This includes Foursquare, Evernote, Flixter Movies, The Weather Channel, and many others.
Downloading and installing applications is quick and easy – just search, find it, and install, all within the Android Market. The Droid isn’t tied to a computer for updates to the Operating System…I installed an Android OS update using over the air (OTA) updating. Again, this can’t be done on the iPhone – you must utilize iTunes to install such an update on an iPhone or iPod Touch and are therefore tied down to a computer to complete this task. Which is a bummer if you travel a lot or are on the go, away from your home computer.
Another application that is quite enjoyable is the YouTube app. Not only can you watch and rate videos, but you can shoot video directly on your Droid handset and instantly upload it to your YouTube page. It’s the perfect solution for grabbing quick videos and sharing them with your contacts online.
Using the Phone/Performance
What is the Droid like to use as a day-to-day device? Quite heavenly, actually. The Droid has a powerful enough battery to last a full day of use, including heavy data usage (ie web surfing, app usage, and so forth). The camera makes it easy to snap photos and share them on the web via Facebook or Twitter.
One great feature of the Droid (and Android in general) – when you sign into the phone with your Google account credentials, your Google Contacts, Google Calendar, and Gmail are all synced automatically. No need to configure each program individually, like my Nokia devices.
The Droid is snappy enough to run multiple applications simultaneously without slowing down. Also, the navigation features of Google Maps on the Droid are stellar!
I was able to get about a day and a half of battery life out of the Droid, which included pretty much consistent use of heavy apps such as: email, Twitter, Facebook, and Evernote. The Droid does have a user-replaceable battery in case you run out of juice in the middle of your day.
The only usability factor I didn’t like about the Droid is the hardware QWERTY keyboard. I couldn’t get used to the key layout and found this keyboard laborious to use. I much preferred the software keyboard which is a rarity for me. I normally always prefer to type on a hardware keyboard on devices such as my Nokia N97 and N900.
Conclusion
The Droid from Motorola is by far the best handset in the Verizon Wireless line-up. Even though I’m not crazy about the Droid’s looks, this is by far the most useful and dynamic phone Verizon Wireless has ever released.
This phone has almost everything (other than looks), a smooth and sexy operating system, full app selection and support, awesome camera, all combined with that stellar performing Verizon Wireless voice/data network.
Aside from the OK keyboard, the Droid is a high-powered, web-savvy smartphone that will make anyone happy who buys it and uses it on a daily basis.
Posted in: google, mobile, product reviews, tech news/notes
Tags: android, Android 2.0, apple, Droid, google, iphone, Motorola Droid
January 20th, 2010 / No Comments » / by Jason Harris
Almost two years ago, I blogged about Jazinga, a killer new phone system aimed at small to medium sized businesses. What is the need that Jazinga helped fill? If you’re a small business owner – say a doctor or other small business, setting up your phone system can be very expensive; perhaps in upwards of $20,000-$40,000 depending on your needs. The system that runs that phones is called a PBX and getting a consultant to help you set one of these up can be equally as expensive to get going.
Jazinga sought to make the process easier and very very inexpensive by offering a phone PBX that anyone with a bit of technical knowledge could get up and running. The way I worded it to people is – if you can set up a wireless router, you can set up a Jazinga powered phone system.
Enter FREETALK and the FREETALK Connect
By a partnership with Jazinga, FREETALK, the company behind the high quality, low-cost Everyman headsets (wireless and wired versions) has created a stellar PBX that combines the ease-of-use of Jazinga with a sexy new feature: Skype calling!
You see, over the past few years, Skype has make into to the business market by offering products such as Skype for SIP. Basically, in non-geek terms, this capability would enable you to make free or very cheap voice calls via your conventional desk phone at work.
Using the FREEALK Connect, a business owner can easily set up and enable a fantastic office phone system that an send and receive Skype calls without any formal training. There are on-screen guides and wizards that allow you to set up each phone user, make call groups, set up on-hold music, and enable your on-hold music, amongst many other capabilities. A list of capabilities follows:
- Callback / Dial-around
- Access to Skype Buddy lists
Auto Attendant / IVR
- Paging
- Call Parking
- Remote Extensions
- Music on Hold
- Conferencing
The FREETALK Connect also has an easily configured and updated:
- Managing routes to users, telephone services, and applications
- Providing SIP/Skype telephone service management
- Router management (networking, port forwarding, DNS, DHCP)
Easy As Pie
I got to meet Andrew Hanson, the manager behind this product, at CES and got to demo the FREETALK connect. This was amongst the top devices I saw, because it makes your existing office phone system completely Skype friendly. Any Skype user can call into your business, and alternatively, any of your employees or phone users can use Skype running on any device to have a ‘remote extension’ while on the road. This means when someone phones you on your office extension – it can ring you through Skype – wherever in the world you may be!
This is a major cost savings and feature load for any business who checks it out.
The FREETALK Connect retails for $999 and will be available in the Skype store in March 2010.
Posted in: mobile, tech news/notes, voip
Tags: freetalk connect, jazinga, pbx, skype, skype for sip, SMB
January 14th, 2010 / 1 Comment » / by Jason Harris
In the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, Skype has become a very useful piece of communication. You see, phone networks are down and apparently Skype is become crucial for those who want to call out to friends and family.
