<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	xmlns:series="http://unfoldingneurons.com/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Tom Gidden &#187; KE970</title>
	<atom:link href="http://gidden.net/tom/tag/ke970/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://gidden.net/tom</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:00:07 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1-alpha-15359</generator>
		<item>
		<title>LG Shine KU970: The 3G Shine</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/07/20/lg-shine-ku970-3g/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/07/20/lg-shine-ku970-3g/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:08:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2g]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[3g]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[camera-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cameraphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cellphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cellular]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[firmware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gsm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hands-On]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KE970]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ku970]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LG]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LGShine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile-phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nokia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shine-Phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slide-Phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vodafone]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2007/07/20/lg-shine-ku970-3g/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Thanks again to the LG Shine Blog, I received an LG Shine KU970 mobile phone to review.  This is the newer 3G version of the KE970 I reviewed earlier this year.

I've been eager to have a play with the 3G Shine since I received the 2G one six months ago.  As luck wouldn't have it, I had just switched from Orange to the 3G-only Three network a month or so before.  So, I couldn't use the Shine I received as my primary phone.  Instead, it's had an Orange PAYG SIM installed which I must admit I've mainly used for getting cheap cinema tickets.
As I said in my previous review, the Shine is -- for the most part -- a great phone.  It's physically attractive and pleasant to use; the software is clean and well-designed; and overall it's an unassuming little unit.
Receiving the Shine coincided with my growing realisation that, gadget freak as I am, I'm actually happier with a "dumbphone" than a smartphone.  Writing blog entries and playing Texas Hold-Em while walking across a tightrope over the river Amazon might sound appealing, but making and receiving calls is far more important to me.  In my experience, smartphones tend to be slow and more prone to crashes, while also being large and unwieldly.  I started to miss the old days of the tiny little Nokia 8310, and firmware that actually responds to keypresses instantly.  For a while it seems that the more advanced (esp. Symbian-based) phones I've had are completely incapable of reacting to the red button when you've accidentally conferenced your ex-girlfriend with 999, for example.
So, the 2G Shine was a breath of fresh air.
Here comes the 3G version
To be honest, there's very little I can say about the 3G Shine.  Physically, it's almost identical.  There's the addition of the secondary video-call camera, neatly done.  Inside the back case, there's a small reconfiguration of the layout, including the removal of the external memory slot, replacing it with hardwired memory instead.  A few manufacturing tweaks and a little bit of subtle network partner branding, but otherwise it's the same.  Same size, same shape, and from what I can tell, same weight.  This is not a bad thing... the Shine was a neat enough package as it was, so the fact that they've managed to cram the 3G kit into the same form factor is impressive, and a testament to how close 2G and 3G technology are finally coming.
So, what about the other differences?  This is where I drop the clanger:  I don't know.  This is solely down to one thing... the firmware.  The 2G Shine I received in January was a pre-release unit with generic firmware.  Nice, simple and clean.  The 3G Shine I received seems to be a release unit, utterly crudded up with Vodafone customisations.
(It's externally branded with the "Proximus" logo, so I'm assuming this one's got Benelux firmware, but knowing Vodafone, it's probably the case everywhere.  I don't know for a fact what the release firmware is or will be like on other networks in other countries, but I'm just going on what I've got here)
I'm always disliked vendor's custom firmware.  I've never used custom firmware that's any better than the generic, and it's usually slower, crashier and far more limiting.
While I've bitched about Orange screwing with the firmware before, I've always appreciated that it's nowhere near as bad as the massacre Vodafone regularly perpetrates on everything they get near.  They tend to rip out handy features, mess with the UI, and then scatter a liberal helping of "Vodafone Live!" nonsense everywhere.  On some phones, they even go to the extent of excluding the "Live!" button from the keylock, which is just plain stupid, and at worst, a machiavellian way of ramping up bills through accidental data usage.
So, in my opinion, the Vodafone customisations on this Shine have destroyed any usability plus-points I've mentioned before.  They've cut out the nice, clean anti-aliased fonts in favour of a hideous jagged console font.  They've added a tonne of crap to the main menu, making it harder to navigate quickly.  They've reassigned action buttons to illogical places.  They've removed a lot of the customisation functions.  Least importantly, but perhaps most disappointingly: they've removed all the ludicrous but fun tunes and other nonsense.  And with all that, it seems that the only thing they've added to the mix is the excretable forementioned "Live!".
This has annoyed me to the point that I just don't want to use this thing.  I was fully intending to use it as my primary phone for a week or so, but I just couldn't do it.  It's too damn disappointing.  I actually prefer my Nokia 6280, which is truly surprising.
In conclusion...
I'm sure that if I was comparing the two units with generic firmware, I'd be raving about the 3G Shine, while still bemoaning the lack of Apple iSync and a couple of the other points I mentioned last time.
Instead, I'm putting this thing back in the box.  It may be harsh, but it's what I would be doing if I'd bought it for real.
