April 15, 2011

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The year 2011 appears to be the year of the unexpected expense. The year began with my old computer dying, forcing me to buy a new computer as we at the Big Bad Blog are clearly computer addicts that can not stand to spend much time unplugged. Then our glasses broke, and it proved necessary to purchase a new pair to wear on our face on a daily basis.

Now? Now it’s the phone.

Back in January, my phone broke — it refused to sync with iTunes. This was frustrating, and had me thinking about what I would look for in a new phone, but was ultimately fixed by returning the device to factory settings.

It’s a hand-held computer, I thought, and these things happen. It’s fixed now.

Fixed, yes, but data was lost. All the information for all my contacts. The way my applications were organised. The saved passwords. Everything had to be painstakingly put back in its place.

Last week it happened again. iTunes won’t sync — it doesn’t recognise the phone, and thinks it has been previously synced with another computer. It wants to set it up from scratch, as a new phone … or, it will allow me to restore it from backup!

Except that when this error first happened, it tried to back up the phone and failed.

This has now happened twice, a few months apart, so a new phone search is officially on.

Before we begin, a quick rundown of what we need from our new phone:

• Music on the go. My iPhone has been, first and foremost, an iPod. The ability to set up and sync “smart” playlists (that change, rotating different music in and out), and a good music interface is a primary concern.
• Social Networking. We like to tweet on the road. And to consult our RSS reader when we’re bored.
• GPS, maps and navigation. Once upon a time, we used to consult maps before leaving our home, so we knew where we were going. No longer. We get ourselves close and pull out our phone now. Train schedules? App. Tube closures? App.
• Extensibility. Back when we got our first iPhone, we wouldn’t have believed point two, and would question the extent to which we lean on the items in point three. We won’t try to predict the future, but we do want a phone that will be able to handle whatever that future might hold.
• Security. Phones are no longer phones, they are computers. Each of the phones that are listed below are more powerful than the computer I (by which I mean my parents) bought when I left for University. Ensuring that patches for security holes are being loaded to the phone is incredibly important.

One more item is that — unlike computers — when it comes to phones I am a plug-and-play guy. While I do not mind spending a lot of time setting up the phone, once it’s set up, it needs to run on its own. Plug it in, sync it in three clicks (or less), and go. I do not have the time (nor the inclincation) to have to play with the phone beyond the initial set up and the very occasional revisiting of those settings.

For instance, two set ups in four months is enough for me to change phones.

The Contestants

iPhone 4

Always start with the incumbant. Or something along those lines. While the actual incumbant is a broken-down iPhone 3GS, let’s be realistic — I’m not going to spend a bunch of money to get the same phone I am unhappy with right now. So we will consider the upgrade to be the incumbant.

What to say about the iPhone 4?

While we at the Big Bad Blog have (quite clearly) grown tired of Apple and its products, their iPhones have been meeting our smart phone requirements for nearly three years now, and their iPods our music requirements for over five.

The Pros:

• Familiarity – Let us not underestimate the power of familiarity. Change requires effort. There will be new software to install, we will have to find the ideal applications for us to use, ad nauseum. These things have a cost.
• Porting – Our iPhone is backed up on our computer (allegedly), so all the information from it should simply copy over to the new phone. That’s how it worked when moving from the 3G to the 3GS, anyways. In any case, our downloaded (and, for the most part, purchased) applications can be loaded onto the phone at no cost, rather than having to re-buy everything for a new Operating System.
• iTunes – We hate iTunes, but we love iTunes. Music, photos and applications simply sync with the click of a button … and that click is optional. While there are things to hate about the iTunes/iPhone relationship, it certainly is plug-and-play.
• Music – The iPhone is built on the iPod, which has been leading the pack in mobile music for years.
• Navigation – GPS-enabled, with a good selection of navigation apps already downloaded.
• Social Networking – Apps, apps, everywhere. The only trouble is identifying which to use, which we have already done.
• Extensibility – Apple has the largest phone application store of the three competitors.
• Security – With Apple handling both the hardware and software, and updates coming via iTunes (rather than through the mobile carrier), there is no middle-man, meaning that patches are installed as soon as they are available.

