The Connected Circuit

Two days ago the guys over at Plastic Logic announced their partnership with Barnes & Noble as their exclusive ebook store provider now they are poised to replicate the experience of Amazon’s Kindle Whispernet experience with their partnership with AT&T as their 3G data provider. So what do we not know yet? If you’ll have to pay a monthly fee for using AT&T’s service and whether or not you’ll be able to enjoy connectivity on the global scale.

Full Press Release below:

“PLASTIC LOGIC EREADER WILL WIRELESSLY CONNECT
USING AT&T 3G NETWORK

eReader Built for Mobile Business Professionals to Debut in 2010

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, JULY 22, 2009
–
Plastic Logic announced today that AT&T’s*
3G network will provide the mobile broadband connection for the Plastic Logic Reader,
the eReader created for mobile business professionals, when it launches in 2010.

The Plastic Logic Reader, which is also Wi-Fi enabled, is the ideal companion for busy,
on-the-go business professionals who want to keep up to date on key information and
who need to read and review multiple documents throughout the day. The Plastic Logic
device is about the size of an 8.5 x 11 inch pad of paper, less than a ¼ inch thick and
weighs less than many print magazines. The innovative eReader features the largest
screen in the industry and an intuitive touch screen user interface.

“We’re extremely proud to be able to offer the Plastic Logic Reader with the nation’s
fastest 3G network through AT&T. This alliance is a pillar in our strategy to provide
mobile business professionals with a device that delivers a great reading experience,
and is fully connected through 3G and Wi-Fi to deliver easy access to digital content,”
said Richard Archuleta, CEO of Plastic Logic.

The Plastic Logic Reader is unique among its competitors due to its plastic display,
which is based on the company’s revolutionary plastic electronics technology. The
eReader features the first ever commercial high-quality plastic display and an
outstanding E Ink reading experience. Its battery lasts days, instead of hours. Designed
specifically with mobile business users in mind, the Plastic Logic Reader will connect its
users with their desired business and professional newspapers, books, periodicals and
magazine content and will support the document formats business users need, including
PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents.

“The Plastic Logic Reader is an impressive device and we look forward to providing the
wireless connectivity that will keep business professionals connected to the news,
information and entertainment they desire while on the go,” said Glenn Lurie, president-
Emerging Devices and Resale, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “There is
tremendous market potential for electronic reading devices and we look forward to
powering this revolutionary device with the nation’s fastest 3G network.”

Users will be able to connect to content and download it wirelessly through AT&T’s 3G
network, which offers the best wireless coverage worldwide. Built on the GSM family of
technologies, the de facto wireless world standard, AT&T’s 3G wireless network brings
enormous economies of scale to electronic manufacturers who are eager to cost-
effectively incorporate wireless technology in specialty devices. AT&T devices work in
more than 200 countries and regions. AT&T is also the nation’s largest Wi-Fi provider,
with more than 20,000 hotspots in the United States and more than 90,000 hotspots
globally in 89 countries through roaming agreements.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Pricing and availability of the Plastic Logic Reader will be announced when the product
begins shipping in early 2010.

To stay current with information on the Plastic Logic Reader, please visit
http://www.plasticlogic.com.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc.
under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About Plastic Logic

Plastic Logic’s mission is to lead a revolution in the way people acquire, organize and consume
information. We are using our proprietary technology leadership in plastic electronics to create a
range of innovative products. Our first product, an eReader for mobile business professionals, will
enter the marketplace in 2010. Founded in 2000 by researchers out of the Cambridge University
Cavendish Laboratory, Plastic Logic has research and development in Cambridge, England; high-
volume, state-of-the-art manufacturing in Dresden, Germany; and executive management,
product engineering, sales and marketing headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more
information please go to http://www.plasticlogic.com.”

--written by Peter To--

The iPhone 3GS launch is almost upon us, but before you pack your sleeping bag, lawn chair and a gallon of coffee to wait in line to get Apple’s new cream of the crop gadget, there are a few things you should know.

