Mini-review: Invisible Shield for iPhone 3G

Invisible Shield is the well-reviewed clear-plastic wrapper for mobile devices including iPods and laptops.  Its incredible claim is that it protects devices making them scratch-proof.  Having seen the demo videos I’ve no doubt that’s true.

One of the privileges of writing for SMS Text News is that you get to review stuff that manufacturers send out.  Sure, you have to send it back eventually, but you get to give a product a good workout before buying it and recommending it to other people.  This is not one of those reviews… I paid £14.99 at my local Carphone Warehouse for an iPhone 3G wrap.  If you want the quick version take a look at the picture above (that’s my kitchen bin) and you know all you need to….

In slightly more depth: The pack comes with front and back covers and a small spray bottle of what looks like water.  Following the instructions I peeled the front cover off its backing, sprayed it with the solution, laid it on the front of the device, lined it up and used the special plastic tool to squeegee the few bubbles away. 5 minutes later it had dried and looked great.

The back was less of a success.  Whilst the front had been a simple flat-glass face, the back of the iPhone is curved and needs cut-outs for the keys, speaker, microphone and SIM tray.  I applied it twice following the same routine, but the corners wouldn’t stick… I tried again and used the techniques suggested on the manufacturer’s site.  Still no joy.  The problem (aside from getting the cover aligned) was that the corner segments overlapped the microphone slots at the bottom and the corners wrinkled – looking as if they had too much plastic in them.  I tried one last time… disaster.  In removing the cover a second time some of the adhesive remained on the phone and subsequent applications gave a bubbled, cloudy appearance.  After an hour and a half of trying I gave up…

Instead of both sides, I just considered keeping the front face-covering on and had a play with the device in this state.  However, the Invisible Shield adds a tacky finish – ideal I would imagine for the back where you hold it – but it wasn’t pleasant in comparison with the slick feel of the iPhone’s glass screen normally.  It came off.

I’ve no doubt Invisible Shield does what it says regarding protection, but it’s current iPhone 3G template (which differs significantly from that pictured on the website) didn’t fit well for me on the back of the device – the only place I’d consider using it.  I can’t recommend it.

E71 review so far

So, Ewan’s called me out… the E71 isn’t perfect after all. I still have to make my own tea and women don’t appear to be any more attracted to me than before (for the record, aside from my long-suffering girlfriend, the count is zero interest in the last week – I’d rate that as ‘unchanged’). But it’s easy to find fault – what’s the overall view?

If you want a really thorough review take a look at what Steve has written over at AllAboutSymbian (launch review, multimedia, screen size) – I had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time at the launch and the depth and detail of his write-up is top-notch. This are my first usage experience…

The good:

• I was wrong about the ‘leatherette’ case. There I said it… wrong. In podcast 10 I scoffed and called it ‘low rent’. This evening it came between the E71 and the pavement – not a scratch on either. I love it.
• The design is gorgeous. Not just ‘better’. People are actually going out of their way to say how nice it is. Even an E51 owner (which shares much styling) commented it was better. My E61 was not a pretty thing… this just is.
• The size is excellent and its noticeably the slimmest phone I’ve had for some time. The screen is a good resolution and size combination and the keyboard, although tighter than the E61 and E61i feels great – I believe Nokia when they say 70% of people who blind-tested it preferred it.
• The software that had changes is much better – big ones for me are the customisable home screen and the alert icons that now appear at the bottom to show received SMS, missed calls etc. Also the new calendar is a vast improvement as is the ‘long press’ clock preview screen that shows the time when the keyboard is locked.
• The battery life is still excellent – I’m getting the same amount of usage as I did on a recent N82 loan for a few days between full re-charges. The N82 often barely lasted a day.
• The GPS is incredible – 15 seconds is the longest it’s ever taken to get a lock from cold… coupled with the much-improved Maps 2 it’s a life-saver. With the high capacity battery I’ve been geo-tagging and navigating without a second thought.
• Phone and memory card encryption ‘just works’ with no appreciable speed impact. It’s good to know my personal data on the memory card is safe, at least, from opportunists.
• The price – at €350 unsubsidised that’s mid-range S60 money and in line with previous models.

