A year ago most serious tech pundits would have laughed at the idea of a “mini” iPad out of Apple. The late Steve Jobs made it clear that the idea of a seven inch (17.8 cm) iPad was not on as such a “tweener” between the iPhone and the larger iPad was not wanted and would be “DOA”. However the rumors never quite died out and since Jobs passing in October 2011, have taken on new life.  Now, sources as diverse as CNET, Digitimes, Boy Genus Report and Wired are all suggesting that Apple will release a smaller tablet with a smaller screen size (17.8 com), and  less memory (8 GB vs the current minimum of 16 GB) and probably Wi-Fi only.  Interestingly, all sources agree that the rumored Apple tablet would retain the Retina class display. In fact, the new iOS device would have the highest pixel density of any iPad. Pricing has been rumored as low as $200.00 USD or £125.00.  This kind of pricing would be almost break even, or even lose a little per unit for Apple.

Some are saying that this is an attempt to kill off the downmarket Android tablets, especially the Kindle Fire, which accounts for almost half of of Android tablet sales in the United States last quarter. Others are saying that its an attempt by Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook to show that he is  his own man and not tied to the decisions of the late Mr. Jobs. Another view is the unexpected success of the Samsung Note’s huge screened smartphone has caused a reevaluation of what the consumers want.  While the general public may never know what is driving Apple’s product decisions, a review of the more reliable rumor reporting on the Web and a look at recent Apple moves tend to not only confirm that the iPad mini is real, but that Steve Jobs would have not only approved, but may well have set the gears in motion prior to his passing.

Back in January, Apple announced a partnership with American textbook makers and the introduction of the iBook2 format and publishing software. As we pointed out in our analysis of the move, school boards would be stymied by the high cost of supplying iPads to students in lieu of dead tree textbooks.  Unsurprisingly, this is exactly how things have played out over the last few months. Everyone likes the idea, but the iPads cost too much. Even if schools went with the cheapest iPad on offer, its still well beyond the cost of supplying every student with a Windows 7 Basic netbook.  In order to make the idea of iTextbooks viable, Apple has to either deeply discount the lower end of the existing iPad line or come up with a new solution.

Steve Jobs was a major advocate of education. Apple has historically provided deep discounts to academics, students and schools for its hardware and software. Apple has also quietly funded grants to put iPads into the classrooms, often at smaller, rural school districts in the US. Further, Jobs is famous for changing his sails while decrying the very direction he is planning to go. For example, in the early 2000s Jobs publicly stated that Apple was not interested in a smartphone. Jobs also had a real desire to put Apple into every aspect of a consumer’s life, and schools were no exception. When Amazon Kindles proved the world was ready to read off a smaller, hand held form factor, Apple engineers may well have gotten their marching orders to come up with a low cost tablet.

So why was an iPad mini not announced at the January meeting? The best reason is that the new iPad was about to be released and Apple did not want anything to cut into its sales. The fact that the third generation iPad was not called the “iPad 3″ could be a tell that Apple is going to introduce a new, different tablet line.  Further supporting that the iPad mini is squarely aimed at the education market is that the screen will be a retina display. The dense display makes it far easier on the eyes for reading. Because the expectation would be that students would not be downloading The Avengers movies, or an over abundance of apps, the smaller memory is not a problem either. In any case, with all the cloud based solutions, a lot of on board memory is not the need it once was.

If the rumors come to pass, then expect an announcement of the iPad mini as soon as the Apple World Wide Developers Conference in June, with a sale date in late July or early August. Pricing is likely to be sub $200.00 USD for schools and $250.00 USD for consumers. While the consumer price is still higher than the Kindle Fire, when you factor in the greater usability of the iPad line it’ s worth the extra quid. Unless you are seeking a pure media consumption device, which is how Amazon views the Fire and why the UK release appears to be mired in content carriage issues, anyone on the tablet fence is likely to jump to iOS. Apple also neatly avoids any anti-competitive entanglements because this is a school device after all. Any popularity in the general consumer market? Well competition happens.

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Why we may see an iPad Mini in the UK before we see a Kindle Fire

Ok, our society is always bigger, stronger, faster. Mates compare the size of their respective flat screen televisions like their significant others compare the size of …other things.  The more we demand out of our smart phones, the more features the handset makers cram into the devices. In fact, most leading edge smart phones are more powerful and capable than our desktop computers of not too many years ago.  Once one makes the decision to buy either a Android, Apple, Blackberry or Windows Phone from there features are the only way for one handset carrier to distinguish itself from another. Even Apple and RIM, the maker of the Blackberry, differentiate their respective offerings based on price and capabilities.

