MY PHONE IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can imagine my horror this afternoon as I was charging my phone, when it suddenly switched off. I pressed the power button, it vibrated but the screen wouldn't light up... crap... this happened to my P1i before, and the boot ROM needed to be reflashed... crap. Not a big deal but that would mean that I would still have to go to the SonyEricsson Service Center in Glorietta.

So I went to Glorietta and the guy checked my phone with my SIM, he confirmed that the phone needed to be reflashed, and this has happened to a few models before... not a big deal, I could've waited for it if it wasn't closing time.

He kept trying to restart the phone however, in the hope that maybe it was just a software bug or something. So I was ready to leave my phone with them, I got my SIM back and placed it in my old phone. He said he'd try to restart it one more time, but since I didn't want to take my SIM out again, he got out one of his dead SIMs... and oddly enough... my phone switched on. So I placed my SIM back... and my phone wouldn't turn on again. Take note, my SIM never stopped working on any other phone... just my new X10 Mini Pro. And my Mini Pro would work with EVERY other SIM except mine.

But since the X10 Mini Pro works without a SIM (just functions as a PDA) and it worked with all the other SIMs at the Sony Ericsson Service Center, I went over to Globe.

Turns out, there are cases where a defective SIM can render a phone dead... only with THAT particular SIM. This is very different from defective SIMs that don't log into the network. Globe Customer service was very efficient... got my replacement SIM in 5 min, activated in 1 hour. It really was the SIM... Globe said that some of the newer 128 SIMs are quite sensitive and can cause compatibility problems with some phones. New SIM worked right away. No problem with the phone... whew...

So, tip for the day... if your phone suddenly dies... and a hard reset, or battery swap doesn't work... try a SIM swap, with all providers.

...Battery review to follow...

**Follow up tip... problem happened again this morning when I tried to restart my phone... I think the SIM overheats... long story short, I found that if this happens again, I just press the back (non contact side) of the SIM against something cold... then it works again. This issue only comes out when restarting the phone**

X10 Mini Pro, the keyboard review...

One of the things that most people interested in the Mini Pro are curious about is the keyboard. It's pretty good. Solid build, no creaking, back-lit, and keys spaced well.

But among all the qwerty phones I've had, P990i & P1i, including my Mini Pro, I have to say the P1i had the best qwerty board I've tried to date.

When I first saw the prototype photos of the P1i, I thought to myself, "WTF?!?!! What designer in their right mind would think of such a crazy design? Rocker keys THAT small????" ... cut to 5 hours after I bought my P1i... "WOW!!! This is just genius!"


Don't get me wrong, the Mini Pro keyboard is great. I just think the rocker design on the P1i was better. On such small keys, the rocker switch design led to far less typos, felt better under the thumb, and led to much faster typing right out of the box.

Next up... X10 Mini Pro battery review... real world testing...

apps...apps...apps...

Been testing out my X10 MP for a couple of days now, and I have to say I'm very impressed.

Been downloading, installing, testing, uninstalling apps for the past 3 days... battery life is about 5 hours of non-stop surfing, chatting, and camera use. Screen on full power. The follwing are apps that I think I'll be keeping on my phone for a while.

GPS - MapDroyd ... amazing little app. Works offline, and has quite detailed street maps of the Philippines. Has other countries as well, taken from OpenStreetMap.org

The X10 Mini Pro's GPS is very decent. Takes a while to get an initial lock, but keeps a lock quite well. I don't have data service active yet, so it was running purely on the data from the GPS, cel-ID, and compass. Under stormy conditions and under an elevated highway, GPS stayed locked while the phone was resting on my center console in my car.

Over-all, I have to say that the GPS is almost as good as a dedicated Garmin unit... although Garmins still outperform mobile phone GPS (regardless of brand, unless it's the Garmin mobile phone) for non-critical applications, it's decent enough.

**Thanks to Mr. Dennis Manzano of SE PH for the tip on this app at the SE Expo!**


SMS - Handcent SMS. Much nicer to look at than then default SMS app. Allows easy access to speec synthesis for reading your incoming SMS to you.








Contacts - Phonebook 2.0 .. still not perfect, but way better than built in phonebook. I wish Android has much better contact management. Sort order can't be changed, and fields are a bit clumsy to edit. This is more inherent in Android than the apps for it. Maybe 2.2 will introduce a much better phonebook app.




Internet - Opera... nuff said. Dunno if the built in browser is a stripped down Chrome (why wouldn't it be) but it's not very pleasant to use. Default browser keeps opening a new window everytime you enter a new page... very annoying. Switched to Opera, much better.




Misc - Tricorder ... for all Star Trek fans... this thing displays all the information gathered from your phone's sensors... Wifi, Blutooth, GPS, cel-ID, accelerometer, gyroscope, electronic compass, etc.

Other neat apps that I like are
PhoneVoice: speaks alerts when incoming calls or SMS are received and says the name of the caller or sender.
Calendar Pad: Much better calendar viewer... gets data from built in cal app.
eBuddy: centralized IM app (although I was never a fan of this, YM for Android isn't official yet and the one out now keeps crashing)

On a separate note, the following Google apps are amazing: Google Goggles, Sky Map & Google Translate.

What apps do you have on your droid phone?

big things come in small packages...

I FINALLY got my X10 Mini Pro (currently the smallest Android phone on the market). Thanks to Sony Ericsson's Expo at the Megatrade Hall, I was able to get a hold of one of the first few units that were sold here.

Will give a much more detailed review once I get all the apps and settings done the way I want.

Granted the most annoying thing is that Sony Ericsson went with 1.6 (Donut) and is still "promising" 2.1 (Eclair)... by the time they release 2.1, (FroYo) will be out already.

Ok, initial impressions:
It's REALLY small. But surprisingly, the screen size isn't that much of a hindrance. Coming from using an iPod Touch as my primary PDA, there are a few things to get used to, but going from iOS to Android opens up way more flexibility.

Oddly enough, the Gmail app is the most limiting app on it... allowing only 1 Gmail Account to be registered. Hopefully future software updates of Android will fix this limitation.

Camera is quite decent, 5 megapixels, LED flash. Response time is pretty good, although video recording is a bit slow to start.

Now, onto the keyboard. It's very well built. Keys are well spaced and feel sturdy. For those that surf the web a lot, or blog, the Mini Pro is better than the regular Mini... but if you only check email, facebook, and twitter... and don't type a lot... the Mini is slightly smaller... a whole lot lighter... and comes in more colors.

I'm also very impressed with the GPS reception on the X10 Mini Pro. Granted, I'm impressed that it can get a decent lock for a phone... anyone who really needs a navigation system, please get a Garmin instead.

If anyone has any tips, or questions about the X10 Mini Pro, or Android, please feel free to post it here.

I will be posting a more in depth review on this in the days to come... so stay tuned...

Touch tip

Quick tip... for iPod Touch and iPhone users running OS3 onwards... the new way to end an app that hangs is to press and hold the power button until the red slider appears (do not turn off the device), the press and hold the Home button until the home screen appears again.

(For those that haven't upgraded to OS3 or higher, the old way was to just press and hold the Home button until the home screen appeared)