The bad:

• It’s a fingerprint magnet. The back particularly doesn’t just show marks, but visibly discolours until wiped clean. Do the Finn’s not have sweat glands in their hands?
• It didn’t have Mail For Exchange on by default…. and it’s supposed to be a mail-centric phone. Once on it behaves well, but Roadsync does’t appear to be happy – freezing occasionally. A shame as I’d prefer to use Roadsync for the folders capability.
• The mail client isn’t updated, nor is the crappy IMAP handling. Really… This is Nokia’s class-leading e-mail phone? To be fair, it’s unchanged, but that means it’s unchanged since the E61 as far as I can tell. I would have traded half the improvements in the now-excellent calendar for something in this area.
• Media performance is patchy. I asked at the launch if people would be confused by the overlaps in the E and N-series ranges and they said ‘no’. They weren’t joking. Day time images are fine otherwise things get a bit dicey. The processor can only handle the choppiest of QIK streams over 3.5G although local video capture is smooth. To be fair it’s good enough for my business needs (white boards, business cards), but not for anything else. At this price that feels fair, but it does leave me wanting a premium E-series device with something more in this area.
• The new ‘orchestral’ Nokia ring-tone irritates everyone who hears it except me so far… not sure why – it just does. I think it’s something to do with it being similar, but noticeably different to all the other ‘standard issue’ phones in the office.

Overall? It’s good but not great. Do I feel let down? A bit, but we’d all assumed this would be a top-end all-singing, all-dancing model and in many respects (particularly form-factor it is in many ways), but inside it’s a mid-tier business phone and that it does very well… except for the basic messaging interface which is still too basic and deserves Ewan’s anticipated bile.

Improved in many areas, no worse in the rest. A strong ‘B’.  Will I pay my own cash for it?  Yes… but I’ll secretly long for a premium E-series in a similar shape.

—-

A few demo pictures… The good:

And the pretty awful:

The best QIK I managed on high quality:

The most reliable setting:

Review: Jawbone 2 Noise Assassin headset

Dan Lane’s been looking at the new Jawbone headset we discussed in the podcast. Here’s his opinions…

—-

I was going to write quite a bit about the noise cancelling features of Aliph’s new Jawbone bluetooth headset, but to be honest there is no point, I recorded the tests I made and you can listen to them and make your own mind up about how well the Jawbone performs in the various real-world situations I used it in.

While I was unable to convince anyone with a convertible to let me sit in the passenger seat and make calls while we drove around with the top down I did test the handset in the following three situations:

* In my office, with loud music playing:

* In my office with the air conditioning on full:

* On the back of a boat, travelling up the Thames (obeying the posted speed limit) stood between two giant turbine engines:

I paired the Jawbone with my iPhone and called a number I’d setup that recorded all incoming calls. In each recording I give an example of what the audio quality is like with the Jawbone Noise Assassin features turned on, off and using the iPhone as a normal handset.

My opinion is that the Jawbone does a great job when there isn’t much background noise but when any serious background noise is introduced the Noise Assassin just falls apart. It wasn’t too bad at filtering out the air conditioning though. In every test the iPhone, while not doing as good a job at filtering out the background noise, did manage to make me sound more audible than the Jawbone. My biggest problem here is that I have no way of knowing if I sound clear to the person on the other end of the call, on some occasions the Jawbone was slightly misaligned and didn’t pick up anything I said.

As for the device itself, it certainly feels like a premium bit of kit, it’s solidly built and just over half the size of the original Jawbone which felt bulky and cheap (in fact, my own original Jawbone fell to pieces) and some of the included ear-loops are covered in what we are told is “fine leather” but to be honest there is so little of it that it’s hard to tell, but it’s a nice aesthetic touch. The device is operated by two buttons hidden beneath the plastic exterior, one to start or end calls and one to toggle the Noise Assassin function (which is automatically enabled at the beginning of every call). Unlike the original Jawbone these buttons are easy to press accidentally, a number of times I found myself disconnecting a caller because I wanted to push the headset further into my ear.

In brief, for a fiver short of £100, it’s probably not worth bothering with.

—-

Bonus: there is a bit of the Thames without a speed limit where the boat goes quite fast and during that time you couldn’t hear anything from me… although the Jawbone sensor may have been making contact with my cheek, who knows!