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.

Three things to make QR codes worthwhile

Posted on January 2, 2012 at 6:40 am UK

No surprises in this AdAge story about widespread use of QR codes that haven’t captured consumer imagination when it includes this statement:

“Experts cite three reasons that QR codes haven’t caught on.

First, people are confused about how to scan them.

Two, there’s little uniformity among the apps required to read them.

Last, some who have tried the technology were dissuaded by codes that offer little useful information or simply redirect the user to the company’s website.

None of this deters marketers, who seem to be slapping the codes on products for all age groups and demographics.”

Those three things have to come together to make consumer use of QR codes truly worthwhile as a mainstream communication medium.

Content is the easy one for marketers to take care of – offer something that makes it worthwhile for a consumer to interact especially when it’s still not easy to do so.

Maybe 2012 will be the year when those three things do come together.

Embedded Link

Why Marketer Love for QR Codes Is Not Shared by Consumers | Digital – Advertising Age
Quick-response codes are everywhere these days. But consumers are not nearly as excited about QR codes as marketers are.

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Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.

(Image at top by Fabrice de Nola, used under Creative Commons license.)

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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.)

The key word in Carrier IQ is ‘FUD’

Posted on December 4, 2011 at 8:38 am UK

carrieriqsolution Quite a kerfuffle blew up during the past week over privacy and what happens to information about your mobile phone usage that, unknown to you, is captured on your device by logging software made by US diagnostics and analytics firm Carrier IQ and then transmitted to their servers.

The story so far:

1. A security researcher published a report on November 30 alleging that Carrier IQ’s software is a rootkit and secretly transmits data – including personally-identifiable information – from your phone to Carrier IQ without your knowledge or permission. The researcher made a video illustrating his concerns which he published on YouTube on November 28.

In essence, what the video and the report mean is broadly this: because a mobile phone user hasn’t given explicit permission for such data sharing (and doesn’t even know this software is on his or her phone) and they can’t opt out of it, surely it’s a violation of your rights to privacy.

2. Uproar ensues, with mainstream and social media alike posting critical commentary and opinion on the Big Brother-like evils of such behaviour, which is possibly illegal depending on jurisdiction and matters that could keep lawyers busy for months. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the non-profit digital rights advocacy organization, rallied to the researcher’s support to counter legal threats from Carrier IQ that the researcher had breached their copyright.

Vilification of Carrier IQ was well underway within hours of publication of the researcher’s report.

3. On December 1, Carrier IQ issued a press release “to clarify misinformation on the functionality of Carrier IQ software”:

[...] While a few individuals have identified that there is a great deal of information available to the Carrier IQ software inside the handset, our software does not record, store or transmit the contents of SMS messages, email, photographs, audio or video. For example, we understand whether an SMS was sent accurately, but do not record or transmit the content of the SMS. We know which applications are draining your battery, but do not capture the screen.

Notwithstanding Carrier IQ’s attempt to logically explain what their product does – and perhaps of equal significance, what it doesn’t do – the kerfuffle continues with “yes it does / no it doesn’t” arguments being conducted by pundits and opinion leaders alike that muddy the waters of clarity to stir up a huge amount of FUD.

Interestingly, Carrier IQ isn’t anywhere to be seen in those online conversations: no comments to blog posts, tweets of engagement, or Facebook and Google+ comments.

Observing developments these past few days reminds me of other crises of confidence that threaten reputations that erupted quickly and before you knew it, an unplanned-for crisis had presented itself to you to deal with right now.

Think of:

Healthcare company McNeil’s baptism of digital fire over the Motrin Moms debacle - the communicators weren’t paying attention to a groundswell of critical online commentary about a marketing video promoting their market-leading over-the-counter ibuprofen pain reliever that erupted over a weekend until it reached the mainstream media and sucked in parent company Johnson & Johnson.
Domino’s Pizza’s education regarding the social media effects from employees doing disgusting things with food products and posting the videos they made to YouTube – company executives were paying attention to increasing criticism in social media and calls for a response from the company but a senior executive had dismissed social channels like blogs as “unimportant.”

To be fair to these two companies, those events happened in late 2008 and early 2009 respectively – a time when many people in companies large and small were still trying to figure out social media. If mistakes were made, they tended to be hugely visible and high profile, as these two cases certainly were (and, in the case of Domino’s Pizza, subsequently resulted in a direct negative impact on their financial results).

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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.

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