I've been having a try out with the BlackBerry Storm, Research in Motion's (RIM's) first touch-screen device. My colleague Daniel Robinson has carried out a full review or you can get a look at the Storm in action by watching our video review.

I was keen to get my hands on the device for two reasons. Firstly, I've long coveted an Apple iPhone, mainly for its lovely looks, and screen size and quality and so was interested to have a try out on RIM's touch-screen version; and also because I've just switched over from using my old 8700 BlackBerry and a separate Nokia mobile handset to having just one device, the BlackBerry Bold and so wanted to see how the Storm would compare.

Previously in my old unconverged world of separate mobile/emailer I never used the BlackBerry for anything but checking my email and replying to the odd one here and there; I made the occasional phone call and sent the odd text but much preferred my mobile for those things. So moving to the Bold was quite an experience and I'd advise anyone considering a switch away from two devices to a combined phone/emailer to thoroughly try out the keyboards of any potential handsets before making a purchase.

I found the BlackBerry SMS and phone capabilities difficult to get used to, mainly due to what seem like minor changes from a normal mobile handset but they caused a lot of frustration for me.

For example, the Bold and Storm save all messages in one folder, while I'm used to separate folders for received/sent/draft texts; while trying to change the phone settings, including selecting a ring tone and choosing between the vibrate/ring/vibrate+ring options, proved a real chore, requiring navigating through several different pages and dozens of options before finding the correct Profiles/Advanced/Normal/Phone sequence and arriving at the right place. I also found the requirement of repeating the same choice of Volume/Number of Vibrations and so on for the phone when it is out of holster or in holster an unnecessary duplication of effort; the same process was then required for setting up my preferred SMS profile.

Having said all that, I still rate the BlackBerry as an emailer device, and RIM has made huge improvements since I first began using one a few years ago, especially in terms of the speed of mobile browsing and the ability to view spreadsheets and other business documents.
From my fairly brief look at the Storm, I couldn't spot many different features from the Bold apart from the obvious touch-screen upgrade. Both devices have the same icons, browser, and phone capabilities.

One key upgrade with the Storm was the inclusion of a Chat icon in the menu, offering direct links to download pages for popular instant messaging tools. However, I didn't have much joy with this feature. I managed to download Google Chat, but was unable to log in to my account to try it out.

The music and video players are the same on both devices; the video quality was particularly impressive on both, with high quality picture and sound.

One strange difference was in the charger. I didn't take the charger for the borrowed Storm home with me overnight and when the battery died that evening I automatically went to plug in my Bold charger, only to find they have different connectors. It would be great to see RIM, and in fact all mobile handset makers, standardise on chargers across their different models and it would certainly earn them some green brownie points.

So now onto the Storm's headline-grabber - the touch-screen capability. The general consensus around the vnunet.com office was underwhelming - most people found the virtual keys very difficult to get used to, even with the addition of a "click" when pressing down on the screen - and this was my initial reaction too.

However, having used the Storm as my main emailer/phone for a few days I got used to the way the keyboard worked - I found it helped to aim to put my finger slightly to the left of keys rather than direct centre of them. I also really liked the ability to go back to using a SureType keypad and predictive text, especially for sending SMS messages, something I really miss with the Bold.

A final point: the way the screen switches view to reflect whether you're holding the phone sideways or upright is a neat feature, but it is slow in switching between the views. In the end I found myself favouring a sideways full keyboard view for emailing; and upright SureType for texting.

Overall my first touch-screen BlackBerry experience was good enough to make me consider a full-time move to a similar device in the future - but preferably one with a more satisfying mobile phone experience.

Posted by Madeline Bennett on December 8, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (17)

This photo shows Apple's iPhone 3G alongside two other new devices, the HP iPaq 914 and Nokia's E71. As the picture demonstrates, they are all approximately the same size, although varying in weight and thickness.

All three devices represent the latest technology, supporting 3G wireless broadband, Wi-Fi, and GPS capability for navigation and other location-based services. As such, these are all high-end devices and potential rivals for RIM's BlackBerry models in the enterprise.

Of the three, the Nokia E71 is the slimmest and the lightest, while the iPaq 914 is the heaviest and thickest at 154g and 16mm. However, it also appears to have the largest battery capacity, at 1940mAh.

The Nokia E71 has already been reviewed in depth by IT Week here. To sum up: it is a very capable business messaging handset, but its keyboard is somewhat cramped compared to a BlackBerry.

