We’ve all heard it: Microsoft (nowadays Google and Apple, too) being referred to as the “evil empire,” or Windows Mobile being called a “dying breed.” There are some truths to these statements: if you really think about it, smartphone brands, their parent companies, the user base, the developers and the community are a lot like nations, each vying for success and dominance. So, what would each smartphone brand be like as a country (or other stately body)? Well, I thought about it for a while and what follows is what I came up with. I’ve spent time in each or with people from each community, and these are the conclusions I’ve drawn. In chronological order, I present the Five Nations of Smartphone. Enjoy!

Microsoft Windows Mobile

An ancient empire that disintegrated and fragmented with the passing of time, this country used to be home to many with traits similar to those of another country’s population: productivity, organization and efficiency. The government was a forefront to the creation of organized nations, but as time wore on, it became less and less interested in its nation and allowed it to split into many states controlled by those who built the infrastructure.

When the government all but disappeared, one infrastructure state rose above the rest to continually enhance the environment and attract new citizens despite the disadvantage of its datedness. This state unofficially approves of workers who use the infrastructural enhancements to benefit parts of the population who still lived under older infrastructures. In this way, everyone has access to the best of what the state has to offer.

However, the original government has returned and is building something at the center of the old empire. They say they will bring together all the separated states under one unified environment, and that this new nation will be the best yet. The walls surrounding this project are littered with tiny peepholes where the curious population looks on. Some workers have even been allowed inside the perimeter to get an early taste of what awaits them in this future country. From atop the grand walls, the smoke byproduct of creation arises, and promises something new.

Research In Motion Blackberry

Existing since the early days of organized nations, this country has relied on its population of serious and productivity-minded people. The infrastructure and the environment are spartan; form steps aside in favor of strong and secure function. The workers build only what they must, skipping out on the creativity that the country’s population has no interest in. Meanwhile, the government looks on ambivalently, working fervently on national security and only interfering in the lives and business of its population and workers when this security is threatened. The government’s forays into creating a new, more advanced infrastructure and environment were met with considerable failure, and the government returned to the mentality of “if it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.”

An odd phenomenon that this country has experienced is a rise in a population group of addicts. There are citizens of this population that do not share the same productive traits as other citizens, but instead rely on the country as a means for trivial social interaction. This group neither understands nor appreciates the country for anything more than its ability to join its citizens, but do not tax the system. They are therefore widely overlooked by the government and the other part of the population, but are often taken advantage of by workers who know they can successfully cash in on their addiction.

Apple iPhone

On the surface, one sees a young but very powerful nation that seemingly sprouted from nothing. Its population grew at a shocking rate and now outnumbers nearly every other. The workers flocked to it, promised by the government a vast fortune to be made at the hands of this growing population. Unsurprisingly, the government was correct: the best of the workers flourished, dominated the population, and made their great fortunes.

However, all is not well. The workers are hindered by harsh and restrictive laws. The government steps in frequently to enforce what they consider to be a perfect environment for their population. Although the resource potential of this nation is immense, the government restricts what some consider to be the best possible uses of these resources. These workers disobey and disregard the government ordinances and are labelled outlaws and removed from the environment as frequently as they are caught. To the enlightened population, these workers are heroes: they are a light in the dark, a release from the restrictions set forth by the government. These workers are appreciated by a few.

The rest of the population knows the country, the environment, and the infrastructure only through the propaganda of the government. They are convinced that there is no good alternative, and that each improvement made by the government is a world first, even if other countries tread down the same path many years before. The longer the population experiences this propaganda, the more reliant they become on the offerings of the government.

Google Android

A peculiar country only recently founded, this nation builds upon the values of an open society. It is nearly an anarchy, with the small existing government tending only to the environment and having all but a small hand in the infrastructure. The infrastructure is dominated by states, the largest of which is also in control of another country’s disappearing resources.

The workers are motivated by the prospects of nurturing this nation into eclipsing another country, an empire of propaganda. At their disposal is the vast and infinitely open environment created and managed by the government, which they are able to bend to their will due to the lack of almost any real regulation.

The population is young, intelligent, and informed, and they have come to this country purely by choice. They wish to live in a world where the mentality of their homeland is the standard, and freedom without compromise is the ultimate objective.

Most recently, the government has attempted to pull the fragmented nation-states back into a central body in order to strengthen the country and the environment, though the states fear this will potentially harm the infrastructure.

