Category: Mobile

[sc:mobile-category ]Woohoo, someone finally got a SIP softphone client working on Windows Phone 8!

But don’t get your hopes up too much, it’s REALLY basic.  Nothing more than a dialer really.  And to call the user interface ugly is being very generous to say the least.  However it does work.  Making calls does function once you’ve setup your SIP provider information.

While it is running, incoming calls can be answered, however there are some… issues:

• No address book integration
• No integration in to the Windows Phone dialer
• No address book of its own
• No way to enter additional codes after making the call, so for example there’s no way to use an IVR system with the keypad once the initial call is established
• A weird multi-level swipe to configure system
• Some issues with the light theme

Clearly this is just a proof of concept implementation, intended to sell the customized version they offer to VOIP providers.  I would expect to see some improvement in this version if it works out and they can sell some licensed version.  Otherwise this may be as good as it gets.

Over the year’s I’ve used several different methods to connect my music to my car stereo.  The BlackBerry Music Gateway is the latest.

In the beginning, it was simple.  I wrote my MP3’s to a CD and inserted in to the CD player.

This really limited the amount of music you could have in the car at one time.  Moving to a multi-disc player helped, but if you wanted to add a new track, you were re-writing CD’s.

When I picked up my Zune HD, I moved to using a physical connection between the Zune and the car.  This worked well, but was kind of a pain and when Microsoft killed the Zune and brought out Windows Phone 7, the writing was on the wall.

For the first little while I used the cable to connect my HD7, but that quickly became a pain to have to connect the phone each time I got in the car.  I found a Bluetooth receiver that solved the problem but created a second one.  The receiver included a battery to allow you to use it without a power adapter for a while.  This meant it couldn’t really tell when to connect to the phone and you had to hit a button to get it to connect.  Kind of a pain, but better than having to connect a cable each time.  One advantage of the battery was that once the phone connected, it stayed connected, so if you walked away from the car with the phone (like stopping in to a bank or something), it remained connected.

When I picked up my 8X last year, the Bluetooth receiver I had didn’t work with the new phone.  I picked a new receiver from a different manufacturer, but was the same as the old one in that it had a battery.  It worked well, but had two additional issues; first you had to hold the connect button for 5 seconds and two it had a weird bug that after each song a small “pop” could be heard, like it was reconnecting each time.

Obviously I was looking for a better unit but I couldn’t find one that didn’t have the battery.

While browsing for an extra set of headphone’s for the 8X, I found the BlackBerry Music Gateway.  Taking a quick look at the spec’s didn’t reveal a battery and knowing BlackBerry wouldn’t make a crappy product (we won’t talk about the Storm 😉 I decided to give it a try.

First off, it comes with everything you need, power adapter, USB cable and Audio cables.  Next, it has none of the above issues.  It works flawlessly.  Connects to the phone as soon as it get’s power (probably twice as fast as the other receivers) and no popping between songs.  The only ‘issue’ I’ve found so far is that in comparison to the other receivers it’s output is a little lower, so you have to turn the car stereo up in comparison.

Other than that, I highly recommend it.  It’s a couple of dollars more than the other units, but it’s a quality device and worth it.

[sc:mobile-category ]So Samsung is finally going to announce some new phones, that presumably are not the S4 😉

I’m a little suspicious from the announcement that we won’t see a new Windows Phone device, but instead just a new tablet running Windows 8 (maybe 8.1?).  But I really hope we do see something from them.  The Ativ S was a nice phone and Samsung does know how to market their devices.

If they really decided to put in some effort to the Windows Phone space, they could give Nokia a run for their money.

[sc:mobile-category ]So what happened to the Nokia Canada announcement?

It was clearly Nokia Music being released in Canada, but there’s no press release from Nokia and very little coverage anywhere about it.

It kind of like they sent out the invites and no one showed up…

[sc:mobile-category ]The press conference is complete and the 925 is out!

The phone is pretty much what everyone expected, slimmer, lighter and aluminum.  I have to admit the phone looks quite nice but there are a couple of things that still have me scratching my head a little:

1. No SD card slot?  Really?
2. Those sleeves look really fugly on the phone.
3. USB port on the top?

Originally Nokia said that they didn’t have an SD card on the 920 because it would ruin their design, but no such problem here.  They could have made the back removable and placed the SIM and SD card hidden away from sight.  Likewise, a removable back would have allowed for the wireless charging to be built-in to a replacement back so they could still keep their thin and light design but still allow for an easy upgrade.

Let’s face it, the “sleeves” look ugly on such a nice phone.  In fact it’s almost a deal breaker for me.  I want wireless charging on my next phone but built-in would have been better.  The only saving grace here is that it should be easy for third parties to make better looking wireless charging options.  At worst it looks like you could take a knife to the Nokia ones and cut them down to just the wireless components and glue it to the back of the phone.

The USB port on the top of the phone is a little strange, I can see the point of having it on the bottom for “docking” the phone, but with wireless charging a clear possibility there really isn’t much need to dock the phone at all.  Not a deal breaker for me, but strange that they put it there instead of the bottom which would have made everyone happy.

There’s not release date for Canada yet, but that doesn’t really matter as if I buy one I won’t be getting it from a carrier (the 8X is only 6 months in to the 3 year contract).

I’m torn, it’s so close to the perfect phone, just not quite there yet either though…