On Friday I mentioned that v3.04 of Ovi Maps was available from Nokia Beta Labs.  Since then I’ve discovered that one of the main ways that this version can claim “Improved positioning speed and accuracy” is that within the application Ovi Maps now includes support for WiFi positioning.  Now, many of us are used to seeing this feature within Google Maps, which uses both Cell ID and WiFi positioning as well as having GPS support.

This now makes 3 different solutions available for Symbian; Google and their Cell ID and WiFi positioning within Google Maps (Google positioning is also used within the latest Alpha version of Gravity, the Social Networking client for Symbian via the fairly new public API), Skyhook Wireless and their Maps Booster solution (which we covered here, and adds support for Cell ID and WiFi positioning into the OS, making it available to all apps), and now Nokia are supporting WiFi positioning within Ovi Maps (in a similar way that Google support it within their Maps application).

This is a nice feature to see, although personally I would have preferred Nokia to either work with Skyhook Wireless, or to integrate the solution into the OS in the same way that Maps Booster does, as just providing it within their own application seems a little selfish, however, it’s a good start.  After all, on the iPhone there is a single positioning system used by all applications, although I do note that Android is expanding; whereas the base OS uses Google’s system, GoWalla (a social location app similar to FourSquare) now uses the Skyhook Wireless Cell ID and WiFi positioning information.

Apparently Nokia have been working on this for some while, to the extent that for the last 6 months Nokia employees across the world have been collecting WiFi location data for Nokia, allowing them to start with a fairly comprehensive database, as opposed to starting with no data at all.  I’m still waiting to understand from Nokia how exactly the WiFi location system will work in the long term; for example, if you have GPS enabled within Google Maps, then you will help Google self-learn new Cell IDs and new WiFi access points by providing the data to Google.  This self-learning also helps when an access point moves due to the consumer moving house (something I experienced when I purchased a WiFi access point from a friend, where Google constantly placed me in the old location of the access point until sufficient GPS-based survey data lead Google’s self-learning system to move the location to my house).

In comparison, Maps Booster from Skyhook Wireless relies upon their own data collection, although there is a website where you can notify them of errors in the database, which (again, based on personal experience) only takes a few days to update with the new information.  Having said that, I don’t know whether the iPhone location positioning (that is provided by Skyhook Wireless) has any element of self-learning.

As I said, at this stage, I’m not sure what method Nokia are using for learning of changes, although I hope to be able to report on that soon.

On the other hand, I have been using Maps Booster on a couple of Symbian phones since writing about it, and I am finding it very useful.  It has had the odd little blip, where it has put me in the US a couple of times, but then over the same period of tested it, Google Maps has placed me hundreds of miles away from phone too.  It seems to me that Maps Booster has some element of caching of data, as when I am at home and in range of a number of WiFi access points, my location appears pretty instantly in Ovi Maps, whereas at work, where it relies upon cell ID only, it seems to take a little longer to place me.  Although this still relies upon having an internet connection, using it with Ovi Maps (with the maps already downloaded via the Nokia Map Updater) it uses a lot less data than Google Maps for a similar journey, which is good news.  For longer journeys, I would still recommend using the GPS to keep the location information accurate, but for short journeys, especially walking (and especially when in between tall buildings, such as London), then Maps Booster is proving to me to be as useful as Google Maps’ equivalent.

Of course, ironically just after I wrote about wondering whether I could live without Google Maps and use Ovi Maps instead, Google released Google Buzz, which shows Google is still innovating within their client, and which has probably lead to me using both clients; I would love to switch away from Google Maps, but until Nokia integrate more sharing options into their client, or applications take advantage of the Ovi Maps SDK, I’m pretty tied into Google Latitude (more than I realised when I thought I could move away from Google Maps).

Finally, over the weekend I asked Nokia to comment on the situation regarding coverage on elder phones, and received the comment “It’s coming”.  Now I can’t guarantee that was aimed at FP1 (as opposed to supporting more FP2 phones which is still formally missing), but I think we’ll see an announcement from Nokia on this issues soon, but not immediately (I would suggest another few months before we see anything definitive).

ZOMG It’s CJ has just published it’s review of the Nokia Booklet 3G, and it’s a very impressive review, covering all areas of the device, with a massive number of pictures too.  It’s well worth a read to find out more about this High End (although only medium spec) stylish netbook.

I was fortunate to be able to spend half an hour with a Nokia Booklet 3G a couple of weeks ago, and was quietly impressed.  The device was light, stylish, and very nice to use.  It’s not perfect though; due to the nicely sized keyboard (with a nice gap between each of the keys), the screen looks quite small in the top, and in fact, I wonder if Nokia will increase the screen size within the current laptop frame sometime soon.

The particular unit I tried also suffered from a small irritant in that the screen hinge was too loose, and allowed the screen to move too easily, making it difficult to walk around with the device in one hand (yes, not the best way to carry a laptop, but something that many people will do).  At times it felt like the screen would not stay put, although it never moved on it’s own it didn’t feel right (and speaking with others, this fault does not appear to afflict other models).

However, the main problem I found was the 1GB of memory made Windows 7 a little sluggish, and again, hopefully a memory upgrade will come soon to improve the device.  I wasn’t able to test the 3G functionality, but having 3G and HDMI built in does make the device very useful, and the battery was rather impressive too.  One other minor issue was that after being used solidly for over an hour, the CPU was making the case a little warm.

