Product Review – XMI X-mini II Mini Speaker

Let’s start with some background which led to the purchase of this speaker. Back in February when I bought a Nokia 5800 I used to listen to podcasts in the car with the phone’s speaker. However, when I changed to an iPhone 3GS I didn’t want to subject it to 3 hours of ‘almost maximum’ loud speaker usage a day – that and the loud speaker is not loud enough to be heard over motorway traffic. So, I decided to look at other options.

My car is 7 years old and doesn’t play MP3 CDs, nor does it have an AUX input to enable me to plug my iPhone to it. I went to Halfords this weekend just gone as they had a new fascia for my car which would allow me to get a new stereo fitted with both an AUX input and MP3 CD playing ability. All sounds good right? Wrong! The fascia was too small and after being contacted by Halfords yesterday I am told the manufacturer says that is the only fascia available for my car – FAIL!

So, this brought about another option – that of attaching a speaker to my phone. Only problem I found with most is that they would take their power from the iPhone and the sound was pretty poor, if reviews are to be believed.

Then I came across the XMI X-mini II Mini Speaker which is charged via USB, has 360 degree sound and reviews were very good. I ordered this from Amazon yesterday and it arrived this morning, courtesy of my 1 month free trial with Amazon Prime!

The XMI X-mini II Mini Speaker

Don’t be fooled by the size – while it appears small in comparison to my iPod Touch the performance is very impressive. Apart from being very cute, the sound quality is superb, and the volume was more than enough to cope with motorway traffic when I used it for the first time this morning. With a simple twist the speaker expands to play mode and after being turned on a little blue LED glows from the underside.

A full charge took 2 hours and this should give me 11 hours of usage – I’ll report back to say whether that is the case. It comes with a dual lead that is USB at one end and then splits to mini USB and 3.5mm jack so that you can charge it, whilst having it connected to your audio input and playing simultaneously. All this can be housed in a little velvet pouch so it stays clean and safe.

At just £16.96, my first impressions are very favourable and it has met and exceeded my expectations and fulfills my requirements which is enabling me to get back on track with my podcast listening and fill those 3 hours in the car every day with something of interest.

As an aside, you can actually daisy chain these little speakers for enhanced sound – maybe one day I’ll try that, but for now just the one will suffice.

So, I bought an iPhone 3GS

It’s been 2 week since I took possession of my 16GB iPhone 3GS so I thought I’d document my thoughts so far.

I’ve owned a 1st generation iPod Touch for the last 16 months so I was already familiar with the interface and functionality that the iPhone shares. The whole time I’ve had my iPod Touch I’ve thought how great it would be to have all this on my phone.

The one thing that stopped me getting the previous version was the lack of video recording and MMS, and no, I don’t want to jailbreak my iPhone. With a 14 month old son both these features are deal breakers and as soon as the 3GS was announced with both I knew it would only be a matter of time.

The phone feels gorgeous, and the first thing I noticed was just how fast it responded, the S certainly does stand for speed and is not just hot air marketing. I have 3G turned off too save the battery and this far I have found the roaming Internet speeds to be absolutely fine, of course at home I’m connecting via Wi-Fi.

The camera is far better than I expected, as is the video recording. Sending a photo out via email or MMS is just a click away, as is adding a photo to twitpic thanks to a great free app. I’m a Twitter addict (twitter.com/TweetingSteve) so being able to twitpic is important functionality for my phone, something the Nokia 5800 could do, but a lot more clunkily than the iPhone. Below is a photo I took last Saturday with my iPhone and sent to twitpic – the photo doesn’t do the size of the moth justice, it was 2 inches long, a beast!

King of Moths

The actual phone call quality, yes I do use it to call people too, is crystal clear – this is another area it beats my old 5800 in. SMS /texting is a treat, and something I’ve heard a few other people complain about – why?

Funny story time – last Thursday I was listening to a podcast in a traffic jam in my car and I picked up the iPhone, covering the left speaker. In doing so the sound all but disappeared, which I found strange as I thought it had a second speaker on the right. Thinking the right speaker wasn’t working I was all set to take it back. Thankfully I decided to Google the problem first, only to find out the ‘speaker’ on the right is actually the microphone – doh!

