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	<title>Tom Gidden &#187; music-phone</title>
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		<title>O2 Cocoon: Review, Part 3: Wrapping Up</title>
		<link>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/09/01/o2-cocoon-review-3/</link>
		<comments>http://gidden.net/tom/2007/09/01/o2-cocoon-review-3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:50:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tom Gidden</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[3g]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[camera-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cameraphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cellphone]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Cocoon]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[isync]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[O2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Review]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://gidden.net/tom/2007/09/01/o2-cocoon-review-3/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I've been using the O2 Cocoon as my main phone for a few weeks now, and I'm fairly happy with it.  After covering the design of the phone and the music features previously, I'll wrap up by covering the rest of the features.

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

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

This is admittedly better than the lack of reply to a similar query I sent to LG, but until I see working iSync support, I'm not completely convinced.
In the meantime, I'm stuck with transferring my contacts via the USIM from my old phone, so they're all truncated, divided and generally munged.
I've made purchase decisions based solely on iSync compatibility (or lack thereof) before.  I didn't buy my Nokia 6680 until there was iSync support for it.  Looking at the web stats for my LG Shine review I can tell you that I'm not alone in thinking this is important.  There are enough hits coming from Google searches such as "LG Shine isync", "LG Shine Mac" and "shine phone isync doesn't work" for me to assume that someone would be fairly popular if they hacked such a file together for the Shine, and I reckon the same would be true for the Cocoon.
So, hurry up, O2.  Demand iSync compatibility from your OEM, or at least demand the technical information necessary for third-parties to add it.  Talk to Apple and see how they can help.
Anyway, on that note, I'll wrap up.
I'm going to carry on using the Cocoon.  All things considered, it's an above average phone with some very useful features.  I still don't think it's as good as they think it is, but it's a darn sight better than some of the other phones I've used in recent years.  When I get around to it, I'll try shoehorning my contacts into it, using one-by-one Bluetooth if necessary.]]></description>
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		<series:name><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></series:name>
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		<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>
				<category><![CDATA[Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[3g]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[camera-phone]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[cellular]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cocoon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gsm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hands-On]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mobile-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile-phones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[music-phone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[musicphone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[O2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[O2 Cocoon: in-depth Review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Review]]></category>

		<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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