All in all, if you are after a very stylish device with a similar design ethos to a Macbook, but running Windows, then this device is worth a look; if you don’t need the latest greatest kit, I would suggest possibly waiting until the next version comes out to make it a truly all round device.

Thanks to the team at WOM World Nokia for letting me have a play with the Booklet (and thanks for the hospitality when I dropped in unannounced).

In terms of the majority of the software on the phone, it’s very similar to the INQ Mini 3G that I covered here and here, so what’s different about the Chat, what’s good, and what’s bad?

Well, that QWERTY keyboard is the main physical difference, and it is a very nice keyboard.  It’s similar to the Symbian QWERTY layout, and just slightly different to the BlackBerry layout (the Symbol and Shift keys are reversed compared to a BlackBerry, which makes it a challenge to get used to if you are a long term BlackBerry user).

A GPS is the other key difference to the INQ Mini 3G, and to be honest, it sometimes took it’s time to get a fix, but generally worked ok.  The included Google Maps worked well with the GPS.  Unlike Symbian devices, there is no configuration control over the GPS settings, so no facility for changing the Positioning Server over to Google to help speed up the initial fix.  One downside of Google Maps was it was expecting numeric key input, and that meant pressing the Symbol and the relevant key to emulate a number; it was a shame it wasn’t aware of the QWERTY and mapped keys allowing a single key press for functions.  As with all Brew OS devices, there is no cell ID location function within Google Maps, which limits you to waiting for the GPS to find a fix; if you are used to a device that can also use cell ID location information, then this seems to impact the fast “locate me” type functions when you know roughly where you are and just want to seatch for something local to your position…

In general terms, the integration of the Social Networking apps remains a key selling point of this phone, bringing together Skype, Facebook and Twitter, and linking the first two into the Contact List too.  Personally, it felt like the Twitter app was more of an add-on, with less integration than the other two, and no facilities for downloading contacts or avatars like the Facebook and Skype apps offer.

It’s nice to see the INQ Hub included as standard on the INQ Chat 3G (see here for how to access from the INQ Mini 3G), and overall the phone seemed a nice device.  For a device which can be described as a smartphone (although only just, given it’s limited to Java apps) the battery lasted well over a day, and unless you are using Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger and Skype constantly, should easily last two days.  With all 3 apps turned on, it still managed to last over a full working day, which is certainly a key timeframe.

Compared to Symbian, the lack of worrying about Access Points and just letting the device go ahead and connect to the Internet for you was a nice refreshing change, although for many it may fell like a level of control has been taken away from you.  Of course, with no WiFi support, the only option is 3G connectivity, which helps with the simplification.

So, overall, you may think my opinion is that this is a good, cheap phone worthy of consideration…? Well, I’m afraid it wasn’t as perfect as I would have liked…  Firstly, start running all those Social Networking apps together, and the phone often freezes when one of them is performing an update in the background, which can leave the phone locked for a minute or two, and although it doesn’t come with the Social Networking support out of the box (yet), buying a Nokia E63 and adding Gravity (plus the 3UK specific Skype and WLM apps) gets you very close, with the additional benefit of a true multitasking OS, and WiFi support too (although no GPS).  If it wasn’t for the device feeling so underpowered, then I would be supporting it as a worthy device, but it did occasionally leave me very frustrated.

So, if you don’t want to run all the Social Networking apps all the time,but want a device with a QWERTY keyboard, and the ability to use your favourite Social Networking sites out of the box, then certainly go and try out the INQ Chat 3G; you may be pleasantly surprised at the functionality on offer given the price, and hopefully a firmware update, or software updates will resolve the responsiveness issues I found.

As always, thanks to 3mobilebuzz for the loan of the device, and if you want more information, or to purchase an INQ Chat 3G, then head to the 3Store to see more.

Over at mynokiablog.com Hiren has written a very comprehensive review of the new Nokia N900, covering a lot of aspects of the device, including a large number of screenshots.  If you are interested in this particular Maemo device, then head over to the mynokiablog.com website here.

Well, it was nice to have the LG 42″ LED-Backlit LCD TV for review for a week, before it nows gets boxed back up, and shipped onto our competition winner.  We’ll be inviting the winner to write up a review of the TV again in a while once they have really got used to all the features, but for now, here’s a brief review from me…

The screen is nice and bright, and even though one of the first things I did was to turn on the Auto Energy Saving feature, the device still offered a nice bright image at all times.  The 2 SCART sockets and 4 HDMI sockets offer more options than most people could need, but I guess allows for future options too.  The setup of the device was nice and easy, with an auto-setup running when the TV first powered on.  In fact, a small minor point, but my current LCD TV has a power button on the front (as well as a little button on the side; whereas the LG TV only has the button on the side), and it was amazing how much the family and I missed the easy to use front power button.

However, one thing I really liked was the fact the TV ships with 2 remotes.  Yes, two remotes.  I loved the main remote with the ability to illuminate the keys, and having full access to control the TV at all times, but you know what; I liked the smaller, simpler remote even more.  With a much smaller selection of buttons (power, input selection, channel and volume controls, and not much more!) this remote was easier to let the kids lose with knowing they could not get to the menus and accidentally make changes to the settings.  Whether in the long term this second remote is actually useful I don’t know, but for a short trial, is was certainly useful.