Shame on you, yet again, Vodafone.  SHAME!!!  With your heavy-handed alterations, you've ruined a lovely product.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/07/20/lg-shine-ku970-3g/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>LG Shine KE970: Everything Else</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/25/lg-shine-ke970-everything-else/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/25/lg-shine-ke970-everything-else/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:47:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[6280]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[6680]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[camera-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cameraphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cellphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cellular]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gsm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hands-On]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KE970]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LG]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LGShine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile-phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nokia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shine-Phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slide-Phone]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/25/lg-shine-ke970-everything-else/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Okay, I've covered the the physical aspects and the audio aspects, so now it's time to wrap it up by looking at the camera, the software and finally the phone-call-making bits of the LG Shine.

The Camera
In my experience, phone cameras are universally crap.  However, it looks like 2007 is the year that the manufacturers get their act together and start creating some decent picture-taking kit.
The Nokia N95 seems to be leading the field with a 5MP camera, and a gajillion other features such as GPS.  The LG Shine doesn't try to compete at this level, but they've managed to cram in a "Schneider Kreuznach certified" 2MP camera.
This doesn't immediately impress me, though.  My existing Nokia 6280 comes with two cameras:  one on the front for video calls, and a 2MP unit on the back for photos.  The Nokia 6680 I had before then used the same two-camera arrangement, with a 1.3MP camera on the back.  It also had the added bonus of a sliding lens cover to keep the dust out.  All four cameras were terrible... to the point that I just gave up trying to take photos with them, as I just got angry when I saw the results.  No matter how cool the impromptu subject was, I couldn't look past the streaky, grainy, unfocussed, blown-out images.  I ended up taping closed the 6680's lens cover so it would stop unlocking accidentally whenever I put the damn thing in my pocket.
So, how good is the Shine?  Much better.  Much, much better.
For a start, the camera actually focusses.  It's got manual focus, auto focus and macro.  A half-press on the shutter button triggers the auto-focus:  just like a "real" digital camera!
So, to get into the camera functions, you can either go through the Multimedia menu, or you can just hold down the shutter button on the side.  Once you're there, the live image appears, full-screen, and the whole interface turns sideways.
"Options" pulls up an overlay of settings menus as expected.  Using the scroll bar to navigate lets you adjust:

Shot mode: Macro, On, Off
Resolution: 320x240, 640x480, 1280x960, 1600x1200
Quality: Super fine, Fine, Normal
Flash: On, Off
Self timer: 10 seconds, 5 seconds, 3 seconds, Off
Save to: External, Phone
Multi shot: 6shot, 3shot, 1shot
Metering: Centred, Combined
Colour effect: Negation, Mono, Sepia, Colour
White balance: Fluorescent, Cloudy, Incandescent, Daylight, Auto
Shutter tone: Off, Tone 3, Tone 2, Tone 1
Reset settings: Yes, No

In addition, the exposure can be changed with the scroll bar from -2.0 to 2.0 in 1.0 increments, and zoomed gradually from x1 to x2 with the ends of the bar.
When ready, a half-press of the shutter button will focus and hopefully lock focus, and then a full-press will take the picture...
...a second later.  That's the Achilles Heel of this camera.  The shutter lag is baaad.  Disabling auto focus has no effect, and it's not an exposure thing either:  even in bright sunlight, it lags.  I tried reducing quality, resolution, changing metering, and everything else I could find.  No luck.
What makes this even worse is that compared to a dedicated digital camera, such as my Canon Powershot A75 or my Canon EOS 300D, it's a pretty lightweight unit, and with the positioning of the shutter, you don't get a particularly solid grip on the thing.  As a result, the picture you frame and the picture you take could be significantly different.
Now, shutter lag isn't a new thing.  All cameraphones I've used suffer from it.  Hell, most consumer digital cameras seem to suffer from it, or at least, used to suffer from it.  It's just a shame they didn't manage to fix it for this one.  I don't (particularly) mind if a camera takes a while to dump the image to storage after the shot has been taken, as long as it does actually take the shot when I want it to.
For now, I'd switch it to "Multi shot", which takes three or six photos in quick succession.  It still takes a second to get going, but once it does, it rattles through them at a fair rate.  Unfortunately, to do so, it reduces resolution to 640x480 (0.3 MP).
Moving on... image quality.
The pictures produced by the Shine are good.  Of course, not up to the quality of a good consumer dedicated camera with a proper big lens, but as good as those slimline units with small lenses you can get for about £100, I think.  It utterly thrashes the Nokia 6280 (and by implication, the even-worse 6680), as you can see from the pictures below.  There's only so much that can be done with a small lens as the light-gathering capability is limited.  So, a well-lit room or natural sunlight makes a big difference.


Nokia 6280
LG Shine


However, as far as I can tell from the photos my old boss used to get me to download from his phone for him, these things are often used to take pictures of drunken boobs (in more than one sense) in darkly-lit bars.  I haven't had the opportunity to take the Shine out to a bar to snap boobs, but I did test it in darker conditions.