To help Haitians get in touch with loved ones, Skype is emailing out $2 vouchers to all their users inside Haiti. This may not sound like a lot of money, but it will allow for more than an hour of calling to the United States and other countries on the low Skype global rate.
It is hard to know what to do in Haiti’s time of need and it’s great to see the Skype trying to make it possible for Haitians to call out. Kudos Skype!
[via Skype Blogs]
Posted in: tech news/notes, voip
Tags: earthquake, haiti, skype, voip
January 5th, 2010 / 2 Comments » / by Jason Harris
I’ll be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
After years of not going, I’m going to take the plunge and head down to the world’s largest consumer exposition. So, keep your eyes here at the latter half of this week for my take on all the gadgets and gizmos that will be unveiled at the show.
I have a lot of friends going and I’m looking forward to making lots of new ones too.
If you’re an exhibitor that has some cool stuff to show off or otherwise want to meet – email me or call me – my contact info is on the right hand side of this blog. My email is jason@techcraver.com and my phone is (503) 334-2574.
See you soon!
Posted in: tech news/notes, weekend happenings
Tags: ces, CES2010, Consumer electronics show
January 4th, 2010 / 1 Comment » / by Jason Harris
Introduction:
Getting online whilst on the go is extremely important to many online professionals. This is why wireless broadband services are so popular amongst web workers. In the world of wireless broadband, we have a few choices of getting online including data cards for laptop computers, tethering with smartphones and a new category of devices called that allow you to share your mobile broadband connection.
Devices such as the MiFi do just this – allow you to bridge your mobile broadband connection via Wi-Fi, meaning your iPod Touch, laptop, or mobile phone with Wi-Fi can connect via one mobile broadband connection.
While the MiFi is a great device, there are some drawbacks. First of all, the MiFi is tied to a specific carrier. This means if you buy a MiFi from Verizon or Sprint, you’re stuck to a two year contract with that MiFi device on that network.
Bring on the Cradlepoint CTR500
Cradlepoint, a US based mobile router company, offers a different solution. The CTR500 is a mobile broadband router that utilized your existing data connection, whether it be via a USB device or PC Card (ExpressCard). Take any activated data card and plug it into the Cradlepoint and you can easily access the device via Wi-Fi.
Opening The Box
The CTR500 device is a slim, piano black device that is about the size of a deck of playing cards, albeit a bit longer. There are three ports on the left side including a USB port, a standard RJ45 jack for hooking up a standard networking cable and a power port for connecting a power source. On the opposite right side there are an ExpressCard slot and reset button.
The CTR500 has to be powered by an external power source. This is a disadvantage when compared to the MiFi, as the MiFi can go for about 4-5 hours on a charge, meaning you don’t always have to carry around a power source to get online. Back to the CTR500, Cradlepoint was smart to package the device with two power sources: a plug-in model for a wall socket and a second that can be used while you are in the car.
Setup and Use
The Cradlepoint website advertises the CRT500 as a ‘plug and play’ solution and the company is pretty much right on the money with that description. Simply plug in an activated data card, whether it’s USB or ExpressCard, EVDO or HSDPA, and the CTR500 finds it and automatically logs on, allowing you to connect via Wi-Fi and get online.
Out of the box, you need a password to access the network. This is a bit confusing but it makes sense as you wouldn’t want just anyone logging on to your data card’s access who happens to be in the area. The default password is automatically set to the last 6 digits of the CTR500’s MAC address – which is labeled on the device itself.
You can set some very advanced options in the CTR500 including wireless security for your devices including MAC address filtering, WEP/WPA security and so on. Also, the CradlePoint is a firewall that provides state-ful packet inspection and network address translation.
I have used the CradlePoint with three devices, a Verizon KPC 680, a Novatel Wireless EX720 on Sprint’s network, and a U300 Sprint 4G/3G combo device. Two of these devices are Express Card and the U300 is a USB device, testing all aspects of the Cradlepoint’s capabilities.
Each time I’ve plugged a device into the Cradlepoint, the CTR500 has easily handled authenticated the data card onto the mobile broadband network.
Conclusion
The CradlePoint CRT mobile broadband router is a highly functional, well equipped, and easy to use way to use your data card. The CTR500 allows you to work with virtually any wireless broadband card from any wireless carrier, making you free to jump around amongst carriers as you see fit.
For $199, the CTR500 represents a lot of functionality at a great price. The CTR500 is available from Amazon.com.
Posted in: mobile, product reviews, tech news/notes
Tags: cradlepoint, ctr500, MiFi, mobile broadband router
January 2nd, 2010 / No Comments » / by Jason Harris
Somehow, the folks over at Engadget got a Nexus One from Google, a few days ahead of the devices’ debut on the 5th in an announcement from Google.
They have a fantastic photo gallery with 80-some photos and a pretty good description.
I’m very jealous of the boys at Engadget – I hope they enjoy the scoop limelight!
(image via Engadget, of course)
Posted in: mobile, tech news/notes
Tags: Engadget, google, Nexus One