There is a price for all of this power in our hands. That price is of course paid by the battery.  The more we demand of smart phones, be it bigger screens faster processors, LTE data (someday Ofcom willing), or better streaming media all extract increasing demands on the battery of a mobile phone. Alas, Moore’s Law has not made it to battery size and power, so the  demand is always outstripping the supply as it were.

The result is either frequent charging, battery swapping; or bigger batteries.  Smartphone makers, and users, on the whole usually dabble in all three. However, with the increasing demands on a smartphone to replace a computer, many carriers are moving to kill two birds with one store and make bigger screens that in turn allow for bigger batteries. Even Apple, whose iconic co-founder the late  Steve Jobs derided over sized smart phones as undersized tablets, is credibly rumored to be coming out with a larger screen with the iPhone 5.

The question remains:how big is too big for a smart phone? Many say that anything over four inches is too big. Much larger than that and the phone no longer easily fit in a shirt or jacket pocket or purse. Not only size but weight is also a factor, past a certain point going over email on a heavy phone is less like being connected and more like working out. That is what people have said about devices  with screens up to 4.7 inches. Then you have the Galaxy Tab, a monster at 5.2 inches and widely held out as the current size champ.

When the Galaxy Note came out, I for one was convinced that it would fail miserably in the market. The specs are pretty good and the screen is first rate abet at the cost of poor battery life. But the size. How many of us want to ride a train or walk down a street looking like we are talking to a copy of National Geographic?  However, if sales numbers are to be believed, talking to copies of National Geographic is an up and coming fad. Samsung reports excellent sell through on the device and the American carrier AT&T is particularly pleased.

iPad, Galaxy Note and Blackberry

Something I found interesting was a post from American Internet curmudgeon Mike Cane. (Note: @mikecane is well worth following on Twitter. He has a take no prisoners attitude in his posts and blog that is more than a bit refreshing) Mr. Cane lives in New York City and in his meanderings about the city notices that the Note was being embraced by the  every man rather than the tech elite and suits. This set me to wondering if people were buying into the Galaxy Note (and by implication other oversized) phones instead of buying a smartphone and a tablet. If that indeed is the case, then the rumored “mini-tablets” may find getting traction in the market to be a hard slog indeed. Why buy a mini tablet when you can buy a slightly smaller Galaxy Note or its like?

Tells us what you think is too big in a smartphone. Or do you want your smartphone super sized?

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Can a smartphone be too big?

Google released Android 4.0 , also known as Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS  in mid November to the world at large. Assuming that was the earliest date that carriers, mobile makers and developers got their respective hands on it (which is not likely as at least handset OEMs were probably getting release candidate  builds at least) then why has over four months gone by and ICS is at best dripping onto new phones? Just in the last few days are seeing Samsung releasing the Android 4.0 update on the Galaxy S2  on O2, and there are some  Nexus S devices out there reportedly getting the update. Galaxy S users are however high and dry for which you can apparently thank Touch Wiz. While the Nexus S and Galaxy S are essentially identical under the bonnet, the presence of Samsung’s Touch Wiz features means there is not enough memory for Ice Cream Sandwich. HTC is claiming several of its phones will be getting the Android update, only the HTC Sensation on Vodaphone is actually seeing an update at present.

And  it is not just phones. Supposedly the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 was to release in the UK in March, but the release was pushed back to April because of problems with adapting TouchWiz. Motorola rolled out  OTA for ICS for the Xoom tablets starting in late January. Some would say that tablets can release updates far faster because the maker does not have to get the blessings of the respective wireless carriers. First, since many tablets come with wireless data options, that is not really true. Second, as owners of unlocked Galaxy S2s can tell you, not being tied to carrier approval apparently means nothing as they will be the very last group of  phones to get a taste of ICS.

According to recent surveys, less than five percent of Android users are currently running Ice Cream Sandwich  and the vast majority are running Gingerbread or lower. True, if you want the latest and greatest you can root your phone, but not everyone is a power user who fearlessly voids warranties. Further, one must consider the cost of incurring the wrath of the IT gods. Hacking your company issued device is risky at best and may be impossible in any case. Even if you bring your own phone or tablet to work, many corporate systems will not allow access to e-mail and the like with rooted devices by either technical means or threat of being sacked if discovered. So the vast majority is at the mercy of the phone and tablet makers for “official” upgrades. Those upgrades seem to come about as often as Henry VIII paid alimony.