Now, with the other cameraphones I've mentioned, this just results in technicolor streaking (of the bad kind).  Noise is rife, and the picture is barely visible.  Even in a relatively low-lit room at night, the streaks ruin it all.  It looks to me like the Shine doesn't suffer from this.  Sure, it has image noise at low light conditions, but with a lens small enough to fit in a phone this thin, it's a damn good effort.  Plus, the image noise isn't that unattractive.  It's more like blurry grain than typical multicolour digital speckles.
The thing I'm really pumped to see on this thing is the Macro (close-up) mode.  It's sad to admit, but I want to use my cameraphone mainly for taking pictures of whiteboards before I rub them out, and documenting things like where screws go before I take them out of the thing I'm disassembling.  I'd also use it to take pictures of business cards, serial numbers and other things that absolutely require Macro focussing.  The LG Shine brings it.  The Macro mode works.  It can focus within two inches before it starts getting blurry.
The flash is an odd one.  It actually operates more like a lamp, in that it doesn't actually flash.  Like other camera phones, it's actually just a dazzling white LED.  When the flash setting is on, the LED stays lit.  While this would run the battery down faster, I'd imagine, it does obviate the need for a red-eye mode.  It also means it'd come in handy in the event of a power cut.
I didn't really test the video camera capabilities, but I note that it can record clips at 176x144 resolution, with a subset of the still camera options.  You can also use it as a voice recorder.
One other minor issue which shouldn't make a blind bit of difference to anyone but a geek like me is the fact that the Shine doesn't include EXIF metadata with photos taken by it.  What this means is that on, say, Flickr, you can't see what photographic settings were used for the photo, or even what kind of camera took it.  This is a bit sloppy on the part of LG, as far as I'm concerned.
To conclude, I think they've done a great job on the camera, especially considering the size of the phone.  It doesn't compare too badly to a dedicated digital camera of a similar size and weight, and it has the added bonus of actually being a phone too.
There are two major flaws, though:  firstly, the shutter lag I mentioned, which they may be able to correct in software.  Secondly, the camera function suffers a great deal from the screen visibility problems I mentioned in my previous post.  In outdoor daylight conditions, the screen is barely legible, and without an optical viewfinder, it's impossible to frame the shot.  By sheer luck, I managed to take the picture on the right, in bright sunlight using macro mode, but I haven't shown you the many other shots that didn't turn out purely because I couldn't see what was being taken.  Unfortunately, they can't fix this problem.  The mirror-like screen is one of the key selling points of this phone, and is admittedly beautiful.  However, it's got disadvantages, and this is one of them.
Finally, the rest of the features
I've put off reviewing the more mundane parts of the LG Shine, such as actually making calls, even though they're the most critical parts of it.  I think this is because making calls on a mobile is no longer a big deal.  Most phones are much of a muchness, with similar call quality and adequate battery life.
To be honest, I can't really judge battery life too well on this thing.  I'm used to power-hungry 3G phones, and I also haven't been using this phone to make more than a couple of test calls.  On the other hand, I've been playing with a lot of features.  As a result, the fact that I've charged it three times in the past five days is of absolutely no value at all.  What I can tell you is that the unit comes with a Lithium Ion 800mAh battery.
Call quality is fine.  Meh.  I just can't think of anything else to say on that subject.  Sorry.
The software, on the other hand, I can rabbit on about for ages.
The user interface is good, with very well-designed graphics and exceptionally clear text.  I don't feel the aching need to install some wacky theme or skin on this unit, as the graphics are neat and pretty.  It comes with some stock wallpapers and animations (Flash SWF files, no less!), but they're not incredibly inspiring.  It's interesting to note that most of them are stereotypically "girly" with flowers and petals and things, reflecting what seems to be the target market of the Shine.  There is, however, a manly "car" animation, including sparkly highlights for those of us macho men who still appreciate good design.
The menus are well laid out, with a better overall organisation than that on recent Nokia phones.  However, it's still fairly conservative, with the standard hierarchies in place, such as "Profiles" (activate / personalise), "Settings" and "Call History".  It's just not a big deal.  As well as being able to navigate with the scroll bar, almost all options have a digit next to them for navigating with the keypad.  Even with the smooth keypad, I still find this nicer and faster to use than the scroll bar.
The whole phone interface is fairly responsive, with no major lags involved.  It's not instant, but it's a lot better than the second-long pauses some of the Series 60 Nokias suffer from.
The call-making interface is fairly standard, but still well thought out.  Manually dialling is neat, with big colourful digits appearing in one of four different animated styles.  I've chosen "digital style", giving me seven-segment "LCD" style digits.  Accidental calling is quick to cancel, which is better than the Nokias.  On the occasion that I've misdialled, or accidentally pressed Green on a contact, the Nokias have failed to drop the call until the line starts ringing.  If that was an accidental emergency call, I'd be in trouble.  The Shine drops the call as soon as the "drop call" button is pressed.
