I’ve been using the LG L1400 for the last couple of months and I’m longing to have a Series 60 or at least MIDP 2 powerhouse back as my main mobile.
Stacked against the L1400 for developers:
You can’t test any ideas you might have for Nokia’s new Python implementation. No MIDP 2 support severely constrains MIDlet hacking, too. Worse than that is the lack of socket support, which means none of the open source J2ME SSH clients you might normally use to firefight on your server will work. The lack of USB or Bluetooth synching makes installation of MIDlets much more painful, especially for a developer who needs to install fairly frequently. The limited memory size (somewhere above 61KB but below 85KB based upon MIDlets I’ve tried to install) renders many potential MIDP 1.0 installs impossible.
Comparing the L1400 to Nokia’s latest Series 60 MIDP 2 handsets wouldn’t be fair, but heck, even my trusty old Nokia 3650 beats the LG in most of the above areas, and the 3650’s been available for a couple of years now!
OK, so that’s the bad news for developers. The good news for consumers:
- The LG L1400 seems to have a reliable antenna and works well in relatively weak GSM and GPRS signal environments, at least as good as my Nokia 7610 did
- WAP just works, at GPRS speed mind you, but it works
- L1400 fits better in my pocket than 3650 and many other MIDP 1 phones, even if it really isn’t much smaller than a lot of them
- LG’s VGA camera does a decent job for what it is, probably as good or slightly better than the 3650’s at outdoor scenes and much less blurry at indoor pictures
- L1400 includes an AIM client (but none for Yahoo! Messenger, my IM of choice, so you have to use Y!M via SMS)
- You’ll feel like you sold your soul to the cheap fold cellcam devil with the constant Cingular ad scrolling on the outside screen everytime you close the phone, but the outside photo caller ID is quite nice otherwise
- It’s a heck of a lot cheaper than the Razr for the same res camera (click here to read my earlier post on that)
- Taking pictures with the flip closed can be particularly useful for skiing self portraits 🙂
Verdict: Non-developers should consider buying the L1400 if it meets their requirements. Developers, there be dragons here, enter only to better understand what your average US mobile user can and cannot do with their phone. Hackers, steer clear.
It’s been a year today since I launched my WordPress powered blog on BillDay.com and started shifting my blogging attention here in lieu of my java.net blog.
249 posts later, I feel like I’m finally catching my stride. Of course it helps to have plenty of time to spend reading and writing… 🙂
Many of my most popular posts from the last year provided device reviews and information. The top four based on reader page views were:
- “Everything about my Nokia 7610” remains the most read and most commented post on the site even today, almost seven months after I published it. Useful guides and software suggestions not just for prospective or current 7610 owners but also for anyone using or considering any Series 60 powered phone.
- My round-up of Nokia 6255 coverage was short but apparently sweet, as it holds the number two spot for persistent page hits. BTW, while I was working for Nokia in 2004 I had the chance to use a 6255 prototype and for what the device can do I have to say I loved it.
- Upon leaving Nokia, I had to give up my 7610 and 6255 (big tears were cried that day, I tell you). “My new LG L1400” discusses my criteria for a follow-up phone and why I ultimately chose the LG.
- “Nokia 9300” provides info and links on Nokia’s newest communicator class device and is still in the top 25 page requests five months after publication
Other popular posts included “JavaOne 2004 recap” (a summary of the daily photo blogging and session reviews I posted while at the conference), “Unlicensed Mobile Access” (introducing work to enable access to GSM and GPRS mobile services over non-GSM interfaces such as WiFi or Bluetooth) and “How to send aid to tsunami victims” (the fact that this post is still getting good hit count is heartening; thank you to everyone lending assistance!).
I also have a few favorites of my own. Of course I have to mention my leaving Sun and leaving Nokia posts since so much has been happening for me on the professional front this year. Thanks to everyone for your comments, support, and suggestions on those. I’ve also received some nice compliments from readers of “Simple pleasures of 54g” and its follow-on “Harden your WiFi“. And speaking of WiFi, I hope device makers, especially Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG and the other “big guys”, have been reading my WiFi requests in posts including “Missing from Nokia 7610“, “Sharpening the (somewhat dull) Razr’s edge“, and “WiFi spells opportunity for handset makers“. HP apparently has. (I feel Russ’ pain and really, really don’t want to like a Pocket PC device but I have to say HP made it hard for me with the h6315 and nearly impossible if h6500 does turn out to have WiFi built-in as some sites are reporting.)
I’ve learned from year one that detailed device posts are hot items. Watch for more, including the overdue L1400 update, in year two. Until then, thanks and happy hacking!
Sony announced PlayStation Portable (PSP) release plans for the US and Canada today.
Click here to read the details from Sony’s press release. IGN also has the skinny on launch titles.
