Not so easy

For some reason best know to itself my Sky+ HD box decided to record only the second half of Stargate Universe this week.

No problem I thought, I’ll watch it on the much flaunted updated Sky Player that integrates with Windows 7 which was launched on the 19th November. Installation and registration onto my ASRock Nettop went fine and all initially appeared OK…

Sky's Sales Pitch

I log into the system and only see last weeks episode of Stargate Universe which is a real shame as nobody seems to have added this weeks episode yet (other series I have check before have been OK) . Now I’ll have to wait until they update it before I can watch the whole episode. Poot!

Whilst installing Sky Player it I did notice a few other oddities…

Some of the Episode details do not match up to the footage they are linked to, e.g. the present weeks episode of Modern Family actually has the title and synopsys of NEXT weeks episode. I saw the blurb and thought nice! I haven’t seen that one yet only to find it was this weeks which I had already seen! how disappointing :-/

When Installing Sky Player I noticed it said about the capabilities for integration into Windows 7′s Media Centre – there’s even a video of it. However the only info it says on how to actually access it is “Start Media Centre and select Sky Player”. But what if there is no SKY item listed as is the case with mine? it’s really not very helpful.

moving goalposts

I tried to check out the Forums (basically “you sod off and support yourself” so we can save money on any actual decent Support model) and that was  as buggy as hell too. The Posts are erratically displayed all over the place with many parts repeated and the Search box allows you to enter only grayed out text and when you click ‘Search’ it does nothing.

Actually – in the last few mins of writing this post the’re  forums have been taken down. The Link to it has been replaced with a “Register for free” button!

Come on guys! get your act together!

Motorola’s latest offering in the Android phone section is the Motorola Droid known as Motorola Milestone in Europe. But throughout this review we’ll be referring to it as Droid [ coz it's easy]. While it is still to be seen where the Droid lands up with which carrier in the UK [ No one has confirmed it yet - though O2, 3 and T-mobile have backed out. Possible carriers could be either of Vodafone or Orange]. Here is a quick review of the different features that the Droid offers and we’ll finally decide if it is worth buying it or not.

To begin with, let’s have a close look at the aesthetic side of the model. It is black and well-built. The finish on the back and the body overall seems top notch. However, I am NOT looking for a phone with a QWERTY keyboard. Because it is a touchscreen phone, I believe it only adds to the weight of the model. Also, the huge D-pad on the right of the keyboard is just unnecessary. It is a touchscreen for Christ sake. If I wanted to navigate, I would use the touchscreen. Why add a humongous D-pad and instead cramp up the key spacing in the keyboard. Bad choice of design.

The screensize is 3.7 inches, which is greater than that of the iPhone and at 480 x 854 pixel resolution, the display is for sure one of the strong points of the Droid. So it will be a breeze when it comes to viewing websites [ even those only suitable for viewing on a PC monitor] or DVD quality movies. And like other touchscreen surfaces, it is a fingerprint magnet. I want someone to come up with an innovative solution to this.

One of the other strong points that comes with the Droid is that it releases with the latest Android release 2.0 – Eclair. From the early look of the Eclair, the UI is snazzy and easy to navigate. While the US version lacks multi-touch, the Europe version – Milestone has multi-touch. As for other smartphone features like multi-tasking [ you know like searching while on call etc], or voice-recognition and even the most essential feature of making calls, the Droid scores well on all these grounds.

And now for the cream. Motorola Droid is the only phone right now to feature Android 2.0. And with it, it offers Google Maps Navigation which offers 3D street view. As for the camera, it’s a 5MP camera offering a maximum of 2592 x 1936 pixels of resolution and clubbed with 16GB of extensible memory [Micro SD card], you have a digital camera ready to take quite good snaps. It has 4X digital zoom with image stabilization and also a flash. Video capturing is done at 720X480 resolution at 24fps. And of course, since Android offers facilities to upload on YouTube or Facebook etc, media sharing is going to be a breeze.

Most importantly, it has 3.5 mm headphone jack and so it can fit your favourite set of earphones or headphones to enjoy music. And the best thing about media syncing is that there is no iTunes with this one.

On the hardware end – the battery life that the Droid offers is 6.4 hours of 3G talk time and about 11 days of standby. This should be more than enough for normal users like me who use Wi-Fi, a few apps – like the media player and maybe maps sometime. And I am not one of those who are on the phone 24/7. With a processor speed od 550 MHz, the Droid is certainly a powerful piece of machinery. The question is however, how much will all of this cost.

There are no answers of who is going to be the carrier of the Droid in the UK yet.

My only problem with the Droid is the keyboard and the large D-pad. But given the many features that the Droid provides, it surely can justify to be a good buy. Unless it sports a ridiculous price tag, I guess, this is the Android phone to beat, as of now. Until maybe, the Acer Liquid takes off. More on the Acer Liquid later. For now, let me know in the comments what do you think about the Droid/ Milestone. Cheerio!