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	<title>Tom Gidden &#187; mobile-phones</title>
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		<title>Leaving O2 for... um... Not sure yet. (Updated)</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2010/07/01/leaving-o2-for-um-not-sure-yet/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2010/07/01/leaving-o2-for-um-not-sure-yet/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:40:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[giffgaff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone4]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile-phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[O2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[orange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tariff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[three]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/?p=95</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It's been almost two years since I wrote the last installment of this epic journey.  I've practically ceased blogging in favour of tweeting, but I do think it's worth an update now. After two years with the iPhone 3G on O2, I'm almost certainly going to switch... but I'm not sure who to go to yet, though.

Overall, I was impressed by O2's service. Their customer service was always very good, and their web interface quite functional. On both counts, I would rate them higher than both Three and Orange.  I'm less impressed with their actual network service quality, both for talk and data... which is a bit of a problem, considering that's the whole point.  Oddly, it's not their coverage I have a problem with, but the infrastructure:  data speed on the iPhone is woefully slow and variable, and I've had more than a few dropped calls.  In fact, one weekend in May, the net was down completely for a few hours.
So, then comes the iPhone 4.
As an iPhone developer (plug: Dingbats for iPhone) it's actually better to have the slowest and crappest, otherwise I wouldn't know if my software runs like a dog -- if at all -- for some of my customers.  As a user, however, I was desperate to get off my two-year-old iPhone 3G and onto something a bit better. It also gives me a chance to bring Dingbats up-to-date and get a combined iPad/iPhone 4 update written (watch this space...)
Anyway, as I never upgraded to the 3GS, I've long since completed my 18-month sentence on O2's tariff, and switched down to Simplicity for iPhone (the lower-rate SIM-only package) back in January, so there's no real reason to stay with O2.  However, the question is, who to go for?  As my previous blog posts show, I've tried Orange and Three (although not with data service, and not recently), but not T-mobile, Vodafone or any of the virtual providers.
By now, we're talking mid-June. O2 have announced some of their tariffs, but notably NOT the handset prices.  Meanwhile, the other networks are still fixed in a "Coming Soon" funk.  So, for the time being I extrapolate the US pricing to gauge whether Apple are going to charge a premium on the iPhone 4 (unlikely at this point), and then assume the UK nets will keep roughly the same pricing, but maybe with a bit of an increase just for the hell of it.
On the morning of June 15th, my long-suffering client successfully puts in a pre-order for me for a SIM-less Apple iPhone 4.  This seems like the best bet, and even if I were to go back to a subsidised contract, we could still sell the unopened SIM-less phone for a profit.
Plugging the numbers, it appeared that the networks add, on average, between £15 and £20 a month onto the tariff to subsidise the phone.  This is borne out when O2 announce that existing customers still under contract can buy out for £20/month of remaining contract.  There's nothing magical about this number: it's just O2 wanting to break even on the phone subsidy.  When the calculations are done, buying the phone outright and getting a SIM-only plan appeared to be the same cost as a contract, but with some added advantages, especially when it comes to upgrading to "iPhone 5" in twelve months' time.  In particular, the O2 12 month Simplicity for iPhone offer seems economically the best deal.  Of course, this is still assuming the pricing stays the same.
This is also about the time the networks start talking about data capping.  A quick calculation based on data from O2's site shows that I use, on average, only 30MB a month, with an all-time high of 60MB one month.  Even more notably, I'm barely touching the inclusive minutes, as I tend to receive calls rather than make them.
However, the data calculation has to be taken with a fairly massive pinch of salt:  I believe I would use the data service more if it wasn't so damn slow.  In addition, the multitasking features of iOS4 give the phone the ability to draw a steady stream of data all the time.  Even so, if I multiply up my predicted data usage by a factor of ten, I'm almost always within the proposed limits.
I also notice a neat little loophole:  existing contracts would remain uncapped, although an upgrade triggers a new contract under the new terms.  However, if the phone is purchased outright via Apple, for example, the existing old contract can be continued.  So, if I were prepared to stump up £600 and remain with O2, I could remain uncapped.  However, O2 still have a less-explicit cap on their data service anyway:  it's so damn slow, I just don't have the patience to use more than 500MB a month anyway!
Finally, the tariffs start trickling out.  O2 are first with their full pricing, followed by Orange and the others.  Three are notably coy about their offering... as it turns out, right up until the morning of the release.
Anyway, it turns out the iPhone 4 hardware is marginally more expensive than the 3GS, and the tariffs are a little more expensive.  This is not wholly unexpected.  However, what is less obvious is that they've altered the balance slightly, and there is now a small benefit to getting the phone under contract rather than SIM-only, but it's still not a huge amount of money.  SIM-only also gives the freedom to change networks when you decide they really do suck too much.
By now, I've also decided that Pay-As-You-Go is by far the most economic deal for me.  This is fairly scary, as I've been on contract with one network or another continuously (and overlapping) with the same number since 1996.  Well, almost the same number:  they inserted a '7' into the area code a while back.  PAYG has always been the less desirable option for me.  However, looking at the tariffs now, I'm looking at a potential decrease of my bills from the £30/month of yesteryear and the £20/month of Simplicity for iPhone, down to something in the region of £5-£10/month on PAYG, no matter which network I go for.
Bugger the contract, then!