Text messaging is organised and although it's let down, again, by the lack of tactility of the flat keypad, it's still quick to type stuff.  The predictive text is done right, and I must highlight the good choice of symbol selection they've gone with:  pressing "*" brings up a list of symbols, each with an assigned keypad button.  So, by pressing *9 and then "OK", I get "@".  Using the scroll bar reveals more symbols, including currency, and for some odd reason, some (but not all) Greek letters.  This interface is far better than the painful repeated button-pushes mechanism used by Nokia, which often results in overshooting the one you want.
The contact management function is well done, with ringtone choice and photo for all contacts.  I haven't found any Voice Tagging feature yet, but I never use them anyway.  The phone also includes the ubiquitous Calendar, Alarm Clock and Calculator, along with Stop Watch, Memo, Unit Converter and World Clock.  These are clean and well-implemented, including a full scientific mode for the Calculator.  As I mentioned the other day, the Alarm Clock is a little limited, with no capability to use an MP3 for the alert sound.  Instead, a set of MIDI-esque instrumental tunes are offered.
It looks like they've really gone to town on the World Clock, though.  A full animated 3D Planet Earth is shown, pointing to the various cities.  It's very cute, but a little cumbersome to use, and there doesn't seem to be an option to remember more than one city.  Instead, you can select your "Home City", which has the side-effect of reinterpreting the phone's current time zone.  This means you can't keep local time, while still keeping track of whether it's the middle of the night back home.  I think if I needed this function, I'd start looking for a downloadable application to do the same thing in a more straightforward way.
As I mentioned the other day, the UI is improved by jaunty little sound effects, which haven't become annoying yet.  It's a fine line, but they've leaned marginally on the side of taste, which is good to see.
The Shine includes Java capability, and includes a couple of games.  One is a fairly mediocre "Puzzle Bobble" clone, called "Bubble Soccer".  I'm a huge fan of Puzzle Bobble, so I was very pleased to find it included.  Sadly, using the scroll bar for controlling it just isn't good enough.  The other game is "Fishing".  Since the tutorial is about thirty pages long, and ridiculously complex, I got bored and just gave it a go, and got absolutely nowhere.  These games aren't really going to win any awards, and I hope LG will ship better games on release.
Connectivity is fairly simple.  The Shine includes Bluetooth and also an included USB cable.  When connected via USB, the phone ceases to function as a phone (shutting off all wireless connectivity), starts charging the battery, and just becomes a removable drive.  Since this pre-release phone didn't come with any software I could only use it as a dumb drive, so no interesting syncing capabilities to report.  As expected, the Shine is not supported by Apple's iSync software on the Mac, so I couldn't sync my contacts or calendars over.  This isn't unexpected, though.  Apple aren't particularly good at supporting phones even when they've been on sale for months, so failing to support a pre-release phone is par for the course.
I'm not particularly happy with the charging mechanism.  It involves plugging the cable into that flimsy little port, with no option for a cradle or desk stand.  I can't see any way that an in-car kit would work, either.  A good thing I don't drive, I guess!
So, to sum up...
This phone isn't perfect, but it's the best I've come across so far.  There's only one reason I wouldn't buy this phone right now, and it's that it's a 2G phone.  I'm subscribed to Three UK, which is a 3G-only network.  If I'd got this phone three months ago while I was still on contract with Orange UK, it wouldn't have been an issue.  I've been told that the 3G version of this phone is due out shortly, and I'd love to get my hands on one.  It would almost certainly become my main mobile... that is, assuming I don't get given a pre-release 3G-supporting unlocked Apple iPhone, which I don't think is likely.  I wouldn't even give my old crappy Nokia to a family member: I love them too much.
So, what don't I like about this phone?

Only 2G, but the 3G version should be out quite soon.
Only 50MB of memory.  3G version has 1GB.
Screen is illegible in daylight.
Ringtone/Message tone volume too low:  allegedly fixed in release.
No real choice of message or alarm tones, or sound-effect theme.
Flat, non-tactile keypad: easy to miskey.
Scrollbar is sluggish and fiddly.
Flimsy side port cover.
No standard headphone socket.
Included headset/remote is crummy.
Basic music-playing UI.
Shutter lag.
No EXIF data on photos.
No calling while on USB.
No iSync support... yet.

What do I like about this phone?  Everything else.
The bold entries are things that are significant enough for me to think twice about buying one, but to tell the truth, they wouldn't stop me.  I'd even spend a day or so either hacking up a perl script to sync my contacts, or do it the hard way by individually Bluetoothing the contacts across.
This phone is just that good.
The rest of you lot can get it when it launches in the UK on February 7th, but you're not having this one.  It's my precious.  I wuv this phone.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/25/lg-shine-ke970-everything-else/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>LG Shine KE970: Sound and Music</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/24/lg-shine-ke970-sound-and-music/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/24/lg-shine-ke970-sound-and-music/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:12:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cellphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cellular]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gsm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hands-On]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KE970]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LG]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LGShine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile-phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ringtone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shine-Phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slide-Phone]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/24/lg-shine-ke970-sound-and-music/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Monday, I covered the external hardware aspects of the LG Shine I've been loaned.  For the time being, I'm going to skip the actual phone features, and play with the sound effects, ringtones and music features it offers instead.