For those existing customers who are going in expecting to be able to acquire this at the subsidy price at $199 for the 16 GB and $299 for the 32 GB, you had better check to see if you qualify to actually get the iPhone 3GS at the discounted price. You can check by either calling *639# on your existing phone (you should receive a message stating that you do), call AT&T or check your online account. Don’t forget that AT&T will be trying to charge you an $18 “upgrade price”. With some smooth talk, you may be able to get yourself out of it. AT&T is, also, extending the upgrade to customers who have purchased their iPhone 3G in July, August, or September 2008, but be sure to check with the AT&T before you go in and realize that you were not eligible and had to pay the early upgrade price of $399 for the 16 GB or $499 for the 32 GB.

Many Apple and AT&T stores will be opening an hour early to fulfill many of the pre-orders at 7 AM, be sure to call ahead. There will also be many devices on hand for individuals, but at a first come-first serve basis only. Also be aware that the early pre-orders did sell out, so if you are expecting to see one at your doorstep on July 19th when you didn’t jump the gun in time, don’t be surprised if you don’t see it tomorrow. Apple has also requested that carriers hold their shipments until tomorrow for those who have pre-ordered, some may be lucky and have theirs ship a day or two early, but all reports indicate that it won’t. It’ll be a waiting game for that man in the brown tomorrow. With this useful information on hand, be safe and enjoy your shiny new gadget!!

AT&T deets here

Some Reviews below:

Engadget – Josh Topolsky

Gizmodo – Jason Chen

WSJ – Walt Mossberg

NYTimes – Dave Pogue

Wired – Steven Levy

USA Today – Ed Baig

CNET – Kent German

--written by Peter To--

So roughly using the Bold for almost two months, what do I think of it? My first issue is with the Bold or BB OS’s issue of not being able to install applications outside of the alloted 128 MB of RAM space. RIM really either needs to do 1. either give their devices a lot more RAM or 2. give their devices to install apps into either external storage cards or the internal memory space. I know they do this for security purposes, but their smart they should be able to figure out a secure solution, I mean what harm can one really do by installing applications into the internal memory (don’t answer that). Now don’t get me wrong the Bold is probably one of the best devices I have ever used cause things just work on it and things are real zippy, but I’m a pretty heavy user of the Bold and after having multiple applications open using newsgator, google maps, email… the RAM gets eaten worse the Firefox before version 3.0. There is no way to view a running processes to see which one if the hog and stop it, all you have is just clearing the browser cache and this memory cleaning thing, that I have no clue what it does and does not seem to work (Options -> Security Options -> Memory Cleaning). At times it feels like *gasp* using a Windows Mobile device, yes, you heard me right, Windows “slower than a snail, terrible memory management” Mobile. I have done many battery pulls to try to relinquish the lost memory more times now than I can count and waiting 3+ minutes for a phone to start back up is ri-dic-u-lous.

Other issues:

IMAP is pretty much broken, I don’t know if it is an issue with Gmail IMAP or just IMAP email handling in general (I’ve only used IMAP with my gmail account), but it is broken like no other. I don’t receive all my email and it tends to lag when marking an email as read, if it even marks it as read and I had no way to access all my folders. I have since reverted back to general default email settings, which is POP I believe, cause I actually get emails that way.

No fun applications at all. Don’t expect an iPhone like experience on this thing cause it really is great for managing your data and such, but other than brickbreaker or wordmole, don’t expect to be playing Metal Gear on this thing. Another thing is there is no easy way to install applications to this thing, don’t go expecting to simply load up an app store and simply search and install what you’d like from your phone. You are gonna have to search on a desktop to find an application that suites your needs, then you can either connect your BB to your computer or use the god-awful web browser to enter in the url and manage to navigate to it somehow. The impending app store may solve all these problems, but I have a feeling it probably won’t.

Approximately 1/2 of my lock ups, freezes and slow downs can be attributed to one thing, the web browser. It isn’t as bad as say Pocket IE, but its pretty bad. I mean on the surface it renders pages like its original pretty well, that’s if you manage to load a page without it locking up. But you can install Opera Mini on the Bold, so there is an alternative. I am really just waiting for Mozilla to release Fennec, the mobile Firefox browser.

