The Moto Q

Many devices have come out for several carriers that can give the users what they want. one of these such devices is the Motorola Moto Q. This device is a very nice looking windows mobile smartphone, with a really good QWERTY keyboard that has backlight keys. Motorola also offers this device through several big name carriers, such as Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and now AT&T A.K.A. Cingular. Verizon Wireless has also released a newer version of the device.

As said before, the Q has a very stylized feel to it, and has a small form factor for the palm of your hand. The QWERTY keyboard is good enough to write lengthy text messages to friends or family, and the screen is good enough to watch videos using windows media player. However, the screen size is very small, in fact, the text is very small for some people with god sight. Therefore, for those of us with poor vision will have to squint to read the device.

The phone does support TTY support, and also supports the installation of a screen reader. so this compensates for the small text on the device. The Q also has a very good speaker so you can hear your phone ring, or hear that new song you added with activesync. It also has a very clear microphone and ear speaker for you to make calls with great clarity. It is just to bad that at least on the Sprint PCS network signal problems seem to plague the device, and calls are not as clear as they could be.

Signal issues as said before, plague the device, but the biggest drawback to the device is its battery, or lack there of. The Q boasts and talk time of 4 hours, but if you are in a low signal area with you network, then you can cut that time in half and maybe even more than that. This also increases when you try to use EV-DO Internet with this device, because this takes up a lot of power. Bluetooth will also drain your battery, so if you use a headset with it, prepare to charge it a lot. It even seems that the memory expansion card you can add drains the battery even faster, which is not a good thing.

Another area that the Moto Q is mixed in is compatibility. To help those battery issues, the Q charges through USB, which means it can be plugged in to almost any computer, and the device can be charged. This device can also only sync with devices that support Pocket PC or windows Mobile. any windows PC will work with it, but that is it. you have to buy special software to make a successful sync with a macintosh computer, and do a lot of work to make it work with Linux.

Well, it is time for the ratings again.
Interface: 7/10
Design: 7/10
Accessibility: 9/10
Storage: 2/10
compatibility: 6/10
price: 6/10

So, how did it do? The Moto Q scored a 51.67% satisfactory rating. Some would argue about the price area, because te device is a lot cheaper with a new contract from a cell provider. however, this is not the true retail price of the device. the full retail price of the device is around $400.00. I also want to point out that if you are interested in this device and you have a visual problem, look in to pocket hal or mobile speak pocket. Both of these screen readers have proven to be great for this device.

Next week, I will discuss the Palm Treo, and in a few weeks, I will have my cell phone round up where we will see what and why which cell phone is the best that have appeared on this blog. Take care, and have a good week.

The iPhone

The iPhone is a new device made by Apple Computers. It is avery excellent device in style and simplicity, but does it have all of the features one needs to work day to day.

Being someone who is visually impaired, and having had some exposure to the device, I can honestly say that without a doubt the device will work perfectly for just about anyone. I can read the screen, zoom in on things I can not see, and can even access the parts of the internet and email wherever I need.

Signal strength is awesome, and I can get access to voice and data no matter where I am in Austin. This differes very much from the motorola Q from Sprint PCS which gets very little to no signal strength around town.

Rumors are also floating around that Apple is making a version of voiceover for the iphone. Voiceover is the screen reader that comes with Mac OS X. It provides spoken access to all of the functions provided by a macintosh computer. This will allow allmost anyone to use the iphone. The only drawback to this is the fact that there is no tactile feedback as to what the user is pressing, which means that anyone with a vision problem can not feel what and where they are going to touch, which is a little interesting to try and blindly touch a touch screen to get things done. The only way this could be accomplished is through speech recognition software or through an external display, which is totally possible given Apple’s history.

EDIT: I feel it is important to also add a compatibility section. to this blog. This will change the iPhone score as well, but it must be done.

Compatibility on the iPhone is very fluent between the operating systems. You can charge an iPhone on any computer using a standerd iPod cable, but you can only sync it using iTunes. This however works in both Windows and in Mac OS X. I have not heard of a genuine linux method for syncing, but I am sure it can be done.

Well it is time for the device ratings.
Interface:        10/10
design:            8/10
accessibility:   2/10
storage:           8/10
Compatibility: 8/10
Price:               6/10

Overall, the revised Iphone score is a 73.34% approval rating. This is because the device is not to affordable, looks nice, has fairly good storage, and a Very nice interface. However, it does not currently have the ease of use and accessibility for those who have visual and other impairments.

Summery of blog.

To summerize. This blog is a reviewing blog where I take different devices in the technology world, and see how well I feel they measure up. If they succeed in a certain area, then they get a higher score in that area. If they are lacking in a certain area, then I will deduct points in that area.

Once I have written the blog entry, I look at six areas the device has to score in. These areas are: Interface, Design, accessibility, storage, compatibility, and price. Each category is given a number out of ten rating. At the end, an average of the ratings is taken, and that is how I come up with the satisfactory scoring.

Now, if you have read any of my previous review blogs, then you will see this system in place. If you have not read any of the previous blog entries, then you may want to do so. I find them to be quite insightful, and interesting to learn about different devices and of how they size up on the ratings.

Blog has been moved.

I used to have this blog with .mac, but I believe that this place will be better for it. Here, I can get feedburner suport, and have well formed RSS feeds, so, I wil import the previous posts here soon.