Samsung F700: Disappointing

My last review of the phone in general, in comparison with my previous phones – considering the price – still stands, but as I explore this phone, I realize what it could be and isn't, particularly by Apple and the iPhone. Having an iPod Classic, I use iTunes to get podcasts and check out games. They have a relatively new section of applications for iPod Touch and the iPhone, and that really impressed upon me why Apple is so much more expensive than something like Samsung: they have so much more to offer.

I have been looking around for applications for the F700 and have found only really poor quality games (which I'm not interested in) and a bunch of over-priced ($15-30) reference applications. I finally got one Oxford dictionary to try it out and it seems that the java file is not recognized by the phone. That would not happen with Apple. Dicking around with locking and unlocking parts of your phone is ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. Can you imagine buying a computer that is capable of playing computer games, but it's locked and you are unable to. Crazy.

The bottom line is that I now understand why Apple products have a higher price sticker: the products are fairly well supported. Search the applications on iTunes; you'll be astounded at how many cheap and (ostensibly) cool programs are available. If even a fraction of those were also available on the F700, it would be a comparable product.

Snooker Commentating

The snooker UK Championship is upon us and while watching Joe Perry versus Ronnie O'Sullivan, I couldn't help getting perturbed by the commentators who consistently floated ridiculous ideas such as Joe Perry had made no mistakes and only has been shut off the tables by O'Sullivan, when in reality he missed an extremely simple blue to the left center pocket, and a relatively straightforward red to bottom left as well.

Then, to make matters worse, in the eighth frame they said how Joe Perry has had bad luck in the game. Excuse me? Luck? As far as I can see there is a man with a stick hitting a ball on the table and the position of the balls thereafter is based on physics, not magic. There is no luck involved.

These kinds of observations are not unique to these commentators or this particular tournament, rather they are commonplace among most snooker commentators. That aspect of snooker ought to change: commentators are not meant to be apologists for faulty play.

My Life in Cell Phones

I'm relatively new to the cell phone world. At 31 years of age, I've only had three cell phones of any duration. The first was a bone basic Motorola, the model number of which I no longer remember, but was very similar to that pictured. It was not a very sturdy phone and after I had dropped it once, the 4 key was sticky and could only be used by pressing extra firmly. The main drawback was the tiny, monochrome LCD. It made reading Chinese characters horribly difficult as they were cramped and pixilated beyond recognition.

That was the main reason I switched to the Samsung SHG-X478. It had a really clear display, with a white background and clear, unpixilated black characters. As an added bonus, it was a flip phone, so that the screen would not become scuffed from going in and out of my pocket. And talk about sturdy: I dropped that phone more times than I can count and it still worked perfectly fine. The only problem, and impetus for looking for a new phone was the degrading of the battery over time. I'm not sure if it is the battery's problem or the phone itself, but after one mid-length phone call, the battery is nearly dead. Also, often when people ring me, the phone automatically turns off. So, I just figured, it's time for a change.

That led me to shop around and finally decide on the Samsung SGH-F700. It's more like a PDA and is meant to be an iPhone killer, but I think all that is over-hyped. Considering this phone cost me less than my previous phone, I am not displeased with its capabilities. On the other hand, some of the features that sold me on this phone, like reading documents and .pdf files, are really not very good. navigation is tedious and – in my profession – unnecessary, so I don't think it is a feature I will use often. Also, since I already use an iPod, this in no way comes close to the ability of the iPod for multimedia, and will not replace the iPod as my primary mobile media player. But that aside, as a phone, it seems really nice, with cool phonebook features that others may consider standard, but are new to me having been using the old X478. The best feature has to be the QWERTY keyboard. Most reviews say this, and it's true. Actually, I find using the keyboard is great for even basic navigation as the touchscreen is often a pain when scrolling down lists, or selecting options where your finger may be bigger than the target button.

All in all, as a common person who is not always out buying the latest cell technology each year, it's really amazing the pace things have gone. Certainly at the time I bought the Motorola, there was better technology than that, but the cost was much higher. To have purchased a phone like the F700, at a price cheaper than I bought the X478 is really a testament to how technology is not even close to a state of plateau and how things are driving forward at a relatively fast pace: a revelation to a commoner like myself.