Still no idea of which network to go for, though.
Tesco have an interesting deal, but I note they're a virtual net served by O2, so presumably would have the same network quality issues.
T-Mobile and Orange are merging, and by all accounts, their merged 3G network will be epic. However, Orange's tariffs still aren't fully released when it comes to PAYG, and are a cryptic menagerie of combinations. It does look like "Racoon" might be the best choice for me, but I have a lingering feeling that the guy who came up with the "Rabbit" branding for what was to evolve into Orange is still stuck in a basement in Orange HQ somewhere, and has set up these tariff names as a futile call for help.
GiffGaff looks just about perfect for me, but again, they're on the O2 network.  If Orange, T-mobile or Three launched a GiffGaff clone, I'd be extremely interested.
It then occurs to me that it doesn't actually matter!  I've got a SIM-free phone coming, and I'm not under contract!  Apart from the fact that I'll have to make a decision eventually just to choose where to transfer my number, I can get the PAYG SIMs from all the networks and give them a go for a while.
I do make a pact with myself though:  whichever network gets me a micro-SIM sooner gets extra points.
Anyway, on the lead-up to June 24th, things still aren't clear:  the only network that's articulating stuff clearly is O2, and even they're being quite cagey.  Orange have changed their recorded message on the sales line to basically say "If you're calling about iPhone 4, sod off:  we don't know anything more than you do."  In fact, that might have been the exact wording, come to think of it.  Three's blog is still packed with "Coming Soon... honest!" style blogs.  I'm ignoring Vodafone though, as for some reason, I just can't quite cope with the idea of being a Vodafone customer.
What's absolutely shocking is that Apple managed to pre-sell 600,000 SIM-free iPhones in one day to the kind of people willing to lay down £600 on a product they haven't even seen yet, and yet the networks don't seem to be scrambling over each other to get a micro-SIM into these customers' hands!  I mean, if I were running this thing, I'd be lobbying Apple to include a free micro-SIM in every single iPhone box, just on the off-chance that some of these affluent customers would consider switching to my network!
Instead, there's no information; queries are met with silence, or unhelpful robotic responses; and there's no sign of micro-SIMs anywhere.  There's misinformation too:  some customers are allegedly told by Three, for example, that the iPhone 4 doesn't even use micro-SIMs.
Anyway, O2 being the only network to have their shit together to some extent, I figure I should at least get a micro-SIM before launch so my new iPhone 4 isn't an expensive (but shiny) paperweight.  I'm not happy with cutting my existing SIM down to size, as firstly, micro-SIMs aren't actually 100% the same as normal SIMs, as the newer micro-SIMs have some extra features; and secondly, because I want this done properly, damnit.
I contact O2 on the Friday before.  Micro-SIMs are apparently available to SIM-free iPhone orderers from the O2 shops on Monday, as long as they bring ID, confirmation, blah blah blah... still strange that they're not handed out like lollipops, considering we're talking about a £0.20 piece of plastic that represents at least a few hundred pounds of potential revenue.  Anyway, since the nearest O2 store is ten miles away, I ask O2 if one can be sent out.  Apparently not.  Oh well, one more nail in O2's coffin for me.
However, a few days later, on the Sunday before launch, I happen to be going to the Apple Store getting my MacBook Pro fixed, and I walk past the O2 store.  The sales guy says micro-SIMs won't be available until launch, at which point I show him the O2 website.  He pops into the back room to check and comes back with a micro-SIM.  Turns out, he was wrong and they're available from tomorrow, as the website said, but he'd save me a journey back there.  Nice!
So, I've now got a micro-SIM, albeit for the network I don't want to continue with.  Oh well, at least the paperweight scenario isn't going to happen.
Thursday.  Launch day.  My client starts queuing with his son at Bluewater at the crack of dawn.  As he wants an upgrade, he couldn't pre-order.  His son, however, did manage to reserve one at the Apple Store, but Dad missed the boat.  Anyway, his story is quite epic and includes what I believe is the first case of using a FourSquare Mayorship to bully a store manager.  That's another story though.
My phone arrives via UPS around lunchtime, and I instantly start acting like a kid.  O2 micro-SIM goes in, and all is well with the world.
However, I'm still on O2.  So next up is the task of getting the micro-SIMs.
Three update their website the next day, giving the ability to order free micro-SIMs (finally!), so an order goes in with my name on it.  Orange still have no clue.
The following week, the SIM arrives from Three.  It's a full-size SIM, even though the delivery note says "micro".  Oh well, after fighting Three's phone menu tree for about half-an-hour, I have a good bitch about it on their blog, and request a call back.  I wait... time passes.
I get the callback, and get passed to another department.  The guy claims that they're not offering micro-SIMs for PAYG, yet.  I tell him to check the website.  Hold.  Yes, apparently you CAN order them after all.  Order arranged; it'll be in the post.  Next day, I get a response from Three's blog moderators:  they want to help me get my micro-SIM.  I explain it's already happening, but I do point out that others have reported the same problem.  They investigate and find that a few full-size SIMs got sent out.  They'll rectify it tonight and send out new micro-SIMs to those affected.
At this point, I must comment on this turn of events.  The traditional customer service route was quite typical:  a nightmare finding the right person to talk to, followed by an awkward discussion trying to explain what I want, followed by a few minutes on hold, and finally a resolution that's adequate, but leaves me thinking others in the same boat have just decided not to bother.  The experience leaves me with a slightly lower opinion of Three.
