Unfortunately, I believed the rumours leading up to the Apple launch event on 10th September 2013 which were suggesting that the new colourful iPhone would be a "cheap" device, maybe even so cheap that it would be within reach of the those in developing countries.
As a mobile enthusiast, if you want to be able to comment on the industry, be able to genuinely make comparative commentary between devices and ecosystems, you simply have to have an iPhone. That or have very convenient access to one, and with my better half moving from iPhone to Android, that's left me needing one of my own. Whilst not the biggest by market share any more, the iPhone is still arguably the single most important device, if not the most important ecosystem, and every product announcement, price change or hardware glitch becomes mainstream news.
Apple's service of keeping older handsets eligible for newer operating systems is very commendable, something which is much easier to maintain when you don't have the disconnect between one company writing the operating system source code, and another company making the hardware and customising the operating system almost to their heart's content. Android phones in particular can find themselves stranded on very old versions where a manufacturer has seemingly lost interest. Yet it is only this year that the iPhone 3GS, released in 2009, has fallen off the support train being the newest device not to have iOS 7. This however means that the old 3GS I can see in the corner of the room, next to a bunch of charging cables and a couple of old Android phones, is no longer good enough for that job of being a relevant comparison device.
So with the rumours of the 5c being such a cheap device, I was quite excited at the thought of being able to buy an iPhone again. It's not feasible to buy full-priced, or even second-hand iPhones of the latest generation or two when you are using them as comparison devices, they're simply too expensive (although they do hold value very well of course). I reckon anything up to £350 at a push and I was in, and the fact that they were coloured only made me lust more.
I'd already been eyeing up the HTC One Mini in blue, and I'm glad that manufacturers have started building colourful devices again. The multi-colour approach has in recent years been most utilised by Nokia in the Lumia range, and I really hope they've sparked all the manufacturers to think again about colour, and take us away from the land of black rectangles!
Needless to say I was of course then disappointed when Apple announced that the iPhone 5c would start at £479, completely out of the price range for a device used mainly for comparison purposes. Not only that but as I buy all my devices SIM free, it is probably too expensive even to buy as a main device, and I'm not even sure I could live with iOS on my main device even if I thought I could justify the cost.
We now know that the iPhone 5c was never going to be a budget device, and actually sits nicely between the 4S and 5s (yes, one is upper case and the other lower...) in the Apple range, allowing Apple to drop the iPhone 5, and presumably make a lot more margin on each 5c they sell, boosting profitability, whilst adding new marketability and product differentiation in the 5c with its coloured casing. Very smart move as ever from Apple, but a shame for me and anyone else who were excited to pick up a shiny new colourful budget iPhone!
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Monday, 23 September 2013
Friday, 4 May 2012
Samsung Galaxy S3 Event
I was lucky enough to get into the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event tonight, following a tip-off from Steve Litchfield, for the unveiling of the Galaxy S3. There was the standard kitsch presentation with lots of over-the-top “design around humans” type statements, but the main win was getting some hands on time with the device ahead of its European release on 29th May.
Steve had come prepared with the Galaxy Nexus, and straight away you could see the striking similarities in outwards appearance. Versus the more straight edged appearance of the S2, the S3 sports rounded contours around its entire exterior, design to “fit the human hand”, something ever so slightly borrowed from Sony Ericsson some 2 years ago. The two phones are as good as the same size, and pretty similar to the S2, although Samsung have done a good job at squeezing in a 2100 mAh battery whilst keeping the thickness down under 9mm.
Truth be told there weren’t any massive advances in the hardware here. That’s not to say the overall package isn’t great, because it is! The camera seemed much better than the lacklustre performance from the Galaxy Nexus, although borrowing its quick camera app load-time and rapid fire shooting, including a “best photo” feature that fires 8 rapid stills and attempts to pick the best on for you. The 720P 4.8” screen, Super Amoled, looks the same as the Galaxy Nexus’ and probably would shade just under the HTC One X (and yes, if you care, it is PenTile). The exterior casing is in reality Samsung’s usual plastic that doesn’t feel like “just plastic”, although they bucked a recent trend with both a microSD card slot and a removable battery! There are accessories to boot, including wireless charging dock (lovingly borrowed from Palm), HDMI adaptor, desktop and car docks.