The last issue, which some may or may not consider an issue is (I hate to say it), but the Bold just isn’t “fun” enough. I look at all the cool apps for the iPhone and I get pretty jealous, over the past year or so the iPhone/iPod Touch has really become an amazing platform for development. As much as I dislike some of the choices that Apple has made (ummm… Copy/Paste anyone) it is the phone everyone wants because of its applications and usability. I know plenty of people that have trouble getting around the BB, but know very few that have the same issues of usability on Apple’s mobile platform.

What I think RIM needs to do is throw out the book and create an OS along with great hardware that encompasses modern day techniques of UI. I’m not saying that they should scratch what they have with their current iterations, afterall they are the venerable email workhorse, but they should consider putting the effort into crafting a new platform that will herald in new users that would actually wow them not confuse. We’ll see what 2009 brings, CES next week is only that start of what I predict to be a very interesting year in regards to the common man.

--written by Peter To--

So after waiting about six months after everyone else (and thems people) in the world got the Bold, AT&T has finally released theirs and I finally got mine. Unfortunately, after spending hours on the phone and speaking to multiple reps on the phone, AT&T refused to offer me a discount on the phone at all if I would re-up until I am 15 months into my contract (I’m currently at roughly a year). You can imagine how disappointed I was at the fact that I told them that I would even re-up for three years to get a discounted rate, but they still refused to budge on the price, merely giving me a $25 credit to my account. So I went ahead and purchased the Bold at the astronomical rate of $550+NY taxes. But enough of the logistics on how I got the hone, here is my review on the BlackBerry Bold.

I knew the title of best electronic purchase that was previously rewarded to my Squeezebox Boom was going to be dethroned one day, but I didn’t know that it was going to be dethroned so soon. I would first like to say that the BlackBerry Bold is my best electronic purchase ever. So after about a week of heavy use, here is my review on this thing. It is kinda long, so by all means read only the sections that matter to you all.

Specs:

• Size: 4.5″ x 2.6″ x 0.55″
• Weight: 4.7 ounces
• Screen: 2.5″, 480×320 pixels, 65K
• Platform: BlackBerry OS 4.6
• Memory: 1GB w/microSDHC slot (up to 16GB)

Network:

• GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)
• WCDMA: 850/1900/2100 (Tri-Band)

Camera:

• 2 mega-pixels (auto-focus)
• 5 x Digital Zoom

Audio:

• MP3, AAC, eAAC+ & WMA

Video:

• Hi-Resolution VGA, 30fps Video Recording
• Supported formats: MP4, 3GPP, H.264 & Divx
• Camera 2 MP
• Video recorder with Half-VGA resolution

Connectivity:

• WiFi (IEEE 802.11g)
• GPS
• Stereo Bluetooth 2.0 (A2DP)
• miniUSB
• 3.5mm headphone jack

Messaging:

• SMS
• MMS (with video)
• E-mail (POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, BES, BIS)

Hardware:

Design:
I’m not sure what it is about the Bold, but the aesthetics of the thing are amazing. I was very hesitant upon hearing that they put (p)leather on its rear instead of a rubberized paint job, but all those reservations are gone. The feel of the phone in the hand is amazing. It does not feel like a brick like my last phone did, which was the AT&T Tilt, and feels slick, smooth and thin. The leather backside gives me no hesitation of using it one-handed; It is perfect for one-handed (fits well for any lefty or righty) use, when you just don’t have access to the other hand. The chrome finish that rounds it out makes it stand out as the high end device that it is. Needless to say, it has both the professional look that one would expect a BlackBerry would have, but yet a stylus look to it as well.

Screen:
HVGA, 480 x 320
The screen has the exact same resolution of that famous touch screen phone, but on about a third the screen size. In short, the screen is gorgeous and is hands down the best screen on any smartphone I have every used.

Keyboard:
I have been using a QWERTY device for about a year now and can’t think of any other way to use a phone. The keyboard on the Bold is quite spectacular. Although it took me sometime to get used to the shorter spacing between the keys, but I anticipated this, it wasn’t long before I was pounding away at the thing in lightning quick speeds. Keyboard is utterly the best thing about this device, which is saying a lot being this smartphone has a lot of things going for it.