Less useful was the lack of auto-SCART selection I’m used to from my current TV, and I had some issues with the headphone socket not providing sound if a cable was plugged into the headphone socket on power on.  The second wasn’t a major issue, but the first did seem strange, and may have been a configuration setting that I missed.

On top of the ability to play TV / video information from SCART and HDMI sockets, the TV also features the ability to play media from USB devices and from Bluetooth devices too.  The Bluetooth can also be used to play back the audio via Bluetooth Headphones without disturbing others, which is a nice touch too.

I mentioned the “frameless design” when the TV first launched (see here); in fact, it’s more of a seamless design, in that there is no bezel where the TV image finishes and the black surround starts, but the main thing about this TV that does stand out is how slim it is; at 2.9cm it’s obviously crying out to be wall mounted (something I was unable to do, but maybe our competition winner will…); and I did feel that if the device was being placed on a TV stand, the extra cost of buying a slimmer device may seem excessive; although the power saving and image quality the LED backlighting offered did seem to me a worthwhile expenditure even without wall mounting the TV.

When not wall mounting the TV, it stands on a very nice square base, which is smaller than many of the normal bases, presumably due to the thinner nature of the screen.

Will I miss this TV?  Well, yes, in a way; the extra little technology (eg Bluetooth) and the sheer quality and brightness of the image will be missed, but for me, it’s not actually a great improvement over my current TV to warrant an upgrade right now; but if you are looking to increase your screen size, or move up to your first LCD TV, then this Full HD TV should at least be on the shortlist; the power savings and brightness of the LED Backlighting may not be obvious in store (where most TVs will be set to maximum brightness irrespective of the power draw), but are well worth factoring into the long term costs of the TV.

As to our competition winner; we’re in the process of contacting them, and arranging with LG for the TV to be shipped on to them, and we’ll announce who won later this week, and will look forward to seeing their review of the device in due course.

Thanks yet again to LG and The LG Blog for offering this competition prize, and thanks to everyone who entered.

Let’s start with the first issue; actually, it’s not called a MiFi in the UK, it’s called the Novatel Wireless Intelligent Mobile Hotspot 2352, as 3UK own the trademark MiFi in the UK (although Novatel Wireless own the MiFi trademark in the US).  So, the device competes with the 3UK MiFi device, and in some ways is better, and in others, not quite as good.

Firstly, the downside: it is currently only available SIM-free (for around £200), which is a lot more than the 3UK MiFi, which can be picked up for £50.  Of course, the 3UK is locked to 3UK, and only works on 3UK, whereas the Novatel MiFi is not locked, and will pick up the internet access point from whatever SIM is put into it, making it more suitable for anyone looking to use a network other than 3UK.

In terms of ease of use, it has one advantage over the 3UK MiFi; when you turn it on (by pressing and holding the power button) that’s it; it sorts everything out, and “just works”, whereas the 3UK unit needs you to then press and hold the 3G button as a second step.  The Novatel device also gives you access to the microSD card slot via the web interface, whereas the 3UK device only allows access to the card slot via the USB cable.

There are other minor differences; eg the 3UK device comes with the wireless encryption key under the battery inside the unit, but also on a piece of card to allow easy setup, whereas the Novatel only has the code attached to the inside of the battery cover.  This, at first glance, seems better, as it allows the device to remain powered whilst you connect a new device, but I discovered that every time I took the battery cover, my natural instinct was to turn the unit back the right way up (to allow you to see the status lights to see whether the new device had connected), and the battery would loosen enough to switch the unit off.  A minor point, and obviously once everything is setup, not a problem in real usage.

Another minor difference is that the Novatel device will work on 2G as well as 3G; whereas 3UK only offer a 3G-only Mobile Broadband service (although their handsets can roam onto Orange’s 2G network, their broadband devices can’t), and although I wouldn’t want to share a 2G connection to multiple devices, a slow connection may be better than no connection…

I’ll be continuing to trial the device for a little while, but at first glances it looks a nice unit, although everyone I speak to says the 3UK MiFi has one of the best 3G radio components available today, so it will be interesting to see how the Novatel device works under the same conditions that I tried the 3UK MiFi under…

We’ve mentioned Locale for Android a few times before, so we thought we should talk in some more detail about the application, the power it offers, and why, here at UK Gadgeteer where we like integration, it’s caught our attention.

Locale is designed to take actions based on your location (and many other triggers); a typical example is that of selecting a Silent profile when you arrive at a certain location, but Locale offers a lot more than that…

(more…)

A number of Android apps catch my attention, and My Tracks is one of those apps.  Like Locale (mentioned briefly here), it is a simple (and free) application which offers a useful facility; recording your journey, but being able to share that information with others.  In essence, it’s a bit like Nokia’s SportsTracker (which offered both the ability to record the information, but also share it via a website).

Having used My Tracks to record your trip, whether it’s a walk, cycle ride, or drive, you then have a variety of options of what to do with the data; upload to Google Maps, upload to Google Docs, or email or export gpx or kml files.  Whilst using the software, you also have various options for seeing real time statistics, and even create waypoints.

I also like the way that it can interact with other applications (see here), and it seems to produce fairly accurate output too.