Samsung have however mad a real effort in the software department, adding several features above and beyond stock Android. Under the collective banner of Touchwiz Nature UX, you’ll find such things as:
• S Voice which is basically an imitation of Siri
• S Beam which is their version of stock Android Beam from ICS
• Wake Unlock Actions to wake and unlock the phone with voice commands
• Raise the phone to your head whilst reading an SMS from a contact to start dialling them
• Face tagging in photos, with auto sharing to the recognised contacts
• Pop up play, allowing you to leave video playing on top of the rest of the OS
There are more features of course, and this isn’t intended as a full review or even preview! However Samsung have been very busy in the software department, which adds weight to many commentators’ opinions that hardware specs for smartphones are beginning to plateau, with software potentially being the new differentiator. Many criticise the Android OEMs for trying to build their own brand loyalty through skins, frameworks and UIs, even more so as traditionally these company’s expertise lie in hardware not software development, shown up in the early Android incarnations of Sense, TouchWiz, UXP et al.
My gut feel at the end of it all was similar to when the Nexus S came out, and was branded the culmination of this year’s smartphone technology, as opposed to setting out a stall for this year’s new technology. The camera hardware isn’t new, although it borrows some nice speed features from the Galaxy Nexus. Curved design borrowed from Sony Ericsson. Wireless charging borrowed from Palm. S Voice borrowed from Apple’s Siri. The comparatively large battery is welcome though, and for our shores should cope well with 3G radios, with the LTE version faring less of course!
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Motorola Droid Razr Maxx Announced With Huge Battery
Motorola yesterday announced the Droid Razr Maxx, an Android Gingerbread phone on Verizon, very similar to the Droid Razr released at the back end of last year, with the biggest difference between the two being the massive 3300 mAh battery. There's no word on a GSM variant yet, but the original Droid Razr made the transition so fingers crossed the Maxx will do the same. The previous biggest battery in an Android phone in the UK was 1930 mAh in the Atrix, unless you count the Samsung Galaxy Note as a phone in which case it was 2500 mAh. The first generation of LTE phones in the US have been known for poor battery life, similar to the first generation of 3G phones which we also saw in the UK, so if Motorola are quoting 21 hours talk time on Verizon LTE, the figure would presumably be even higher on a potential GSM/HSPA variant.
Whilst it's slightly disappointing that the device will launch with Gingerbread, one would suspect ICS will make it to the Droid Razr Maxx (and the Droid Razr) and despite the large battery, the handset is 145g, which for comparison is slightly heavier than the LG Optimus 2X but lighter than all the HTC Sensation line.
Seemingly there are no new wonder battery technologies around the corner, and if you listen to the 361 Degrees podcast or heard my spot in Phones Show Chat 118, you'll know that we all share the same belief as many other commentators that we'd rather sacrifice a millimetre or two in device thickness to gain a few hundred extra mAh to get us through the day! Happily this is the first manufacturer to really go for the idea, and the Droid Razr Maxx is still only 9mm thick, where the original Droid Razr was 7.1mm (at it's thinnest point!).
Whilst there are after market extended batteries for some phones, they have generally either been third party and hence somewhat unreliable, or have added bulges to the handset to ruin it's design. Having the larger battery in the phone from the start has to be the way forward for today's "always connected" smart phones. Good work Motorola, hopefully other manufacturers will follow suit.
Source: Motorola
Whilst it's slightly disappointing that the device will launch with Gingerbread, one would suspect ICS will make it to the Droid Razr Maxx (and the Droid Razr) and despite the large battery, the handset is 145g, which for comparison is slightly heavier than the LG Optimus 2X but lighter than all the HTC Sensation line.
