Scroll Excel 7 first look

Posted on January 29, 2012 at 11:37 am UK

The market for tablet computers is looking rosy according to any number of research studies and reports in the mainstream media and tech press.

It’s continuing good news for Apple and its iPad and for the myriad Android tablet-makers; and for satisfying consumers’ desire to own the latest affordable tech that gives them the freedom to get at information whenever and wherever they want it.

According to one recent report I read by Research and Markets, the expected growth of the tablet market in the UK over the next few years will be driven by features such as ease of use, long battery life, mobility, ability to multi-task, instant on/off and the large number of applications available.

Such predicted expectation drivers – no doubt valid in most if not all markets, not just the UK – keep the pressure on vendors where those that build better mousetraps are likely to be the ones that dominate in the market, either overall (like the iPad) or in a niche.

Such predictions and opinion are probably welcome news to a UK niche player like Storage Options, maker of the Scroll Excel 7″ tablet they loaned me and that I’ve been taking a look at over the past few weeks.

Just over six months ago, in June 2011, I reviewed Storage Options’ predecessor tablet, the Scroll 7″ Tablet PC (Capacitive). As I mentioned in the review, that device while competent had some significant issues that made me reluctant to consider it a product to recommend to anyone.

But that was then, and this is now with a new device that offers a much better experience and makes it a worthy offering in an increasingly-crowded market. You can see what I make of the Scroll Excel in my first-look video report that runs at just under ten minutes.

(If you don’t see the video embedded above, watch it at YouTube.)

Overall, I think this is a very good device, certainly a far superior product compared to its predecessor. It’s well specified; the device I’ve got includes:

Android 2.3.4 operating system
Cortex A8 1Ghz single-core processor
512Mb DDR3 RAM; 4GB internal storage memory (of which 2Gb is used by the operating system); slot to add a microSD card up to 32Gb
Capacitive 7-inch touch screen, 16:9 (screen resolution) 5:3 (pixel resolution), 800 x 480
0.3 megapixel front-facing camera
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Mini HDMI socket for connecting to, eg, a TV to play HD video (you’ll need to buy a cable, one isn’t included)
Mini USB port for connecting to a computer for file transfers and to to connect peripheral devices: keyboard, flash drive, etc (and a cable is included)
Plays 1080p HD video, supports MPEG2, MPEG4, AVS, H.264, WMV, AVI, MP4, RMVB, FLV, MKV

I like the build quality, the speed of operation (on a par with most devices I’ve used and matching your expectations in how quickly something happens when you tap on the screen), the screen’s great resolution, and long battery life (with my moderate use so far – exploring the device, video watching, news reading, a bit of email – it’s days between charges).

Storage Options offers the Scroll Excel 7″ at a pretty keen price – currently, £129.99 is mentioned on their website although I see Amazon UK has it at £139.99, a discount of £10 off the original price. And they reported earlier this month that it was selling very well indeed.

There is a negative about the device, although how big it is depends on what’s important to you. The Scroll Excel 7 doesn’t come with the app you commonly find on many Android devices that lets you connect to the Android Market to download and install or update your apps.

Storage Options say this:

Due to licensing restrictions, the Scroll Excel cannot officially be used to access the Android Marketplace. It does however come with a number of pre-installed apps including Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader, Aldiko Book Reader, Amazon Kindle, BBC iPlayer, BBC News, es_file_explorer, Evernote, Facebook, MSN Talk, Quick System Info Pro, Slider Me Market Place, TuneIn Radio, Twitter, WildTangent Games and YouTube.The Scroll Excel also comes with access to the Slide Me Market Place where most major apps can be downloaded to the device without issue.

I mention this in my video review. If ease of use for you includes installing or updating your apps with just a tap or two on the screen, then this could be a big issue. There are workarounds, though, as Storage Options mentions (and includes reference to in the device manual). There are also some extreme ones.

I discovered a way to get to the Market, by accident I think, when I installed the Kindle app for Android from Amazon directly, which took me to the Market. I did that today, after I recorded the video review yesterday, and it opens up some interesting usage possibilities I hadn’t considered – the Scroll Excel 7 makes a pretty good Kindle device alternative with a better screen reading experience than the Kindle itself (and it’s in hi-res colour), and the price between the two devices isn’t far apart. The Excel is about the same size as a Kindle, too.

