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Is Battery Life Or User Interface More Important?

// May 7th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // technology

Earlier this week, I was posed the question, ‘On a mobile device, what’s more important, battery life or user interface?‘ Of course, the first answer is both, but on a more serious note, it’s a really interesting question.

Prior to my experience with the BlackBerry Bold 9700, I would have said user interface, hands down. It has to be easy/intuitive to use any mobile device, and especially in the post-iPhone world, UI is everything. However, UI means nothing if your device doesn’t stay powered on long enough for you to enjoy it. Case in point, the Nokia N97 or my HTC Eris. Both have great user interfaces (in my opinion), but with both of them, I find myself constantly having to make a decision – whether the planned task is going to hose my battery too bad. Do I really need to use the GPS to drive to work, or is it going to tax my battery too much to be worth it? How long can I use my phone with Last.FM for music in the car without leaving me with a dead battery the rest of the day? Questions like that really happen in my daily life.

With the BlackBerry Bold 9700, I had my first all-day battery experience on a mobile device. Despite my best efforts, I was completely unable to kill the battery on that phone in a single day. Thus, I was able to use any and all parts of the phone with no concern as to what state it would leave my battery in. Personally, I found the BlackBerry user interface completely lacking – ugly icons, little to no transition effects, boring old menu structure, limited interaction options, etc. However, I’m willing to deal with all that in order to get such great battery life.

One thing to consider, though, with the battery life, is whether there’s a threshold. For me, if I can get through 12 hours of continuous real-world use (email, Twitter, Facebook, SMS, streaming music, a bit of browsing, etc) without needing a charge, I’m golden. I don’t need a 3-day battery charge, as I sleep every night, and can plug my phone in then. So, once a device offers battery life equivalent to the Bold 9700, there’s really no reason to stress for additional battery life, and focus should then be redirected to user interface, if that makes sense?

What do you think? Is user interface really the end-all-be-all, the holy grail, as it seems to be thought of today, or is battery life still something that most mobile devices can strive to improve? What’s more important, if you had to pick one? Would you be willing to put up with a slightly lackluster user interface in exchange for seemingly endless battery life, or would you rather charge all day but have a gorgeous user interface?

Video Of The Unofficial Android v2.1 with SenseUI Leaked On The HTC Eris

// March 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // android

One thing that sucks about the HTC Eris is that it’s stuck on Android v1.5 – a shame since the handset is still relatively new (it came out in December 2009). Newer Android-powered devices have Android v2.x, which brings several updates, including voice-guided navigation in Google Maps and support for more advanced applications, like Google Buzz. HTC and Verizon have said they are working on an official update for the HTC Eris, but they’re taking their sweet time in releasing it while the handset gets left out of more and more cool new Android features.

However, not too long ago, a build leaked out, reportedly from an HTC employee in China. Developers at XDA Developers and MyAndroidWorld have been working around the clock to get it working on the HTC Eris, and finally got it done earlier today. The update is incredibly simple – format your memory card in the phone, then drop the .zip file to the root and reboot your phone while holding both the end and send keys. You’ll enter into hboot mode, and simply follow the directions on the screen – it couldn’t be easier, and took a total of about 10 minutes.

Here’s a video of the updated software running on my HTC Eris:

The only caveat right now is that everytime you reboot the phone, you have to re-enter your Google credentials to get everything working. Aside from that, the phone is significantly faster through the menus, and you have the benefit of the new SenseUI with the homescreen overview multitouch feature, as well as voice-guided navigation and some new/updated widgets.

Of course, this is unofficial, so if you decide to do the update on your HTC Eris, you alone are responsible for the results – if you brick your phone, don’t come crying to me. Also, this will void your warranty with Verizon. It is believed that the official update will install over this, which will restore your warranty, but that’s not 100% confirmed, so proceed at your own risk.

Thanks to @kiphakes for the tip this morning.

Seesmic For Android Adds Multiple Account Support

// February 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // android

Not but a few minutes after I posted my thoughts on TweetCaster for Android, Loic LeMur, who I had the pleasure of meeting last year at SXSW, announced an updated version of Seesmic for Android, complete with multiple account support!

Of course I downloaded the update as soon as I could, to check out the new features. Adding multiple accounts is really easy, simply press the menu button and then click on ‘Accounts’. There will be a green dot on your default account – this is the one automatically chosen when you compose a new tweet. You can, as shown in the video below, also easily cross-post, if you manage multiple accounts, so you can publish the same update to several accounts. However, I personally don’t really use this feature much on mobile – on my desktop, I only do to update my Facebook and personal Twitter account.

One thing that’s rather frustrating, though, is that like TweetCaster, this account selection screen doesn’t offer any information as to which account has new tweets or mentions. Also, the only way to get to it is to manually press menu, then choose ‘Accounts’. I would like it better if pressing the back button from my timeline would dump me out onto this screen, so I could easily switch between accounts with fewer clicks. Perhaps a future update will enable that.