Seemingly there are no new wonder battery technologies around the corner, and if you listen to the 361 Degrees podcast or heard my spot in Phones Show Chat 118, you'll know that we all share the same belief as many other commentators that we'd rather sacrifice a millimetre or two in device thickness to gain a few hundred extra mAh to get us through the day! Happily this is the first manufacturer to really go for the idea, and the Droid Razr Maxx is still only 9mm thick, where the original Droid Razr was 7.1mm (at it's thinnest point!).
Whilst there are after market extended batteries for some phones, they have generally either been third party and hence somewhat unreliable, or have added bulges to the handset to ruin it's design. Having the larger battery in the phone from the start has to be the way forward for today's "always connected" smart phones. Good work Motorola, hopefully other manufacturers will follow suit.
Source: Motorola
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Sony Ericsson and Motorola Explain Android Update Process
In an interesting show of "openness", both Sony Ericsson and Motorola yesterday published blog posts detailing the process they go through to bring their existing devices up to new versions of the Android operating system. With both blog posts published on the same day, it's hard to believe that there wasn't some sort of coordination between the two manufacturers, although Sony Ericsson's post was much more detailed than Motorola's.
For each major new version of Android, Google works with one manufacturer to create the flagship device, called the Google Experience Device. To get the Google Experience Devices out, usually just before the source code is publicly released, the chosen manufacturer will be involved in the development cycle of the new version. Popular belief had been that other major manufacturers (think the likes of Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson, LG, and especially Motorola - now very close to being owned by Google) also got some kind of early access to the source code, especially as these are the companies who build Google certified devices with the full suite of Google apps onboard. However, both company's blog posts confirmed (Sony Ericsson's more explicitly than Motorola's) that they too only get access to the new source code on the day it is publicly released. This puts them on the same level playing field as any other lesser known manufacturer who fancies building devices from the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code only, which is where most of the cheap and nasty tablets have risen from in the past.
Sources: Sony Ericsson Blog, Motorola Blog
For each major new version of Android, Google works with one manufacturer to create the flagship device, called the Google Experience Device. To get the Google Experience Devices out, usually just before the source code is publicly released, the chosen manufacturer will be involved in the development cycle of the new version. Popular belief had been that other major manufacturers (think the likes of Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson, LG, and especially Motorola - now very close to being owned by Google) also got some kind of early access to the source code, especially as these are the companies who build Google certified devices with the full suite of Google apps onboard. However, both company's blog posts confirmed (Sony Ericsson's more explicitly than Motorola's) that they too only get access to the new source code on the day it is publicly released. This puts them on the same level playing field as any other lesser known manufacturer who fancies building devices from the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code only, which is where most of the cheap and nasty tablets have risen from in the past.
Sources: Sony Ericsson Blog, Motorola Blog
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
Nokia and Samsung Phone Naming Conventions
Catching up with mobile news, and I can't ignore the fact that Nokia has dropped it's old naming convention using N, E, X and C prefixes and within a week Samsung announced it was taking on a very similar naming convention!
Nokia's previous convention had 4 letter identifiers:
"Nseries remains the flagship and most advanced range of products.
Xseries comes next and focuses on social entertainment.
Eseries remains focussed on productivity and business,
whilst Cseries represents the core range of products."
Samsung's new convention has 5 letter identifiers:
"S" (Super Smart) – Devices at the very pinnacle of Samsung's mobile portfolio. This class will only be used on flagship devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S, the award-winning smartphone that has already sold 10 million units throughout the world.
"R" (Royal / Refined) – Premium category models, a combination of power, performance and productivity for the individual who wants to be defined by the technology they carry.
"W" (Wonder) – High quality, strategic models, perfect for those seeking a balance between style and performance.
"M" (Magical) –High-performance models at an economic price-point.