MP3 Playback
First thing to do is get some music onto the phone.  My track of choice for this test is "Indra" by Thievery Corporation.  While this particular model only includes about 45MB of usable space for music, photos and other stuff, it does include a microSD slot for adding more memory.  An extra 2GB will set you back about &#163;30 right now.
Transferring by Bluetooth wasn't such a great idea: probably thanks to my wimpy little Bluetooth 1.1 dongle, it was taking far too long to transfer the 9MB MP3 file.  So, I hoiked out the USB cable that came with the phone.  When connected, the phone shuts off its GSM functions, thereby ceasing to be a functioning mobile phone.  It then appears as a removable drive on my Mac, presenting a list of folders, such as "Documents", "Images", "Videos" and "Sounds".
Over USB, the transfer is significantly quicker, although still not instant.  If I was using a microSD card rather than the phone's built-in memory, I'd probably want to use a proper USB card reader, rather than connecting to the phone itself.  This isn't particularly unusual for flash-based peripherals: my big, expensive dSLR camera takes hours to transfer files over USB.
The file played just fine.  It sounds exactly how you'd expect for a mobile phone loudspeaker... a little bit tinny.  My recent Nokia phones have slightly better loudspeaker sound, but it's a close call.  Regardless, it's still a small mono speaker designed for playing ringtones, so I wouldn't expect audio excellence.  It's not clear if it's the same speaker that's used for the in-call earpiece, but I don't think so.
What really matters when it comes to music playback is how it sounds on earphones.  Like the majority of MP3 phones, the Shine doesn't have a headphone stereo jack socket.  Instead, you have to plug the headset/remote into the side port.  This means you can't charge the phone and listen to music at the same time, as you may want to do at work, for example.
For the purposes of this test, I'm going to compare the Shine against my iPod, using both the included earphones and my Shure E2Cs.  The included earphones that came with this pre-release Shine are branded "Cyon", which I understand is the brand name LG use to sell the phone in Korea.  I'd be surprised if they kept that branding in Europe, but whether they just rebadge the same earphones or include new ones is anyone's guess.
The earphones are sturdier than average freebie earphones, with long metal stalks, thin cables, and a gold-plated jack.  As with all standard earbuds, they fall out of my ears at the slightest provocation.  I'm starting to think my ears are Teflon-coated.  As far as the sound's concerned, they're about the same as the white ones that came with my iPod, so easily good enough for most people.  I must point out that while my hearing's not bad, I'm not a discerning audiophile.  However, I can tell the difference between the Shine earphones and my E2Cs, which is why I spent 50 quid on the E2Cs:  freebie earphones can only be so good.
So, for a fair test of the phone itself, I'm using the E2Cs, jammed deep into my ear canals.  Comparing the quality between the Shine and my iPod 60GB, I just can't tell the difference.  It's too close for me to distinguish between them.  The sound quality is fine.
Of course, the Shine isn't a dedicated music player, so the iPod beats it on a number of other counts:  for a start, the user interface is basic.  You select a track, and you click to play it.  It's got shuffle, repeat, and a load of equaliser presets, but there's no artist/album categorisation, or even any form of hierarchical organisation, and you can forget about playlists, album art, and ratings, too.  It's a phone, damnit!
Using the headset for calls
Next thing to try is using this headset to talk to people... you know... like as a phone.  For no particular reason, I'm leaving all the principal capabilities of this gadget, such as its capacity as a telecommunications device, until the end.
Anyway, here I am, listening to music, and my friend Steve calls.  Rather than pausing the music, it just takes it off the headset, and plays is quietly through the phone's normal earpiece.  (Note, it's not as loud as just listening to music on speakerphone, which is what makes me think there are two loudspeakers in there: one for ringtones and speakerphone, and one for normal phone-like use.)
I accept the call by pressing the "SEND/END" button on the remote.  The music is pauses, and Hey presto, Steve says "Hello".  The wonders of modern technology.  I yabber on with Steve for a minute, while he complains about just waking up and the lack of coffee in his system.  The call ends, and I press "SEND/END" again.  I was hoping the music would automatically resume, but no such luck.  It is, however, only one click to get it going again, though.
Steve says that the call quality is fine, and I can hear him perfectly well too.  No problems with the headset at all.
Sound Effects
The Shine likes to make noise.  By default, every button press yields a different "bip", "bop", "prang", "click" or "kachunk".  On occasion, you even get a musical gurgle of some description.  My favourite, as I've mentioned before, is the "dum-dum-dum-dum-DAAH" you get when sliding the phone open and closed.  It can be replaced by a "water drippy click", or switched off entirely.
I've recorded the slide-open sound, dialling a number and then a slide-close:  SlideAndDiallingANumber.mp3.
There isn't a wide range of choice when it comes to these effects, though.  I would like to see some sort of "audio theme" functionality, where a sound effect scheme can be set up.  I can guarantee that the sound of Kirk opening his communicator on Star Trek would be a bestseller.
