Latest iPhone vs. Palm Pre vs. Android G1
How do the new smart phones stack up in terms of features, sticker price and total cost?
BillShrink, a website that offers free personalized analysis of cellphone, credit card and gas costs, has lined the phones up in an easy-to-read chart. It compares …
* Apple’s new iPhone 3G S, which goes on sale next Friday
* Palm Pre, which went on sale last Saturday
* HTC’s G1, the first cellphone running on Google’s Android platform
BillShrink’s bottom line properly draws attention to the total cost of ownership over the life of a 2 year contract.
It shows the iPhone on AT&T (T) — at $3,799 for unlimited voice and messaging — to be most expensive by far: 20% more than the G1 on T-Mobile (DT) and 46% more than the Pre on Sprint (S).
But the chart also makes it clear that in several respects you get what you pay for. For example, the new (entry-level) iPhone comes with twice the Pre’s memory capacity and 16 times the G1’s (although the G1’s memory can be expanded to at least 16GB).
And the chart actually underplays the vast advantage the Apple’s U.S. App Store (with nearly 50,000 programs) has over Android’s Marketplace (nearly 5,000) Palm’s App Catalog (18).
As for the total cost of ownership, your mileage may vary. If you don’t need unlimited voice and text messaging, the iPhone and the Pre can each be had for $69 per month, for a total cost of $1,878.76 over two years (taxes not included).
iPhone 3G S
First, it’s great news that the “old” iPhone 3G 8GB model now sells for $99, effective today. It’s a great device that will get even better on June 17, when the new iPhone OS 3.0 arrives free of charge. This is an incredible smartphone, and Apple just dropped the price floor in a manner that RIM, LG, Nikon, Palm, and others will eventually have to respond to.
However, this article is going to focus on the new iPhone 3G S hardware vs. the older hardware. It will not focus on the features of the new iPhone OS, since most of those come to the older models when they upgrade anyway.
As is common with Apple, the hardware has been significantly improved while the price points remain the same. Let’s look into the details about just what Apple added to the iPhone line today.
I’ll start with the stuff that has been long-rumored, and we all more or less expected:
* RAM increased from 128MB to 256MB. This is nice, as many apps were memory-constrained. Should be less crashing now.
* More storage. Base model is 16GB; next up is 32G.
* Better camera. Includes 3.0 MP, auto-focus, and auto-macro. Actually, it has new camera hardware and software to go with it. I find auto-macro a pleasant surprise. Taking pictures of things close up can be interesting. Auto-focus lets you tap an area, and it will focus and adjust white balance automatically. Nice.
* Same form factor as before. You can keep your old 3G case.
* Price in the U.S. remains $199 and $299 (with a two-year AT&T contract).
A faster processor was also rumored, and I bet is in place. However, Apple does not advertise processor speed on the Tech Specs for the iPhone, so a breakdown on the new device, or an Apple representative confirmation, will be required for us to know that for sure.
In traditional Apple fashion, the company sprung other upgrades on us as well. Most of these had also been rumored, though with less certainty. The new iPhones include:
* Video recording. This is part of the new camera. It captures 30fps VGA video with autofocus and auto white balance. The video shows up in the library with your photos. Just one tap and you can share via email, MMS, YouTube and MobileMe.
* Voice control. This can be used for dialing numbers, or playing tunes in various ways (e.g., “play more songs by Radiohead”), or even asking it what it’s playing now (similar to what other iPods can do).
* Built-in compass. This works with Maps so that you can tap to have it orient the map the direction you’re facing.
* Accessibility settings. Various abilities such as reading text to you, color inversion, and even piping audio to different ears for people hard of hearing.
* Nike+ support built in. Allows you to use the Nike+ sensor in your shoes.
* Hardware encryption. A security feature aimed at businesses.
* Internet tethering. Share the phone’s high-speed connection on your laptop. Set it and forget it. “Just works” over USB or Bluetooth. This requires carrier support, and AT&T so far does not allow it. The fact that it’s built into the iPhone is going to put some pressure on carriers to allow this.
* Improved battery life. Now get 9 hours on Wi-Fi, 10 watching video, 30 of audio playback, 12 of 2G talk, and 5 of 3G talk. These are about 15 percent to 20 percent higher than before.