Palm webOS

Built on the disappearing remains of an aging empire, the government constructed a new, advanced and well put together environment for its people. However, a flimsy infrastructure (even when alleviated by small but prominent changes) and a lack of outspoken propaganda in favor of the fledgling nation to this day keeps the population low.

This population, however, is nationalistic, kind, and talented. Citizens look out for each other and help whenever they can. The veterans remember with nostalgia the former empire but look readily on in hopes for a greater future. The population’s workers all pitch in for the greater good, amending the environment under a tolerant and appreciative government.

Then, when the old government could no longer support itself, a gentle giant took over and reassured the population that life would go on without any drastic changes. The new government rewarded the population’s workers for their efforts and encouraged them that the future will be bright for this country. They promise an expansion of the infrastructure as well as continuous improvements to the environment, and the population has never been more dedicated. In a recent competitive event, the population’s nationalism again proved far stronger than that of the anarchist nation.

In Conclusion

So, yeah. Thoughts? Analyses? Am I off my rocker? You be the judge.

Yeah, yeah, I know this game came out in November of 2008, and that it’s almost a whole year later, AND that Need For Speed: Shift is coming out in slightly over a month, but I still feel the need to give a commentary on this game. Until I saw the light of games like DiRT, Test Drive Unlimited, and Forza Motorsport 2, I was a big Need For Speed fan.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted was (and still is) one of the greatest “arcadey” racing games ever made (those police chases almost become zombie-horror-survival-esque with their one-versus-infinite feel), so it was natural for EA: Blackbox to try to replicate that feel after two games that didn’t do so well (Carbon and ProStreet). Did they succeed? Read on to find out.

A Failed Attempt?

Indeed. Most Wanted‘s concept worked wonders the first time. Carbon was an undeniable flop of a game. ProStreet was a completely different breed of game (a faux-sim, if you will), so it doesn’t count, although EA’s CEO John Riccitiello thinks it’s comparable:

I thought it [Pro Street] was an okay game, in terms of gameplay. It’s not good… …Undercover will be a much better game.

Wrong you are, John, because Undercover is pretty damn poor. I know I enjoyed ProStreet, which I traded in to get Undercover, a lot more. It’s a better game overall, because it’s not trying to be Most Wanted; it’s original. Enough about comparisons between the Need For Speed games… time to talk about Undercover by itself.

The Good

I’m starting with the good so you can see that I just don’t blindly hate this game, and because there is actually a surprising amount of good in this game (just not right stuff, unfortunately). The map, Tri-City, is colossal. It’s got 109 miles of roadway, which only loses to Test Drive Unlimited out of the games I’ve played. The map has more than enough polygons, as to not have the jarring “ride” of TDU, and they manage to make the visuals of a moderately boring desert-combined-with-coastal-town (yeah, I was confused too) quite beautiful with the lighting and shaders the game’s graphics engine employs. Speaking of the graphics, the cars look absolutely amazing as well. The paint shades look excellent and you can definitely and easily distinguish between the finishes available for the paints (see my matte black Veyron as an example, although excuse the poor quality of the image). The attention to detail is also excellent, except when the cars get damaged, in which case the damage looks rather generic and it’s not exact (for instance, swipe the left front quarter panel only and the whole front bumper appears scratched).

Then comes the car list, which I personally think is the best they’ve had in a Need For Speed yet. You’ve got everything from the old Corvette Stingray to the Bugatti Veyron, including a little personal favorite of mine, the Volkswagen R32 (again, see my image below). Europe, Asia, and America are all represented, although the representation from Asia could be a little bit stronger. At least they have the R35 GT-R.

The last good thing about the game I’d like to touch on briefly is the soundtrack. Every Need For Speed has had at least a few good songs on its soundtrack (well, except Carbon maybe), but this one definitely takes the cake. As well as representing very well-known names such as Justice, Nine Inch Nails, and The Whip, Undercover features some interesting and fun tracks from slightly less mainstream bands and artists such as Ladytron, Ojos De Brujo, The Pinker Tones, Mindless Self Indulgence, and The Fashion. I have not yet switched to my own music streaming from my iTunes Library while playing this game, which is something I usually find myself doing fairly quickly with Need For Speed titles. Hell, it’s actually an iPod-worthy soundtrack.

The Bad… Uh-Oh

Oh boy. Here it comes. I actually don’t even know where to start. Factual inaccuracies? Good idea.