The same criticism can be levelled at the iPaq 914, but I found I could enter text fairly easily. The HP device also has one feature that might please BlackBerry users; a jog dial thumbwheel on the right side of the case, similar to that seen on older BlackBerry models before RIM introduced its 'Pearl' mini trackball. It also supports touch-screen input via a stylus as well as a standard five-way navigation control, giving users more input choice than most devices.

Apple's iPhone 3G has the best display and offers the best web experience through its Safari browser, but has two drawbacks as far as I'm concerned; no keyboard and a battery that cannot be removed by the user.

As with the first iPhone, the device is very simple to use, but I found Apple's on-screen 'soft' keyboard a pain - even compared with the tiny keys on the E71 and iPaq 914 - and kept finding myself hitting the wrong letter. The iPhone could prove a hit with business users that need a decent browser - such as for web-based applications - but I can't see heavy email users or anyone whose job entails entering a lot of data being happy with it.

All three models feature some form of assisted GPS (A-GPS) to speed up the time it takes to get a fix on the user's location. While the E71 has Nokia Maps, both the iPaq 914 and the iPhone use Google Maps. The iPhone version of this application is slicker, but both have pretty much the same functionality, including the option to fix your location GPS and get directions to a specified destination. However, Nokia Maps supports turn-by-turn directions for drivers, although it costs extra to have the directions spoken aloud.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on July 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3)

This photo shows how small and neat RIM's latest BlackBerry device is. The Pearl 8120 adds 802.11b/g Wi-Fi capability to the basic Pearl handset design that was introduced last year, without increasing the size at all and adding just a couple of grams to the weight.

For workers that already use a BlackBerry, the SureType keyboard will probably count against switching. This puts two letters on each key and uses predictive algorithms to work out what you are trying to type. It works quite well, but slows you down sometimes and is probably not the best solution for those who need to send lots of emails.

However, if your company has a BlackBerry server and you don't necessarily need to respond instantly to every email sent to you, then the Pearl is definitely worth a look. Its size and weight are in line with many basic Nokia handsets, making it easier to carry than some earlier BlackBerry models.

The addition of Wi-Fi means that the Pearl can browse web sites much faster when in range of an access point, but has little real impact on the email service.

A full review of the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 will appear in a future issue of IT Week, and the device is available now in the UK from O2.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on November 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Martin Veitch revises his early dislike of the Sierra Wireless 3G modem for laptops.

Frustrated at a duff installation experience, I wrote some disparaging notes a few weeks ago about my unhappy start to life with Sierra Wireless’s AirCard 875U Broadband USB Modem, the device that you’ll get if you buy 3G mobile access from O2.

The user guide’s installation information was below par and the product was only got up and running after a fresh set of drivers were located on the Sierra web site. Since then, however, the AirCard has proven a better partner than those early indications might have suggested.

On the plus side, the AirCard has worked pretty well faultlessly: in three weeks of use, I have been disconnected just once. Plug the device into a free USB slot and the software is quickly invoked with connection status displayed. In London, the link was usually a 3G connection with some dropping back to GPRS. However, despite promises of "speeds up to 3.6 Mbit/s", my experience was of speeds somewhat faster than a dial-up connection but slower than a basic broadband service.

The AirCard has a nice format. It is the size of a small mobile phone but its hinged design means it can be positioned erect, horizontal or pointing straight down from the USB slot. It feels a bit more solid than cord-tethered modems such as the Huawei 3G device that is offered by Orange. Another nice feature is that the high-speed HSDPA standard is supported.

On the negative side, I could only really complain about that installation experience and the fact that 3G connectivity is now starting to be built into laptops, so plug-in devices will soon become only relevant for legacy machines. If you can stomach the tariffs, then these are very handy products for getting online when other options are limited, such as when there are no nearby Wi-Fi hotspots in range.

Posted by Editor on August 21, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

IT Week Executive Editor Martin Veitch tries out a USB 3G modem for laptops

As I mentioned in an earlier post, 3G modems are a very handy addition to the traveller’s collection of devices for getting online. While fixed broadband and Wi-Fi are great when you can access them, a cellular connection is very useful for those moments when you can’t - even if you find do yourself reduced using slower-than-3G links more often than is preferable.

Short of other options, 3G modems can offer a hassle-free experience. The Vodafone USB modem I tested in an earlier post even runs its monitoring software from the device itself and has on-board LEDs that denote GSM, GPRS and 3G status links. However, the Sierra Wireless AirCard 875U that is being offered by O2 posed a significant setup test in my experience.