What do you think?

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It’s Spring: where is my Ice Cream Sandwich?

The biggest obstacle to purchasing a Kindle Fire for use as an everyday tablet, OTHER THAN YOU CAN”T GET IT FROM AMAZON.CO.UK (apologies, but I feel much better now)  is the fact that the current Fire lacks any way to connect an external keyboard. Amazon had to keep the cost down somehow, and not adding Bluetooth or an external keyboard was apparently part of the process. Put this firmly in the speculation category, but there are some programs out there already that enable handwriting recognition for the Kindle Fire and some evidence that  Amazon may have to either tout handwriting recognition over an expensive accessory or add features to the Fire to match Apple and other Android products.

Accurate handwriting recognition has been one of the Holy Grails of any hand held device. One of the most famous first attempts was the Apple Newton, but it became more well known for its flubs than its accuracy. The late, great Palm brought handwriting recognition mainstream with its easy to learn Graffiti language that made Palm PDAs the geek standard for keeping track of your personal information.

The advent of the Handspring (later Palm) Treo and RIM Blackberry line and smart phones generally pushed handwriting recognition to the background in favor of keypads and texting. However, the Apple iPhone, ushered in capacitive touchscreens and until the advent of Capacitive stylus products the only way to input into recent smart phones and tablets was your finger, your voice or if truly cold and desperate a meat stick.

As smart phones started losing hardware keyboards in favor of more screen real estate, users were finding the onscreen touch keyboards unsatisfying. In other words, we ham handed people who do not have either the hands of a surgeon or a child had a hard time entering information at any reasonable rate. Further, handset makers were discovering that there was a reason that people wear gloves in the wintertime. Even Apple can’t ignore the market where it gets cold. And meat sticks can be so greasy.  Enter the capacitive stylus.

Some have speculated that Apple sees a world where we talk to our phones and tablets as evidenced by Siri on the iPhone and voice dictation on the third generation iPad. Android appears to at least be competing in this arena as well. However, unless you live in the world where you have a private office, a car and driver and the like, the rest of us run the risk of suffering the fate of those who appear to be talking to themselves in the Underground. Or at least brassing off our coworkers.

Right now the Kindle Fire, like other Android products have access to several handwriting recognition programs. Unlike many other Android products,  there is no way at present to mate a Kindle Fire to a hardware keyboard of any stripe and thus Amazon has to either provide a way to do some kind of input or be relegated to a media player on steroids and not a viable tablet option for anyone who sees a tablet as a possible notebook replacement or supplement for serious email or note taking. Pushing handwriting recognition may be the most cost effective way to do it.

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Is Amazon going to tout Handwriting Recognition on the Kindle Fire?

While Mighty Gadget doesn’t really blog about fitness products much we recently were given a Polar WearLink Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor to try out.

Unlike most HRMs the Polar Wearlink appealed to us as it connects to Android phones and is compatible with multiple apps including Endomondo, RunKeeper, Sports Track, Runtastic and many more. The beauty of this is you can easily track you heart rate and calories burned and sync your stats online showing you historical performance data. This may not sound like a big deal but the majority of traditional HRM watches have no ability to sync online or even to your computer, and the ones that do cost a lot of money, for example the Polar RS400 costs approximately £150+, compared to £65 of the Wearlink. You are also restricted to using the Polar software with the RS400.

The initial set up was extremely easy and the device connected to Endomondo and Sports Tracker fine, picking up my heart rate in a reasonable time. In the case of Sports Tracker the app showed current heart rate, average heart rate, maximum heart rate and calories burned, you can also show a graph of your heart rate during the current exercise. All in all the Wearlink was coming across as the perfect HRM.

Unfortunately things started to get worse from here, with 2 problems, the first is relatively minor and that’s the fact the screen times out on an android phone, so you have to unlock your phone again before you can see your heart rate. This is avoidable with other apps and changing the screen time out, but it is still a bit annoying.

The other far more important issue is that after a few minutes my heart rate would apparently spike to 190-254 bpm then shoot back down again, sometimes it would spike up and just stay there permanently, other times it would drop down to 30 or 40. This normally happens after about 7 – 10 minutes of using it, and happens EVERY SINGLE TIME. It is extremely annoying as the only way to fix it is to remove the bluetooth transmitter, wait for 30 seconds for it to switch off, then reconnect it and wait another 30 or so seconds for it to pick up your heart rate. I also have to keep a close eye on my heart rate so I can stop the tracker to avoid inaccurate readings. If you don’t disconnect it then it will either freeze at the spiked reading, or randomly spike throughout the rest of the session. Images are below showing the spikes.