In contrast, the social media approach worked a lot better:  although Three don't (yet) have a Twitter feed or a private contact page, their blog operators interceded and had a proper conversation with me.  I pointed out a wider issue, and they investigated it properly.  I'm content in knowing that not only was my problem solved (as far as I can tell at the moment), but the overall systemic problem has been fixed and other customers aided at the same time.  What was a problem has now been turned into an opportunity for Three to show that they can deal with problems competently.  The experience leaves me with a higher opinion of Three.
This goes to show that social media works.  The company gets better intelligence about their customers experiences, problems, and so forth; and the customers feel they're actually being listened to.  It's a win-win.
Anyway, still no possibility of a micro-SIM from Orange.  I called them:  they've not got any idea.
Hey, Orange:  every day you leave this is another day that I'm getting used to the idea of moving to Three permanently.  Right now, Three are winning.  Okay, my piddling little monthly spend is low at the moment, but back when I was in London, you were raking in ~£80/month from me. The return of that scenario is not out of the realm of possibility. I also get asked "which network?" by friends often enough to make sending me a micro-SIM worth at least 20p.  Meanwhile, Three have apparently improved their network significantly since I left them, and if it performs better than O2, then it's going to be Good Enough, and it's also likely to be cheaper.  Their tariffs also make more sense.  I want to buy mobile phone service, not adopt an animal.
So, it's been a week with iPhone 4... the phone is lovely, except for the well-documented antenna issues.  I'm still on O2, but I'm eager to make the call for my PAC code.  I'm expecting a micro-SIM from Three in the next day or so, at which point my O2 SIM will go back in my old Nokia 6680 for a few days to use as my normal phone while I try out the Three data service in the iPhone 4, and if by any slim chance Orange get their act together and give me a micro-SIM, I might even try their service too.
However, Three are currently winning in my little competition.  Let's see how they do.
On the matter of the antenna issue:  I'm right-handed, but apparently left-eared;  I seem to comprehend a conversation better when I'm using the phone in my left hand.  Also, with the phone in my left hand, I can use my dominant right hand to operate it.  Anyway, when I hold the iPhone naturally in my left hand, I get the dreaded signal degradation.  I personally believe that:

It might have something to do with the skin chemistry of the user, with capacitance, resistance, etc. being a function of the user's skin's pH, texture, suppleness, etc.
It sounds like a software fix (for the phone's baseband) might alleviate the issue by changing the criteria by which the phone switches frequency.  I can't wait to see.
The fact that Apple aren't giving out their bumpers for free to fix this fundamental design flaw is shocking.  With this issue, the iPhone is basically Not Fit For Purpose for some users, and for the cost of ~£0.50 of silicone rubber (notwithstanding the ~5000% of retail markup!) for what is basically an oversized LIVESTRONG bracelet, Apple are seriously pissing me off.
This is a good example of the unfortunate hubris of Apple.  I'm usually a huge fan of Apple and Jonathan Ive's designs, but I do believe that form should follow function, and the fact that the bumpers fix the problem show that if Apple had encased the antennas like normal, this would not have been an issue. Apple's a newcomer to mobile comms, and I think that the fact that we've never seen a bare-metal external antenna before is testament to the fact that it's a fairly crap idea.  Looks nice, but that's not good enough.
"Hold it differently"?  I'll hold it the way I've always held a phone, thankyouverymuch.  I wonder what reception would be like with my phone lodged firmly 'up' Steve Jobs.  It's a £600 uninsured gadget made of slippery, fragile glass that's not readily replaceable, so I'll be damned if I'm going to hold it daintily.
Don't talk to me about FaceTime. The keynote acted as if it was the first time we've ever had video calling on a mobile, but I first (and last!) used it in 2003.  Okay, FaceTime's much better quality, but it was (again) hubris to act like it was a new thing.  And it doesn't count unless it works over 3G.  Sorry.

Anyway, if you've read this far, thank you!  I should have edited this blog post down a bit, but once you get going, you know...
Oh, by the way, I typed all that on my iPad.  Fantastic device.  I never thought I'd actually like typing on a software keyboard this much.  I just wish they'd get around to releasing iOS 4 for it.
Actually, on that point:  why haven't any of the networks produced combined iPad/iPhone tariffs? One bill; two SIMs? For a start, both Orange and O2 have proper broadband operations and do try to crossbreed them with discounts given to customers who buy both mobile and home broadband from the same supplier. Why not the iPad too? Why not offer a £5/month Bolt-On package to add an iPad SIM to your existing iPhone tariff, using a shared (but increased) data usage allowance of, say, 1GB?
UPDATED (Friday 2 July 2010): As promised, I got a micro-SIM from Three this morning.  I actually got two: one replacement as a result of the callback I had with Three CS; and a second with a new number as a result of the corrections made yesterday with an enclosed letter apologising for the mess-up.  As I've already loaded up the original SIM with £10 of credit, I've used the replacement instead of the new one.
I've transferred my old O2 SIM to the Nokia (thankfully, I kept the original SIM-to-micro-SIM punchout surround) and have redirected calls to the new Three number temporarily.  There was an annoying "Call Forwarding Active" popup that appeared when I tried to make calls, but by syncing with iTunes and getting the updated carrier settings, that's now gone.