* Locate my iPhone. This is for MobileMe users only. It allows you to find the iPhone when you’ve left it someplace. It shows a map with its location, sounds an alarm on the device (even if the phone is in silent mode), and displays a message for whomever finds it. And, if you fear the worst, you can use MobileMe to wipe the data contents off the device.
And all of these features have APIs that developers can tap into, so who knows what other cool things these features will bring?
You get all these features, including double the storage space for the same prices as before. Such a deal. I have an 8GB original iPhone, and you can bet I’m getting the 32GB model as soon as possible.
Latest iPhone rumors all together
Having trouble keeping up with the flood of iPhone rumors in advance of Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, which opens next Monday?
The Green Room Blog has done the tech world a favor and summarized them all — or at least the ones we’ve heard — in the color-coded graphic shown at right.
The rumors are annotated with links to the blogs and news articles that reported them.
How Useful Is Microsoft’s New Search Offering Bing?
Windows Live Search didn’t go over too well with the online masses. Few, if any, moved from search industry leader (that’s an understatement) Google. I remember the worst part about doing a fresh Windows install was changing IE’s defaults from Microsoft’s Live services, and replacing Live Search with Google as the default search engine was first priority. So how does new search offering Bing stack up, especially from a web working point of view? You may have already formed your own opinion, but here’s my take.
Basic Search
Before looking at some of its more advanced features, let’s compare it in terms of a straight-up, simple keyword search on a subject close to my heart. Finding information on Apple is a part of my job, and I run Apple-related searches on an hourly basis, if not even more frequently, over the course of the day.
Searching just for the keyword “Apple,” I found the results fairly telling. Bing returned mostly product pages and sub-sections of the official Apple site. While useful to some degree, these pages are not generally the kind of thing that I’m looking for.
Google returns far more context in the first page of results, including Wikipedia results, news results, the Apple store, Apple Developer Connection, and Slashdot pages relating to the subject. This wider view provides much more material for actually accumulating knowledge about any particular subject.
No Blog Search
Bing looks a lot like Google, and it has a lot of the same features, in the same places. Along the top, you have different search options. A news search is available, along with videos, images, and something called “xRank“, which displays the most popular search results.
Notably lacking, though, is a blog search like the one Google has. The news results page in general is far less powerful and detailed than Google’s, and less easy to navigate. There are blogger rankings in the xRank results, but these appear to be more of a popularity contest and less of a useful feature.
More Advanced Searches
Using keywords to try to deliver instantly useful results for things like travel and quick calculation is definitely something that comes in handy in a search engine. Looking up “travel boston” returned nearly identical results in both search engines, though I did appreciate Bing’s “related searches” in the left-hand column. You can turn on related searches in Google, but they’re more hit or miss than Bing, and they’re switched off by default.
Performing a local search showed another vast gap between the two engines, though. Entering “restaurants near” followed by my postal code returned a long list of actual restaurants and a map displaying their proximity in Google, while it just returned a regular list of results, and not particularly useful ones at that, when entered into Bing.
Bing does calculations just as well as Google, though neither search engine provides a really smart or intuitive way to do currency conversion as of yet, in my opinion.
Verdict
For now, Microsoft still seems to be playing catch-up. Maybe it should stop being so concerned with name/branding changes, and start trying to make leaps in usability instead. This web worker is definitely sticking with Google, at any rate.
New Android Phone Debuts, Looks Like a Blackberry
Starting today handset manufacturer Kogan began accepting pre-orders for the second Android phone, the Kogan Agora Pro, which makes its debut in Australia for $399 AU ($256 US). Unlike T-Mobile’s G1, this phone comes unlocked for use on any carrier. However, what’s really interesting about this second coming of the Googlephone is it’s resemblance to a Blackberry. Will the combination of the Blackberry-inspired keyboard with downloadable iPhone-esque apps be the killer combination?
In addition to the Kogan Agora Pro, a toned down version called the Kogan Agora, will also be available for $299 AU ($192 US). The plain vanilla Agora won’t include a camera, Wi-Fi, or GPS. Both phones arrive unlocked phone for use on any Australian Carrier and come standard with a 624 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, a microSD slot, 3G network, a touch-sensitive 320×240 2.5″ screen, Bluetooth, central navigation key, and a backlit full QWERTY keyboard.
Best of Both Worlds?