Unfortunately because of this major flaw I could never recommend purchasing the Polar WearLink Bluetooth HRM as the results are highly inaccurate and it is extremely annoying. I am also not the only one experiencing problems with the Wearlink, with many people posting on Polars own forum regarding various problems.

At the moment the only other Bluetooth HRM available is the Zephyr HxM which appears to have less people complaining about it in Google results and some positive reviews, however as we have not tested it we can not guarantee it is a better purchase than the Polar.

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Polar WearLink Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor Belt for Android Phones Review

Recently Three lent us a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play to review, which ironically isn’t even available on Three anymore, but anyway we decided to review it as the phone is excellently priced at around £150 – £200 sim free at the moment.

When his was this was released Sony were asking for iPhone-esque prices so for such a big price drop is fantastic for the end user (unless you paid full price in the first place).

The phone itself is a decent size with a 4-inch capacitive multi-touch LCD touch screen with a 480×854 pixel resolution and 16.7 million colours, and a 5.1-megapixel camera recorder with autofocus, flash, image stabilizer and geotagging. It is obviously rather chubby due to the built in controller (119 x 62 x 16mm) and it weighs 175 grams.

It currently runs Gingerbread 2.3.4 and we found it to be very snappy with no obvious lag at all. There is 400MB of internal memory, but an 8GB microSD card is included and this can be expanded up to 32GB. The internal space is an issue if you want to install a lot of games/applications, but with the microSD you have plenty of space for media.

Obviously the major selling point of this phone is the fact it is the “PlayStation Phone” and comes with a slide out controller, and there is no question about it, this is the best way to control games. It is by no means perfect, but comparing it to controlling games via the screen it is infinitely better.

Where the Xperia truely shines, and makes it well worth the investment, in my opinion, is gaming emulation. Sony have released a few games themselves, which have been good, but they are few and far between. However there is a full range of emulators for most old games systems giving you thousands of games to choose from and a phone that can be used to play them properly!

I was also quite surprised with the battery life of the Xperia. I currently use a Galaxy S2 as my main phone, and the battery has been well reviewed, but I have found it hit and miss, however I found the Xperia would often outlast my S2 on daily tasks. Thinking about it, it is not surprising really the S2 has a 1650mAh batter and the Xperia has a 1500mAh batter, but the Xperia has a smaller screen, and a single core processor. It is still nice for your phone to last a good day though!

Overall I found the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play to be a great phone (at its current pricing) and would make a wonderful Christmas present for someone. It is no iPhone, and 3 don’t even do it anymore with the only Sony on 3 at the moment being the Sony Xperia arc S.

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Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Review

Verizon launched a new mobile phone which will most likely be Motorola’s new ‘flagship’ from now on. The company will also gain from Droid 3’s refreshing presence, and surely give AT&T a not so friendly pat on the back when it comes to sales performance. The Droid 3 didn’t quite manage to get lots of remarks at its release when compared to the ones received by its previous siblings. Although this might seem to have a detrimental effect, and judging by what Ramon Llamas from IDC said, (“where is the marketing support…?”), the new smartphone doesn’t come with serious hardware improvements, but rather a collection of features from previous Motorola Models. That will surely get the attention of smartphone fans, and, why not, tech fans who want to purchase a new and very capable piece of gadgetry.

What do the specs say?

The specs shout ‘awesome’. It’s the only word that currently fits the description for the Droid 3. Not many mobile phones have an 8 Megapixel rear-facing camera which is capable of recording 1080 pixels High-Definition video. Add that to the 4-inch display and you will get the full ‘picture’. Letting aside the video capabilities and the size of the display, Droid 3 comes with a QWERTY keyboard and 3G. Interestingly enough, it grabs a lot of attention due to its HDMI output which is quite a surprise. Just like previous models released by Motorola, it incorporates the ESP smart dock feature which was originally installed on the Atrix. Android 2.3 Gingerbread permits usage in more than 200 countries where there are services that can fit this phone model. Out of those 200, 125 are offering 3G connectivity.