Sitting at my desk, I've got five pips of reception on both Three and O2.  Speed tests via the SpeedTest.Net iPhone app show download/upload/ping for O2 as ~1.5Mbps/~0.2Mbps/~400-9000ms; and for Three as ~2.2Mbps/~1.8Mbps/~200ms, so at first glance, it looks like Three's doing better.  That's just the result of one test, though.  Web browsing definitely feels a lot more responsive with Three than with O2.
The tariff is a little on the weak side, though:  calls are ~25p a minute, which means my £10 of credit which gives me 40 minutes of calls, and data is 150MB per top-up, expiring after 90 days.  So, I might be better off with their £15/month SIM-only 1 month rolling contract, rather than PAYG after all:  it gives 300 minutes and 1GB of internet a month.
Three have also just launched "The One Plan", a tariff that gives 2,000 minutes of calls and 1GB of internet for £25 a month SIM-free on a 12 month contract.  I don't want to be tied into any contract at the moment (as I'm clearly being fickle about networks right now), but I'd seriously consider it just for the 1GB alone.]]></description>
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		<series:name><![CDATA[Leaving mobile phone company "X" for "Y"]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Leaving Three after a year-and-a-half for iPhone 3G</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2008/07/10/leaving-three-after-a-year-and-a-half-for-iphone-3g/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2008/07/10/leaving-three-after-a-year-and-a-half-for-iphone-3g/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:01:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile-phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[O2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[orange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[three]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/?p=54</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Back in December 2006, I wrote a post about cancelling my decade-old Orange UK phone contract, in favour of Three.  Now I'm off again.  I finally gave into the lure of iPhone.  As a Mac (power?) user for eight years, and owner (and destroyer) of many of their products, the absence of iPhone in my life is fairly conspicuous.  I always swore that I wouldn't buy the iPhone 2G, though.

On the other hand, I swore I wouldn't buy any iPhone while it was still tied to O2.  I don't like the fact that Apple don't offer an unlocked iPhone, but it looks like it's going to stay that way for the foreseeable future.  I guess my ideal vision would be an Apple MVNO, although I bet tariffs would be sky-high for that, but the paper the bills were printed on would be very crisp (and probably laser-etched aluminium sheets)
The iPhone 3G launch has coincided with the end of the half-price tariff offer I had at Three:  it was basically £15/month for 18 months for 300 minutes of calls.  A month or two ago, it upped to £30, and I had to decide whether to renew or to take the opportunity to switch to iPhone.
My reason for leaving Orange was mainly the fact that I wasn't feeling the love anymore, and I felt my tariff was far too high.  I'm a fairly light mobile user, and sometimes I think I might be better of with a PAYG.
My experience with Three has been fairly good.  Coverage hasn't been quite as good as Orange, but good enough for my purposes.  I've had a couple of dropped calls, and the battery life has been terrible.  I'm fairly sure this is due to the fact that Three is 3G only, and the Nokia 6280 I had really wasn't too good at 3G power consumption.  At least with Orange, I kept it switched to 2G most of the time.
I've never liked the look of O2, and the mess they've made of this launch doesn't fill me with confidence.  The starting tariff for iPhone is double the price that I could otherwise get on Three for a lot more minutes, and I'm not really a fan of smartphones anyway.  I think I might be able to have some fun coding that thing, though.  I've got a history of writing games for web and Palm, and some experience with writing for OS X, I'd be dumb not to have a go with the iPhone.
So, I think my new tariff is going to be the iPhone £30/month one.  It's a reduction to 75 minutes a month, although looking at my past few Three bills, I've only been hitting about 50 minutes a month maximum, so there shouldn't be a problem.  I'm not sure how much I'll use data, but when it comes down to it, £15 extra for 18 months is actually only £300, which I should be able to make back with iPhone-related work.
Decision made.  Unfortunately, getting an iPhone 3G seems not as easy as everyone hoped.  In particular, I have a client who's spitting nails that he's unlikely to get an upgrade to his launch-day iPhone 2G tomorrow morning.  O2 and Apple have monged this launch up pretty badly.  I mean, anyone with any sense will see that the second-most-anticipated mobile phone launch ever (after the iPhone 2G, that is) would be popular.  Secondly, a simultaneous launch in 24 countries?  Free upgrades for existing users?  How could this not end up a fiasco?
I can understand if they can't actually make the damn things quick enough.  However, why no proper pre-order system?  My MacBook Pro took almost a month to arrive after I ordered it, and while I watched the package tracking widget like a hawk for that whole month, at least I knew it was on its way.  O2, on the other hand, say "whilst we are confident that all customers who want iPhone 3G will get one by the end of this summer, initial supply is limited and will be for some weeks.", and then expect you to just check back every so often to see if they've got their shit together yet.
My client spent a lot of this morning on the phone to O2 and Apple Retail.  They're giving conflicting answers on upgrades, with Apple Regent Street almost denying anything's happening tomorrow, while Apple Bluewater are quite happy to talk.  O2 don't seem to have a clue when anyone's going to get a phone.  Meanwhile, I'm not going to trek 10 miles into Bristol at 8.02am just to be told that they don't have any.
So, off to the Carphone Warehouse's website, hoping that they actually might have their act sorted better than O2 and Apple.  Looks like they have them in stock for delivery tomorrow morning.  Fine.