Another neat little feature is the musical sound of the keypad.  Rather than using the standard DTMF effects typical of dialling a phone, all the keypad buttons have a different note.  So, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... The Star-Spangled Banner:
531358*98345 55*9876788531 531358*98345 55*9876788531 ***0##0*9*00 0*987678345 55888766690*9875 5589*0# 89*098.
Ringtones
You think that's ridiculous?  Wait until you hear some of the tunes that came with this thing.
On the good side, most of the tracks here aren't too bad as ringtones go.  "Above the Sky" is pleasant, and there are some pretty basic sound effects like "Vintage Telephone", if you don't feel like torturing your colleagues, friends and family.  All ringtones are stored as MP3s, rather than MIDI-style polyphonics.
It's when you come to "Acappella Beatbox" that things start to get silly.  The very name fills me with dread, and it sounds like this: AcappellaBeatbox.mp3.  Oh, the humanity.
Further down the list is "Good Morning":  GoodMorning.mp3. While being woken up by this every morning would quickly lead to the Shine being embedded in a Shine-shaped cavity in my bedroom wall one morning, this insipid song is not actually intended as a sound effect for the phone's alarm clock.  For that, you have to choose from a separate collection of MIDI-style tunes, featuring instrumental versions of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Fly Me To The Moon".
"Life is Good" (LifeIsGood.mp3) is a true masterpiece.  The lyrics are just insane:

Life is good!
Bah-duh-ba-duh-buh-buy-da-bup,
Bah-duh-ba-duh-buh-buy-da-bup,
Bah-duh-ba-duh-buh-buy-da-bup,
Bah-duh-ba-buh-buuuh-duh-buh-duh-buh...
Life is good in the neighbourhood!
It's anything you wish, anything you desire.
Life is good and it's understood
If you're smart, you can start by listening to your heart,
Take part in a journey, exploring a dream,
where Liyee-liyee-life is good!

Some of LG's efforts are more successful.  While Pop rock isn't really my taste, the track "This Time" is far less cheesy, and is a good effort: ThisTime.mp3.
Regardless, I'm going to stick with my normal idiosyncratic ringtone:  old-school modem tones.  There are a few reasons I use this ringtone, other than geek bravado.  Firstly, no-one else seems to use it so it's recognisable to me, and secondly, it's specifically designed to test the accoustic properties of the medium by testing different frequencies and patterns.  This means that it's the most universally audible ringtone I've ever found.  It goes through walls; it cuts through background noise; and it goes "pertwang-pertwang" in a funny way.
It also makes it a good test of the Shine and how well it can be heard from around the house.  The result?  Not great, at the moment.  From the kitchen, I only noticed it was going at all when it started twanging.  The reason is that the Shine starts off quiet and increases the volume slowly, by which time, voicemail kicks in.  I've been told by LG that this has been fixed for the release version.
The range of text message alert tones is a little disappointing.  On my Nokia, I use my own track: a full recording of T&#225;rrega's Gran Vals, made famous the world over by the thirteen-note section now known as "Nokia Tune".  On the Shine, you're limited to four short preset tones, including another opus, "Tone 4".  You can hear them all here:  MessageTones.mp3.
Conclusion
The LG Shine sounds nice in many ways, but it does have some limitations which could (and in some cases, will) be fixed with a firmware upgrade.  In particular, I'm afraid the message tone limitation could turn out to be a major flaw.  Even with my loud and configurable Nokia, I sometimes miss text messages when they arrive, especially when I'm on headphones.  That's going to happen a lot more unless that problem's solved.
As a music player, it's good enough for casual use.  Better than an iPod Shuffle, but not as good as an iPod Nano.  The lack of a standard headphone socket means that to use it you'll have to carry the headset/remote too, but since you'll be carrying the earphones anyway, that's no big deal.
While this phone has all the main features it should, its main design goal has obviously not been features and capabilities, but aesthetics and physical desirability.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, it's a beautiful piece of kit and a pleasure to hold.  When it comes down to it, the music and sound-effect capabilities aren't outstanding, but they're good enough.  LG have chosen a fairly lighthearted and fun set of sounds to put on this thing, even if some of the tones are unintentionally hilarious.
I like this phone, and I still haven't found anything with this phone that would put me off buying it.  True, there are a few quirks and bugs, and being the irascible pedant that I am, I mention them all.  Considering this is a pre-release unit though, I'm very impressed by the overall software quality.  No phone is perfect, and this one has better than the release software quality of most phones I've used, and in most cases better than the most recent firmware upgrades available.
The Shine launches in the UK on February 7th, 2007.  In the meantime, you can marvel at the photographic genius of myself, and my fellow Shine guinea pigs at the Flickr LG Shine User Group.