The Cons:

• It’s Apple – A quick search for “Apple” on the Big Bad Blog will turn up more than a few negative articles about Apple. The standards they use to approve (or, more accurately, to disapprove) of apps is disappointing. Their business practices border on unfair and monopolistic. And we fully believe that when Mr. Jobs’ age and ill health force him to retire (hopefully — we would rather he not die anytime soon), one wonders how the company will function. The iPhone could have lost its mojo in a couple of years.
• iTunes – We love iTunes, but we hate it more. It’s slow, clunky, and poorly designed. And the iPhone locks you into using it. There is really no other way to get things on and off the phone.
• The Lockdown – Apple considers your phone to be their phone. It’s on lockdown. They decide what can go on it, and what can’t. How you can access it. While this is of little practical consideration from a plug-and-player like me, the principle is grating.
• No flash support – HTML5 has not taken off to the point where this is not a pain in the backside.
• Most expensive option – We crunched the numbers, and the iPhone 4 costs between £100 (if we front-load the price) and £250 more than the next closest option (the Nexus S, below) over the course of the contract.
• Legendary for its poor performance as an actual phone – The iPhone has long been a running joke as being the best phone out there, as long as you don’t want to make calls. The “holding it wrong” issue with the iPhone 4, combined with competitors catching up in features and performance make this weakness appear even more glaring.

Nexus S

The main alternative to the iPhone is the Android phone — and there are many of them. But nearly all of them suffer from the same flaw: manufacturer interference.

Google, of course, is the author of the (open source) Android Operating System. But nearly every incarnation of the Operating System that makes it to the consumer is not Google’s Android. Instead, it is a manufacturer-modified version of Android. This means that when a security issue is noted and patched by Google, that security patch cannot be installed on your phone. Instead, the maker of your phone needs to then recreate their modifications, or modify the patch, or whatnot, to make it compatible with whatever they have added to the OS.

And how many Android developers do you think that your average phone hardware manufacturer has on staff doing this?

The result is that patches are delayed, or security holes are never patched.

Android is the market leader for phone Operating Systems, which means that they are the primary target for phone hackers. Android also has an “open” application market — the applications are not pre-screened before benig sold. Which makes the patches even more important.

The only way to be sure that you are getting the latest patches is to buy a Google flagship phone — one that has pure Google Android on it. And Samsung’s Nexus S is the current version of such a phone. As such, it is the only Android option capable of checking the “security” box, and our #1 Android contestant.

The Pros:

• Extensibility – While the application store is not as large as Apple’s, the selection is so extensive that it is hard to imagine noticing this without actually checking the total numbers from a third party. And because Google does not censor apps, there ought to be a wider variety.
• Security – The Nexus S should be the most secure of the three we are investigating. Open Source solutions are almost universally more secure than their closed brethren. The Android exception is due to the unavailability of patches when security issues come to light. This, however, should not be an issue with the Nexus S, as Samsung does not modify the OS.
• Social Networking – The Android app store is chock full of applications for social networking. The problem will be choosing which ones to use.
• Navigation – The Nexus S is GPS enabled, and the Android market has good looking options for the rest.
• The spec – On pure, raw, under-the-hood power, the Nexus S is the best of the three phones. Not that any of them are a slouch.

The Cons:

• Interface – Compared to the Windows and Apple interfaces, Android 2.3 seems rather clunky. It is not responsive, smooth or polished by comparison — merely functional. While functional is enough, in theory, this is supposed to be a top-of-the-line phone … and is certainly priced like one.
• Phone build – The Nexus S is supposed to have a fancy, state of the art, curved screen. Maybe it does — we couldn’t tell the difference. But the phone itself felt lightweight, plasticky, and cheap. Again, we might not mind at a lower price point, but it is a concern.