What’s most appealing about the Kogan Agora, at least based on these specs, is its promise to deliver the “best of both worlds.” It combines the apps and music of the iPhone with the form factor and keypad of Blackberry.
As much as some people love the iPhone, it’s touch keyboard takes some getting used to. Some people never really get used to it - especially former Blackberry users or those who are comfortable with a two-hand typing experience. Switching to the iPhone is a move these folks need to think carefully about. Although they gain a combo media player/phone and applications galore at their fingertips, they have to sacrifice the typing experience they consider to be ideal. For heavy email users and texters, giving up the keyboard may be a deal-breaker.
Then along came Google’s Android OS. Now you can have both music and apps and the possibility of using a real hardware-based keyboard. Unfortunately for Blackberry addicts, it first arrived on T-Mobile’s G1 which came with a slideout keyboard. That was close, but it was hardly a recreation of the Blackberry experience.
The Kogan Agora, on the other hand, looks like the Blackberry (or perhaps the Blackjack) and includes all the Android goodness, too. Will this be the ideal combo? A Blackberry-esque media player that you can fill with downloadable apps? We’ll have to wait and see once the phone arrives and reviews come in, but it definitely looks promising.
G1 vs. iPhone: The tale of the tape
Apple’s iPhone 3G and the G1 with Google unveiled on Tuesday have a lot in common.
Both are smart phones designed for users who want easier access to the Web than is offered by the current generation of RIM BlackBerries.
They share a lot of features — high res (320 x 480 pixel) color displays, motion sensors, support for GPS and Bluetooth 2.0, and venues for third-party apps. And they share some of the same flaws — lack of video capability and full cut-and-paste text editing, to name just two.
But there are real differences, which we’ve tried to summarize in the table below. If you spot something we’ve missed, let us know in the comment stream and we’ll update the chart.
Android Phones: Here We Go Again?
It’s been widely reported that the first phone using Google’s “Android” operating system will be announced for sale by T-Mobile this month - perhaps as soon as Tuesday. With a full-fledged operating system aimed squarely at web users, it’s worth thinking about the impact that this announcement will have on web workers.
The obvious competitor to match Android phones up with is the Apple iPhone, which has become the new darling of many high-tech workers. While the iPhone has its warts and its detractors, it also has many committed users, and recent software updates seem to have cured many of the early teething pains. If you’re already locked into an iPhone contract, the launch of Android phones probably means nothing to you. But what if you haven’t jumped yet? How do you choose between the two? Here’s a short list of points to consider.
1. System Integration: With the iPhone, Apple makes the hardware and the software, depending on phone carriers to supply the network. With Android, the story is more fragmented: Google makes the software, signs up hardware vendors to make the phones, and gets carriers involved as well. This gives Apple an undeniable edge on integration, just as they have in the operating systems arena when compared to Windows; when you own the hardware and the software stack, it’s easier to ensure a uniform, working user experience. On the other side, Google can hope to benefit from competition and innovation on the hardware side - and indeed, the specs for the initial Android phone, with a keyboard, good Bluetooth support, and a decent camera, put it ahead of the iPhone in some respects.
2. Carrier Choice: In the United States, universal 3G coverage is still a myth. If you live in an area that T-Mobile serves well but AT&T leaves blank, that’s a point for Android. If Android phones get picked up by multiple carriers, they’ll have a wider potential audience.
3. Politics: The iPhone is looking like an increasingly-closed platform, with seemingly arbitrary decisions being made about who can sell software for it. Android is open from the start, with a promise of open access for application distribution as well as open source for the operating system itself. But while this will appeal to some developers, it’s unlikely to matter to end users - who will care more about whether Android’s openness gives them more or better applications to choose from.
4. User Interface - Looking at the early builds of Android, the best you could say was that they worked. But they had nowhere near the slickness and user experience of the iPhone. The final release version of Android may catch up here, but I suspect that the “wow” factor will still be higher for the iPhone.
T-Mobile and Google will undoubtedly be delighted if they get all-night campers to buy the first Android phones. It strikes me that’s unlikely to happen; few companies get that sort of visceral consumer response that Apple has been able to cultivate. But there are enough points in favor of Android that I think it will get some traction in the web worker and high tech community. Most likely, though, it won’t take sales directly from the iPhone. Rather, they’ll both continue the pressure on Windows Mobile, which may end up being the third-place also-ran among the tech elite.