Anyway, at the time I thought I was going to be away from iPhone for a week or two while it get sent off to be repaired – that was a chilling thought and though I’d only had the phone for 7 days I couldn’t bare the thought of being without it!

The only thing I have to sort out now is a case. Most of the cases I seeing being talked about the moment; Incipio Feather and Griffin Reveal, seem to be great for scratch resistance but not if the iPhone is dropped. With a 14 month old running around I need that total protection solution – recommendations gratefully received.

In conclusion, the iPhone 3GS is everything I wanted and so much more. At this point I can’t see myself ever owning another phone again, just upgraded models of iPhone!

The isolation of being offline

On Monday I had the great pleasure of getting home from work to find our internet was down. This happens from time to time and I figured it would be back in a few minutes. To my dismay dinner came and went, but still no internet.

I tried calling my broadband provider, Talk Talk, but their marvelous system led me down a route which concluded with me being cut off, on all 3 of my attempts!

At this point I started feeling very much like I was cut off from the outside world, not having been online since I left work 2.5 hours ago. There was an extenuating circumstance though; I had an eBay auction due to end which was of slightly modest value, at least compared to the other 99p listings that had ended earlier that day! To not be able to see its progress or see if there were any queries felt very limiting, and I didn’t like it!

There were also times where I would grab my iPod Touch or mobile phone (Nokia 5800) to Tweet, but alas, then I’d remember I had no internet connection. This did highlight my need to sign up for a web bolt-on for my mobile phone – with a 1 year old in the house we quite often check websites like babycentre.co.uk for advice.

In this day and age it’s not surprising to miss being online, but to the extent I experienced on Monday, well that was quote an eye opener and to just how attached to the internet I am. I’d say there is a definite possibility if me being addicted to Twitter!

The connection came back just as we were going to bed so I binged on Twitter updates, emails and eBay activity – it felt good!

As an aside this post is the first created on the iPod Touch WordPress application so I apologise for any spelling errors, I’ll check when I am at a computer next.

Make my Nokia 5800 into an iPhone!

Thanks to a superb blog over at Nokia5800.net I have been introduced to a magnificent looking application for Symbian OS phones, and most recently the Nokia 5800, which turns the interface into that of an iPhone!

It's an i5800Phone!

I have an iPod Touch and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I love the interface, and that as much as I love my Nokia 5800, the interface isn’t as nice as that of the iTouch / iPhone. Thanks to the wonderful people at MyPhone I can now turn my Nokia 5800 into an iPhone BUT have a decent camera, be able to send MMS and record video footage – all for the bargain price of $12.99 (£9.41).

It’s very gimmicky, but that’s kind of thing a geek thrives on and needless to say I will be purchasing this very soon and will report back on how well it works on what will become my Nokia i5800Phone!

The whole of Wikipedia, on your phone, for £10!

You read that title correctly, WikiPock are offering a download of the whole of Wikipedia for your mobile phone for just £9.99! What’s more, you can hook up to their website and get updates whenever they become available.

Anything about everything, in my pocket!

As long as you don’t need information which is correct to that moment in time, which most Wiki users don’t, then this could be perfect for anyone who doesn’t want to use their data connection for whatever reason. It’d be fantastic when travelling abroad where connecting to the internet on your phone could cost you a small fortune.

At the moment it is available for Windows Mobile and Blackberry, with iPhone and Android versions coming soon. As a Nokia 5800 owner, the lack of Symbian version is a bit disappointing. Maybe that will materialise when the Nokia Ovi Store launches in May.

While Wikipedia is free for people to distribute, is just a little bit immoral to charge for a service like this, even if 10% does go to the WikiMedia Foundation?

Sales of Nokia 5800 stopped in America

Due to a fault with the 3G, the sales of the Nokia 5800 has been halted in North America after only 7 hours. Apparently the fault is only present in North American handsets and as I have had 3G turned off since I received the phone, to improve battery life, I can’t comment on whether the fault actually is isolated to North America.

Fallen at the first hurdle in North America

This is terrible news for Nokia who are not the mobile giant in America that they are in the rest of the world. iPhones and Blackberrys rule the roost across the pond and for Nokia to have to recall their first touchscreen after just 7 hours is going to set them back significantly. The mobile phone industry is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in the world and there are plenty of manufacturers, such as LG, Sony Ericsson and Samsung, that will be delighted to hear of Nokia’s latest failing.