The Questions:

• Music – There is an application called DoubleTwist for Android that is reportedly pretty good for what we are looking for. And there are other options out there, too. The phone we tested in the shop had no music on it, however, so we are uncertain about the Android music interface.

HTC HD7

The third major OS for smart phones is Windows Phone 7. There are also Blackberries, but we consider them to be business phones, and are not considering a Blackberry for our personal phone needs.

We expected the Microsoft mobile OS to fall flat. The company that separated hardware from the software that ran on it, went on to completely dominate the world of office software, and created a browser that destroyed all competition in its first twenty years has had a miserable last decade. 2001 marked the release of Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 — and Microsoft ruled the roost.

The next decade is largely lost for Microsoft — Office 2007, Windows Vista, the Zune, IE7, practically no presence in mobile computing (tablets and smart phones) — it seems that Microsoft spent an entire decade getting only the XBox right.

But with Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft has once again started to improve their flagship products. And we at the Big Bad Blog have always coveted these HTC phones that are so very pretty, but belong to somebody else. We took one for a spin, and were not let down.

Windows Phone 7 is as slick on the HTC as the iPhone 4 interface, while being completely different, while Android feels like a clunky Apple imitation. Everything is still intuitive (though it will take some getting used to). We were impressed.

The Pros:

• Music – According to the reviews we read, the HD7 syncs seamlessly with Microsoft’s Zune desktop software. While porting our music out of iTunes promises to be a pain in the ass, we won’t be sorry to be using different software. The phone is not on lockdown, so other options will exist if Zune happens not to be our cup of tea.
• It’s pretty – We like the HTC. The hardware and the interface are all good looking, smooth and responsive. The iPhone is also pretty, but we liked the feel of the HTC better.
• Less expensive – The HTC HD7 is £200 less expensive than the Nexus over the life of a contract, and £500 less expensive than the iPhone. It certainly appears to be better built than the former, and on par with the latter. We assume it’s the “unpopular OS discount”.
• Security – If anybody knows how to roll out OS updates to customers using third party hardware, it’s Microsoft.
• Navigation – The HD7 is GPS-enabled, with a compass, and we were impressed with the Maps application. Tube and National Rail applications are also available.
• Social Networking – Twitter clients? RSS Readers? The Microsoft App Store might be in its infancy compared to its Android and Apple counterparts, but there were plenty of clients found for the functionality we’re looking for.

The Cons:

• No flash support – We are used to this from the iPhone, and there may be an application or update in the wings for this — we don’t think that Microsoft shares Apple’s Adobe vendetta — but it is disappointing nonetheless.

The Questions:

• Extensibility – Microsoft’s app store looks pretty pathetic in comparison to those for Android and the iPhone. It’s a fair question to ask whether the groundbreaking applications of the future will be available to Windows Phone users.

Our conclusions

Right this minute, we are leaning towards the HTC HD7.

We do not wish to be an Apple customer any longer. Every time we buy an app (or see an advertisement on a free app) on our iPhone, that’s money in Apple’s pocket. It will be nice for that to stop. While the iPhone checks all our boxes, it is also prohibitively expensive and constantly twists our nipples.

Android seems fantastic, but we wish their “flagship” model lived in a nicer house — or that patches could come quickly on other phones. We cannot help but think that our money might be better spent on a different product.

But it does have the best spec.

But the HTC HD7 is beautiful.

Bbefore we go and spend our hard earned money, we are wondering, dear Internet, if you will give us your opinion:

Do you (or have you ever) owned one of these phones? If so, what do you think of it? Is my take on the phone consistent with your experience?

If you could choose any of these phones, which would you choose … and why?

We are hoping that our reactions to your answers help us determine what we want. Or that you can convince us one way or another.

(NB: Just a few seconds later, and I’m already second-guessing myself. Though the last bit of the second video reminds me of how nice it is to interact with the HTC phone … it’s so smooth. So now I’m hedging back.)

(Help me, people!)

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