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	<title>Tom Gidden &#187; Cocoon</title>
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		<title>O2 Cocoon: Review, Part 3: Wrapping Up</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/09/01/o2-cocoon-review-3/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/09/01/o2-cocoon-review-3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:50:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
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		<category><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2007/09/01/o2-cocoon-review-3/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I've been using the O2 Cocoon as my main phone for a few weeks now, and I'm fairly happy with it.  After covering the design of the phone and the music features previously, I'll wrap up by covering the rest of the features.

As I said before, it's a good phone.  In particular, the One Big Distinguishing Feature -- the external display -- does work quite well.  I do, however, with they'd put a "clock" button on the outside.  I haven't worn a watch in about ten years, since I got a mobile with a built-in clock (yes, those used to exist).  As a result, I use my mobile like a pocket watch.  In fact, I probably use my phone more as a watch than as a phone.
On the plus side, the nice big external display works well... except in sunlight as mentioned in Part 1.  However, it's not always on:  it only stays lit for a few seconds, unless it's externally powered.  So, to check the time you have to open the phone, which defeats the purpose of the external display.  The alternative is to fiddle with the music controls, which almost works:  the clock appears after scrolling messages like, "HELLO, I LOVE YOU - THE DOORS - PAUSED".  A simple "check time" button would be more useful.
The firmware is fairly nondescript.  The user interface is basic but clean.  It's not quite as well laid out as the Nokia or Sony Ericsson firmware, but I didn't find any major blunders.
I was discussing the LG Shine with my sister the other day.  One thing she mentioned was the number of button presses to send a text message.  With her old Sony Ericsson, it was just a few presses (plus the message itself), whereas the LG Shine had a minimum of eight or so.  This was a sign of poor UI design, I guess.  I remember that one of the reasons Boo.com failed in the old days was the ridiculously long and confusing path to a successful purchase.  Same with the Shine.
I'm not sure what procedural criteria she used for testing this, but the Cocoon seems to be slightly better than the Shine in this regard.  There were a few bloopers, such as the slightly silly configuration of the shortcut bar.  Like many other new phones, the Cocoon allows you to set up a few shortcuts on the main screen to commonly used functions.  In my opinion, a well laid-out UI shouldn't need this capability, but hey.  Well, in their wisdom, O2 have chosen an odd choice of shortcuts to start with, such as another link to the music player, as if the four buttons down the side weren't enough.
There's also no easy link to the camera.  Some phones, such as my old Nokia 6680, have an external lens cover, which activates the camera function when opened.  Others, such as the Shine and the Nokia 6280 I was using before the Cocoon, have an external shutter button which activates when held down.
The Cocoon has no such button.  Instead, it's five or six clicks through the main menu.
Suffice to say, one of the first things I did was to change the shortcuts.
On the subject of the camera, I must say I think the Cocoon's 2MP camera is not too shabby at all.  It's still just a tiny little chip like other normal phone cameras, but it doesn't seem to suffer from the "stripey graininess" that seemed to affect most mobile phone cameras I've used.  There's some chromatic aberration, the camera controls are a bit clunky, the shutter is a bit slow, and it's all a little bit soft and blurry, but other than that it does the job.
That sums up the Cocoon quite well.  It does the job.  It could do the job better, but it doesn't make me want to violently turn it into little white and black pieces, and believe me, some phones will do that to you.
So, what's the big thing I really don't like about it?
Mac compatibility
The Getting Started guide that comes with the Cocoon is quite upbeat:  "O2 Cocoon is also Mac friendly", it says.  Bollocks.
What they mean is that you can mount the phone as a USB drive, and then use the Finder to drag music files to/from it.  Later on in the book, they reveal that you need third-party software to use iTunes to manage it, and "Unfortunately it is not possible to synchronise calendar or contacts."
This is a big problem for me.   I damned the LG Shine for lack of Mac support, and I must do the same for Cocoon.  Both of these phones are oriented towards posers, especially the white and curvy Cocoon.  So why alienate the biggest gadget posers of all, us Mac users?
You see, one very nice feature of Mac OS X is that it comes with iSync:  a framework for data syncronisation between the Mac and devices such as mobile phones.  Out of the box it supports a fairly wide range of phones, and although Apple can be quite slow at updating that list, when it works, it really does work.
