iPhone 4 versus Sony Xperia Arc

iPhone 4 versus Sony Xperia Arc

Note: iPhone 4 – iOS 5 Beta 7, Sony Arc latest OS installed.

iPhone 4 – Photo taken at night

Sony Xperia Arc – Photo taken at night

To my eyes the Sony Arc photo looks more lossy with less detail than the iPhone 4, even those there is 3MP in difference between the two sensors.

- What happens if we increase the exposure of the iPhone 4 photo above and increase the contrast slightly? It looks more like the Sony Arc photo only with more detail. Is the Exmor-R taking amazing low light photos, or is the photo being tweaked slightly on the phone?

Sony Arc Versus iPhone 3GS – Night Time Shot

How good are both these phones during very low light/night time shot? Both are portions of the original photo taken using automatic settings in very low light.

Sony Xperia Arc – Night Time shot

iPhone 3GS – Night Time Shot

Quick Low Light Shot Test – Sony Arc versus iPhone 3GS

A simple test to showcase the Exmor R sensor in the Sony Arc against the iPhone 3GS. Ok, so one is 3.2MP and the other 8.1MP but you can see how far the sensors have come in 2 years. The photo was taking using the Auto settings and under the bed with very little natural light shining through the window.

Sony Ericsson Arc – Low Light Test

iPhone 3GS – Low Light Test

Quick Camera Test – Sony Ericsson Arc vs X10i vs iPhone 3GS

Quick Camera Test – Sony Ericsson Arc vs X10i vs iPhone 3GS

A very quick camera test to show the quality between the mobile phones about. The photo is a crop of a photo taken at the same time from each phone. Unedited.

Sony Ericsson Arc running Android 2.3.3

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10i running Android 2.3.3

iPhone 3GS running iOS 4.3.5

Email Push Test **Update** – Blackberry OS 6 versus Android 2.2.1

** Update **

As my last email push test was so popular I have decided to do an update.

Which mobile phone is the fastest for email push? Blackberry is supposed to be king of messaging. How does Android 2.2.1 compare to Blackberry’s latest OS 6?

How I will conduct the test?
I will use my laptop running Mac OS X 10.6.7 to send a total of 5 random emails from the built in mail client setup for my Gmail account (using IMAP) to my gmail account.

Which Phones will I use?
Blackberry – Torch 9800 running OS 6
- Gmail account using built in email client

Android – Sony Xperia X10 running Android 2.2.1 (Wolfs ROM)
- Gmail account using built in email client

Let the battle commence!!

Email 1
1st: Blackberry
2nd: Android (a few seconds later)

Email 2
1st: Blackberry
2nd: Android (a minute later and still nothing)

Email 3
1st: Android (Email 2 arrived with Email 3)
2nd: Blackberry (1 second later)

Email 4
1st: Blackberry
2nd: Android (1 second later)

Email 5
1st: Blackberry
2nd: Android (2 seconds later)

1st Place: Blackberry
2nd Place: Android

Conclusion

It seems fairly conclusive that Blackberry is still king of instant email rating 1st place 4/5 times. Android is certainly catching up but while Blackberry is very consistent with receiving emails, from the test above you can see one email sent to the Android phone got lost for a minute.

If you want a phone with rock solid email, the ability to add 10 email accounts and superb Facebook and Twitter intergration buy a Blackberry.

If you want a phone with rock solid email and everything else, buy an Android phone.

JCVD Watch – Mini Review

I don’t know about you guys, but I have been addicted to the JCVD Behind the Scenes on ITV 4. I have been a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme since Kick-boxer and Bloodsport. Although he has had some problems in the past, JCVD appears to have overcome these problems and seems like a genuinely nice guy. I respect him even more for his kind treatment to animals and especially dogs, which he collects randomly at different locations and upgrades their life to a Hollywood life.

After the TV programme it was almost a rediscovery of JCVD. While Searching youtube for JCVD, I found a video with JCVD doing a honest sales pitch for his own name watches. I was curious. I am a fan of JCVD, I like watches and I need a new watch. Perfect.

Searching the internet more I can across http://www.jcvd-watches.com

JCVD watches sell various watches from cheap Dammage Fan to the high end JCVD III surrounded by Diamonds and all Swiss Made.

I couldn’t resist so I went for the Dammage 2 – All Black model. I placed the order via the website and received the usual confirmation email and after emailing customer serviced received an email with the tracking number, trackable via the Fed-EX website.

My watch arrived 2 weeks after playing the order (not too bad considering it was Easter and two Bank holiday weekends in the UK). I opened the packaging and was greeted by a small JCVD labelled shoebox. Upon opening revealed a JCVD labelled right handed Boxing Glove, which is very high quality and if anything, made me yearn for a left hand glove.

The watch is wrapped up in packaging paper and placed inside the glove. Once removed I was instantly impressed by the quality, weight and attention to detail. The leather straps are very thick and well made. For the price the watch is very impressive to say the least. After researching the watch online it would appear to be made by the company Bombadier who made very high end Swiss Made watches, which makes my JCVD watch an even greater bargain.

The stopwatch/chronograph works flawlessly and the buttons look very well made and add a certain quality to the watch.