Follow-up: The Great Outdoors
In Monday's post, I admitted that I hadn't tried this phone outside yet.  In Portishead this morning, it was sunny and freezing cold, so I spent some time shivering in the garden for you.  The answer to the big question of whether that gorgeous mirror-like screen works in the sunshine... is a resounding "NO!"  As expected.  Very few mobiles with colour backlit screens are legible in the daylight anyway, but can sometimes be viewed by shading the screen with your hand.  That technique doesn't seem to work quite as well for the Shine.  You still end up looking at a reflection of yourself.
Continue on to the final part of my review: "LG Shine KE970: Everything Else".]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/24/lg-shine-ke970-sound-and-music/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>27</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>LG Shine KE970: The Hardware</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/22/lg-shine-ke970-hardware/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/22/lg-shine-ke970-hardware/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:41:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cellphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cellular]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hands-On]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[KE970]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LG]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[LGShine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile-phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shine-Phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Slide-Phone]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/22/lg-shine-ke970-hardware/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Now that I've had a bit more of a play with the pre-release LG Shine that arrived on Saturday, I can now start to make a few conclusions.  The first is that this really is a nice piece of kit.

Right from the start, it's got a feeling of quality about it.  It arrived in a very nice box, with a neat magnetic latch.  As this is a pre-release unit, I was warned not to expect software or a manual.  The phone nestles in its own cubby, with the main part of the box filled with a slew of plastic baggies packed with cables and toys.
I couldn't wait for it to charge, so the first thing I did was look for the power button, and it wasn't immediately obvious.  Unlike most phones I've used, it's the "end call" button, inside the slide.  There was enough juice in the battery to tell me to insert a SIM, so I went hunting for my Pay-As-You-Go SIM.  Taking the stainless steel back cover off is straightforward.
Underneath the SIM holder, there's a small slot which I assume is a microSD slot for additional storage.  Even though my current mobile also has such a slot, I've never had the need to buy one of these cards.  I was under the impression that the Shine included 1GB of built-in storage, but it doesn't look like it:  "Memory Status" shows 45732K total, ie. 45MB... definitely not enough for me to think about junking my iPod.  As I understand it, the 3G version does have 1GB of built-in, with just over half of that available to the user.
Build quality
As I mentioned in my previous post, it's well-engineered on the whole.  It just feels "right".  This is in comparison to the past few phones I've had:  the Nokia 6680, Nokia 6280, Sony Ericsson T610, Nokia 8310, Nokia 7650, and the Motorola Timeport something-or-other.  Come to think of it, all the mobiles I had before those, too. All of them seemed to be slightly flimsy, loose or delicate... in short, cheap.
With the Shine, LG have created something more solid.  The case of the phone is made from a mix of silver-ish plastic and what seems to be stainless steel.  This gives is a certain weight that is substantial, but not too heavy.  Even the plastic parts are firm and fixed down well, so the whole thing feels engineered.
It's solid enough that you could probably use it as a rudimentary hammer if necessary.  If trapped in a dark alleyway, take off a sock, slip in the phone, and you've got a workable cosh to fight your way out with.  I can almost imagine Hercule Poirot declaring that it was Colonel Mustard in the Library with the LG Shine.
It's a slide-phone, like my usual Nokia 6280, but on that matter, the two are worlds apart.  The 6280 has a lot of play in the slide mechanism, meaning that the two halves of the phone seem to be independent.  It feels like it might break off if I drop it.  Since the sprung-loaded slide for my Matrix-style Nokia 7110 kapwinged across the room after one too many accidents, I've always been suspicious of moving parts on mobiles.
Not so much with the Shine.  Its mechanism feels secure, and seems to be more like a cross between a German luxury car door and a James Bond "Q" gadget.  It's not going to open accidentally, and it has a hefty, satisfying "clunk" action... optionally accompanied by a chorus of session singers chanting "dum-dum-dum-dum-DAAH" in true "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" style, but that's another story.
Buttons, Ports and Rollers
This is one thing the Shine's hardware falls down on a bit.  Firstly, the keypad.
It's a flat plate of brushed metal backlit in blue, which while attractive, doesn't give much tactile differentiation between keys.  It's relatively easy to press the wrong button, especially with big fat fingers like mine.  There is, however, a definite "click" when a button is pressed, and the keypad area is quite large which should be enough.  I wasn't sure I'd get used to this, but after a bit more use, it doesn't bother me that much.
Along the right-hand-side, there's four more buttons:  Volume Up/Down; "MP3", which launches the music player; and the Camera shutter button.  It turns out this button is a half-push arrangement like a "proper" camera, activating the auto-focus mode.  However, I do have a problem or two with the camera functions, and they might be related to that button.  I'll be covering that in a later post.  In the meantime, these buttons are functional, and fairly solid.
The final set of controls is on the front of the phone directly under the screen.  There are two multi-function buttons as usual, which in one of the included games are referred to as "LSK" and "RSK", which I assume mean "Left Selection Key" and "Right Selection Key".  More brushed metal, with illuminated blue highlights along with the keypad.  Both keys are a little cramped, and take a firm press to activate.  Even so, they do the job.