"Y" (Young) – These are entry models or strategic models for emerging markets or a younger audience more sensitive to price.
As well as appending a couple of other identifiers:
“Pro” – This indicates that the device includes a QWERTY keyboard for speedier email typing and increased productivity for professionals.
“Plus” – This indicates that the device is an upgrade from an existing model.
“LTE” – This indicates that the device is designed to utilize LTE (Long-Term Evolution) connectivity standards, a 4G standard to provide increased mobile network capacity and speed.
I can't help thinking that Samsung finding itself needing to use such a bonkers set of naming conventions means they're simply releasing too many phones that are not differentiated enough between each other. HTC and Motorola for example are still using names like "Sensation" and "Atrix" as opposed to any letter and number combinations (although even HTC got bored of thinking of new names and just appended "S" to everything in the last few months), but if these guys concentrated on differentiating the devices a little more, especially on hardware and form factor, just crazy naming conventions wouldn't have ever needed to have been dreamt up!
Sources: Nokia Conversations, Nokia Conversations, Korea Newswire
Nokia's previous convention had 4 letter identifiers:
"Nseries remains the flagship and most advanced range of products.
Xseries comes next and focuses on social entertainment.
Eseries remains focussed on productivity and business,
whilst Cseries represents the core range of products."
Samsung's new convention has 5 letter identifiers:
"S" (Super Smart) – Devices at the very pinnacle of Samsung's mobile portfolio. This class will only be used on flagship devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S, the award-winning smartphone that has already sold 10 million units throughout the world.
"R" (Royal / Refined) – Premium category models, a combination of power, performance and productivity for the individual who wants to be defined by the technology they carry.
"W" (Wonder) – High quality, strategic models, perfect for those seeking a balance between style and performance.
"M" (Magical) –High-performance models at an economic price-point.
"Y" (Young) – These are entry models or strategic models for emerging markets or a younger audience more sensitive to price.
As well as appending a couple of other identifiers:
“Pro” – This indicates that the device includes a QWERTY keyboard for speedier email typing and increased productivity for professionals.
“Plus” – This indicates that the device is an upgrade from an existing model.
“LTE” – This indicates that the device is designed to utilize LTE (Long-Term Evolution) connectivity standards, a 4G standard to provide increased mobile network capacity and speed.
I can't help thinking that Samsung finding itself needing to use such a bonkers set of naming conventions means they're simply releasing too many phones that are not differentiated enough between each other. HTC and Motorola for example are still using names like "Sensation" and "Atrix" as opposed to any letter and number combinations (although even HTC got bored of thinking of new names and just appended "S" to everything in the last few months), but if these guys concentrated on differentiating the devices a little more, especially on hardware and form factor, just crazy naming conventions wouldn't have ever needed to have been dreamt up!
Sources: Nokia Conversations, Nokia Conversations, Korea Newswire
Thursday, 1 September 2011
Motorola Announces Pro+
Hot on the heals of the announcement of the Defy+, Motorola has announced the Pro+, the successor to the Pro (which never got released in the UK) aka the Droid Pro in the US. And as per the Defy+, the Pro+ is only a minor update. Whilst it will ship with Android 2.3, the original Pro has already been updated to version 2.3, so there's no news there.
Comparing specs, we see the same 1GHz CPU, same 512MB RAM, same size screen, same 5MP LED flash camera, yawn...
Ok, there are some upgrades: the resolution goes from 320x480 HVGA to 480x640 VGA, the weight drops from 134g to 113g, and the battery is bumped up to 1600mAh from 1420mAH, and believe me, having owned a Droid Pro any extra juice will be more than welcome! Internal storage drops from 8GB to 4GB however.
Within a millimetre or two they share the same physical height, width and depth dimensions, but the Pro+ sports more rounded edges compared to the straighter edged Pro, and presumably this will fit much nicer in the hand, and it certainly looks a lot easier on the eye as well.