That’s an extra although one you may find as appealing as I do. But as a ‘mainstream’ Android tablet, this Scroll Excel is worth considering if you’re looking for a good-quality and good-value device and you don’t want to venture into iPad-like pricing territory.

This market is evolving very quickly, though. For instance, Dell may be getting into the consumer tablet market later this year (not to be confused with it’s abortive efforts in the business tablet market with the Dell Streak). There’s also Amazon’s Fire rumoured to be coming to the UK in a few months and at a price that will bring pressure to budget-device makers

Still, for a penny under £130, the Scroll Excel 7 is a very nice product at the budget end of the market.

Good experience with a mobile Google+ Hangout

Posted on January 15, 2012 at 11:48 am UK

One of the most appealing things about Google+ is the Hangouts video conferencing feature. It lets you conduct impromptu video conversations with up to ten people with just your connected computer and a webcam and microphone. Nothing to install or subscribe to (it’s a free service) and it works very well.

I’ve done more than a dozen of these from a business perspective – including a number as FIR video interviews and panels – and they’re a terrific on-demand and informal communication tool. While there’s no native recording feature (and I can’t imagine that’s something Google isn’t working on), you can record your Hangout session via a third-party program such as Camtasia to create a video, which you can then publish or share via commercial services like YouTube.

On Friday, I took part in a terrific Hangout discussion hosted and recorded by my podcasting partner Shel Holtz together with Stuart Bruce and Phil Gomes. For the first time, I connected and participated in the discussion using my mobile device, a Samsung Galaxy SII smartphone.

I used the latest version of the Google+ app for Android to join the Hangout that Shel had started (you can’t start a hangout yourself from a mobile device).

The screenshot shows what I could see on my phone’s screen – in this case, Phil’s fine features in the large image, and the Google+ avatars of my three co-participants at the top left of the screen. The black-ish rectangle you see on the right beneath Phil’s image is a small video of me as captured by the SII’s front-facing camera which, for some reason, wasn’t captured when I grabbed this screenshot.

I was really impressed at how good the overall experience was in taking part on a mobile device. I had my SII’s earbuds/microphone combo connected so I could hear everything with crystal clarity, and talk hands free as well. I did the Hangout from my office; my desk is very close to the wireless router so the wifi connection to the phone was max strength, something I’m sure helped a lot with the overall smoothness of the network connection.

As you’ll note if you watch the video recording of this Hangout, there’s quite a bit of image movement from me as I was holding the phone in my hand so every time I moved or shifted in my chair, the image suffered a bit. (Note for next time: find some way to prop up the phone.)

The Google+ app for iPhone is also good – check out the experience recounted by Marshall Kirkpatrick in the early stages of the Google+ Hangout rollout for mobile.

So you’re not restricted by location if you want to join in a Google+ Hangout – a supported mobile device and operating system plus a strong network connection and you’re good to go.

Engaging outside the inbox

Posted on December 20, 2011 at 8:51 am UK

Doing some email housekeeping earlier this morning, I got thinking about the futility of much of one’s day-to-day email.

Even though I’ve been using a nifty program called NEO Pro for the better part of the past decade that sits on top of Outlook, and which automates the essentials of email organization for me, I just asked myself: Why?

I’m increasingly finding that the most useful, valuable and effective ways to exchange written thoughts, ideas and then make decisions involve the informality of connecting with people via social networks rather than email.

For me, that typically means – in order of preference – Twitter direct messages, Google+ private messages and, in distant third place, LinkedIn inmail or groups. I’m increasingly hearing how people are using Yammer or Salesforce’s Chatter within the enterprise to equal good effect.

Ah, but what about file attachments and other enterprise-essential items? you will ask. You still need email for that. Conventional thinking would agree with you. But just ask yourself: Why? Some enterprise tools like Chatter allow file sharing. I’m increasingly using tools like Dropbox for that rather than bloating up everyone’s Outlook PST databases or Exchange Server inboxes with attachments. I’ve not yet made a conventional jump to the cloud with tools like Google Docs, but that day may come. Or not: a combination of Twitter, Google+ and Dropbox is excellent so far.