Back to Three for the PAC code, then.  Dial 333 for customer services.  I talked for 20 minutes to a nice chap in India, who called me Mister Jidden, and tried to convince me that the Nokia N95 8-gee-bee is a better phone than the iPhone.  It has a five-gee-pixel camera compared to the iPhone's two-gee-pixel camera, and it comes with a FREE two-five-six-emm-bee memory card!  (I think he's reading from a script here)
Anyway, apparently, the lack of a replaceable battery is the main reason I shouldn't buy an iPhone, according to them.
I explained that I specifically need an iPhone to write software for, and Symbian on the N95 just doesn't cut it.  Would I like to keep the Three contract as a "spare"?   No.   They could offer me a new tariff for £15/month, and it's special!  300 minutes a month, and free voicemail!  ...but that's the same as my current tariff was up until they doubled the price a month ago.
Thanks, but no thanks.  I need an iPhone.
"Well, Mister Jidden, no problem.  You're one of our most special "elite customers", and I can give you an extra offer:  I can reduce that tariff to £12!"
It's not an iPhone though.
How about if someone else in my family wants to take the same offer?  My parents spend about £1.50 on their phones each month, thanks to the Orange Value Promise price-matching Virgin Mobile years ago, so No.
I couldn't really stop the guy... he was on a roll with his script, and I didn't mind letting him go through it.  I needed the PAC number, and the guy was nicer and making more of an effort than Orange did back in 2006.
Got the code by SMS a couple of minutes afterwards, and plugged it into the Carphone Warehouse website.  A short credit check later, and I get a text saying it'll be delivered on my delivery date... tomorrow, presumably.
Oh well.  In conclusion, Three's okay.  I'd actually go as far as to recommend them to others. They're certainly cheaper than Orange and from what I can tell, the other networks too.  I'd be happy to stay with them, especially since my piddlingly small tariff seems to qualify me as "elite", but they don't do iPhones, unfortunately.
I just figured out why I might be "elite", other than spending most of my pre-teen years playing 3D space games on the BBC Micro... I did a couple of "Refer a Friend"s to Three, earning £30 (two months' tariff!) each time.  Either that, or everyone's elite if they're buying an iPhone.]]></description>
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		<series:name><![CDATA[Leaving mobile phone company "X" for "Y"]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<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>
				<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[3g]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[camera-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cameraphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cellphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cellular]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cocoon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gsm]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
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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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		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
	
		<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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		<category><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></category>
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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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		<category><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></category>
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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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		<slash:comments>-5</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<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>
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		<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>
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		<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>
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		<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>
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		<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>
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		<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>
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		<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>
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		<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>
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		<series:name><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>LG Shine KE970: First Impressions</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/20/lg-shine-ke970-first-impressions/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/01/20/lg-shine-ke970-first-impressions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:23:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[This morning I received a pre-release LG Shine KE970 courtesy of the LG Shine Blog, as a lead-in to the product launch in early February.  I've spent a couple of hours using it, and I must say I'm impressed so far.  I've got about five pages of notes, niggles and thoughts that I'm going to write up over the next few days.  In the meantime, I took some pictures of it, my old Nokia 6280, and some fruit.  Not exactly art, I'll admit.

Until the renowned LG Chocolate came out, I'd never considered getting an LG mobile.  I was a Nokia user for years right up until the Sony Ericsson T610 came out, and then onto a Motorola Timeport for a beta test (yick), and then back to Nokia using newer Symbian-based phones.  After switching to Three from Orange, I'm now limited to 3G phones, which unfortunately means I can't use the Shine as my main phone as this specific model is 2G-only. So instead, I'm using the Orange Pay-As-You-Go SIM I got for emergencies (and more importantly, free cinema tickets)
My first impression is that this is an attractive, satisfying, solid, well-engineered unit physically, with software that, on the whole, is fairly conservative but smooth and simple, and default ringtones that really must win an award for unashamed cheesiness.  I can tell straight away that I'm going to enjoy testing it.
Continue on to Part 2 of my review: "LG Shine KE970: The Hardware".]]></description>
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		<series:name><![CDATA[LG Shine: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
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		<item>
		<title>...and joining Three</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2006/12/04/joining-three/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2006/12/04/joining-three/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2006 12:58:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[As noted in my previous posts on the subject, I changed mobile phone providers at the end of last week.  On Saturday, a day after I ordered it, I received my new phone from Three.  It's a refurbished Nokia 6280, and the tariff ain't too shabby.

However, I just noticed that they changed the tariff deal between my finding the deal and actually signing up for it... When I originally noticed it, the deal included double talk and texts for 6 months, meaning I'd have 600 minutes and 2000 texts for a third of the contract.  Now it seems I actually only got 300 minutes.  This is my own fault for not signing up on Thursday when I saw the offer, and not checking the deal in detail when I finally signed up.  I knew that Three was changing their deals (and launching X-Series) on Friday.  I decided to gamble.  Fortunately, the basic deal was kept in place, and it's still easily worth my while.  I'm not particularly upset about losing half my minutes, as according to Orange I only use about 45 minutes a month anyway.
Anyway, I've had it for a couple of days now, and while I haven't really put it through its paces, I think it's worth writing up my first impressions, albeit in a haphazard manner.