Motorola had previously announced the old Pro was coming to Europe as the "Motorola Pro" (as opposed to the Verizon branded "Droid Pro"), then this was shelved. Then it was back on again, and now shelved again, although this last cancellation of the Pro at the same time as the Pro+ announcement makes sense of course. Hopefully this time the Pro+ will actually make it to these shores, as the other candybar qwerty Android phones are all mid to low-end devices at best, and it would be nice to see a decent option for this form factor that doesn't require import from the US!
I will however reiterate some things I said about the Defy+ versus it's predecessor; the upgrade seems hardly worth the effort, and we could really do with seeing the RAM rise to nearer the 1GB mark, and probably a dual core CPU to keep up with the other phones that have been released through out 2011. The only reason the Pro+ can be justified in Europe is that the Pro was never released.
Source: Motorola
Comparing specs, we see the same 1GHz CPU, same 512MB RAM, same size screen, same 5MP LED flash camera, yawn...
Ok, there are some upgrades: the resolution goes from 320x480 HVGA to 480x640 VGA, the weight drops from 134g to 113g, and the battery is bumped up to 1600mAh from 1420mAH, and believe me, having owned a Droid Pro any extra juice will be more than welcome! Internal storage drops from 8GB to 4GB however.
Within a millimetre or two they share the same physical height, width and depth dimensions, but the Pro+ sports more rounded edges compared to the straighter edged Pro, and presumably this will fit much nicer in the hand, and it certainly looks a lot easier on the eye as well.
Motorola had previously announced the old Pro was coming to Europe as the "Motorola Pro" (as opposed to the Verizon branded "Droid Pro"), then this was shelved. Then it was back on again, and now shelved again, although this last cancellation of the Pro at the same time as the Pro+ announcement makes sense of course. Hopefully this time the Pro+ will actually make it to these shores, as the other candybar qwerty Android phones are all mid to low-end devices at best, and it would be nice to see a decent option for this form factor that doesn't require import from the US!
I will however reiterate some things I said about the Defy+ versus it's predecessor; the upgrade seems hardly worth the effort, and we could really do with seeing the RAM rise to nearer the 1GB mark, and probably a dual core CPU to keep up with the other phones that have been released through out 2011. The only reason the Pro+ can be justified in Europe is that the Pro was never released.
Source: Motorola
Thursday, 18 August 2011
HP Discontinues WebOS Devices
As is all over the technology sites and blogs right now HP have stated their intention to discontinue WebOS devices.
Amazingly this news came out 3.5 hours after I bought a Pre 3 online, which will be delivered tomorrow! No doubt I will end up returning it if it has no foreseeable future, and WebOS seems even less likely to get any developer interest now as well. Still, I'll try and post some thoughts and pictures of the device anyway when I get it!
Source: HP
Amazingly this news came out 3.5 hours after I bought a Pre 3 online, which will be delivered tomorrow! No doubt I will end up returning it if it has no foreseeable future, and WebOS seems even less likely to get any developer interest now as well. Still, I'll try and post some thoughts and pictures of the device anyway when I get it!
Source: HP
Monday, 15 August 2011
Motorola Announces Defy+
Motorola today announced the Defy+, an Android 2.3 Gingerbread-based successor to the Defy from 2010. This will probably go under the radar for two reasons; first is that Google today acquired Motorola Mobility, a massive move in the smartphone market which will dominate news/analysis for some time, with huge implications not only for Google's competitor mobile platforms but also for other manufacturers producing Android devices, and second because in truth the Defy+ is only a minor upgrade to the original Defy.