Call Quality:
I’ve had four phones in my entire lifetime and I would have to say hands down this sounds the best out of the four even on the crappiness that is AT&T’s network. I don’t make much calls on this thing, but everyone came in clear and I have had no drop calls. Although I do notice that it sometimes gets stuck on EDGE when I am 100% sure that I am in a 3G area. Not sure why this is, but I had the same problems with the Tilt, so I am attributing this to AT&T’s network, which for the most part could be much better.

Software:
This is where the BlackBerry stands above all other devices. It does not have the same plethora of software as other devices, but it makes up for it on the quality of the applications and the speed of execution. Everything is instantaneous, when I click on an icon for say Gtalk, it brings it up right away and signs me in so I can begin to chat. It is one of the problems that I had with the Tilt, applications on that thing would sometimes freeze and lock up for seemingly no reason. On the Bold it is a whole ‘nother story, no waiting minutes for an application to load, it just goes. However, I have had the ocassional lock up, but I am attributing that because some applications have not been optimized for BB OS 4.6, since this is the first phone to get that OS or for the screen res, which is the first BlackBerry to get such a high screen res, well at least until the Storm hits stores.

Contacts:
Contacts management is far superior than any other smartphone I have used. Adding one is simple and easy and the SIM contact transfer is easy to use.

Messaging:

SMS:
This is actually one of the low points of the device for me. I don’t know what it is, possibly the extreme hype I got from everywhere, but it is just a letdown. All I want for this is threaded SMS, where each message is marked for each sender and receiver, all the messages are marked with is a date and time stamp and is group by exchanging contact. I mean the choice of different colors would have made this ten folds better.

IM:
This is the most connected I have every been on a mobile device. I can connect to people with multiple options with the only exclusion is IRC, but that would be crazy on a mobile device. AT&T has now made the service books available for ICQ and AIM to round out the support for the existing BlackBerry Messenger, Gtalk, Yahoo and Windows Live (MSN). All integrated extremely well and has a natural application feel, although I feel some slight lag, but that is probably due to AT&T’s network.

Email:
RIM is supposed to be number one in this area and I would have to say that it still is with the push email, but it does not automatically sync with the email services that I use, which is mainly gmail like IMAP, which is a total letdown.

Web Browsing:
I came from Pocket IE (the broken interwebs) and Opera Mini (much improved fast web browser) as well as Opera Mobile and Firefox on my N800, so I have quite a bit of experience with web browser. The browser called Browser is not so bad, but I can’t say that it is great either. First off, you have three browsers in total, one for Media Net for AT&T (which I kinda think may just be a shortcut to Media Net, I’m not 100% sure), one for WiFi and then the regular browser. I have no clue why there wasn’t just one browser for all connectivity options, but regardless, websites are rendered pretty well and (if you have javascript turned off) webpages are rendered pretty quickly. However, some websites had enormously terrible loads times on non-mobile versions of certain websites, i.e. Engadget. The only saving grace is that there is a mobile version. I have not tested it much on WiFi since I have an unlimited data plan and live in a major city where 3G is just about everywhere.

Multimedia:
The Bold has a pretty decent media player, not the best, but it is pretty decent. One thing that it needs is to show songs on the playlist using ID3 tags instead of the filename, otherwise the music player is great. Sounds decent as well, not 2nd gen iPod or my Squeezebox Boom quality, but it is listenable, only wish that the lowest volume could be lower. The Bold also supports a wide range of codecs as well, I have yet to test anything other than MP3 in the audio category, but in the video it did not play a few out-of-box, only audio came out of some video files. I would also like to see the ability to bookmark a long podcast or a movie.

Applications:
For what the Bold does not have out-of-box, you can probably find an application that does what you like. Just head over to mobile.blackberry.com on your Bold. What it is lacking is a mobile application store built on the phone like that other (i)Phone, but that will be coming in March 2009, since the usability is pretty horrible for downloading applications, which is handled by the web browser or connecting your Bold to your computer which has to have the BlackBerry Desktop software installed first.