And yes, as a disclaimer to possible fanboys, I know this game isn’t a sim, but damn, these errors are truly unforgiveable. Here are a few, NOT ALL, by any means, but a few:

• Possibly a deliberate error, the pricing of cars in this game is ridiculous. A Nissan GT-R is $225k while the Veyron is $325k, and an Audi S5 is $115k.
• It is commonly known fact that the Lamborgini Gallardo LP560-4 and the Audi R8 are very, very closely related and that the Gallardo is the better performing of the two by a considerable margin. Why, then, is the Gallardo less expensive and in a lower performance tier than the R8 in Undercover?
• The Veyron is a tank, weighing in at over 4000 lbs. How can a police-equipped Porsche 911 Turbo (with a very heavily rear-biased weight of 3500 lbs) perform a PIT maneuver on a car with a mid-mounted W16?
• The A.I. in this game can handle a car on the highway at 200 MPH like doing a slalom on foot. No human will ever have such reflex. They also can spin you out with great ease, like the police, but if you try to do the same to them, it’s like hitting a brick wall.

As you can see, this Undercover has absolutely zero regard for physics, and this becomes even more apparent as you progress through the game, unlocking cars that handle better and upgrade parts to increase handling even further. I was at Lime Rock a few weeks ago (yes, I know, I know, a post about that is STILL in order), and I watched as the Acura LMP1 car tore through corners at over 80 miles per hour with complete control. This morning in Undercover, I took a hairpin turn in the Veyron (which, if I may point out, is not a stellar car for insane handling) at 160 miles per hour, flat out, no brakes, nothing, and did it cleanly, too. Seriously, what were they thinking?

It’s clear that they tried to mimic Most Wanted, but they honestly could not have made the game look more like it AND be less like it. The same feeling of “Oh damn, I gotta escape!” is not there during cop chases, the A.I. make the races extremely annoying, and the plot is more or less the equivalent of mixing 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Transporter. No, seriously, that’s actually what they were shooting for:

Undercover, according to Riccitiello, is instead taking cues from action films. “For those of you who ever saw movies like The Transporter – it’s sort of a cult classic among people with a B-movie mentality, which fits me perfectly,” he said.

My Final Verdict

Well, Mr. Riccitiello, The Transporter may be a B-Movie and fits you well, but Undercover is really a D-Game and doesn’t fit me at all. I was hoping so much for a newer, better Most Wanted, and this is the mess I get instead? Really?

For pretending to be Most Wanted, and of course, failing, I give Need For Speed: Undercover an Ignition Unlimited Media Rating of 3/10.

A week ago, I did an unboxing video for the extended battery I got for my Touch Pro. Well, now I’ve got some more new stuff for my phone, and another unboxing video. This time, however, I’ve been using the two items for a couple weeks, so I can also give a “long term test” result on each… after, of course, you watch the unboxing and see what items I’m talking about. The video is after the jump.

The Unboxing Video

A Review Of Each Device

I’ll start with the microSD card, because it’s easier to explain and will take less time: this thing is great. With 8GB of storage (rather than the 2 I had in my old SD Card), I can keep a large amount of music (currently 4.3GB or 575 songs) and still have too much space on there to know what to do with. Plus, because this is the fastest SanDisk card on the market (Class 6, capable of data transfer speeds of 6 MB/s), everything on the card loads instantly, from music to video to programs… and probably anything else you can think of. What makes this all even better, though, is I got this card through Amazon for about twenty bucks, and it came with a USB reader (albeit a tiny one that’s ridiculously difficult to get the microSD out of when you’re finished with it). There really isn’t much more to say about this device, so I’ll move onto the Voyager 855.

Until very recently, HTC was very stubborn about including any port but a proprietary mini-USB on their devices, including my Touch Pro. The phone did come with a ridiculously large adapter which plugs into that mini-USB port and includes two more mini-USB ports, a 2.5mm and a 3.5mm. It’s good to have, but it’s unwieldy as having another whole device in your pocket (not to mention the fact that it plugs into the bottom, making it yet more impractical). I needed a solution to the music issue because I love HTC’s TouchFlo 3D Audio Manager interface. When I remembered the fact that phones now have Bluetooth A2DP and AVRCP (that’s Advanced Audio Distribution Profile and Audio/Video Remote Control Profile), I started searching for a Bluetooth headset. However, most Bluetooth headsets are only one piece, giving one ear’s worth of music, but the stereo solutions were even worse: big, bulky, and expensive. Who knew I’d get the best of both worlds for less than I possibly imagined? The Plantronics Voyager 855 Bluetooth Stereo Headset can convert: you can use only the main Bluetooth earpiece, which has the controls on it, or you can plug in a stereo piece, which has a cable of good length that goes to an earbud for the other ear. The controlling of calls and music is flawless using the controls, and there’s nearly zero latency in pausing, stopping, and switching tracks. Not bad for something done over the air. If I have any criticism, it’s that the sound quality doesn’t really stand up to wired competitors, especially in terms of bass and treble, but it shouldn’t… it’s completely wireless! This thing is phenomenal.