If you want to look at some sample outputs, the author has placed a sample Google Maps output here, although one of the Linitx guys has produced a couple of UK walks here and here; to see how useful My Tracks is; click on the end point of any of these tracks and see a whole range of useful statistics!  Also, here’s what the Google Docs output looks like.

Thanks to Andy at Linitx for the screenshots of his lunchtime walks too!

Well, I’ve had an INQ Mini 3G (courtesy of 3mobilebuzz) for a couple of weeks now, and overall, I’ve been quietly impressed by the phone.  From the automatic importing of Facebook and Skype contacts into the Contacts list, to the fact the phone has support for these Social Networking sites, and Twitter support, and all for less than £50!

Now, let’s be honest, I’m used to smartphones, and there are a number of little things that annoy me with the device; the start up sound can’t be cancelled by pressing a key (as per Nokia devices), and the whole menu system is a little bright and colourful for my taste (and with no theme support, no opportunity to change it either), but these are minor niggles, and certainly don’t detract from the phone.

Supporting Social Networking sites directly in the device, combined with the standard 3UK support of Windows Live Messenger makes this a well supported device, and well worth a look.  I liked the fact the homepage supports 3 widgets (I used weather, world clock and an RSS feed of the BBC website, all options built into the phone), although I have heard some people warn there may be a memory leak, as I’ve heard of people needing to reboot the phone after a long time turned on with widgets in use.  That’s a key issue to me; I rarely turn my phone off, so long term stability is key, and it maybe that a firmware / application update is needed to resolve these issues; hopefully they will be addressed before the INQ Chat ships.

The phone also shipped with Google Mail and Google Maps (v2.3.2; nice!), which was useful for people like me who use Google a lot, and the phone can be used with GooSync to sync data from the likes of Google Calendar too.  Personally, I found the calendar a bit simple when entering new entries, but I suspect most people will use the phone linked to Google or Outlook, and not enter directly onto the device (again, I’ve been spoilt by smartphones offering a decent Calendar app).  In fact, the only thing missing is the Last.fm scrobbling support that the INQ1 had, and it’s still not clear why INQ dropped this function, especially with the likes of Last.fm and Spotify moving more into the mobile space…

Again, a personal point, but it uses miniUSB (not the end of the world, although many manufacturers are moving to microUSB), which is used for both the headphones and charging.  With Bluetooth support for a headset in the car, this isn’t the end of the world, but I’m not a fan of the combined port; let’s hope when INQ move to Android next year we’ll see a dedicated headphone socket on their devices.  Whilst I’m looking at the hardware, I wasn’t a big fan of the way the rear cover clipped on (it did have a release button at the top, which makes it better than the Sony Ericsson T715 I reviewed here), but only just, and I couldn’t find any sight of the other 6 coloured interchangeable backs on the 3Store, so right now you’ll be stuck with the red back).

Let’s be honest, for the price and based on the software on this device; if you are not in the market for a smartphone but want connectivity options to keep upto date with your Social Networking sites, then the INQ Mini 3G should be high on your list of options, if not at the top.  Here at UK Gadgeteer, I’ve covered a number of hints and tips over the last few weeks, and INQ Mobile should be congratulated for providing online support, and being willing to engage with their customers.

When the INQ Chat arrives with the QWERTY keyboard, and GPS, it’ll be interesting to see whether INQ can still compete in the mid-tier marketplace against devices like the Nokia E63…

Oh, and finally, a small point, but having performed a master reset of the device to return it, the phone still had all the contacts on it, plus the sign-in details for Skype, so if you ever decide to sell your INQ Mini 3G, be careful about removing all your personal data as well as performing a master reset.

Well, I’ve had a LG Chocolate BL40 in for review for a few weeks now, and overall I have been impressed with the phone.  I already covered my initial impressions of the phone here, so I’ll add to that review.  Having now used the phone in a variety of lighting conditions, the 21:9 screen is still wonderful to use; bright and clear in most situations.  The split screen functions within the phone are still useful, although as this isn’t a true smartphone, some of the apps still feel a little limited compared to other more advanced phones on the market.

In use, the size hasn’t proved a major problem, although even today there have been comments like “that’s a large phone”.  The touchscreen is nice to use, and a great improvement on some previous LG models, with the whole phone feeling more responsive, and easier to use.  Some games and other Java applications seemed not well adjusted to the large screen size, causing buttons to appear very small, but this is a minor problem.

Overall, this is a very nice phone to use, and stylish to boot!

In fact there are only a couple of downsides to the phone.  Firstly, given the phone is a designer device, we wonder how many of the users will take advantage of the whole range of features available.  Secondly, with the rise of phones supporting Social Networking sites via built in applications (such as the INQ Mini 3G, or the newer LG GW520, reviews of both phones soon!), and the lack of such applications on the phone may not have been an issue a few months ago, but now seems a little oversight.

Allowing for these small concerns, I’ll miss the phone, which is available on a number of networks.

Thanks to LGBlog for lending me the phone.