Most people I know who work for large organizations say formal channels like email won’t change. I say: Why? If people like Luis Suarez – he works for IBM, lives (and works) in the Canary Islands and hasn’t done traditional email for more than three years – can dispense with email in a big-organization setting, why not you?

See what you think after watching this documentary-interview about Luis and email.

(If you don’t see the video embedded above, watch it at YouTube.)

Engaging outside the inbox makes sense. Don’t you think? Share your thoughts here. Or let Luis know what you think. (No, that’s not an email link.)

[Later] An article in yesterday’s Financial Times headlined The end of email? reminded me that what to do about email is a subject lots of people are thinking about. Indeed, taking concrete action, such as what’s happening at French-based global tech company Atos where its CEO has stated that his 74,000-employee company will ban email for internal communication by 2013. It’s not all email but it’s a huge start to kick-start a huge task of change moving towards team-based, collaborative social communication tools and channels.

On a smaller scale, there’s Canadian digital marketing agency Klick that has already banned all internal email use. Klick CEO Leerom Segal is quoted as saying:

While email makes for a decent communication tool with clients, internally it doesn’t facilitate collaboration and basic workflow. Email has no intelligent mechanisms for prioritization, lacks context, lacks a framework for knowledge management, and saps accountability.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way?

Related post:

The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #628: December 5, 2011 includes discussion on the Atos email ban.

Sizing up the Samsung Galaxy Note

Posted on December 18, 2011 at 7:11 am UK

galaxynotes2

I’ve been exploring a new gadget this weekend, a Samsung Galaxy Note that I have for review. If you looked at it, you’d think it was a rather large smartphone. Indeed, compare it to the Samsung Galaxy SII that I have – which is a rather large smartphone – and you’ll see it needs another description.

You can see the size of it when looking at these two devices side by side in the photo above – the Note on the left and the SII on the right.

When I first looked at the Note on unpacking the box, my immediate thought was – this is like the 5-inch Dell Streak in terms of size. In fact, I have a Dell Streak so a comparison is easy to see at first hand as this photo below shows: Galaxy Note on the left, Dell Streak on the right.

galaxynotedellstreak

Pretty close in overall size dimensions. Pretty close, too, in screen size – the Note has a 5.3-inch display and the Streak has 5.0 inches. Not really much in it. Compare that to the SII at 4.3 inches – an inch less in overall dimensions – or the iPhone 4: at 3.5 inches, its screen is nearly 2 inches smaller overall than the Note’s (and almost 1 inch smaller than the SII’s).

You may be wondering why I seem to be fixated on size. Does size matter? Well, it does if you’re thinking of a smartphone and how you’d use that with emphasis on the ‘phone’ part of the word. I don’t know about you, but I really wouldn’t want to have to use a device the size of a Note or a Streak as my primary phone. Imagine something that big stuck to your ear!

Although the Galaxy Note does have a slot for a SIM card so you can make and receive phone calls and text messages, I wouldn’t call it a smartphone as what you’re far more likely to want to do with it is run apps and connect to the net. So a cellular connection as well as wifi is handy, letting you be online just about anywhere. And if push comes to shove, you can always make a phone call if you really want to.

This device is a mini tablet – a hybrid, in fact, in between a smartphone and a tablet. It’s the space Dell first entered in 2009 with the 5-inch Streak. But it’s a space they’ve now vacated entirely in the major markets of Europe and North America, leaving it to Samsung in particular to make the most of it.

The Galaxy Note I have is unlocked, not tied to any particular network or mobile operator. It works just fine on wifi without a SIM card, although I did notice something interesting – when I first turned it on and configured a wifi connection, it notified me of a new firmware update.

But it wouldn’t let me get it without a SIM card installed.

notesoftwareupdate That was easy to sort out by using the SIM card from my SII. It enabled the firmware to be downloaded and installed, which updated the version of the Android operating system from 2.3.5 to 2.3.6. Bang up to date!