In tests, I found the ugly install program seemed to have been hastily assembled. It recognised the USB device as a PC Card modem, took an age to display installation notes, but still would not load up and connect after several attempts.

Downloading a new setup program from the Sierra website finally fixed the problem. Let’s hope that the device works better than its installation routine. I’ll be reporting back on my progress soon, but in the meantime I'm feeling prejudiced in favour of modems that don’t need a separate install disk in order to work with a laptop.

Posted by Editor on August 2, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been trying out HP's iPaq 514 Voice Messenger phone, which turns out to be a very nice lightweight handset despite having built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless interfaces.

This Windows Mobile 6 device also comes with a built-in SIP client for IP telephony, which is designed to pair up with a SIP server or IP PBX when a worker is in their office and in range of the corporate Wi-Fi network. The problem is, how to go about testing this without access to such infrastructure?

Fortunately, it turns out that there are online SIP service providers that allow you to access IP telephony over a broadband internet connection. Many of these, such as the one I chose to try out – Freespeech.co.uk – are free to sign up for, and offer free calls to other VoIP numbers.

Armed with an 0844 number and my registration details from Freespeech, I set about configuring the iPaq 514 to connect. However, it turns out that the SIP client cannot be configured from the handset itself. Users instead have to link the phone to a Windows PC and use the HP iPaq Setup Assistant that comes on a CD-ROM with the phone.

This tool turns out to be very handy and lets you configure almost all aspects of the handset, including Wi-Fi access point settings, email accounts, speed dial numbers, and even populate the browser Favourites list.

With all necessary configuration information entered, I turned on Wi-Fi and connected the phone to my wireless router at home. The VoIP client then looked for the SIP server and connected, showing the status message "freespeech.co.uk selected". The "selected" part means that any calls made will now go via the internet instead of the cellular network.

I made a quick call using the phone to a colleague that had also signed up on the same service, and found the call quality excellent, if a little on the quiet side.

Overall, I was surprised at how easy it was to get voice-over-Wi-Fi working on this handset. That said, the settings Freepeech emailed to me did not exactly match those in the iPaq 514 configuration screen, and I had to make an educated guess to bridge the gap between the two.

The only drawback to this setup is that I now have a separate phone number for calls made over VoIP that differs from my landline and the mobile number of the iPaq.

This will probably not be a problem in a business environment, as the SIP service will link to the corporate infrastructure and probably tie in with the user's desk phone. For home users, the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) VoIP protocol, which features in RIM's new BlackBerry 8820, instead links the handset with the mobile carrier's infrastructure.

A full review of HP's iPaq 514 Voice Messenger will appear in a future issue of IT Week.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on July 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently, my colleague Martin Veitch wrote in this blog about his favourable impressions of using Thus’s Mobile 3G Broadband modem with a laptop while away on a press trip.

Martin was enthusiastic about the technology, but found 3G coverage to be patchy. I have come to the same conclusion while testing out a couple of laptops for a future edition of IT Week.

The Dell Latitude D630 and Fujitsu-Siemens P 7230 are both equipped with built-in wide-area network capability, rather than relying on an external USB modem as Martin did. All that is required is to insert a SIM for a valid network subscription, and both laptops enable you to be connected to the internet from pretty much anywhere.

For my tests, I used a SIM kindly loaned to me by Vodafone, which fitted into the battery compartment in both of the laptops. In our central London offices, I was able to get a strong 3G signal and browse the web without being kept waiting.

However, outside London, it is a different story. I tried out both laptops at home in St Albans, just outside the M25 and about 25 miles from the centre of London. Here, it proved impossible to get a 3G connection, despite the fact that, according to Vodafone's coverage map, I should have been able to access the high speed (up to 1.4Mbit/s) HSDPA version of 3G as well.

This seems a shame, since it is users that live or work away from the metropolitan areas that might benefit most from a 3G subscription. In London, you never seem to be far away from high-speed access via a Wi-Fi hotspot these days, but that is not the case in many other places.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on July 11, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

IT Week Executive Editor Martin Veitch tests out 3G connectivity with a USB modem for laptops

Theoretically, a 3G 'wireless broadband' connection is supposed to come into its own when you are on the move and need ad hoc access to the web or email. Some recent train journeys between London and Newcastle and Edinburgh to London, as well as several half-hour hops between London and its suburbs, provided me with opportunities to discover just how useful these products are.