Navigation:
The Bold for AT&T comes pre-loaded with TeleNav to replace BlackBerry maps, since I haven’t used either I can’t comment, but I did promptly install Google Maps. Works pretty well, takes a little while getting a fix though, but generally I am much happier with the GPS on this thing than I was with the Tilt where I had to open two programs to use the GPS, which would then may or may not work. As a note, you cannot install BlackBerry Maps on this thing because I am assuming AT&T has prevented it, but I feel if you hacked some of the service books you would probably be able to.

Camera:
I do not take pictures very often, but when I do I have my Canon PowerShot for that, but I have taken a few shots and it is nothing to scream about, but it works and has an LED flash, which is a definite plus. Pictures look decent.

WiFi:
As I wrote earlier, I have not used the WiFi very often, but I was able to connect to my apartment’s Linksys router I setup with no problem and was able to view other Access Points with ease and supports just about all the security protocols, even the now only unhackable WPA2-PSK.

Bluetooth:
Haven’t used this feature yet, can’t comment, but I will update once I do.

Pros:

• Awesome keyboard.
• Fast, fast, and… fast
• Beautiful Screen
• Beautiful Aesthetics
• Contacts management
• Wide Range of reliable applications

Cons:

• Email, although it pushes, is not IMAP and doesn’t sync automatically
• SMS could be managed better
• Not RIM’s fault, but AT&T sucks
• Addicting as heck

Conclusion:
This review has generally been glowing, there was no deal breaker in any of the downsides. The screen is gorgeous, fantastic keyboard, great contacts management, voice sounds good, messaging is good and the amazing amount of stable applications I have used and installed makes me so connected that it kinda scares me. If I were to give this a rating on a 10-point scale with 10 being amazing-awesome-can’t put down and a zero being do-not-even-go-near, I would give this a 9 out of 10, almost perfect.

Links to other Reviews:

• Boy Genius Report
• Engadget Mobile (Not quite a full review)
• Gizmodo (Pre-AT&T)
• Gizmodo (Post-AT&T)
• GigaOM
• InfoSync World
• apc (Pre-AT&T)
• Crackberry (Pre-pre-AT&T)

--written by Peter To--

Well I think it is nigh time to finally do a review on the AT&T Tilt aka HTC Kaiser aka HTC TyTN II aka HTC 8900. After a six month study trip/finding myself adventure in Vietnam, I was in need of a cellphone again. Thinking I was off contract I decided to shop for the best phone I could find and finally drop Sprint, after much yelling and coaxing Sprint to let me off without paying a $175 ETF I jumped ship and decided upon the AT&T Tilt from AT&T.

Here is a quick rundown of the specs:

• 2.8″ 320 x 240 TFT touchscreen
• 400 MHz 32bit Qualcomm MSM7200 processor
• Full QWERTY slide out keyboard
• 3.1 MP camera
• 128 MB RAM
• 256 MB ROM
• Quad Band GSM, Triband UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100) 3G baby
• 802.11g WiFi compatible
• Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP
• Support for microSDHC cards up to 32 GB
• GPS

For more detailed information visit the pdadb info page for the Tilt here.

Hardware:
As hardware goes, this thing has everything you could ever want from a phone. A full keyboard for typing out long emails or lengthy SMS conversations as well as a large touchscreen. A real GPS chip for use with any maps application. A decent amount of space for those small applications. A quick processor. A decent camera with video recording capabilities. A 802.11g radio as well as triband HSDPA and bluetooth. It has everything. Beware, this thing is a brick and pretty heavy compared to your average phone. It also has a nice rubberized backing as well. It’s only port is a mini-USB port for all your needs, charging headphones and such, but for the latter you’d need to purchase an adapter or two and forget about dual charger/listening to music with a standard 3.5 mm without the purchase of another adapter.

Keyboard:
The keyboard is probably one of the best I’ve ever used on a mobile phone, every key feels individual and separate with full QWERTY support, the only thing this is missing is a CTRL and ALT key that will be featured in the upcoming HTC Raphael. GPS takes a few minutes to get a fix, but when it does, it works pretty well with Google Maps, as well as TomTom Mobile Navigator software. Data speeds are fast when in a 3G or HSDPA area, which luckily I am living in two cities.