Compared with TweetCaster, Seesmic seems to do a much better job of managing the limited screen real estate, showing more tweets on each screen. Also, Seesmic seems to perform better when I have all my accounts setup, whereas TweetCaster does tend to slow down just a bit.

I’ll keep both installed for the time being, but at this point, I think Seesmic wins on my Android phone. What app are you using to do Twitter on your Android-powered device?

Here’s a bonus video of Loic LeMur gushing over the new release:

Tweetcaster Is Now Available For Android

// February 4th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // android

When I first got my HTC Eris from Verizon, the first thing I looked for was a decent Twitter client that supported multiple accounts. I manage 4 different Twitter accounts, so being able to use all of those and monitor the various feeds is a major requirement. On my Symbian-powered handsets, Gravity covers this quite nicely. The first recommendation I got for Android was to check out Twidroid Pro.

Unfortunately, I purchased Twidroid Pro, specifically for the multiple account support. Shortly thereafter, my HTC Eris began locking up uncontrollably and I quickly realized that Twidroid was the root of the problem. With all four accounts loaded, the application crawls to a slow halt, making the whole phone unusable. The interface isn’t all that great, either, and I quickly uninstalled it.

Not too long after, I was contacted by the folks at Handmark to help them beta-test their new Twitter app, dubbed Tweetcaster. When I saw it was going to support multiple accounts, I quickly said yes and installed it to my Eris. For starters, once I got my 4 accounts plugged in, I was pleased to see that Tweetcaster doesn’t lock my phone up while updating itself. Brilliant.

I’ve put together a walkthrough video, which you can see below:

Overall, Tweetcaster is quite nice if you need to manage multiple accounts. If you’re a single-account kinda person, I prefer Seesmic for its superior performance and simplicity. Tweetcaster looks awesome, but the UI gets in the way of usability, often taking up far too many pixels on fancy graphics and leaving too much empty space between tweets.

With Tweetcaster running, I haven’t noticed a significant hit on battery life – it seems to do a great job of not using more power than it really needs to, which is good. For the official release, they included customizable notification settings, which is great. Unfortunately, they forgot to include the ability to choose the notification *sound*, so I’m stuck with my default ‘DROID’ sound for email, SMS, and Tweetcaster – not very helpful in determining what the notification is informing me of.

Another major complaint that I have with Tweetcaster, even with a full license, is the blasted loading page. It’s displayed for at least 5-6 seconds every time I launch the application, and that gets really old, really fast. I don’t mind having load or nag screens for the free version of an app – in fact, I expect it. However, for the fully licensed version, this should be eliminated, and quickly.

You can download Tweetcaster to your Android-powered smartphone here.

I Finally Have A Camo Phone

// January 17th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // cool, toys

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I’ve long been obsessed with having a camouflaged cell phone. I don’t really know why, perhaps cause I’m a Texan, but in any case, I’ve never gotten one, until now. When I got the HTC Eris from Verizon, I decided to get a case of some sort, but didn’t really like any of those gel skins, and I just can’t see myself with a pouch clipped onto my belt like Batman or something. Thus, I started shopping for a skin.

I’ve personally purchased skins from 3acp.com, DecalGirl.com, and now SkinIt.com, and honestly, they’re all quite impressive. I chose SkinIt.com for this one because they actually offered a custom skin for the Eris, specially cut for the device with all the appropriate openings for buttons and such.

The skin cost $14.95 plus $3 for standard shipping and arrived within 2 weeks of ordering – not bad, considering I chose the cheapest shipping. One thing I originally found disappointing was the inability to see exactly what parts of the phone my skin would cover – the pre-set design pages on SkinIt.com do not show this, though you can go to the ‘Create Your Own’ section. Here, you’ll choose your phone and then see a cut-out showing which parts will be covered. I’d like to see the ability to see *my* skin on the phone, as it probably would have prompted me to go ahead and purchase a 2nd skin for a different device.

The skin came in a plain white cardboard envelope, plenty sturdy to ensure it didn’t get creased in shipping, and had an illustrated installation guide, as well.

Overall, I’m really pleased with how good it looks. My only complaint, which might be Eris-specific, is that the skin also covers the 4 touch-sensitive buttons located beneath the display. While they still work just fine, you can no longer see them when using the phone, so it’s definitely good that I’d memorized which was which. Of course, the buttons are printed on the skin, but with black ink, which obviously blends in with my camo pretty well.

I’d also like to have seen SkinIt.com offer a matching wallpaper, like DecalGirl, though I was easily able to snag this from their website anyways.

For a cheap but quality way to customise your phone, laptop, or netbook (I’ve got one on each), skins are a great option. The best part is that they’re easily removable when you sell your toy.