With a few clicks, I can have my address book and iCal calendar synched with my phone, and vice versa.  No software installation is necessary, and all it requires is pairing the phone over Bluetooth.
This capability alone has brought sales to Apple, as more than one person has seen me sync my phone and iPod and wanted that ease-of-use enough to go down to Apple Regent Street and buy an iBook.
For PC users, an third-party utility is necessary.  In my experience, the quality of this software ranges from terrible to bearable, but never quite as good as iSync.  I've had the embarrassing misfortune of wrecking a client's Windows installation trying to get such software running on their PC.
The Cocoon allegedly comes with its own software suite which includes this functionality.  I'm not really in a position to test or evaluate Windows software, so I can't tell you how good it is.
What I can tell you is that a manufacturer can add support for their phone to iSync merely by creating a configuration file or two.  They just need to specify the particular oddities and specifics of their firmware to iSync, and then it takes care of the rest.
This means that when a new Nokia, Motorola or Sony Ericsson phone is released, there's a good chance that an enterprising hacker can whip together a usable config file in a few minutes, just by finding a similar supported phone and tweaking the file.
Since iSync doesn't support any LG or Pantech phones, this quick hack route isn't possible for the phones I've reviewed.  However, with enough technical information on the Cocoon, I reckon a fully functional driver could be put together in a week or so.  Certainly far less time than was spent on the PC Suite.
I contacted O2 about this issue, and got the following response:

Although O2 are committed to Mac support we are unable to support iSync at this moment in time. However it is possible for Mac users to still update and change their music by dragging and dropping files to and from the phone.
We are actively investigating iSync support for both Cocoon and all future O2 branded devices.

This is admittedly better than the lack of reply to a similar query I sent to LG, but until I see working iSync support, I'm not completely convinced.
In the meantime, I'm stuck with transferring my contacts via the USIM from my old phone, so they're all truncated, divided and generally munged.
I've made purchase decisions based solely on iSync compatibility (or lack thereof) before.  I didn't buy my Nokia 6680 until there was iSync support for it.  Looking at the web stats for my LG Shine review I can tell you that I'm not alone in thinking this is important.  There are enough hits coming from Google searches such as "LG Shine isync", "LG Shine Mac" and "shine phone isync doesn't work" for me to assume that someone would be fairly popular if they hacked such a file together for the Shine, and I reckon the same would be true for the Cocoon.
So, hurry up, O2.  Demand iSync compatibility from your OEM, or at least demand the technical information necessary for third-parties to add it.  Talk to Apple and see how they can help.
Anyway, on that note, I'll wrap up.
I'm going to carry on using the Cocoon.  All things considered, it's an above average phone with some very useful features.  I still don't think it's as good as they think it is, but it's a darn sight better than some of the other phones I've used in recent years.  When I get around to it, I'll try shoehorning my contacts into it, using one-by-one Bluetooth if necessary.]]></description>
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		<series:name><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>O2 Cocoon: Review, Part 2: Music</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/08/23/o2-cocoon-review-2/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/08/23/o2-cocoon-review-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:34:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2007/08/23/o2-cocoon-review-2/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The first part of my review of the O2 Cocoon was mainly about the hardware: the look and feel of the thing you hold.  This time, I'm going to look more at the phone's music features.

When it comes down to it, the Cocoon is really just a normal mobile phone.  It's not a smartphone, but it will do the normal things a modern phone does.  It's got Java, calculator, calendar, notepad, voice recorder, and so on.  It's got a browser, which seems to be fairly functional.  It's got a camera... two, in fact, as is common with 3G phones.
It also has music player functionality.  O2 seem to be positioning the Cocoon as a music-oriented device, with external player buttons, stereo speakers, halfway-decent earphones, and so forth.
This is nothing new, though.  We've had music-oriented mobile phones for years now, and none of them have really worked too well.  As far as I'm concerned, I always end up thinking, "Hmmm... nice try, but I think I'll stick with my iPod."
Considering my personality type, I was fairly late to the game when it came to iPods.  I've been a Mac user since 1999, and I've had a reasonably large MP3 collection since 1997.  Even so, I didn't own an iPod until 2004, partly because I was working either at home, or living very close to work.  With the lack of a long commuter journey, I never really needed anything to keep me entertained.
