Sprint HTC Hero Review

I've been reading / watching the reviews of the new HTC Hero for Sprint and I really like the one from mobilitytoday.com by Dave Ciccone. Dave is always fair is not a fanboy for Verizon, Sprint or AT&T. He reviews the devices and provides a high value opinion about each. Take a look at Dave's thoughts on the HTC Hero from Sprint.

Sprint Has Something New Tomorrow

UPDATED

Check out the new plan Sprint has. Very interesting!

Any Mobile, Anytime

For only $69.99 per month, Anytime offers up unlimited minutes to any US-based mobile in addition to unlimited data, SMS, MMS, Sprint TV, GPS navigation and more. The catch? You only get 45o minutes of good old fashioned land line calling.

So I'm reading through all of my usual blogs tonight and see this cool little image.




The comments on the different blogs are very interesting. It appears that some Sprint people have commented on the BGR post. Sprint is very pumped about this and continue to claim it will revolutionize the wireless industry.

From the text I'm guessing it's a new plans with great new features. I bet it has something to do with 4G and some type of plan that will allow users to have unlimited data on either 3G or 4G where available. I also think there will be new hardware to show off. New pricing for the existing everything plans would not surprise me either. Oh and they are sending me my HTC Hero tomorrow also. Just kidding. :)


I guess we'll see in the morning when the new hits the interweb.

STAY TUNED

The Next Palm WebOS Device

Palm released information today about their second WebOS device the Pixie. This looks like a Pre without the slider. The QWERTY keyboard is on the front of the device thus reducing the screen size. This device is being compared by some to the Palm Centro. It is a more mainstream device vs a business device. I read a few comments on some of the other blogs and many people are saying they would consider this device over a Blackberry so maybe this device will be a cross over device and be used by both business and non-business users. I really like the look of the device and look forward to seeing one live. Hey Palm send me a tester. :)

Here are the tech specs:
Operating system: Palm webOS™ platform
Network: Sprint Dual-band CDMA2000 3G: EvDO Rev A
Display: 2.63-inch touch screen with a vibrant 18-bit color 320x400 screen resolution Sub-HVGA display
Email: Microsoft® Exchange email with Microsoft Direct Push Technology POP3/IMAP (Yahoo! Mail, Gmail™, AOL, Hotmail®, etc)
Messaging: Integrated IM, SMS, and MMS
GPS: Built-in GPS
Digital camera: 2 megapixel camera with LED flash
Sensors: Ambient light, accelerometer, and proximity
Media formats supported:
Audio Formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV
Video Formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264
Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth® wireless technology 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
Memory: 8GB (~7GB user available)4
Connector: MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
Headphone jack: 3.5mm stereo
Palm Synergy™: Includes aggregation for Facebook®, Google™, Microsoft® Office Outlook®, Yahoo! Mail, Google Talk™, AIM Instant Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger.5
Universal search: Searches user's applications, contacts, dialing information, and web.
Activity cards: Third party7 and ROM applications accessible as movable, multi-view cards.
Palm Services: Includes over-the-air backup, restore, remote erase, and software updates.
Palm Touchstone™ Charging Dock Compatible
Dimensions:
Width: 55.0mm (2.17 inches)
Height: 111.0mm (4.37 inches)
Thickness: 10.85mm (0.43 inches)
Weight: 99.5 grams (3.51 ounces)

Sprint's Latest and Greatest

UPDATE

engadget has a nice little review of this new device.

Here's another review, this one has more details and for the first time ever Gizmodo gives a Sprint device high praise.

Sprint and HTC today officially announce the Hero! This will be my next phone. I was really intrigued by the Palm Pre but decided to wait for the Hero. Here are more details about this new smart phone.

• Access to Outlook email with Microsoft Direct Push Technology
• Ability to easily view Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents
• Google Search, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google Talk
• WiFi
• Sprint Navigation
• Multi-touch screen
• 5 MP camera/camcorder
• Expandable Memory
• 3.2 inch HVGA TFT screen
• Visual Voicemail

These are a couple of other unique featurea that I can't wait to try out.

"HTC Hero users can easily create and switch between Scenes to reflect different moments or roles in their lives, such as work, social, travel and play. For example, a work Scene can be easily set up to include stock updates, work email and calendar, a play Scene could have music, weather, and a Twitter feed or a travel Scene could offer instant access to the local time, weather and maps.

HTC Hero is the first U.S. device to feature HTC Sense, an intuitive experience that was built with a guiding philosophy to put people at the center and allows the device to be completely customized to the wants and needs of the user. The device’s seven-panel wide home screen can be populated with customizable widgets that bring information to the surface."

