T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Slide owners will begin receiving an OTA update for their Android operating system tomorrow, but it is not the highly anticipated Android 2.2 Froyo upgrade.
Along with optimizations comes some nice bug fixes as well, including a fix for an issue that has been quite annoying to me as an owner; the inability to receive MMS when connected to Wi-Fi.
Says T-Mobile: “Beginning August 4, T-Mobile will send an over-the-air (OTA) update to myTouch 3G Slide customers, which will provide a number of benefits, including increased battery performance and enhancements to software features such as Faves Gallery and Genius Button. The update will be sent to customers in staggered waves beginning August 4 and we anticipate all customers will receive it by August 19.”
The improvements to Battery Life consist of “Updates to the T-Mobile online contact backup connection, which will improve battery life.”
Users will now be able to send and receive MMS messages when connected to Wi-Fi.
The “Genius Button” is now improved with the “Ability to turn GPS on and off using your voice, such as “Turn GPS on.” The button will also announce Caller ID for incoming voice calls and allow you to “Answer” or “Ignore” using your voice. Finally, the button will announce incoming text messages and allow you to “reply” with dictation.”
Furthermore, the “Faves Gallery” is improved “the Faves icon being displayed beside notifications that appear while the device is locked to indicate that the communication is coming from one of your Faves. Fave photo display speed will be enhanced. Finally, general stability will be improved, including more seamless scrolling and consistent display of photos.”
Result for: battery performance
SanDisk has announced the launch of the Sansa Clip+ MP3 player, which uses a microSD slot for added memory.
The player will work with SanDisk’s slotRadio and slotMusic cards, which are cards purchased from retailers with preloaded music on them. You can of course add your own music to a microSD card and play it back.
“We made a great product — the Sansa Clip — even better,” said Eric Bone, vice president, retail product marketing, SanDisk. “This small player packs big features, including a new microSD memory card slot that gives music lovers the ability to listen to thousands of additional songs in seconds. It’s the perfect player for travelers, busy moms, fitness buffs or anyone looking to enjoy music without the hassle of loading songs from their computer or updating playlists.”
The company also says the player is the first Windows 7 certified MP3 player.
The player should be available in multiple colorways, and available at Best Buy on August 31st. 2GB model will sell for $39.99, 4GB will sell for $49.99, and 8GB for $69.99 USD.
From the press release:
* Superior sound - one of the best sounding MP3 players on the market
* microSD expansion slot which is compatible with slotRadio and slotMusic cards and any standard microSD card
* A wearable clip for hands-free portability and effortless enjoyment of digital music on the go
* Large(1″), bright (OLED) screen with a simple user interface that makes it easy to choose playlists or songs sorted by title, artist, album, genre
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Result for: battery performance
J.D. Power and Associates has conducted research in customer satisfaction of the most popular Smartphone models. Apple Inc. has ranked highest among the smartphone makers compared to Samsung and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM). One in four of the smartphone users reported experiencing some kind of software problem. Seemingly, devices akin to small computers are also prone to the same problems as normal computers.
“These are mini-computers, and people do experience computer-like problems on these devices,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and the author of the survey results. “They have entirely different problems than a traditional cell phone.”
The smartphones tested were rated out of a 1,000-point satisfaction scale. The iPhone scored 778 / 1000 primarily because users rated the smart phone highly in four of the five areas measured. “The iPhone’s claim to fame is in the physical design area,” said Parsons. “The appearance of the phone, the visual aspects, the weight and size of the phone, the size of the display screen. But it got very high scores in others areas, like ease of operation.”
The 5 factors tested of the smartphone models were operation, operating system, physical design, features and battery performance. “They ranked the iPhone pretty low on the battery life,” Parsons said. RIM took second place while Samsung took third with scores of 703 and 701 respectively. HTC, Motorola and Palm followed with scores under the smart phone industry average of 681.
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