The phone itself is fairly non-descript.  It's a very good refurb, as new, with no obvious scratches or defects.  It's a slidey phone, which I'm always slightly suspicious of, and in this case, I think it's well-founded.  The action seems like it should be pleasant.  Unfortunately, there's a certain looseness that's particularly evident when pressing the soft-buttons.  They creak.  The whole phone wobbles.  It's not right.  I'm not sure whether this is the fact that it's refurbished, or whether they all do that.  Anyway, build quality: 2/5.
I've heard that the reason Three's offering these refurbs is because they recalled so many of them due to bad firmware, and they've got truckloads to get rid of.  Right now, this doesn't actually surprise me.
The software is, on the face of it, not too bad.  It's a lot snappier than the supposedly advanced "Series 60" interface on the 6680.  My major criticism of my previous phone was the sluggish reactions of the interface and OS.  It usually felt like I was running Microsoft Windows.
On the other hand, there are a few odd quirks about the 6280's software.  Nothing I can really place my finger on, but it just feels a bit unfinished at times.  I do wish Nokia would get someone smart in to rethink the whole interface.  Historically, the old monochrome dumb phones they made always had the neatest interfaces.  Nowadays, it's all kludgeware, with silly menus on top of menus.
There are two features/flaws/bugs I've found that annoy me slightly.
The first is the fact that you can't record new voice tags, or indeed remove them altogether.  Instead of the traditional mechanism whereby you record your own tags, the Nokia 6280 does it for you with a particularly robotic speech synthesiser.  Mimicking the robotic voice feels really humiliating, and it doesn't seem to get the right ones anyway.  I'd prefer to record tags for just the people I call often enough to make it worthwhile.  Saying that, I never use voice tags anyway, so I'd be happier removing them altogether.
The second it the incredibly annoying "Note: Active Incoming Call Diverts" message that appears for a second every time I make a call.  This happens even when I've cancelled all my diverts, either manually or by using ##02#.  From what I can tell, it's network dependent and fairly normal on other networks.  It's never happened to me on Orange, though.  It's a pointless distracting message that prevents me from seeing the status of the call just when I need to.  It's also astonishingly cryptic.  What does it actually mean?
Regardless, I could probably live with this software, as long as I treat this just like a phone, rather than the all-singing-all-dancing lifestyle device it's meant to be.  As I understand it, there's a new firmware out (5.92, compared to the current 3.81), but I don't expect Three will spend any more time on this lemon of a phone and authorise the new firmware.  If I'm feeling lucky (punk), I might try flashing it myself at one point.
MSN Messenger:  this was the fun toy that attracted me to this deal.  Unfortunately, the software sucks.  Since the 6280 doesn't multitask, Messenger needs to be running full-screen to work properly.  When you "hide" it to go back to normal phone functions, or to lock the keypad, it effectively shuts down, and instead Three act as a proxy.  Incoming messages are then sent as SMS texts, albeit with a single click to start MSN Messenger.  Problem is, Messenger takes a good ten seconds to start.  Worst thing is that more often than not, the incoming message then doesn't actually appear!  A few times I've had to message whoever I know who's online to ask them if they just sent me something.  Bottom line is that, to me, this is unusable as-is.
Anyway, to solve this and other problems, I've asked Orange to unlock my old Nokia 6680 for the bargain price of £20.  As the 6680 is a BB5 phone, a normal third-party unlock won't work.  See comment #1 for more details.
While I'm not particularly thrilled with the 6680, it's going to be my spare in lieu of paying £5/month for insurance I'm unlikely to use.  And, if it works well, I'll probably use it as my primary phone.  Since I flashed it last month with the generic Nokia firmware, it's a bit more stable and a bit snappier than the old, bloated Orange firmware.  Since it's Series 60, I'm also hoping there's a good multitasking MSN client that I can use on Three.
This brings up another idea: if they'd offered it and it was cheap enough, I would have been happy to go with a phoneless tariff.  Since a lot of new customers have existing phones, maybe the networks should offer a cheap tariff and a bill credit equal to the unlocking cost charged by the old network.  That way, they wouldn't need to subsidise the cost of the phone.
Anyway, onto the Three service itself.
One thing I wasn't particularly impressed by was the new customer pack.  After reading the pamphlet, I wasn't much more informed than when I started.  I wasn't sure whether I paid for voicemail calls, how much insurance would be if I wanted it, whether "3Mail" will cost me money or not, how to call Customer Services, etc.  I've found these answers now, but there wasn't *quite* as much handholding as I'd like.
The "My 3" site is basic, but functional.  The most useful feature is an up-to-date "Check my Usage" section, which will be very handy over the next few months as I get a grip on what costs what.  One useful improvement would be up-to-date itemisation.  I'd like to see instantly how much a call costs me.
"Planet 3":  this looks fairly neat on the face of it, although not much different from Vodafone Live! and Orange World.  However, just like Orange World, I'm unlikely to use this service that much.  The only thing I ever really used that kind of thing for was checking the odd phone number, train times, or directions to somewhere when lost in London.  Even with the £5 of included downloads I get on my new tariff, I don't think I'll find anything I particularly want.  The free news and weather videos look neat, though.