Nowadays, I swear by my iPod, and sometimes at my iPod.  I'm onto my seventh now, thanks to AppleCare warranty and my negative aura towards hardware, plus the proximity of Apple Store Regent Street and a fully-functioning credit card.
I'm also now consigned to a lifetime of going to the gym regularly so my bad back doesn't seize up.  I'm one of those people who would never exercise voluntarily, so I have to have something to listen to to keep me from getting bored.  I went through a stage of listening to music at the gym, and then stand-up comedy... I have pretty much everything Audible.com has when it comes to Robin Williams, for example.  Then the Ricky Gervais podcasts.  Now it's "Real Time with Bill Maher", and the weekly SModcast from Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.
So, the real test of the Cocoon was to see if it could manage to replace my iPod at the gym.
I usually have my iPod in one of those silicone cases clipped to my waist, and an Apple iPod remote snaked up under my tee-shirt with my Shure E2Cs plugged in.  The Cocoon doesn't come with a proper case, and there isn't a mad rush on eBay to start churning them out.  Never mind:  that's what pockets are for.  For the music player to work, the hands-free kit needs to be plugged in.  This is a fairly basic one-button + microphone affair, all modelled in curvy rubberised plastic, with a standard stereo jack socket on the end.  As mentioned last time, it comes with a matching jack splitter, which is a neat addition.  However, I'd rather they'd spent the money on better earphones.  They're of the in-canal kind, with three differently-sized pairs of ultra-soft sleeves.  The cable is short so the headset blob including microphone sits at roughly mouth height.  The problem is that the sound quality is grotty for the short time they stay in my ears before falling out.  This might not be their fault, however... the insides of my ears seem to be made of teflon.
Unlike the Apple iPod remote, the headset is basically controls-free... one button for play/pause (and answering incoming calls).  This means I have to reach in and get the Cocoon out to change tracks.  The external controls are basic:  forward, reverse, play/pause and Radio on/off.  They're quite slow to react, and the external LED display is a little limiting when it comes to navigation to say the least.  Instead, I flip open the phone so I can see what I'm doing.
The 'Now Playing' interface is not laid out particularly well.  Many of the functions use the normal phone menus, but the actual playing interface uses the main navigation keys.  Left and right on the main pad give previous/next track.  Up and down control volume, which is an odd choice, since the main volume knob is less than an inch above.  Centre is play/pause.
What's odd is that the tracks are listed in the display vertically, but selected using the left/right keys.  I've accidentally increased/decreased the volume a few times when I meant to change track.  On the other hand, the side buttons are arranged vertically and are equally accessible at this point.  In other words, I'm slightly annoyed by the pointless duplication, especially since it's unintuitively implemented.  This redundancy means we don't have control over track rating, shuffle, repeat, and so forth from the main interface, and have to faff around with menus instead.
The menus do contain a few bits and pieces, though.  Along with the more mundane sleep timer and 7-band equaliser, there's the choice of "Solid Sound", "Super Bass", "Super Surround", "Extreme Surround" and "X-Treme Ultra Surround To The Max". Okay, I made up that last one.  There's also "Stage Sound", offering "Studio", "Concert Hall" and "Stadium" modes, which translate to various levels of echo and distortion if you think your music is just a little bit too high-quality for your tastes.
For podcast listeners, such as myself, there are a few major problems:  Firstly, it's very easy to quit Music Player while paused -- for example, by closing the phone -- and thus "Pause" becomes "Stop".  Secondly, if you do "Stop" the track, the Cocoon won't remember where you were.  The iPod treats podcasts and audiobooks differently from music tracks, and stores your last position in the track before stopping.  So, if you need to stop for a while and return later, you can pick up where you left off.  Thirdly, the fast forward is sloooooow.  So, if you do stop a podcast half-an-hour in, it'll take two or three minutes of holding down the button to get back to where you were.  To compare, the iPod uses the click-wheel to scrub through a track, and the scrubbing speed accelerates with use.  I can scrub through half an hour of SModcast in less than five seconds.  With the Cocoon, I'd managed to walk home from the gym in the time it took to pick up where I was.
This is because, unlike the Cocoon, the iPod is a dedicated media player.  It's also because phone firmware tends to be designed by people who aren't really thinking about how the device is actually used in real life by real people.
What we want a proper convergence device:  something that manages to be a camera, a music player, a PDA and a phone, without actually compromising any of those.  If you want good pictures, buy a camera instead.  If you want a good GPS unit, buy a Garmin instead.  If you want a good music experience, buy an iPod, a Zen, a Zune, or an Archos instead.
Every single attempt to converge these things ends up being a disappointment.  The only thing that's come close seems to be the iPhone, and even that seems to be a whole slew of compromises at the moment.
The Cocoon is stuck in the same kind of mud.  The music player works, but it's just not really quite right.  All the boxes are ticked, but it's just not an iPod replacement.
One thing it does have over the iPod, though, is external speakers.  They're pretty tinny, but they're good enough for listening to spoken voice in a quiet place.  Unfortunately, not good enough for Radio 4, though:  the FM radio only works when the headset's plugged in, or the Cocoon's in the Nest, for some reason.  As I've mentioned before, when "nested", the phone can act as a clock radio.  Unfortunately, it's fairly quiet compared to the average &#163;10 Alba standalone unit from Argos.  It would wake me up, but I can't speak for heavier sleepers than myself.
It also has removable storage:  the internal 2GB of storage is supplemented by a microSD slot capable of taking another 2GB.  Dumping music on the Cocoon from my iBook was okay: when you plug the Cocoon in via USB, it asks whether to connect to "Sync", "Music Player" or "Transfer Files".  Both "Music Player" and "Transfer Files" work, but the upshot is that a new drive appeared called "Cocoon", on which I could dump my music files.  Not as easy as the dedicated iTunes/iPod sync, but understandable, I guess.  I can't say how well it works on a PC with Windows Music Player, because as you know by now, my hands start burning whenever I touch a PC.
Did it pass the gym test?  Not really.  It certainly didn't make me stand up and shout "Why have I been putting up with carrying two gadgets around with me all the time?!?  I must leave now to dispose of my iPod in a suitable manner!"
The bottom line is that if you don't have an iPod, or you really don't want to carry around two devices, then the Cocoon will suffice as a music player / phone combo.  I'm not going to say any more than that, because I don't think the features are significantly better than the other music-capable phones I've had.  The Cocoon accessories are less plasticky, except for the earphones, and the external controls are sometimes useful... but it's just not quite there yet.
Since the Cocoon's firmware is nothing too special (as I'll cover later), I assume it's just a standard firmware Pantech use on their other phones, with a few tweaks mandated by O2.  In my opinion, O2's tame scandinavian designers should pay just as much attention to the interface of the phone as they spent on the outside.  It's this kind of HCI attention-to-detail that makes the iPhone such a big deal, and something the other phone manufacturers will have to figure out if they don't want to get thoroughly shown up by Apple.  Apple doesn't need multi-touch to trounce phones like the Cocoon... they just needed common-sense.
My review might sound quite damning, but it's really just a comment on pretty much all current phones.  They all suck in different ways, but when it comes to music playing, they all seem to suck in similar ways.  As I mentioned last time, the Cocoon is quite a nice phone... but the software is nothing special.
Incidentally, after using it for over a week, on the whole I still prefer the Cocoon to any of the phones I've used in the past few years, including the LG Shine.  I'm just not totally nuts about it.  It's certainly better than the hated Nokia 6280 I bought on contract, but I must say, the 6280 still has one feature that the Cocoon (and the Shine) don't, and I'm still missing it.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>O2 Cocoon: Review, Part 1</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/08/21/o2-cocoon-review-1/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/08/21/o2-cocoon-review-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:02:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2007/08/21/o2-cocoon-review-1/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As you might have gathered from some of my previous posts, I do enjoy playing with new mobile phones, and I really enjoy ranting about them at length on the internet.  So, I was stoked to receive an email on behalf of O2 offering to let me try out their new "Cocoon" music phone.

I've been playing with it for a few days now, and I must say I like it.  I don't love it, though, as it does have some flaws.  It's got one massive flaw -- which you might be able to predict from my other posts -- but one feature which might just swing it for me.  More on that later, though.
O2 have commissioned this phone themselves, rather than just branding an existing OEM model.  They've handed it to a goatee-growing, polo-neck-wearing Swedish design agency, who have obviously put together a bunch of unfeasible design sketches and then passed it on to manufacture by Pantech, a huge Korean phone maker who we've barely heard of here in the UK.