Software:
The Tilt comes preloaded with a customized Windows Mobile 6.0 for AT&T subscribers. It comes loaded with much bloatware and trial ware. You’ll take some time sifting through which programs are actually usable or not.

Contacts:
Contacts are manage in the usable and the slightly ugly Pocket Outlook. It is pretty straight forward and you can add as much information about a person as if you were using Outlook’s desktop cousin.

SMS:
SMS are done in the similar fashion to emails, which is a great thing. While sending a message to one of your contacts, it will suggest individuals in your contact list. Sending to multiple people is done by simply adding a semi-colon and that individual’s name. If you are in the mood for something a tad better looking, I suggest the wonderfully free PocketCM. Download it here. It will also create a much improved contact interface as well, the only thing with PocketCM is that it still doesn’t support SIM cards.

Web Browsing:
Web browsing in Pocket IE quite frankly sucks. If you don’t ever want to see the web broken and small, then stay away from Pocket IE and use one of the alternatives, such as Opera Mobile (not free, but comes with a 30-day trial), Opera Mini (Free) or sign up for SkyFire beta. Pocket IE is terrible, it is hard for it to render websites that don’t have a mobile interface. Opera Mini, a java midlet, does this beautifully. It is a mainstay in my arsenal. Download it here.

Camera:
The camera is better than your average cellphone cam and can record video. Storage options are the phone’s internal memory or a microSD card.

Navigation:
After using the free trial of TeleNav and not wanting to pay the monthly fee for something that was built to be free and open, you’ll find Google Maps or Live Search from Microsoft. Both are great, I prefer Google maps myself, but Live Search is on par if not better in some areas. The latest version of Google Maps supports My Location, by giving you a general location of where you are, which is never accurate, but it comes in handy if you don’t want to drain your battery by turning on your GPS radio. For the people who are having trouble with their GPS radio, download GPS test here. I know it sounds silly, but it turns on the GPS module and helps to get a fix. Point your web browser here for Google Maps and here for Live Search.

Call Quality:
I’ve been extremely unsatisfied with AT&T and call quality. I’ve had to say more “What?”, making it appear as if I was deaf to the person on the other end. But this was to be expecting when I was taking into consideration other wireless carriers. GSM as a technology is kinda weak, CDMA has much better quality voice and data-wise. While on Sprint I could hear someone crystal clear, but on AT&T everything sounds muffled as if the other person was speaking through a plastic bag. I’ve also have more dropped calls in the past eight months than my entire three years with Sprint. Although Sprint doesn’t have as wide a coverage map as AT&T, if sure did cover enough for me. AT&T seems to be lacking in many areas.

WiFi:
Being significantly faster than EDGE or 3G, it works great, but is a great battery drain. The only problem is that if you leave WiFi radio on for a decent amount of time, it slows to a crawl.

Bluetooth:
Support for stereo bluetooth is great. With the right phones you can wireless listen to your turns and leave your MP3 player at home. Tethering this thing to my laptop to use it as a wireless gateway worked great albeit a tad slow, but you’d have to use the buried Internet Connection Sharing. I also tethered this to other devices and it worked great as well. Guides here and here. Bluetooth tethering eats up battery life like no tomorrow, but it isn’t as bad as having WiFi turned on.

Pros:
Robust and great hardware. Sturdy.

Cons:
Software holds this thing back. Out of the box, it is mediocre, but finding the right software for this thing makes it much better. AT&T is lacking in included accessories, mainly that it provides none other than another stylus. So unlike Sprint where they include an USB-to-2.5 mm jack, a 512 MB microSD card, a screen protector, all you get in the box with AT&T is a USB charger and the phone with one additional stylus.

Conclusion:
For the person with enough patience to put up with the software downsides of the Tilt will find a great device that has a great community that has created much software and enhancements for it. On paper this thing is awesome, but the UI is not very intuitive. At times it’ll slow to a crawl to the point of unusable, it is frustrating to say the least. But loaded with the right ROM, it becomes slightly less rocky. My hope is that there will be an Android hack to make this thing capable of running Android. But I give this thing a 7 out of 10. Slightly better than the average phone. Be sure to visit XDA-developers for other enhancements.

--written by Peter To--