When the first Defy came out in towards the end of 2010, it was no more than a midfield player with its 800MHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 5MP camera, VGA video capture and poor screen viewing outdoors. What it did have was a unique selling point which Motorola called "life proof", being dust proof, scratch resistant and water resistant (to a point of course!). At the time it narrowly had the largest battery capacity on the market at 1540mAh. However, other devices were shortly released with 1GHz CPUs; Samsung's Nexus S, Moto's own Milestone 2, the Incredible S. HTC also starting pushing towards 1GB of RAM with the Incredible S and Desire S as well. I bought a Defy very shortly after it was released in the UK, and despite buying other devices in the meantime I've kept coming back to it as my primary device, particularly after the upgrade from Android 2.1 Eclair to 2.2 Froyo.
The Defy+ only slightly bumps its older sibling's specs: the CPU goes up to 1GHz, the OS to Android 2.3, and the battery to 1700mAh. That's it! Then it's the same 3.7" Gorilla Glass screen, 5MP camera, 2GB internal storage and 2GB SD card included in the box, and presumably the same 512MB RAM although this was not stated in the press release. Although it will share it's brother's chassis with a pleasingly small bezel, making the feel in the hand seem smaller than in should for the 3.7" screen it contains, it's not really worth getting out of bed for!
With the "life proof" unique selling point Motorola have clearly never gone for the top end of the market in terms of specifications and performance, however the Defy+ is due to ship in "early fall", and we already have 5 dual-core 1GHz+ Android phones out in the UK today market versus its 1GHz single core in a month or two's time. Smartphone cameras are significantly better than late 2010 with Sony Ericsson pushing the Android boundaries on the Arc, and everyone else trying to catch up to that, the iPhone 4, and even higher Nokia N8, yet here we have the same 5MP unit from last October! A competitor to this will be Sony Ericsson's Xperia active, which will also have a 1Ghz CPU, but a smaller 3.3" QVGA (and app-choice limiting) screen. It's 5MP camera unit will take 720p video, and on the "life proof" front it sports "wet finger tracking".
The original Defy must have sold well otherwise Motorola wouldn't be bothering with this, but its nowhere near enough of an upgrade for existing Defy owners to consider. Which is a shame, as when this phone was first rumoured I was excited at the prospect of a dual-core, life proof Defy+ with a nice new 8MP camera and a beefy 1GB RAM, and now I'm on the lookout for my next phone. Again. I hope that other manufacturers will think about this type of phone though, because what Motorola and Sony Ericsson have proved is that rugged phones don't have to be ugly phones any more.
Source: Motorola Mobility
When the first Defy came out in towards the end of 2010, it was no more than a midfield player with its 800MHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 5MP camera, VGA video capture and poor screen viewing outdoors. What it did have was a unique selling point which Motorola called "life proof", being dust proof, scratch resistant and water resistant (to a point of course!). At the time it narrowly had the largest battery capacity on the market at 1540mAh. However, other devices were shortly released with 1GHz CPUs; Samsung's Nexus S, Moto's own Milestone 2, the Incredible S. HTC also starting pushing towards 1GB of RAM with the Incredible S and Desire S as well. I bought a Defy very shortly after it was released in the UK, and despite buying other devices in the meantime I've kept coming back to it as my primary device, particularly after the upgrade from Android 2.1 Eclair to 2.2 Froyo.
The Defy+ only slightly bumps its older sibling's specs: the CPU goes up to 1GHz, the OS to Android 2.3, and the battery to 1700mAh. That's it! Then it's the same 3.7" Gorilla Glass screen, 5MP camera, 2GB internal storage and 2GB SD card included in the box, and presumably the same 512MB RAM although this was not stated in the press release. Although it will share it's brother's chassis with a pleasingly small bezel, making the feel in the hand seem smaller than in should for the 3.7" screen it contains, it's not really worth getting out of bed for!