I know INQ will be moving to Android next year, but the INQ Mini and INQ Chat are two key devices for early 2010 for INQ, and from the first looks, this phone may well achieve great things for INQ…

When you turn it on, the homescreen includes access to the Switcher app, which allows you to scroll through the key applications on the phone.  Included on that list, right next to Contacts, are Facebook and Twitter icons, showing the Social Networking aspects of this phone are key to INQ. Not just that, but having inserted a SIM into the phone, there were no lists of access points to choose from (as you would with Nokia’s Symbian) and in fact, the phone seemed to benefit from easy internet access, offering and performing updates in the background.  The level of integration is impressive; the Facebook app will not just download your Contacts from Facebook, but will include their photo and their latest status update direct from within the Contacts app; it can’t bring phone numbers down to the phone, but that’s a licensing limitation by Facebook, not a technical limitation in the phone.

The phone supports 3 widgets on the homescreen, the first two are weather (which needs configuring with a city) and world clock.  Obviously the phone has the normal range of additional 3UK specific applications, which we’ll look at as part of our main review of the phone.

There are many more features of this phone to study before we publish a more detailed review, but on first looks, this phone shows some very impressive features.  At only £60, it’s a bit of a bargain too, with little touches like SyncML support (so sites such as GooSync can be used to sync your Google information to the phone), and with the QWERTY keyboard and GPS support, the INQ Chat should be even better, even with it’s higher price…

This is an interesting phone, and shows that both the main mobile phone companies and the mobile networks can work together to produce a phone capable of more than just calls!  The phone (as we mentioned before) has Twitter and Facebook support, as well as the usual 3UK features (Skype on 3, Email on 3, Windows Live Messenger etc) and the phone also has some RSS support too.

Some features were well integrated, eg if you take a picture, the menu then offers to Send the photo to Twitter or Facebook as well as the more usual options.  However, others, such as the Social Networking apps themselves, weren’t so easy to find; Facebook wasn’t too bad, as it’s available from Menu / Messaging, but Twitter was only found in Menu / Entertainment / Applications, whereas, it would have made more sense in the Messaging area alongside Facebook.

However, in that app list, there were a number of other useful applications, including AccuWeather, YouTube, Yell, as well as the 3UK specific apps.  Also, was a Permier Football Scores app (although this requires you to pay a subscription to use it at all).

In other terms, the phone, and 3UK’s integration was good (personally I don’t like 3UK taking over both softkeys on the homescreen, but this is a minor point).  I did like the way that 3UK recognised I had moved my 3 SIM into a different phone, and automatically sent the latest 3UK settings to the phone (including sending an SMS in advance telling me what was happening, and how to accept the settings).

However, all was not perfect; I didn’t like the back cover, which is held on with 2 clips at the top and 2 more at the bottom, therefore needing some force to remove it; no nice buttons / slide to remove here.  Okay, the rear cover only gives access to the battery, SIM and microSD card slot, so probably does not need to come off often, but it still detracted from the phone.  Also, the phone uses a proprietary connection for both the handset and charging; given the general move by the other manufacturers towards microUSB, this was a shame (some, like LG, are already shipping phones with microUSB).

In a normal week, I would be saying that this is a really good, all round phone, but I’ve just had the new INQ Mini delivered, and that seems to offer a similar package that’s easier to use, and has less negatives, but that’s for another article…

The Sony Ericsson T715 is available from 3UK in Pink and Silver, and thanks to 3mobilebuzz for the loan of the phone.

I’ve had access to one of these devices since yesterday, and I am quietly impressed by the device, and it’s capabilities; it’s not perfect (more later), but it certainly is a very useful device…

Although it costs a little more than a standard 3 Mobile Broadband USB Modem, the extra facilities it offers may make it worthwhile for many.  Basically, it shares it’s 3G connection over Wi-Fi to upto 5 devices at the same time.  Now, the 3G network speed is not enough for all 5 devices to be streaming audio or video, but would cope with all 5 checking mail and web surfing.  In fact, I’ve been sat here with 2 laptops connected to it, with one streaming Spotify music for over 2 hours now without any glitches or problems.

One problem with the device is that it is 3G / HSPA only; it will not fallback onto the Orange 2G data network (like a 3UK Handset would), so if you are out of coverage of 3UK’s own 3G network, it will not work at all.  3UK claim to be at 70% population with 3G, which is still one of the highest (if not the highest) for pure 3G connectivity, but the lack of fallback may leave you stranded in the short term.  Last night, 3UK showed their plans for a “monster” 3G network for 2010, which fills in a lot of gaps in their current coverage, so as this better network comes online, this problem will fade to some degree.

One key use of this device is for Wi-Fi only devices, such as the iPod Touch, the Nokia Internet Tablets, PSPs etc. and certainly all these devices gain extra features with connectivity, and it’s very easy to just turn the device on and be able to access the internet anywhere (with signal).  The battery is claimed to last 5 hours, and althougwe haven’t yet got to 5 hours of usage, it’s certainly a plausible figure.  If needed, you can turn off the wireless to limit it to local wired USB connection only, or you can turn off 3G to just give you a local wireless network hub for file sharing.  The network name (SSID) is quite obviously a 3UK device, so you may want to change it (all mangement needs to be performed via a wired cable connection).  You can also change the encryption key, although given this is listed under the battery, it may be easier to leave this alone for convenience.

Other positive points? 3UK are trying to ensure nothing (legal) is blocked by their Internet connection, and certainly everything we accessed worked fine without any issues.  As 3UK have good support for Skype, they are happy for you to run the client on your laptop.  Also interesting to note is that iPhones and iPod Touch can also use a MiFi to allow full access to Skype for calls; whether or not you are allowed to make calls on the Skype client is based on whether the connection is 3G (from the phone) or WiFi (from the phone); the fact that the WiFi access point then uses 3G is not factored in to the switch within the application, so these functions work fine too.