Is anyone else as excited as I am about the exteme hackability of PSP and its included WiFi? Let me know what you think.
Here’s a fun Popular Science piece by Cory Doctorow outlining how smartphones free us from our carriers’ shackles.
I’ve been writing about smartphones for a long time now. I’ve used them. I’ve dissected them. I’ve even helped others find the kind of empowering software Doctorow discusses. And yet I still had a grin reading his dead-on analysis of the status quo and how smart phones, in the hands of smart consumers, are shaking things up.
As TheFeature recently noted, smart phone sales continue their impressive rise. Worldwide Q4 2004 sales more than doubled those of Q4 2003. TheFeature notes:
Researchers Canalys say manufacturers shipped 17.5 million smartphones in 2004, compared to 8.2 million a year earlier, with fourth-quarter shipments for smartphones and featurephones up 101% from the fourth quarter of 2003.
Vive la revolution! Aux armes, citoyens!
Thanks to a kick in the pants from Lifehacker’s bit on favicon, I finally got around to creating one for my site:
OK, OK, it’s a simple thing, but hey, it’s been in my to do list for a year or two and now that I finally have a little time, what the heck! JOOTT!
Thank you Lifehacker! You have no idea how many times I’ve wished for this!
Nokia has announced the general availability of Python for Series 60.
This is fantastic news for wireless developers who’ve been clambering for more programming options than just Symbian C++ and J2ME. As was noted in an internetnews.com interview with proud Nokia Python papa Erik Smartt:
“It seemed like a good language to bring to the device mostly because of the things you usually associate with Python,” Smartt said. “It’s easy to teach and it’s easy to learn. What we wanted to do was start bringing other languages to the devices and see how developers reacted to them.”
Learn more details about the Series 60 implementation from Forum Nokia and download the bits by clicking here (relnotes PDF). Need a Python primer? Try Python.org.
Makes me wish I still had my 7610. Oh well, I’ll have to pony up for a new Series 60 handset asap! 🙂
eWeek’s article “Three Smart (Phone) Moves” is an interesting look at some of the latest gadgets from the MS Smartphone (Motorola MPx220), Palm OS (PalmOne Treo 650), and J2ME (RIM BlackBerry 7100t) gadget camps.
It’s most interesting to me because in reading the intertwined reviews of the devices, it’s obvious they’re all missing a tremendous opportunity: The first consumer oriented WiFi smartphone will sell like hot cakes!
As eWeek calmly intones:
None of the devices we tested features a Wi-Fi radio…PalmOne and others will have to address this limitation, particularly as Wi-Fi availability and use broadens.
I’m much more emphatic about the need for WiFi in a smartphone now. Nokia 9500 is a start, but it’s more enterprise focused and too expensive (heck, my new Toshiba laptop cost $100 less after rebates!) for widespread consumer adoption. Meanwhile consumers are ready to adopt. Home wireless gear has fallen into the tens of dollars and many people are realizing the advantages of not having to drill holes through their walls and run cables. Businesses see the same advantages, not just for internal networks but increasingly as a draw for customers to linger a little longer and spend a little more money while they do (my favorite WiFi enabled linger spot: Panera Bread). VoIP is also catching on with consumers, and could work wonders on a WiFi equipped handset.
Perhaps most telling of the opportunity is the fact that both the Nintendo DS and the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) handhelds, game devices but also much much more, use WiFi as their main network interface. Let me call careful attention to this for all you handset makers out there:
The main data path for both next gen mobile game systems worldwide is WiFi. Not ethernet. Not USB. Not cellular. Not Bluetooth.
In fact, Sony even seems to be preparing a music download service a la Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Just imagine all of the music soon to be downloaded over WiFi-to-PSP that could instead be WiFi-to-cellpod purchases. There’s money to be made here too for carriers who can see beyond the air interfaces that tend to blind them to the importance of optimized end-to-end services for their subscribers.
The opportunity is on the table before us. Give me a shout if you’d like to discuss this further.
Link spam, aka comment spam, is evil. Trackback spam is worse.
If you have any doubt that spammers are the tail pipe suckers of the Net, read The Register’s “Interview with a link spammer”. That cured you of your aversion, didn’t it?
The thing that really steams me about these jerks is the time they waste for thousands of other people and businesses. If you have a blog, you have to make the choice between allowing visitors to leave comments (and thereby having a two way conversation rather than a one way dictation) or else disabling comments and trackbacks completely. Filters only go so far; if you allow comments, even filtered, you’re going to spend some time removing spam. And unfortunately, though I’m a fan of nofollow, trackback and other types of spam will persist even if it’s widely implemented.
Epilog: As I was writing this post, I received a trackback ping from one of those damn casino sites. Argh!
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