With the "life proof" unique selling point Motorola have clearly never gone for the top end of the market in terms of specifications and performance, however the Defy+ is due to ship in "early fall", and we already have 5 dual-core 1GHz+ Android phones out in the UK today market versus its 1GHz single core in a month or two's time. Smartphone cameras are significantly better than late 2010 with Sony Ericsson pushing the Android boundaries on the Arc, and everyone else trying to catch up to that, the iPhone 4, and even higher Nokia N8, yet here we have the same 5MP unit from last October! A competitor to this will be Sony Ericsson's Xperia active, which will also have a 1Ghz CPU, but a smaller 3.3" QVGA (and app-choice limiting) screen. It's 5MP camera unit will take 720p video, and on the "life proof" front it sports "wet finger tracking".
The original Defy must have sold well otherwise Motorola wouldn't be bothering with this, but its nowhere near enough of an upgrade for existing Defy owners to consider. Which is a shame, as when this phone was first rumoured I was excited at the prospect of a dual-core, life proof Defy+ with a nice new 8MP camera and a beefy 1GB RAM, and now I'm on the lookout for my next phone. Again. I hope that other manufacturers will think about this type of phone though, because what Motorola and Sony Ericsson have proved is that rugged phones don't have to be ugly phones any more.
Source: Motorola Mobility
Google Maps 5.8 for Android
A couple of weeks ago (I've been on holiday, ok!) Google released an update for Maps for Android to version 5.8, from which you can now upload photos of a place directly from your device, a feature which also hooks in nicely with Picasa too. You can also add brand new places for checking in in the new version, but the most interesting feature for me though was the ability to properly view your "starred places" at long last. There's still some way to go though, particularly when you consider a big draw to Android devices is the free turn-by-turn navigation i.e. "sat nav", and dedicated sat nav devices have much better and more intuitive ways of storing favourite places.
Favourite places for Google are effectively "starred items", which in turn need to be based on real addresses, something already defined as a place in Google Maps, or a set of coordinates. You can leave them to be named by their address/Google Place name/coordinates or rename them to something memorable to yourself, something I always do as a friend or customer's name means a lot more than an address, and that's how you store favourites in your standalone sat nav. Before Google added the My Places tab to Maps for the desktop the only way to manage your starred items was the little known Google Bookmarks site, and not many people would have intuitively found that, I know from experience of helping friends and family! My Places in Google Maps for the desktop is a huge improvement to that however, and can be found very easily.
The new "My Places" area of the mobile app shows you your starred items, but you can only view and not edit them from there, which is a real shame and hopefully will be added in future. Also more frustratingly, the My Places area only shows the address/coordinates of the starred item, not your own descriptive name for the place, as shown in the app's screenshot above. So when I'm looking for customer XYZ or Jim or Bob in my list, I instead get a long list of addresses not knowing who is who!
So yes Google this is a step forward, but for those of us wanting to use your phones as sat navs, as you presumably intend us to (despite it still being in beta at time of writing), please let us edit and view our starred places properly on the device?
Favourite places for Google are effectively "starred items", which in turn need to be based on real addresses, something already defined as a place in Google Maps, or a set of coordinates. You can leave them to be named by their address/Google Place name/coordinates or rename them to something memorable to yourself, something I always do as a friend or customer's name means a lot more than an address, and that's how you store favourites in your standalone sat nav. Before Google added the My Places tab to Maps for the desktop the only way to manage your starred items was the little known Google Bookmarks site, and not many people would have intuitively found that, I know from experience of helping friends and family! My Places in Google Maps for the desktop is a huge improvement to that however, and can be found very easily.
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| "My Places" area of Google Maps for Android 5.8 |
The new "My Places" area of the mobile app shows you your starred items, but you can only view and not edit them from there, which is a real shame and hopefully will be added in future. Also more frustratingly, the My Places area only shows the address/coordinates of the starred item, not your own descriptive name for the place, as shown in the app's screenshot above. So when I'm looking for customer XYZ or Jim or Bob in my list, I instead get a long list of addresses not knowing who is who!
So yes Google this is a step forward, but for those of us wanting to use your phones as sat navs, as you presumably intend us to (despite it still being in beta at time of writing), please let us edit and view our starred places properly on the device?
Source: Google Mobile Blog
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