July 13, 2009: Smartphones and and the Kindle e-book reader

I am Paul Taylor, the FT’s personal technology columnist and I welcome questions about gadgets, gizmos, software and services. This is the place to ask personal technology related questions and hopefully get answers in plain English. It is also a home for short, sometimes sharp, reviews and observations about the personal tech industry. Comments and criticism are welcome. Read my latest column on my columnist page.

Post a question now to paul.taylor@ft.com or use the online submissions form at the bottom of the page.

My answers to a selection of the questions will be published once a week on the Gadget Guru page.

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July 13, 2009

1. Smartphones

Question:

I read your article on smartphones with real interest as our company is in the process of deciding which technology to adopt next. We have been using BlackBerry phones for the last couple of years connected to our in-house MS Exchange server via the Blackberry Enterprise Server software.

This has worked well and we have been pretty satisfied with reliability and the low service overhead, although latterly we have begun to hanker after a better web browsing experience and easier connectivity to the company’s document servers.

As a software company, we are developing mobile applications which will initially run on Windows Mobile and for obvious reasons it would be convenient if our next generation of smartphones also ran on this OS.

In your article, you did not review a Windows Mobile option and I was wondering why not. I would be very interested in hearing your views on our utilising this OS option in a business environment and which smartphone you would recommend.

From Peter Lusty

Answer:

I’m sorry for the limited scope of my piece, I would have liked to expand the range of smartphones I reviewed but did not have the space. Like your company, we use BlackBerrys in-house connected to a BES and in terms of reliability I think this setup is hard to beat. I currently rely on a BlackBerry Curve 8900 running on T-Mobile USA’s edge network.

The one drawback, as you point out, is the almost painfully slow browsing experience (unless you use a WiFi-enabled model and can connect to a WiFi hotspot).

There are however several 3G BlackBerrys including the BlackBerry Bold and new BlackBerry Tour 9630 which deliver a much better mobile web experience. I have reviewed the Bold in the past, but have not managed to lay my hands on a 9630 yet. I also expect most if not all future BlackBerry devices to be 3G-enabled so, given your investment in BES and your company’s familiarity with BlackBerry devices your best option might be to opt for one of these models. Personally, I am not ready to give up the BlackBerry e-mail and physical keyboard - even for the seductive iPhone 3G S with its 50,000 plus add-on Apps so what I will probably end up doing is carrying both....

Regarding Windows Mobile devices, I did look at a couple and had originally had planed to include the HTC Touch Pro, Pantech Matrix Pro or the Samsung Jack in the round-up. All are solid 3G smartphones running Windows Mobile 6.1. In fact the Samsung Jack is upgradable to Windows Mobile 6.5 which is due out later this year and is in my view, a big improvement over 6.1. In fact I think some manufacturers may be holding back on launching Windows Mobile devices until the new software is available.

Of course the big advantage of Windows mobile-based devices is the familiarity of the underlying Microsoft software and – Office – applications and the tight integration with Exchange Server and Outlook plus – from an IT management perspective – the ability to manage the devices over the air quite easily. In case, you could also save money by ditching the BES. That said, my personal preference still tilts towards RIM and BlackBerrys for the reasons I have mentioned.

If however, you do decide to go the Windows Mobile route, I would definitely wait for a 3G Windows Mobile 6.5 device, or at least chose an upgradeable model like the Samsung Jack. In a business environment where e-mail remains so important, I would also stick with a model that features a physical keyboard rather than an iPhone-style virtual keyboard.

Comment

Your item on smart phones was interesting. The problem with smart phones is the touch screens which means you have to look at the phone to know where to touch the different functions. As any decent spy will tell you, secretly dialling Mother may just require fiddling in a hidden pocket to activate the homing signal and pushing buttons is just so much easier. I’m sure people with visual impairments understand this problem of touch screens much better.

Form Dr Michael Tremblay

Response:

Personally I am a BlackBerry Curve user for precisely this reason (and a few others). That said, I still manage to make a few accidental calls if I forget to lock the keyboard on my BlackBerry Curve before putting it in my pocket.

I have just downloaded a free application from the BlackBerry App World called BEIKS Keyboard locker which automatically locks the keyboard after a pre-determined time set by the user so I am hoping this will help solve the problem.

2. Kindle e-book reader

Question:

I just heard of the Kindle. Is its range limited to USA or can we in Sri Lanka too use it. Does it need subscription to a mobile phone operator?

From Yasry Thassim

Answer:

I’m afraid the Kindle is currently only available in the US though Amazon executives keep insisting that it will eventually be available for sale elsewhere.

The Kindle models sold in the US all hook up to Amazon’s online Kindle book store using a wireless network called Whispernet operated by Sprint Nextel which receives a share of the price paid for each wireless e-book download.

Unfortunately the wireless download features of the Kindle will not work outside Sprint Nextel’s US mobile network. However, if you buy a Kindle in the US, using a US credit card, you can still use it elsewhere by downloading e-books onto a PC and then synching the content to the Kindle.

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