I'm not sure where the name "Cocoon" came from, though.  It reminds me of an old Dilbert cartoon where it turns out the only two codenames left for new projects are "PHLEGM" and "PLACENTA". 
The phone is a curvy white semi-minimalist design, reminiscent of Marvin in the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, or the shagging robots in that Björk video by Chris Cunningham.  You might think it matches the Apple iPod/iBook white aesthetic, but it doesn't really.  Apple go more for rectangular rounded glossy white plastic, while the Cocoon goes for smooth curves with crisp edges and a more "satin" finish.
The whole thing's really built around a single distinguishing feature: the five-character 16-segment blue LED display on the front.  Invisible when off, but bordered by a few inset symbols, it glows behind the white surface rather pleasantly with a relatively deep blue.  I'm in two minds about the blue:  would it look simpler and better if white LEDs had been used instead?
So, to start with, we get a minimalist white cardboard box, with the word HELLO embossed in the same sixteen-segment font across the front.  The lid flap is neatly held down by a rare-earth magnet hidden somewhere in the box, and then reinforced for good luck by a nasty VOID sticker.  Opening the flap reveals a panoramic picture of something-blossoms which I totally ignore in favour of the phone itself sitting nestled there.  A small plastic tab on the side marked "PULL" reveals the side tray, full of accessories.
The phone itself is a clamshell phone, with a comfortable spring to it, and a thick hinge.  It closes with a solid "thunk", rather than a "snap" thanks to the rubber buffers inside.  The outside is white plastic, and fairly featureless, until you notice a few fiddly details, like the camera, flash/"lantern", black volume wheel, battery panel, lanyard post, and inset indicator symbols.
The sides and the inside of the phone are black and covered in buttons and widgets, such as the stereo speakers either side, the do-everything "port", a slider to release the battery/SIM panel, a microSD slot, and control buttons for the music features.
Inside, we see the standard arrangement of screen, earpiece and video-call camera on the upper half, and keys and microphone on the lower half.  In between, there's a little-used volume wheel built into the hinge which works well from either side.
The main phone and navigation keys are flat but with slight ridges and dimples in places for touch.  The keys are very slightly backlit in a pale sickly green.   The main navigation device is a flat four-way clicker with centre button, along with two multi-function keys and the two hook buttons:  in all, a very standard layout.
When the phone is open, it forms a graceful curve which the Swedes obviously spent long nights sketching with markers.  Unfortunately, this leaves the phone a little uncomfortable to make calls with:  the flat edge and face of the earpiece doesn't contact the ear at a good angle, leaving the call either tinny, or the phone pressed close against the cheek.  Score one for design -v- practicality.  However, this isn't really a big deal.  I've had a three-hour conversation using the Cocoon and it only bothered me to start with.
So, now onto the elephant in the room... the LED display.
To me, this just looked like a gimmick.  We've seen phones with external displays before, and they're just nothing to write home about.  Okay, this one's got a neat docking station (the "Nest", as they refer to it), but I had a desk charging station for my Nokia in 1996.  Whoop-de-doo.
The Cocoon fits sideways into the Nest in what seems to me to be a thoroughly mixed metaphor.  The designers have taken a leaf out of the iPod's book when it comes to connectivity.  There's a single port on the side of the phone, akin to the iPod's "Dock Connector", which acts as a connector for the headset, charging, docking, and even FM radio antenna.  The USB cable plugs either into this port, or into the identical connector on the back of the Nest, with the Nest plugging into the phone with the same type of plug.  The other end of the cable is a standard USB plug that either goes into the computer or into a mains-plug charger.
They've even taken the idea of removable plug pins from the iPod charger, including an oddly-hinged UK three-pin adaptor, and a similarly-bendable European two-pin adaptor.  I don't blame them for copying the iPod, because the iPod did it right, and anyway Apple probably weren't the first to do it either.  Anyway, the arrangement is pretty much identical in topology to the iPod setup.
This brings up the issue of overcharging the battery:  the Cocoon's manual points out that full charge/discharge cycles are far more conducive to battery lifetime than quick top-ups, and yet the Nest encourages this bad behaviour.  While the Nest is plugged into the mains, it will charge the phone, regardless of the point in the discharge cycle.  And, if you're using this thing as an alarm clock, you want it to remain charged.  Unsurprisingly, the manual doesn't cover the issue to this depth, so I'm a little at a loss on what to recommend.