It’s a great shame because the Nokia 5800 is a great handset, but who is going to trust a phone that was recalled in less time than it would take you to watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy?

Mobile Firefox – does it really rock?

Over at Mobile Choice they are talking about our old friend, the upcoming Mobile Firefox (Fennec) browser, and how great it will be. No, really!

Little fox, will we ever see you?

Let’s look at the 2 main features that were already known about:

Add-Ons – I know mobile phone screens are getting bigger, but I’m sure they’re not big enough to have in-browser add-ons. Why would I , for example, use TwitterFox when I can use a specific Twitter application made for mobile phones. I also wouldn’t use Gmail Manager as I have downloaded the official Mobile Gmail application. That’s the problem – mobile applications already exist for Firefox add-ons, so that selling point is lost, on me anyway.

Tabbed Browsing – on my current phone (Nokia 5800) I can click between windows with just 2 clicks, so tabbed browsing will be done in 1, I guess. This is not a deal breaker for me, and if it takes up screen space then that’s a step back.

The big thing causing excitement is the announcement of synced tabs from computer to phone. I think I may be letting the whole Firefox Mobile bandwagon pass me by, but once again, I have to say that is a feature I really don’t see being of much benefit. With this you can get the same pages to open on your mobile as you last had on your PC/laptop. I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a situation where I’ve needed that!

At the risk of sounding highly pessimistic, I don’t see that Firefox Mobile has anything to offer that will make people move away from default browsers or from the very highly successful Opera Mini. If you think or know otherwise, please fill me in, I’m all ears!

Nokia 5800 breaks sales records in India

According to the Economic Times in Inida, the Nokia 5800, or Tube as it was once known, has broken mobile phone sales records in India by shifting 58,000 units in the first 3 weeks of sales. Hang on, 5800, sells 58000 – I think someone has done some creative rounding to reach that wonderfully marketable number!

58,000 sales in just 3 weeks

The phone sells for 20,000 Indian Rupees which converts to around £280, which incidentally is the same price that Carphone Warehouse are selling it for here in the UK. As a Nokia 5800 owner myself I got the phone free on a £15/month deal.

Back on the 23rd January this year, Nokia announced in a press release that they had just shipped the millionth Nokia 5800 – this was the same day the phone was launched in the UK.

I can attest to the quality of this phone and have witnessed almost blanket love for it from other owners in forums across the internet. It’s got everything you need for both media playback and internet browsing, and comes in a convenient candy bar size so my pocket isn’t bulging. I am yet to attach the plectrum styled stylus alternative, though as a guitar player I am very tempted.

New Phone: Nokia 5800

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic to give it it’s full and proper name! I picked it up today after ordering it yesterday, on a whim really! I have had a Sony Ericsson K850i for the last year, which despite almost universally bad reports, has served me pretty well. That is until recently when it has decided to turn itself at random, usually when I making a call or writing a text! Having already been to the repair shop once I decided now was the time to admit it has had it’s day and move on.

As an iPod Touch user I have been tempted by the iPhone but the lack of video recording and MMS is a big letdown – I have an 8 month old son those features are pretty essential to me. What I do like is the touch screen functionality so have been looking at the Samsung Pixon and Omnia, as well as the LG Renoir – all had their good and bad points but none stood out as a must have and all were on fairly pricey contracts, something I wanted to avoid as I currently use only a small portion of my call allowance.

A quick scan of Avforums drew my attention to the Nokia 5800 and the Carphone Warehouse offer of £15 a month for 100 minutes and unlimited texts. I never thought the day would come when I would be more of a texter than a caller, but it has so this deal seemed perfect for my needs. Add £7.50 for the unlimited web bolt-on and he whole package would be £12.50 less than my current contract and a swanky new phone as well – sold!

It has Wi-Fi, a 3.2″ widescreen display, full touchscreen functionality, 8Gb memory card included and all the other bells and whistles I was looking for. I’ve not used a great deal yet but so far I am very impressed. The touchscreen is very responsive and texting is very easy which is usually the biggest test for a touchscreen phone. Next will be connecting it to my laptop and adding a bunch of songs and pictures, and configuring the phone to pick up my wireless network.

So far so good for Nokia’s first foray into touchscreen phones, which for the market leader in mobile phones, some may say they are playing catch-up?