The only other downside we can find is that when you turn it on, you then seem to need to turn on 3G every time; it’s a shame it needs 2 buttons presses, and not just one, but this is a minor point.

The 3 MiFi will be available on Friday in Stores (and available to order online on Thursday)with two pricing options; the “Broadband 5GB 1 month” service will cost £69.99 upfront and then £15 per month for 5GB of data (with a rolling 1 month contract), or you can select the PAYG “Ready To Go” option at £99.99, which will include 3GB of data to be used over a 3 month period, and then it will move onto standard Mobile Broadband PAYG pricing.  3UK have indicated that there may be more tariffs in the future, and they will also review the 5GB limit over time too.

If you are worried about “Bill Shock” with this device (you will get warning SMSes, but as these are only available if you have the connection software installed and connect to the device via the wired USB cable, most people will never see these), 3UK have a “hard block” of £25 per month; once you hit this limit (comprised of the original tariff and then the overspend), 3UK will block the SIM for the rest of the month.  This is a nice feature to limit exposure, and you can ring up 3UK to increase or decrease this limit if you wish.  Of course, the My3 portal is accessible from any connected device (even on wireless) which gives you a live data usage figure should you wish to check how much you have used.

All in all, a useful device, and one you should consider if you want to have the capability of easily sharing your Mobile Broadband and have sufficient 3G coverage in the areas you want to use it.

Along with a select few, I was privileged to be invited to the UK launch of the new LG Black Label phone, the LG Chocolate BL40, which has taken the key Black Label features, and combined them with the S-Class UI used on the LG Arena and LG Crystal and put them into a new take on a traditional phone form factor.

The phone looks big in pictures, but it still fits into a shirt or trouser pocket.  With the tempered glass screen (as featured on the previous LG Black Label, the LG Secret), the glass is safe from scratches from keys (although whether the back is as safe isn’t as clear until I get more time with the phone).  That screen is one of the key selling points of the phone; it allows full cinematic 21:9 playback on the 4″ touchscreen, and I have to say video playback looked very impressive, even in the various lighting conditions of the London Design Museum last night.

LG have also realised this screen has great potential in other apps; and therefore within the Messaging, Scheduler and Contact apps the phone offers a split screen layout when used horizontally; in Messaging, it will show the list of SMSes on the left, and then the contents of the selected SMS on the right.  This use of the screen is very impressive, and I should also point out that they have used the additional screen space to create a more usable QWERTY on screen keyboard than previous models.  Whilst I am comparing it to previous models, the menu scrolling, the transition from portrait to landscape, and generally moving around the menus is vastly improved compared to previous phones, with no noticeable lag at all; also, when you are selecting which of the 4 homescreens to use, the thumbnail images of the homescreens actually reflect the current content of those screen, instead of a generic image; again, a little improvement in the UI that makes for a better overall experience.

The phone appears to come with about 1.5Gb of internal memory (enough for a couple of DivX optimsed movies), and should support microSD cards upto 32GB.  Finally LG has listened and separated out the USB connector (now microUSB for charging, as with the LG Crystal) and the headphone socket, and have adopted the standard 3.5mm headphone jack too.  I heard rumours of a possibility of the UK production phones shipping with a named brand set of headphones too, although this could not be confirmed, so I won’t name the brand at this stage.

I noticed little improvements throughout the whole phone; geotagging is there in the Photo application, although more impressive is the panoramic mode; once you have taken the first picture, you start scrolling (left, right, up or down) and the camera shows you where the next picture should be taken which a nice red box; no need to manually try to align the picture to get the right amount of join.  The photo app seems to support 12 pictures using the 5 megapixel camera, and that should just allow a full 360 degree picture.

Although a little bit of a noisy environment limiting testing, the phone will ship with DivX and Dolby Mobile support (as featured on a number of recent high end LG phones), giving a good rich sound to support that widescreen.  There’s an FM transmitter in there too, allowing easy use of the phone as a media player in the car.

Web browsing was acceptable, and again in landscape mode the phone has been designed to not require scrolling left to right (only vertically), which worked well on a few sample websites; also impressive was the way mobile optimised websites were zoomed in to take the best advantage of the screen, instead of just leaving small text on the left and a big white space on the right, and compared to previous phones, this zooming was smooth and fast.

In terms of other apps, a small suite of Google apps is included, which includes Google Maps (with GPS support), although still missing Latitude support.

This is a designer phone, and in my opinion, LG are getting their designs just right at the moment; sleek and stylish devices, but putting the right features into the device to allow all to use them (and the Internet) to the full.  Whether everyone will like the form factor I don’t know, but I suspect this will be a big seller for LG in the coming months.

As one of the first to be able to handle the phone and try it out, I’d like to thank the LG Blog for letting me into the launch event, and hopefully in the next few weeks, I’ll get longer to review the phone in more depth.  I believe the phone should start selling during September (maybe early October), and UK Gadgeteer will provide updates on networks and prices when it does become available.