It's nice that they're clear about the pricing all through the site: browsing is free, and you're told about the costs of items before you actually buy them.  Okay, that pretty much describes any real-world shop, but it's not obvious on the other networks:  I was never sure how much stuff cost me on Orange, and with the inclusive bundles, it was hard to figure out afterwards.  I'm also convinced that seeing the prices would make me more likely to buy something.  With Orange, I was always afraid of being surprised by a massive bill if I used any of these kinds of features.  With Three, I know up front, and I'm more comfortable spending that money.
"3Mail":  I'm still not exactly sure how much I'd pay for this if I used it. I don't think I ever actually used "gid@orange.net" other than for testing, and I'm not sure I'll use 3Mail either.  It is nice to see that there's a level of integration between the voicemail system and the email system, with voicemails being stored in my inbox as WAV files.  Neat.  Obvious, but neat.  In fact, I think I saw something similar on my sister's cellular service in the States a couple of years ago.
They seem to offer a bunch of different email options... 3Mail, Mobile Mail, Office Mail, etc.  No idea what does what and for how much.  While push email (a la Blackberry) sounds cool, I'm not sure I'd use it that much even if it was free, no matter how addictive it's meant to be.
Overall, the Three service looks a little complicated overall, with a lot of confusing and potentially overlapping product names, and they could probably be rationalised a bit.  I'm sure it'll become clear before too long, though.]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://gidden.net/tom/2006/12/04/joining-three/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[Leaving mobile phone company "X" for "Y"]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Still leaving Orange...</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2006/12/04/still-leaving-orange/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2006/12/04/still-leaving-orange/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:51:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[07973100194]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cellular]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer-services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile-phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[orange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[three]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uk_telecom]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2006/12/04/still-leaving-orange/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Continuing on from my previous post about leaving Orange... I got a call from Orange Customer Relations (07973100194) this morning about the PAC code I ordered on Saturday. The woman calling was very nice and polite, was calling to get me back as I am a "high valued customer".  Once I explained why I was leaving, she got the point that I had made up my mind, and instead asked if I could elucidate so she could pass on my comments as constructive criticism.  We had a long and pleasant chat.

I basically told her all the points in my original post, gave her all the information she needed about the new tariff on Three, and explained what I thought Orange needed to do to become really competitive again.  She didn't argue my assumption that they weren't going to be able to give me a deal as good as the one Three have given me (ten times the minutes for half the price).
In fact, she mentioned that she hadn't heard about the offer I got from Three, and that it was only through conversations like this that Orange really got an idea of what's out there and popular.  Glad to be of help.  (Incidentally, it's this one.)
She was interested that they'd given me a refurbished handset, and I explained that that might be a way of reducing the tariff cost: perhaps even offering an ultra-cheap no-handset tariff, for those with existing phones and those with knowledge of eBay!
She brought up an interesting point when I mentioned that Three's 2G service was going to be moved from O2 to Orange, therefore giving me the coverage I'm used to. She said that I should be careful with that because Orange wasn't going to give them full UK coverage.  I'm not sure exactly what she meant by that, but interesting to know all the same.  We also talked about Three's heritage and how one of their directors was ex-Orange.
My final point was about how I felt that Orange had lost their innovative lead, and that to get me back would require them to start being smart again, rather than being just another network.  Giving their customers features and offers because they should, not just because they *need* to.  I explained that Three was trying a lot harder than Orange seemed to be and that if they got that feeling back, I'd be happy to return to Orange once my new contract expired.
Anyway, I was happy to have this conversation, as I'm always happy to give companies any feedback they need to improve their service.  The woman calling was very pleasant and polite, and incredibly well-trained and informed.  It wasn't the hard sell that I got on Friday morning, which as I said before didn't exactly endear me to the idea of staying with them.
It's a shame I had to leave before they decided to take on my feedback, though.  Orange used to be very big on loyalty.  Nowadays, you've got to leave (or threaten to leave) to get a good deal out of them.  Of course, preferential treatment to new customers makes sense on the balance sheet, but real common-sense says to keep existing customers happy to prevent churn.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>-2</slash:comments>
	
		<series:name><![CDATA[Leaving mobile phone company "X" for "Y"]]></series:name>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Leaving Orange after ten years</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2006/12/01/leaving-orange/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2006/12/01/leaving-orange/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Dec 2006 11:46:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[6280]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cellnet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cellular]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer-services]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gsm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile-phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nokia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[orange]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rant]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[three]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vodafone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[x-series]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2006/12/01/leaving-orange/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I just called Orange customer relations to request my PAC code after finally deciding to move to "3" or Three as I'll call them from now.  I've been a contract customer with Orange for just over ten years, and I'm just no longer feeling the love.

Orange started off as an innovative company, seemingly unaffected by the failure of the related "Rabbit" CT2 enterprise.  Unlike Cellnet and Vodafone, the more conservative established alternatives at the time, Orange offered a whole slew of innovative features such as Line 2, free voicemail, free Call Waiting, free itemised billing, free insurance, free 0800 calls, inclusive minutes bundles, and most of all: lower prices, even on international calls.
To achieve these features, they worked closely with Nokia.  If I remember correctly, Orange were the ones responsible for getting features like Line 2 and voicemail signalling into the standards.  Rather than just selling a premade product, they wanted to create new and innovative ways of using a mobile phone.