(As an aside comment on that, searching for a firmware update on the SII – which, like the Note did, has Android version 2.3.5 installed – produces no result. Yet 2.3.6 is available. Maybe the fix that 2.3.6 brings – for a voice search bug – isn’t relevant to the SII. Or, as that device is tied to a mobile operator – Three UK – perhaps it’s waiting for Three to release the update)

As I opened the box only yesterday, I haven’t yet kicked the Note’s tyres in a meaningful way. Not run any apps nor explored some interesting aspects such as the S Pen – a hi-tech stylus that may seem conceptually familiar to you if you remember devices like the Compaq IPAQ from a decade ago – and some of the neat ways you can use it.

samsungbatteries

The short time I have spent so far with the Note shows me a mobile device that’s powerful, fast, familiar, light in the hand, feature-laden and a pleasure to use. One other thing I noted in particular was the battery – 2500mAh capacity. (Wikipedia explains mAh if you’re interested.) What that means to you and me is that a device this size with a screen this big needs all the juice it can get. Depending on use, I’d expect battery life to be on a par with what I get from my Galaxy SII with a smaller capacity battery (1650mAh) for a smaller-size and smaller-screen device – about a day’s charge with my typical use.

Would the Note be good as a primary mobile device, eg, as your phone? No, I wouldn’t recommend that. But if you want a tool that lets you do much of what you can with a full-size Android tablet (or iPad, for that matter) but in a pocket-size form factor – the best of both worlds, perhaps – then the Note may appeal to you.

Here are the top-level specs:

1.4GHz ARM9dual-core processor
1Gb RAM
16Gb internal storage (32Gb version also available but not in the UK)
MicroSD card external storage support for cards up to 32Gb capacity
Bluetooth
802.11a/b/g/n wifi
5.3-inch Super AMOLEDHD display with 800×1280 resolution
8 megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash plus 2 megapixel front-facing camera
Android 2.3 Gingerbread with upgrade to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwichcoming
Screen capture capability (making screenshots)

More thoughts to come as I get to know the Samsung Galaxy Note.

(All the pics above were shot with an HTC Desire 5-megapixel camera and tweaked a bit in Paint Shop Pro X2. Not a bad camera compared to the Note’s and SII’s 8-megapixel ones.)

Touching the BBC

Posted on November 24, 2011 at 7:57 am UK

I was taking a look through the beta version of the BBC’s new website when it occurred to me that what I was interacting with was a web presence that’s geared to touch and feel more than to point and click.

The overall layout that extends left and right off the visible screen area, prominent navigation arrows left and right, big visual and touchable content areas… all elements you currently see on touch-screen tablets like the iPad when accessing some types of content.

However this is the first commercial website I’ve seen that seems to be under construction with an eye on the future of user interfaces.

Clearly the BBC beta site isn’t wholly polished or finished as a touch-enabled web presence – you can load it in your tablet and see that for yourself (address: http://beta.bbc.co.uk). But I wanted to get a sense of what this may be like on a normal, standard desktop computer screen that’s touch enabled, the type of device that will be found in millions of offices, shops and indeed homes for years to come, no matter how many people also use mobile devices like 10-inch tablets.

Some PC brands are coming to market now with touch screens; luckily, my wife already has a touch screen desktop computer, an Acer Aspire Z5610 with a 23-inch HD touch screen. It’s gorgeous, and I’ve always thought it ahead of its time when so few standard software applications are touch enabled. But, assuming the machine’s specs are up to scratch, she’ll be well placed when Windows 8 comes out next year – designed for touchscreen input in addition to mouse and keyboard. (And just take a look at the new Microsoft Surface technology and think of the potential with that.)

Anyway, I tried a little touching and swiping on the BBC beta site. It’s very easy to imagine this way of interacting as natural and preferable, once the site is fully enabled for that use and the computer hardware and software fully support such use. Currently the site mostly behaves like a normal website, eg, drop down menus, etc, that aren’t really good for touch interaction, more suited to point and click.

Still, it’s a good pointer (pun not intended) to what we can expect to find on the web when touch and feel comes to the desktop.

Related posts: