Smartphones

Battle Royale 2: Smartphones face off, screen to screen

Editors' note: If you've already read "Battle Royale: Five smartphones face off," then you may experience some deja vu when reading this article. We've used the same tests and presented the article in the same style. Only the phones in question and the details of their performance have changed.

A few months ago in my never-ending pursuit of pain and sadness, I volunteered to test the display quality of five of the most popular smartphones at that time. Using DisplayMate Multimedia Edition for Mobile Displays, I put each phone through a battery of tests and lost a couple of weekends in the process.

With the recent release of the iPhone 4, as well as the hype that's been generated by the "Retina Display," now's the best time to determine just how good the display really is. I've decided to compare the iPhone 4's screen with only two others: the winner of the last roundup, the Motorola Droid, and relative newcomer the HTC Evo 4G. The Evo was chosen because of its popularity and relatively gigantic screen.

Like last time, we used three different types of tests to evaluate each phone:

Scientific measurements: We used the Konica Minolta CS-200 ChromaMeter to test the maximum brightness, black level, and contrast ratio of each phone and reported numbers for each of these three tests.

Test pattern screens: We used several DisplayMate Mobile test patterns to test for color-tracking errors, 24-bit color, and font legibility, among others.

Real-world: Finally, we conducted real-world anecdotal testing using 3D games, photos, and a little tool I like to call "the sun" to test the diffuse reflectance of each display.

All test screens were viewed within each phone's native gallery application. Some phones may handle pictures differently--and even improve them to some extent--outside the application. That said, we believe that testing within the respective gallery applications is still a viable test, as this is where most users will view pictures on their phones.

Note: Since we conducted our first round of tests, the Motorola Droid has received some noteworthy changes. When the Motorola Droid is upgraded to version 2.1, the Gallery (the principal image viewer for the phone) is downgraded to 16-bit color from its original full 24-bit color in version 2.0. Fortunately, version 2.1 of the Android Browser on the Droid still delivers full 24-bit color. Presumably these errors will be fixed in a future software upgrade, so the Droid will at some point return to its original, excellent 24-bit color. The tests here reflect the Droid in its 2.1 incarnation.

In order to diminish potential repetition, I'll dive right into the details of how each phone performed; if you'd like to know more about our tests, you can binge on nerdy details in our "How we tested" section at the bottom of this article. Please note that this is an evaluation of each phone's screen performance and nothing else. Check out the full reviews of these phones to determine which is right for you. Also, DisplayMate recently conducted a more technically focused evaluation of the Motorola Droid's screen that I recommend you check out.

The bottom line… Read more

New features make Yelp 2.0 a must-have

The latest release of Yelp (2.0) landed in the Android Market late last week and it's a fantastic update. For those few of you who are unfamiliar with the title, Yelp lets users search for places to eat, shop, hang out, work out, and more based on location and reviews from the community. Expecting a simple enhancement to the user interface, I was pleased to see the addition of some great features, including check-ins and augmented reality.

Hitching their cart to the check-in craze, Yelp 2.0 allows user to share their location across Facebook whenever they stop … Read more

Opt out of Apple's iAds data collection for iOS 4 devices

Apple has started distributing its iAds advertising content in participating App Store apps using data that has been collected from iTunes accounts and analyzed to customize your consumption experience. If you no longer want Apple to collect your data, opting out is simple.

Apple has partnered with several big-name brands to provide content-based, personalized advertising solutions to your iOS-enabled devices. Apple "uses cookies and other technologies in mobile advertising services to control the number of times you see a given ad, deliver ads that relate to your interests, and measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns."

While opting out … Read more

Minor software update for Backflip now available

Motorola issued a software update to AT&T's Backflip this week to address the touch screen, messaging, Bluetooth, and more. Very similar to the Cliq update from a few months back, it's a minor release designed to improve the phone's overall performance.

Among the changes customers should notice are improvements to battery life, text messaging, device stability, and 3G connections. Other, less noticeable, tweaks address streaming audio and video interruptions and better audio through Bluetooth headsets. Motorola offers more information about the update on its support page.

On a related note, the Backflip is still scheduled … Read more

TeleNav to guide U.S. Cellular smartphones

U.S. Cellular is teaming with TeleNav to bring turn-by-turn navigation to the carrier's smartphones.

On Friday, the carrier announced its Your Navigator Deluxe service that offers such features as voice-guided directions, 3D maps, speech recognition, more than 12 million business listings, and traffic and weather information. Even better, there isn't an additional fee to use TeleNav as it's all included in U.S. Cellular's new smartphone data plan, which costs $30 per month.

Supported smartphones include the recently announced Samsung Acclaim, as well as the HTC Touch Pro2, HTC Snap, the RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630, … Read more

RIM and Apple lead in smartphones, but Android gains

Though Google's Android is still in fourth place in U.S. smartphone usage, it was the only platform to win more market share for the three months ended May, according to the latest stats from ComScore.

During the three months from March to May, 49.1 million consumers in the U.S. owned smartphones, reported ComScore, an 8.1 percent jump from the prior three months. Of those, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion led the market with a 41.7 percent share, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent and Microsoft with 13.2 percent.

Though Google's 13 percent share kept it a shade behind Microsoft, its Android platform was the only one in positive territory with a market share gain of four percentage points, or almost 45 percent, from the prior three months. The other four vendors all lost market share for the period. Those results seem to give the biggest win to Android, but ComScore points out that most smartphone platforms continue to grab more customers as demand keeps surging. ComScore's numbers for Apple also exclude the iPhone 4, which hit the market with a bang in June.

Eyeing the total mobile phone market, 234 million people in the U.S. owned mobile devices during the three months ended May, said ComScore. Samsung claimed the top spot with a 22.4 percent stake of the market. In second place was LG with a 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola, RIM, and Nokia.

What are all these consumers doing with their mobile phones?… Read more

T-Mobile may move up Samsung Vibrant release

Is T-Mobile preparing to take the Droid X on in a head-to-head battle? It certainly appears that way.

According to multiple TmoNews sources, T-Mobile is bumping the release date of its Samsung Vibrant up roughly one week to July 15 instead of July 21 as originally planned. This would pit the Galaxy S series phone in a super-phone showdown, with Android fans coming away big winners either way.

As everyone already knows, Verizon and Motorola are going to hit the Droid advertising heavily. It's rumored they pumped $100 million into the first Droid campaign, and the recent Droid Incredible … Read more

Verizon gives away free Droid X devices prelaunch

The Droid X doesn't land in Verizon Wireless stores until next week, July 15, but a small group of lucky folks may be getting their hands on one early.

According to the Twitter account set up for the Droid X advertising campaign, there are 21 coupons placed around the country. At various times throughout the day, @DroidLanding will provide clues as to a voucher's whereabouts. Some clues have been relatively vague, claiming to be near mountains, while others hint at specific cities. Among the locations expected to have coupons are St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Houston.

The final hint … Read more

Leaked road map shows T-Mobile loving Android

A recently leaked road map indicates that T-Mobile has plenty up its sleeve as it pertains to Android over the rest of this year. And really, it's about time Android's first carrier gives us something new.

According to a document obtained by AndroidSpin, the carrier has at least five more handsets on tap for 2010. In a departure from the norm, familiar names Motorola and HTC will be joined by phone maker LG. As you may know, LG has been rather quiet here in the United States as it pertains to Android handsets. Aside from the Ally on Verizon, we've yet to see anything locally.

Each of the upcoming phones is tagged with appears to be "project" names or code names. For instance, there are two HTC phones on the horizon, the Vanguard and the Emerald. While this is the first time we've heard anything relating to a Vanguard device, the Emerald has been seeing its share of speculation. Recent rumors peg the phone with a dual-core processor, a 4.3-inch screen, and the Gingerbread version of Android. It's also possible that later this year T-Mobile plans to relaunch its Sidekick brand with the HTC phone as some are suggesting. … Read more

iPhone software fix won't solve reception issues

Given Apple's carefully worded statement from July 2, we weren't expecting that the coming software update would fix the ongoing reception issues with the iPhone 4's antenna. So it wasn't surprising that an Apple Care representative confirmed that belief this afternoon.

During our call, the Apple Care rep said the update would address only how bars are displayed in the signal meter on the handset's screen. As he put it, it would fix a problem where more bars are mistakenly shown when users are in areas with poor AT&T reception. As for the … Read more