Our review LG GD900 Crystal arrived yesterday, and I’ve been using this since then, and wanted to share some of my initial thoughts on the device.  I haven’t really had time to spend with the device yet, so some thoughts and opinions may change as I use the phone more and more.

Before this, I was using an LG Renoir on a regular basis due to the nice 8 megapixel camera, but the LG Crystal combines that camera with the new S-Class UI from the LG Arena, and seems to do a good job too.  It’s a slider, and therefore features a keypad too, which I prefer.  However, the transparent keypad is more like a touchpad, so has no real keys; in fact, within certain parts of the UI, it actually acts as a touchpad, allowing you to scroll through screens (eg your contact list) with ease.  Closing the slider can also end a call (this can be turned off), which is a nice touch too.

The phone is a nice colour, and matches in with the stylish designer look LG seem to be perfecting with all of their recent phones.  It’s moved from a proprietary LG connector to microUSB, which is a good thing (although does mean a new investment in chargers), although LG are still sharing that single port with the headset, which I don’t personally like, but on this handset may well be acceptable…

Why do I say that; well, the main drain on the battery of a modern phone is using the GPS, and simply put, this phone doesn’t have a GPS.  So, no geotagging of photos and no moving maps in Google Maps (which is included as standard on the device, but with no GPS, and the version installed not supporting Cell ID location information nor Google Latitude, it’s a little limiting).  The phone does feature WiFi and Bluetooth though, so for those looking for a stylish feature rich phone, as opposed to a SatNav workhorse, this phone really does shine.

DivX support is there again, as is TV-out, although the Dolby Mobile features of the LG Renoir and LG Arena seem to be missing.

What else has impressed me so far with the phone?  I like the way the slider covers up the camera, thereby not needing a separate camera cover (which always seem to open on it’s own on the LG Renoir), and I like the way LG has put a nicely designed battery in there, which is on show when the transparent slider is shut.  However, it appears there’s no contact or calendar syncing built into the device, which for someone who normally keeps all that data synchronized across multiple devices via syncML is a shame, but probably not a key requirement for the target market for this device.

Oh, and I like the little slip case it ships with to keep the device in good condition; and although the touch keypad is made of tempered glass, I don’t think the actual main screen is, which, without that slip case, may make it more prone to scratches (the LG Renoir equally doesn’t have a tempered glass screen, and my model is looking quite scratched up now, whereas the LG Arena, and LG Secret before that, do have the tempered glass screen, and still look wonderful even after regular use).

More opinions on this device after I’d used it for a while, but right now, it’s looking a very stylish phone that should be popular.

Last week LG launched the LG Arena, and we were invited along by LG and the LG Blog.  The LG Arena is an interesting phone, it’s not quite one of their high end devices (that position is still held by the LG Renoir, with it’s 8megapixel camera), but actually, the LG Arena may well become a very popular phone.  The screen (with a similar tempered glass protection as used on the LG Secret) seems much clearer and the new S-Class UI is even easier to use, but builds on the previous LG touchphones so it’s still quite intuitive.

There are 4 home screens, which you can flick between by swiping your finger from side to side on the screen, allowing you direct access to various functions, including your music.  The spec of the device is quite impressive (covered in more detail here); 5megapixel camera, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM transmitter (although it’s a bit hidden down in the Tools menu).  Although the device is still not truly open in terms of supporting lots of installable applications, it does come with built in Google Maps (the LG Renoir had a built in GPS, but it was mainly used for geotagging photos), Google Mail, and even Blogger access. Our first try with Google Maps was a little challenging, as it struggled to locate us, but we’ll try it again and see if it was a one off problem.

The LG Arena has a real power button on the top (previous LG phones have been using the red call hangup key), which we liked, and the proprietary combined charging /headset port has returned to the nice sliding cover similar to that found on the LG Viewty.  It has 8GB of memory built in, and yet also supports a microSD port.

LG have stated this phone is aimed at the “techno-chic”, and for those that want a good looking device with a good spec, but aren’t looking at the very top end smartphones, this phone might just suit…

We’re going to carry on testing this phone over the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here’s the new LG Arena TV advert which has just starting airing on UK TV…

(if you don’t see the video, click here)

For a small little device (102 x 60 x 20mm and weighing 115g), it packs a hell of a punch!  This device takes a 3.5mm connection from your phone, your mp3 player, your DAB radio, anything really, and produces a very rich stereo sound from a single unit.  This is achieved by the companies’ airSOUND technology to achieve this.  The T3 is designed to either hang around your neck and use your chest cavity to enrich the sound, or you can place the device on a hard surface to achieve the same affect.

It has two switches, the first a power switch to turn the unit on or off (the device has a rechargeable Lithium battery built in giving up to 10 hours music), whereas the second sets the airSOUND to either Off, Normal, or High.  The volume is controlled by the device it’s been connected to, as it has no direct volume control.  We found the neckstrap a little small, so left the device on a solid wooden desk for a few hours, and connected it up to the LG Renoir, which sports Dolby Mobile as well, and wow, what a nice rich sound we heard from the selection of mp3 tracks we had on the LG Renoir.

Keeping the Dolby Mobile turned on seemed to make the sound even richer, and allowed us to hear additional background lyrics that we had never even noticed before when using in ear headphones, or playing the same tracks through a normal music system.