In between the selection keys, is the scroller.  This is a shiny rolling bar, and is obviously used for navigating... well, just about everything.  Both ends of the bar double as left and right buttons, and the bar itself acts at the phone's primary activation button.
I've got a few grievances with this bar.  Firstly, the left and right buttons are a little cramped and take a firm press: the same as the selection keys.  The centre bar press also takes a firm press.  This is all fine, apart from when you combine it with the scrolling action of the bar, which has very little resistance.  This makes it just feel a bit weird: too easy to scroll up and down, and too hard to move left and right.  The final straw is that the up/down motion, while easy to roll physically, is actually not sensitive enough for my taste.  To traverse the main menu, for example, takes about four or five full "thumb rolls", making such navigation a little bit slow.
Anyway, I've complained quite a bit, but none of these niggles are actually a big deal.  I've used far worse, and they're easily good enough. While they're not as ergonomic as they could be, they're certainly not flimsy or plasticy.  The bar isn't as nice as the big chunky roller on the Nokia 7110, but it's a darn sight better than the flimsy joystick on the 7650 or the Sony Ericsson T610.  I do think I'd prefer a four-way directional pad with centre button though, like my Nokia 6280, albeit without the flimsy, wobbly plastic.  I think it is a step up from the tiny little D-pad on my recently-replaced Nokia 6680, and I put up with that thing for a year.
Suffice to say, these buttons aren't by any means a deal-breaker, but I'd personally want them on the tweak list for future revisions.  Hell, maybe it's just me and my big fat fingers.
Peripherals
The last thing to mention when it comes to the physical interface is the side port.  This little slot acts as the peripheral connector for headphones, headsets, etc.; and as a USB connector; and as the phone's charger.
The port is covered by a flimsy captive plastic cover that hangs off the phone when open, and I think'll break off far too quickly.  If it was just for occasional use, then I can understand, but since that thing's for regular charging, it's going to get a lot of wear-and-tear.  On the other hand, even if it did break off, it'd be the same as nearly every other phone that exposes its peripheral contacts (read: "naughty bits") for all to see. Such a gaping wound would really only be an aesthetic issue.
I guess the ideal situation would be to get rid of that port entirely.  Connectivity and music can be done via Bluetooth, and I'd like charging to happen by induction instead.
The phone itself came with a few bits and pieces:  an in-line headset/remote, some bud earphones, a USB cable and the ubiquitous charger.
The earphones look like every other bundled pair of earphones.  I haven't tried them yet, as I'm going to cover audio in a later post, but I can't see myself ditching my well-used Shure e2c's for these.
The headset/remote is fairly unremarkable.  It's cheap silver-coated plastic, with the standard music player controls.  It feels a little crummy, but it does have a nice metal clip, so it's unlikely to snap off like some other inline controllers I could mention.  Now, to be honest, the only in-line remote I've had that doesn't suck is the old Apple iPod remote.  The three or so I've had from Sony have been cheap silver-coated plastic and have broken far too quickly.  This one looks like more of the same.  It doubles as a headset: rather than the earphones having a microphone like other phones, the remote has the microphone and uses normal stereo earphones .  This does seem nicer: a wired headset with the option to use decent earphones for a change.
Since the unit I received is pre-release, I didn't get any software with it.  Even if I did, I doubt I'd be able to use it on my Mac anyway.  Even so, the phone connected to my iBook and mounted itself as a mass storage device, ready to transfer files onto it.  It also started charging off my USB port, which is a very neat touch.  Unfortunately, it disables phone functionality while connected, which scuppers the plan of charging your phone off your work PC, except in an emergency.
I'll cover connectivity in a later post, as this one's becoming long enough as it is!
The Screen
This is the biggie.  How good is that mirror-like screen?  Bloody good.  Deep and crisp and even.  If you take a good look at it, you notice that the screen itself isn't actually much bigger than a normal phone.  However, the mirror effect hides the edges and makes it feel like it covers the whole front of the unit.
Size, on the other hand, isn't everything.  Resolution's just as important, if not moreso.  It's QVGA (240x320), and the software uses it well.  The anti-aliasing (while not sub-pixel in nature) is excellent, increasing the perceived resolution to the extent that you can't spot the pixels easily.
The software, which I'll cover later, uses the screen well.
The final judgement on the screen comes down to how it behaves in outdoor lighting, and specifically sunlight.  Unfortunately, I've been too much of a wuss to go outside in the cold and try this.  I promise to do so tomorrow, and I'll get photos as well.
Anyway, that just about sums up the LG Shine when it comes to the hardware.  It's good.  It's probably the best quality mobile phone hardware I've ever used.  While there are a few issues, such as the flimsy side port cover, the whole thing feels like one of those secure entry keypads you'd find at CTU.  It also manages to be one of the more alluring designs I've seen.  It just looks... cool.
Continue on to Part 3 of my review: "LG Shine KE970: Sound and Music".
In the meantime, you can go "Ooo! Aaah!" at photos of the Shine by myself, and other bloggers at the Flickr LG Shine User Group.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/22/lg-shine-ke970-hardware/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
	</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