Want These?

So you want one (or both) of these things now, but you’re worried about how much this sort of high-tech stuff costs? Well here’s some good news for you: the SanDisk is $22.56 and the Voyager 855 is $31.49. It’s insane… these two bits of tech can be bought, together, for just north of $50. It’s a steal.

Grand touring is great. I’m taking a short road trip to Lime Rock this weekend, and I promised I’d post some sort of updates regarding my travels and the race… and I’ve just found out how I’m going to do that. Twikini, by Trinket Software, is exactly how I’m going to do that. It’s got everything your normal Twitter client has, mobile or not, but this piece of Windows Mobile software goes many, many steps further. How does this so well integrate into a grand touring experience? Make the jump to find out!

I’ll cut right to the chase… no other Windows Mobile Twitter client, not even those with elaborate, sliding touch menus can stack up to Twikini. Why is that? The answer is in simplicity. Trinket Software designed it to do one thing: to be a Twitter client. Using that approach, they created a stable and reliable tool, and then carefully picked and chose features that would enhance the experience. This is where the grand touring bit of it comes into play: let’s say I find a gorgeous vista overlooking an epic driving road. I can whip out my Touch Pro, use Twikini to write a quick comment about it, attach a picture, and note its GPS location, all in one swift action. I can’t think of an easier way to document a road trip, so that’s what I’ll be doing, without a doubt.

This Windows Mobile app won’t break the bank, either: for less than a fiver, you can have the best WM Twitter client on the market. You can download a trial and buy the software, along with reading further information about it, at Trinket Software’s Twikini site. Enjoy! I know I do.

Here’s a supplementary PocketNow video review of Twikini if you’re still not sold on this phenomenal piece of software.

Well, since this new Ignition Unlimited is here, I thought I’d start off after this beginning-of-summer hiatus with a tech post. In April, I ditched my old Verizon XV6700 for a new Verizon HTC Touch Pro. I love this new phone, but when I got it, I had a few issues with it.

Firstly, Verizon had locked the GPS for use with only their stupid “VZNavigator” program, which is coded in such a way that it looks like it belongs on a “dumb phone” rather than a smartphone like the Touch Pro (which runs an HTC-modified version of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional). Luckily, Verizon has since unlocked the GPS in a new official ROM update, which I will link to in the bottom of this post after the jump. Rest assured you’ll be seeing a lot more posts that somehow include what I’ve done with this GPS update… The second issue with the phone is that it has less RAM than the competitors. It’s slow sometimes, but I really can’t complain, and nothing can be done about that. Lastly, this phone, being packed to the brim with battery-drinking features, has pretty poor battery life. Luckily, I could do something about that: I bought the official Verizon Wireless extended battery for the Touch Pro. Details and an unboxing video, as well as how to order it are after the jump.

The Unboxing Video

Want One?

It’s not the easiest thing in the world to get ahold of. This is the process I went through: I first called VZW Sales, via the 800-256-4646 number, and they confirmed that the battery was indeed available in my area. I was told to call my local Verizon Wireless store, who told me I had to actually come into the store to order it. I was finally able to order the battery at the Customer Service desk in the store for $49.99. They did ship it via FedEx, though, so if you order one… MAKE SURE to be home when it arrives or else you may be driving 36 miles to pick it up at their depot like I did. Oh well, at least the road the depot was on has one of the single greatest hairpins on a public road in Massachusetts.

Was It Worth It?

Yes. Totally. Even though an increase from 1350 mAh to 1800 mAh doesn’t seem like that much, it is. Let me put it in perspective for you: before, I’d have made a few calls, written a few texts, had the phone check for emails on the hour, and browsed the web a little over the course of the day, and by the time I’d get the phone back to its mini-USB power adapter, it was down to 50%. Now, however, with this new battery, I can do all of that written above and listen to a couple hours of stereo Bluetooth music (how? Oh, you’ll see…) and still have around 60% left by the end of the day. It’s absolutely awesome.

So, in conclusion, if you’ve got a Verizon Wireless Touch Pro and want it to last longer, go for this battery. Seriously. It helps a lot.

Oh, and here’s the ROM update from VZW… this is free and a must-download by all means. Grab it here.