The folks over at MOTO Labs (not related to Motorola) demonstrated a DIY yourself technique that allows the average person to easily compare touchscreen performance between multiple handsets. The test is performed by opening a drawing application on the test handset and drawing a diagonal pattern of straight lines very slowly on the screen. A good touchscreen will produce straight linear lines, while a poor touchscreen will produce wavy lines. To demonstrate the technique, MOTO Labs did a comparison test between the Apple iPhone, Google Nexus One, Motorola DROID and HTC DROID Eris. The clear winner in most of the tests was the iPhone which produced straight lines but with curving and sensitivity loss at the edges of the screen. The Nexus One and DROID Eris fall slightly below the iPhone with both handsets performing equally well, producing straight lines with some waviness and good sensitivity at the edge of the screen. At the bottom of the pack was the Motorola DROID which showed significant waviness and “stair-stepping” in all tests. These results might definitely mean something to the average user as a touchscreen that tracks poorly has a higher likelihood of misinterpreting touch input, and apparently imprecision even as small as a millimeter or two can make a significant difference when using a small on-screen keyboard or selecting text for editing. The video demonstrating the test and its results are after the jump. Watch it and let us know what you think. Is the DROID really as bad as the results show or is this test somehow skewed?
source:http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/01/10/diy-touchscreen-analysis-reveals-that-the-iphone-does-while-the-droid-doesnt/
Poll: Is the Ability to Hard Reset Your Smartphone Important? File under: News By: Chuong Nguyen | Date: 6-Jan-10 | 2 Comments
The ability to hard reset a phone may not seem all too important, but it is something that could be appreciated if you either switch and sell devices, give your devices away, or modify your phone's software and registry and need to get back to the factory default. A lot of smartphones--if not all--these days offer the ability to hard reset (also known as formatting, restoring to factory defaults, and wiping) the device should something go wrong, which is why I was a bit surprised in my time with the Nokia N900 as the device doesn't offer a way for users to restore the device to factory defaults. However, even without the hard reset functionality, not all is lost with the N900 as the device has quick ways to wipe all your contacts and calendars, but you'd still have to manually uninstall apps.
Is the Ability to Hard Reset a Phone Important to You?
Is the Ability to Hard Reset a Phone Important to You?(polling) According to Nokia's reps, here are the options for your N900, should you need to wipe it: While this is not completely possible for an end user to do we can offer the following: Resetting the Factory Settings (This does not remove any personal data from the Device): Touch the application icon and then touch Settings. Touch the settings menu drop down at the top of the screen and choose Restore Original Settings Uninstalling the applications: Touch the application icon and then touch More, then App. Manager and then Uninstall. Select the applications to remove. Formatting the mass memory drive: Touch the application icon and then touch More, the File Manager. Touch and hold on the N900 and then select Format. This will format the drive and remove all data. Why do this? This will remove images, etc… Deleting accounts is a manual process that is dependent on the application. For me, it's a security feature that I'd like to have if I make any registry or software changes and need to go back to the default factory state. Although nothing has gone awry yet on the N900 despite all the apps and changes I've made on the device, the open-ness and extensibility and power of the N900 scare me should I make the wrong registry edit and can't go back. Do you personally require the ability to restore your device to factory conditions? Let us know in the polls and chime in under the comments.