Orbitsound explain their airSOUND technology with the following:

“The problem with personal music systems like the iPod® or the Walkman® is that you have to wear headphones. And the trouble with headphones is that they are not really stereo – just two separated mono signals clamped to your ears.”

“Listening to stereo means hearing the sound from both speakers with both ears – that’s what gives you the stereo soundfield in between the speakers. With headphones you can only hear the left speaker signal in the left ear and the right speaker in the right: most people therefore hear the sound in the middle or back of their head, as opposed to in front and around you where the soundstage is supposed to be. With the orbitsound T3, the music is literally in the air, all around your head. This means that the sound from the T3 is a real spatial stereo soundfield. With the T3 you are not isolated from the environmental sounds around you, as you are with headphones; you can listen to your entertainment and still be aware of traffic noise and people around or behind you in the street.”

To be honest, that’s the only downside we see to the unit; not everyone wants to hear other people’s music, and so for situations like a train, this device will not be popular, but for listening or sharing the music with others, we think it gives a good sound.

We’re going to give this device some more testing, including looking at battery life, as well as giving it a greater variety of music and connect it to more devices and will report back.

The device costs £49 (which includes the device, neckstrap, mains charger and a short 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable) and is available direct from orbitsound’s online store.

We can’t take the credit for finding this device, that should go to Shiny Shiny, but once we saw the device, we thought we should let you know about it too.  The IDAPT I3 can charge 3 devices at any time, but the beauty of the device is that those 3 charging slots use interchangeable “tips”.  Buying from Amazon, you get 6 tips in the deal (Nokia 2, Samsung 2, Sony Ericsson 2, iPod, miniUSB, and NDS for Nintendo DS-Lite).  Other tips are available, either direct from the IDAPT, or via Amazon.  The tips are swapped by pressing the two buttons either side of the tip…

Even better, the device has an on/off switch, allowing you to save electricity when it’s not charging…

The nice thing about this charger is that most devices will stay upright whilst charging, and still be easily accessible.  The only downside is that as it’s not a true cradle supporting data too, devices like your iPod will need removing to sync your music library.

Of course, this will be interesting for devices such as the new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic or the Nokia N85, both of which has their charging sockets on the top of the phone (which limits any decent cradle ever being available for them).

We say buy one of these IDAPT I3 units (or the 2 port version once it’s available) and have it near to the front door, and then pick up your fully charged phone, camera and iPod on the way out (or use it to charge all the phones in the house).  An interesting device, and just £35 too…

Update: You can now get an even greater selection of charging tips, including the new microUSB format, which is being adopted by many mobile phone manufacturers as a single standard connector.

Well, our review Vodafone netbook arrived on Friday, and we’ve been using it on and off since then; in fact, this article was written completely on the netbook!  Having turned it on, we were impressed the battery came sufficiently charged to get going, although the completion of the XP install took quite some time (as always).  Having got that working, we were impressed by the screen; the 8.9″ screen is nice and clear, and runs at 1024 x 600, which is just big enough; less than 1024 width causes problems on lots of websites, although the 600 height is often not enough, with many websites needed additional scrolling to read.

One thing that the Dell Mini 9 doesn’t have, which was brought out by all that additional vertical scrolling is the lack of a scroll area on the touchpad, something we are used to from larger laptops.  Having said that, the addition of an external scroll mouse has removed most of the problems with the touchpad, by virtue of not using it

Although the whole keyboard is less than full size, a number of the symbol keys are even smaller again, which makes them more difficult to touch type on (eg the comma key is the same size as the main keys but the period key next to it is smaller), but generally the keyboard is acceptable, especially given the size of the unit.

In terms of software installed, there’s a nice range pre-installed, including Microsoft Works and viewers for the various Office document types, Dell video chat and webcam software, McAfee (30 day license only though), and a WiFi / Bluetooth connection application.  We were a little disappointed at the lack of IE7 and the 129Mb of Microsoft patches that were needed straight away, which has of course eaten further into the 8GB SSD Flash it came with.

Overall, our initial impressions are that it’s a nice, small little laptop, and very easy to use and cart around.  Our only other problem; despite what the Vodafone website says, the device claims we are only in a GPRS area, ie no 3G, so we’ve yet to test the Mobile Broadband in anger; more updates later in the week on that.

Update: The Dell Mini 9 does have vertical scroll support in the touchpad, but only after a fresh boot; if you use standby mode, this support seems to get lost on resume, especially if an external mouse is attached, whereas it’s fine on a cold boot even with an external mouse plugged in.

Oh, and once we had connected to Vodafone in a 3G area, all was sorted out, including then listing the original location as a 3G supported area.

Well, after 4 months of daily use, the LG Viewty has finally been replaced by something smaller, lighter, better built for the impacts of every day life (it has a tempered glass screen, which should resist all manner of attempts to scratch the screen), yet still featuring the 5 megapixel camera, DivX support, and 120fps video capture. On top of that it adds a slider function with real buttons (which makes dialling calls and writing texts a little easier than the Viewty). However, we will miss the nice sliding cover over the headphone / charging port from the Viewty, although we won’t miss the lack of ability of sending all contacts via Bluetooth (a feature the new phone does have).

We’ll see how the new LG Secret fares over the next few weeks before we provide an in depth review, but right now it’s looking pretty good. Announced on Thursday last week, LG have kindly provided us an early production sample in advance of the full availability in June.