Excerpt from the Sprint/HTC press release.

Check out the Competitive and Value Matrix

Here are a couple more pictures.

Amazon Kindle for Education

This time of year I hear a lot about collecting and counting text books from my wife whose responsibilities at her elementary school require her to do this every year. I really think the days of text books are numbered, but only if a manufacturer creates a device that will meet the needs of schools. Amazon has a great product with the Kindle and it would make sense to me that Amazon should build an education device.
The new Amazon Kindle Ed. (as I'll call it) will need to be a ruggedized device capable of sustaining drops of up to 4 feet, because students will drop the device. It will also need to have a GPS capability so that if the device is lost it can be found. There will also have to be away for schools to limit what is loaded to the device. Bluetooth would be a nice touch also so that students can connect to other educational devices like SMART boards. It should also have a standard hard cover to help protect the device. Not only will this new device need to created school districts will need to have an incentive to migrate to an eReader.

Schools around the nation are facing the problem about how they need to proceed with ebooks, and in the end either states or the federal government will need to fund the purchase of these devices, but before schools can begin the purchase process the unique and special device will need to be created, tested, and presented to the states and fed so that the solution is accepted at a national level. The use of the device may even need to be mandated, so that all schools around the country adopted this type of device. But let me be clear, schools districts will not purchase these devices unless they cost less than existing text books. What about the publishers?

Publishers will also have to adapt their business models to excel at the electronic publishing business. The days of printed materials are numbered, so these businesses will need to work hard to develop a way to stay relevant in the future. Maybe the publishers should get together and create a Kindle Ed type device and then they can maintain their revenue streams. Text book publishers can not afford to wait around or they will feel the same impact that newspapers are experiencing. More and more readers will be online/electronic so I say be part of the solution and benefit, don't be left behind.

Technology utilization in public schools is very interesting and challenging issue. In my opinion more companies should be developing new tools to be used in the class room. Of course R&D costs money but it would be money well spent because school districts will be moving to electronic text books the question is when not if. The technology issue also will need to be addressed in the state and federal legislatures so that funds are identified to help fund this move away from traditional paper text books to new electronic books.

So who will be the players in this business? I'd love to read some of your comments.

Web 2.0 ?

Have you heard the term web 2.0 and wondered what that is? It is a generic term that many software companies utilize as a "buzz word/phrase." Here's what Wiki says:

The term "Web 2.0" refers to a perceived second generation of web development and design, that aims to facilitate communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications; such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.

The term first became notable after the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.^[1][2] Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but rather to changes in the ways software developers and end-users utilize the Web. According to Tim O'Reilly:

“

Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as a platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.[3]

”

O'Reilly has said that the "2.0" refers to the historical context of web businesses "coming back" after the 2001 collapse of the dot-com bubble, in addition to the distinguishing characteristics of the projects that survived the bust or thrived thereafter.^[4]

I have been using facebook for sometime now and have even registered on twitter, and have heard of other Web 2.0 sites/software. A couple of new ones that I'm most intrigued by are evernote and smilebox. These two sites/services take traditional paper and pen activities and move them to the interweb. These may seem like small steps, and in fact they really are but it just goes to show that more and more we are becoming an electronic medium society/world. This new e world is eliminating the use of paper and pen and replacing it with the web. As mobile devices become more web centric and have better browser capabilities that do not require specially formatted websites I think the future is wide open. The Apple iPhone/Touch app store has really changed / opened up the Web 2.0 premise. I'm not an Apple hater, but really hope that other device manufacturers/carriers will start integrating better browser functionality on the devices. Apple really has set the standard that the others are trying to develop still. So what everyday task or activity do you think is a good fit for Web 2.0 development? Let me hear what you think about getting rid of pen and paper.

Palm Pre is Here

One of these years I'm going to get to CES. You know the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. My favorite PDA/Smartphone company Palm made a major announcement today. There is finally a new Palm OS and a new device. The OS is called Web and works more like a full size PC than a smartphone OS. The device is called the Pre. The device and OS look to be the equivalent of an iPhone Pro with slide out QWERTY and touch screen. The exclusive carrier for the new device is Sprint. Go figure. The device is supposed to be out in the first half of 2009 so expect to see it in June. Please click the Palm link above and go see this thing for yourself. Take a second and read the specs below.

Here are some quick specs.
Cordless charger!
Multi-tasking OS
Touch Screen
8 GB of on board storage
Merge all your contacts from Outlook, Facebook, and other mail services
Merge your calendars and events
Wi-Fi
GPS

3.1-inch touch screen with a vibrant 24-bit color 320x480 resolution HVGA display

3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field