I tested Thus’s Mobile 3G Broadband device aimed at customers of its Demon subsidiary. This is a Huawei-manufactured product that runs on the Vodafone network and Thus makes no attempt to cover up the fact that it is also available as the Vodafone Mobile Connect USB Modem.

The modem took just a few minutes to set up. This involved slotting in the SIM card then plugging the device into the laptop's USB port. Windows XP took about 30 seconds to recognise the product and install its native software. (Mac owners will need to run the disk provided and users of earlier versions of Windows will have to invoke a startup program.)

A console appeared on screen and with one click the connection was created. The console shows connection status and speed, as well as providing device management options.

The modem is small, not much larger than a box of matches, and connects via a short cable. It does not look particularly elegant hanging down from the laptop but it works well enough in practice and the lead may help prevent accidental damage if the modem should get caught on anything.

The contentious issues with 3G modems relate to speed and cost. On the journeys to the north and Scotland I could have paid for faster Wi-Fi access or taken advantage of a free service in first-class compartments. 3G data services are not cheap and businesses would be well advised to consider the implications of tariffs before rolling out accounts across large teams.

Service was very good with just one loss of connectivity. However, the colour-coded light on the modem and status software underlined the patchy nature of high-speed cellular connectivity in the UK, with GPRS availability much more common than 3G or HSDPA. Usability is similar to going back to a dial-up connection with occasional bursts of higher speeds.

My final takeaway is that 3G services are great for situations where there are no other options, and a serviceable alternative to Wi-Fi in some cases. But keep an eye on the price and don’t expect an experience comparable to fixed broadband.

Posted by Editor on June 19, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

HP is one of a handful of vendors that last year announced a partnership with Vodafone to add wireless broadband capability to some laptop models, holding out the promise of download speeds up to 1.4Mbit/s.

The HP Compaq nc6400 has all the usual connectivity options as well as an integrated HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) adapter, but this is the one to use if you need to have a connection to the internet  from virtually anywhere.

Having tried out 3G services in their early days, I was surprised and impressed with the performance the Vodafone connection affords, at least when at IT Week's offices in central London. Browsing the web felt as responsive as using a Wi-Fi link, and I was able to view streamed video from the BBC website as well as some of IT Week's web seminars, without noticing any dropped frames or loss of quality.

Away from London, I was slightly disappointed to see the connection drop back to bog-standard GPRS, even though the area in which I live is supposed to have 3G coverage, according to Vodafone's online maps.

Nevertheless, even GPRS is good enough to pick up emails, and a spot of web browsing (If you can tolerate the longer time it takes pages to load). A fall-back to GPRS is also much preferable to losing connectivity altogether, which is what happens if you stray too far from a Wi-Fi access point.

I should point out that the Vodafone 3G connection requires a subscription to one of Vodafone's data plans, which isn't included in the purchase price of the laptop.

A full review of the HP Compaq nc6400 will appear in a future issue of IT Week.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on February 8, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

I finally got my hands on a WiFi voice-over-IP telephone handset yesterday. In this case, the handset is an UTStarcom F1000, supplied by Vonage.

To get it working with the WiFi in our office I first needed to configure the handset with details of the WiFi access point (AP) near my desk. However, the person running the AP set up the WEP key using an ASCII string, which is a phrase like "Mary had a little lamb". Unfortunately the F1000 wants me to input the WEP key as a hexadecimal number. Most devices allow you to enter WEP keys either as a hex number of as a string of text, but you often need to look at the product's manual to find out how to do so. Unfortunately I got the phone from a pal, so it came without a manual. Worse still, the manual doesn't seem to be available for download, as nothing happened when clicked on the link to download it from the Vonage site.

Something else that looks like it could be a problem is that the phone holds information about only four WiFi access points (APs). Now I have an AP at home and one in the office. I also use one AP setting so the phone can work with any of Vonage's service provider partners, such as The Cloud, which recently launched its WiFi service for the City of London. The Cloud settings mean the phone will also work in Coffee Republic shops and a range of other locations, so it’s a good setting to keep in the phone. So I already have three APs in my phone, and I reckon I'm much like anyone else that would consider buying such a phone in that respect. Obviously I have one other setting available, but I'm not sure it will be enough. Watch out for the full review in IT Week in due course.

Posted by Roger Howorth on August 11, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)