Orange Care was the real killer app for me, though.  I remember trashing my phone on several occasions and getting a free replacement very quickly: once I got a replacement 7110 delivered to me at work two hours after I'd accidentally dropped the old one in the (clean and pine-scented) toilet.  No charge.  This service apparently was the cause of the delayed releases of new handsets, as Orange sent new models back to the drawing board when they didn't live up to the QA standards necessary for the insurance scheme.
This was the old Orange.  This was before Hans Snook left.  This was before Pay-As-You-Go.  This was before they got bought out.
Since then, Orange have seemed to stop innovating, both from a technical and a business perspective.  Customer service quality has plummeted.  It used to take about two rings to get through to a very well-trained CS rep, who would quickly put you through to 3rd Line support if it was clear that you knew what you were talking about. Nowadays it sometimes takes ages just to get through to someone with a script in front of them, and they seemed to be well trained at saying "No", and "We don't offer that", and other disappointing responses.
Orange Care is now £6 a month extra, and includes a whole bunch of exclusions and a rather hefty excess.  In other words, it's the same as everyone else's network.  I haven't actually used Orange Care in about five or six years, but it's something I've paid for diligently anyway, for the peace-of-mind.  I could have bought about five new phones on the money I've spent on Orange Care.
The final straw was a fairly trivial note I just noticed at the bottom of last month's Orange bill:  "...We will be charging £1.50 for itemised billing."  Now, I don't actually care *that* much, as I rarely read my phone bill anyway, but I remember one of those little things that made Orange better than Cellnet and Vodafone was their free itemised billing.  It's the principle.  Yet another sign that they've regressed.
The offers given to new customers are a hell of a lot better than those available to old, loyal customers, but even those offers are far too expensive for what you get. Back when I joined, you got everything for £15 a month.  That's on a 12 month contract, with a free decent phone included.  Now I'm paying almost £30 for pretty much the same deal: 60 minutes of talk time and 30 texts.  I've been paying them anywhere from about £20 to £100 a month for ten years, and usually overpaying them if anything.  I'm only using an average of 42 minutes a month, but they can't offer me a cheaper tariff.
So, here comes Three.  Dumb name, and one that makes it difficult to Google, but their attitude seems strangely familiar.
Looking a bit deeper, I find out that Three's full name is "Hutchison 3G UK Limited".  Not too different from the "Hutchison Telecommunications UK Limited" that launched Orange back in 1994.  Back then, "Orange" was a pretty odd name for a mobile phone network, just as Three is an odd name now.  Back then, Orange were the only ones risking running on a solely 2G phone network, while Cellnet and Vodafone's relied on 1G.  Not too dissimilar from Three rolling out a 3G network so quickly, and handing off the 2G fallback to O2 (and soon to Orange, fortunately).
In so many ways, Three reminds me of what Orange used to be.
Three is the new Orange.
And today, they've launched "X-Series"... flat-fee mobile broadband with free Skype-to-Skype calls.  £5 a month.  This thing could kickstart the stagnant mobile internet market.  It's the kind of industry-wrenching, business-plan-defying fantastic lunacy we used to expect from Orange.  Exactly the kind of thing that makes their less insightful competitors poo-pooh it, and their more insightful competitors poo-poo themselves.  It's what the consumers want, and it's going to happen.  Everyone else is on catch-up now.
Considering the way I currently use my mobile, I'm not going to go for "X-Series" for now.  I can't justify the expense considering how much I actually use my mobile, and I also don't want the Nokia N73 I'd have to use to get it:  I'm sick of "smartphones", which I think are more suitably named "slow-and-crashy-phones".  I've been using a Nokia 6680 for about a year, and it's just slow and crap.  My friend Steve has an N70, which is similarly slow and crap.  I had a 7650 before then, as a result of the Orange video trial I participated in, and it's just slow and crap.  I wouldn't mind having a Blackberry or something like that, but right now, I'd just be happier with a small phone that works well, as long as it's got Bluetooth.  I could even do without a camera.
Anyway, as far as I can tell, Orange are just yet another network now.  Very full of themselves, knowing full well they've got market share, and they just do not care about customer churn.  They know they've got a good network, so why try harder?  France Telecom seems content to just sit on the cash-cow.  After talking to Orange CR for a few minutes to get my PAC code, I don't think they (or their computer) cares if I leave or not.  If anything, the girl on the phone just got slightly snippy and argumentative with me, before giving up.
So, I've signed up to Three.  £15 a month for 18 months, and then up to £30 a month, although I'll probably renegotiate at that point and perhaps move somewhere else.  I get a Nokia 6280 refurb, which should do the trick.  It's got iSync compatibility, and it's not a "smartphone", so it has a chance of actually working smoothly.  I'll get 600 minutes a month for six months and then 300 minutes after that.  2000 texts a month for six months, and then down to 1000 texts, which is still about 30 times what I actually need.  It also includes MSN Messenger "free for life", which could be fun.
On paper, this looks like the right move.  I have no idea it'll actually play out, but I must say I can't wait for my new phone to arrive tomorrow(!)
I'm going to transfer my number over to Three, but I'll get an Orange PAYG SIM just for fun (and for Orange Wednesdays), and I'll probably get my phone unlocked so I've got a spare.  Otherwise, I'm no longer a loyal Orange customer.
Sort it out, Orange.  You suck.  I'm Three's bitch now.
Three, please don't disappoint me now.]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
	
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