Overall I am very impressed and recommend the watch to any JCVD fan as well as those looking for a very high quality watch at a bargain price. You will not be disappointed.

My watch cost $391.48 including delivery to the UK.

I also managed to obtain the latest price list for all the models from someone at JCVD watches.

Dammage Fan : 299.00 USD

Dammage I : 349.00 USD

Dammage II : 379.00 USD

Montreal I : 1,799.00 USD

Montreal II : 799.00 USD

JCVD I : 4,999.00 USD

JCVD II : 6,499.00 USD

JCVD III : 9,999.00 USD

Email Push Test – Blackberry versus Android versus Symbian

This is my first post for a few months due to work comitments but something I have been curious about myself.

Which mobile phone is the fastest for email push? Blackberry is supposed to be king of messaging, Android is reletively new and Symbian has been going for quite a while (Although thanks to the Nokia/Microsoft anouncement this week, pretty dead now).

How I will conduct the test?
I will use my laptop running Mac OS X 10.6 to send a total of 5 random emails from the built in mail client setup for my Gmail account (using IMAP) to my gmail account.

Which Phones will I use?
Blackberry – Pearl 9105 running OS 6
- Gmail account using built in email client

Symbian – Nokia N8 with firmware PR1.1
- Gmail account using Mail for Exchange

Android – Sony X10 Mini Pro running Android 2.1
- Gmail account using built in email client

Let the battle commence!!

Email 1
1st: Nokia
2nd: Android
3rd: Blackberry

Email 2
1st: Nokia
2nd: Blackberry
3rd: Android

Email 3
1st: Android
2nd: Blackberry
3rd: Nokia

Email 4
1st: Blackberry
2nd: Android
3rd: Nokia

Email 5
1st: Blackberry
2nd: Nokia
3rd: Android

1st Place: Blackberry and Nokia
2nd Place: Android

Conclusion

When testing these phones the emails receieved were around half a second appart so it would appear the email push systems all the phones are using are just as good as each other with Blackberry and Nokia having only slightly faster emails than the Android phone.

Blackberry used to be King of emails and it would appear it still is. The other mobile OS’s are very close. While the OS and everything else has improved on the other phones, the Blackberry has not. Blackberry has not stood the test of time and the app store and quality of apps are very poor in comparison with OVI store and the Android Store.

If you want a phone with rock solid email, the ability to add 10 email accounts and superb Facebook and Twitter intergration buy a Blackberry.

If you want a phone with rock solid email and everything else, buy an Android phone.

If you want a phone with rock solid email and …..

…. The Symbian/Nokia phone is hard to recommend now. Symbian has been dumped by Sony and Samsung and now Nokia has dumped it in favour of the Windows Mobile OS. For that reason I cannot recommend a Symbian based phone, even though the Nokia N8 is a superb phone with an astounding camera built in.

Opinion: FMV in iPhone Games

Ever since CD-ROM has been used as a storage media for games, FMV has been used. FMV, or Full Motion Video has been used as a filler for the media. The game may take up 2MB of storage and the rest is FMV. I really don’t mind FMV if it is used in a way which is detrimental to the game. Night Trap for example on the Mega-CD used FMV to allow you to exterminate zombie type people (AKA guy dressed up in a bad costume) using the FMV. Without FMV the game would not exist.

The iPhone is a great phone and is now acknowledged as a handheld gaming platform. I have the 8GB 3G model and enjoy playing games more than using it as a phone. I downloaded Ghosts N’ Goblins yesterday and to me this is the perfect iPhone game. It has been updated to 3D and looks great. Its also very playable and is a retro gamers dream. There is no video whatsoever and the game is 11.6MB.

Rally Master is another perfect iPhone game. Addictive, looks similar to Sega Rally (admittedly it is not as good) but is only 31MB.

What about FMV? Well those games I have mentioned above have no FMV. Which explains the small file size, but isn’t that what you want in a mobile game? We barely have time to play the games never mind watch some pointless FMV which the company spends lots of money on for you to skip past anyway.

The worst offender by for is Gameloft. Gameloft make some of the best looking and most playable games for the iPhone. I am a huge fan of Guitar Rock Tour and Asphalt 5.

So please! No more pointless FMV in iPhone games. I have an iPod touch with 8GB and I am sure with no FMV the games will be a lot smaller and I can fit more games on it.

FMV was kinda cool when 1 speed CD ROM drives were all the rage and was used as a selling point but its unnecessary now, especially on something like an iPhone or iPod touch where storage is limited.

Repair: PS3 – Yellow Light of Death

PS3 mainboard about to be reflowed due to the yellow light of death

• Problem: Yellow light of death
• Solution: Reflow of the GPU (The RSX chip)
• Fixed? Yes

Repair: Iomega Minimax External HDD disassembly

Iomega Minimax External HDD disassembly

• Problem: No power. Blue light on the front flickers once when powered up
• Solution: Re soldered the DC socket. Re flowed the chips and performed a continuity test on the components.
• Fixed? No. I suspect one of the Chips have died but without an Oscilloscope to test the chips I am unable to repair.