Along with a headphone jack socket, the Nest has two of the multi-function ports on the back: one for the power/USB cable, and one for the FM radio antenna.
Annoyingly, the Nest is lightweight and a bit too small.  If you lift the phone, the Nest invariably comes with it.  You have to hold down the Nest to remove the Cocoon, and since it's so slim, you end up pushing sideways on the cable plug.  I think including a hefty lump of depleted uranium in the base might've made it easier.  Failing that, they should've made it bigger to give something to push against, and made the Nest's docking plug fit looser.  Instead, I'll probably end up Blu-Tacking the whole thing down.  (Incidentally, as I discovered while taking an abortive set of pictures of the Nest, Silly Putty sticks like glue to the rubberised base of the Nest... I ended up having to break out a range of solvents to get rid of it all.)
So, while the Cocoon is nestled in its... Nest... it sits there blinking the clock, just like a blue-hued alarm clock.  While the Nest is powered, the Cocoon will keep the clock showing, so it functions perfectly as a bedside or desk clock.  In fact, it's better than my existing alarm clock, a PURE Sonus-1XT DAB Radio which, while designed with accessibility for the visually-impaired in mind, manages to have an illegibly low-contrast screen. The Cocoon also hasn't crashed yet, unlike the Sonus.
[NOTE: I'm not visually impaired; I just got it for the sexy female voice-synthesis.  I also seem to have a disturbing tendency to buy alarm clocks that end up crashing.]
The big deal -- and I really do mean Big Deal -- about the LED display, is that it's also used for other things.  Okay, this is no great surprise, but until you use it, it's not clear how staggeringly cool this is.
When I get an incoming call or text, I hear the ringtone, look over, and see the name of the caller scroll across the screen.  I can happily ignore the call without having to go across the room, pick up the phone, open it and start pressing buttons.  Incoming messages are partially read out across the screen, which I suppose could be a little embarrassing in a public place...
I can walk into the room and notice the little blue LED above the clock backlighting the debossed "missed call" light.  A meeting reminder will display the subject of the meeting.  The possibilities abound.
For years I've been wondering why combined cable television and phone companies (ie. all of them?) don't integrate Caller-ID into the TV STB.  If I'm watching a show, it would be handy for the name and/or number of the caller to come up on screen with the "Busy" option on the cable remote, rather than having to get up and check the phone, or, heaven forbid, answer it.  This Cocoon/Nest layout isn't quite that, but it's a start.  I don't have to get quite so distracted by my mobile phone as usual.
Of course, this functionality also happens while the Cocoon is away from the Nest, but then it's just like every other mobile's external display, and not quite as big a deal.  Fatally, the LED display is totally invisible outdoors in daylight, even when overcast.  The white plastic is just far brighter than the subtle blue LEDs could ever be.  I wonder if the same form factor and concept could be better utilised with a reflective display technology like electronic ink...
O2 have been fairly generous with the accessories.  We get a headset cable as usual, with a plug for that multi-function port, and a standard stereo jack socket with tiny microphone hole and a single button.  Since this is meant to be a music-oriented phone, and therefore a potential iPod replacement, I would have preferred a stereo jack socket built-in to the phone itself, rather than having to drag more cables around.
Considerately, they've also thrown in a stereo jack doubler to allow two people to share the phone.  Nice touch.  I also notice that when these accessories are all finished in the same black faux-rubber and also curved in the same way so they form a willowy shape when used together.  Again: nice touch.
Along with all of this comes the earphones.  Rather than the grotty fall-out-of-ear types that came with the LG Shine, they've included in-ear-canal ones with three sizes of ultra-soft sleeve.  The cable is very short to keep the headset microphone high, and the separate earpiece cables are asymmetric so the weight of the headset only tugs on one of your ears.
I'm going to cover the other aspects of this phone in a day or two, but so far, I'm fairly happy with the hardware.  Most of it is nothing special, and it does seem a little over-designed at times.  However, I can't stress enough how neat the Cocoon is while "nested".  Such a simple idea, and not a particularly new one at that.  However, they gone done it right.]]></description>
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		<series:name><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
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