Mr Llamas didn’t understand why Verizon offers LTE and its new offer, the Droid 3, doesn’t support such technology. There is a chance that Motorola wants to keep the good things for later and bear with other manufacturers for the time being. Releasing more versions is healthy for today’s market. Maybe there is a connection to what Apple is planning for the iPhone. It could mean that Motorola already draw a path for the Droid and wants it to be something similar to what Apple managed to accomplish this year.

Quite a do-it-all

Being on the safe side is always a priority with mobile technology. This is why Motorola thought of installing exceptional security measures such as smartphone and card encryption as well as remote formatting and password protection. Business men and women will be happy to see that they can work Quickoffice directly from Droid 3. It supports the presentation with both viewing and editing options. Furthermore, those who are active in the Nasdaq stock market can use the GoToMeeting application which is Android exclusive.

How much and where?

Verizon will give the ‘go ahead’ for its Droid 3 stocks on its website. It will make the shelves on July 14 at a mere $200, together with a contract spanning two years.

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Verizon launched the new Droid 3

HTC first previewed these phones last month at MWC but there was no price or release details to go with the phones. Essentially two phones (Desire S and Wildfire S) are sequels to two very successful phones that catapulted not only HTC but Android to the top of the mobile phone markets. Both were very reasonably priced had all the cutting edge functionality you’d need and were generally great phones. So how can HTC improve them? The ChaCha is basically a phone designed for anybody completely obsessed with Facebook(which basically is most of us let’s admit)

Wildfire S :

• Faster 600 MHz processor
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• 3.2” HGVA(320 x 480) touchscreen
• 5MP Camera
• GPS, WiFi (B/G/N), Bluetooth 3.0
• microSD

Desire S :

• 3.7” 480×800 “Super” LCD screen (note that it’s downgraded from AMOLED)
• 1GHz Processor
• Android 2.2 Froyo (Upgrade to 2.3 Gingerbread coming shortly after)
• 5MP with LED Flash
• 720p HD video capture
• Front Facing Camera
• Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi (B/G/N), GPS
• 1.1GB internal storage expandable by microSD

ChaCha

• 600MHz processor
• 2.6” 480×320 capacitive screen
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• Android Gingerbread with HTC sense
• 5MP Camera
• GPS, WiFi (B/G/N), Bluetooth 3.0
• Dedicated Facebook Button with easy operation of the social networking site

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HTC Wildfire S, Desire S and ChaCha

Samsung is again expanding its Galaxy Range with two new smartphones. A budget low spec one the Galaxy Apollo and the business style Galaxy Pro so now there’s a Galaxy mobile phone for all markets.

Galaxy Apollo :

• 3.14” 400×240 Capacitive Touchscreen
• 3MP Camera
• 600MHz processor
• Android 2.2 Froyo w/ Samsung TouchWiz interface
• microSD slot
• N-Standard Wifi, Bluetooth 2.1, AGPS

Galaxy Pro

• 2.8” 320×240 Capacitive Touchscreen
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• 800 MHz processor
• 3MP Camera
• Android 2.2 Froyo
• microSD slot
• N-Standard Wifi, Bluetooth 2.1, AGPS

Available in April both phones are said to be coming to Three although there’s no information about prices or tariffs on their site. Expansys has them both listed as pre-order with no date for release as of yet.

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Samsung Galaxy Pro and Apollo

With the meteoric rise of the smartphone, especially the iPhone and the BlackBerry it took a special phone from their competitors to match them. Samsung and Android did just that with the Galaxy S. A super fast, super bright smartphone  that did pretty much everything an iPhone can do and more yet still keep a lower price and certainly better longevity before Samsung decide to take it to the next level. Well now we have it’s sequel on its way, the Galaxy S II.

So what’s it got?

• 1GHz Dual-Core processor
• 4.3” Super AMOLED screen
• 8MP Rear Facing Camera
• Full 1080pHD recording
• 2MP Front Facing Camera
• Super sleek design (8.49mm thick and weighs just 116g)
• 16GB or 32GB models
• HDMI out
• 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, AGPS
• DLNA

So the specs look pretty decent and we all know that Samsung have got better and better at their smartphones and Android is now the most popular OS so when can we get the next generation of Galaxy phone? There’s several conflicting sources about on the internet at the moment. Expansys had just a price of £649.99 where as online retailer Clove had it down at £612 with a March release. Then Play.com came along and is allowing people to pre-order it at £599.99 with a May 6th shipping date. Who’s right?? Personally I’d go with play.com but certainly if you’re interested keep checking.

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Samsung Galaxy S II