Glo Networks Technical Blog (Glo Blog)

Opera are the makers of what is reported to be the most widley used browser for mobile devices, Opera Mini. The Opera Mini browser has been available for various mobiles, smartphones and PDA’s since 2006 however it has never made it to the Apple ran App Store for the iPhone.

The iPhone version of the browser has apparently been in developement, possibly even ready for release, for some time, but so far the app has been turned down by Apple. It seems Apple did not like the idea of competition for the iPhones built-in Safari browser app.

However all this may be about to change, Opera Software have announced here  that they will be giving their partners and the press a preview of the ‘Opera Mini 5 Beta’ browser for the iPhone at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Febuary 15th-15th. With this announcement it seems likely that there has been some progress on an agreement between Opera and Apple that will allow the browser to be released onto the App Store some time soon.

Posted by James in Mobile | No Comments »

Another use for the iPad was brought to our attention here, why not use the tablet to access and control remote desktops?

Although it could well be fiddly and clunky to use, if the App was done right and had enough developement to really use the touch capabilities in a natrual feeling way then we feel the iPad may have potential as a new kind of portable thin client!

Posted by James in General, Mobile | 3 Comments »

For any that may have missed the media coverage of the Apple announcement, we at Glo-Networks would like to draw your attention to the new Apple product coming soon – the iPad. The device has long been rumoured and many have/had high hopes for it, so here are my thoughts:

The iPad is the Apple take on what’s called a tablet computer (a flat, slate shaped computer with a touch screen or stylus interface) and according to Apple the device will be “the best way to experience the web, emails, photos and video. Hands down.”, bold claims from Apple there. The device does look like it brings smart new direction to the tablet; however, it looks like a giant iPhone.

The similarity with the iPhone does not stop at the aesthetics of the device. Just like the iPhone it runs Apps (in fact Apple say that all iPhone Apps will run on the iPad) and just like the iPhone it is only able to run one App at a time, with no multitasking capabilities.

This seems a little underwhelming in my opinion, I love my iPhone and have sampled the delights of many a different App however one of my biggest gripes with the device is that in order to switch between active Apps they must, in effect, be closed and the next relaunched. The fact that the iPad, which is basically supposed to be a PC (albeit a flat, touchscreen PC that you can carry), cannot do two things at once seems quite a drawback.

Another complaint that has been raised against the device is the screen itself. Although it looks impressively bright and clear, the ratio is only 4:3, meaning all those 16:9 HD movies in your iTunes library will only cover a portion of the display! And although the screen is large the bezel surrounding it looks overly large also.

But let’s try to take a look at the positive for a moment.

The battery life is claimed to be 10 hours while surfing/watching videos/listening to music which does sound more than sufficient to keep you entertained on the commute to work.

It also has a book reader and a book store App, making it compete directly with the Amazon Kindle. Although the iPad looks like it will be more expensive, it does have a tonne of features that the Kindle is distinctly lacking.

In summary I’d say that the device does look the business and, if you are a looking to buy a book reader, is a veritable steal in comparison to the feature sparse Amazon Kindle. If, however, you are buying it to in lieu of a laptop, or even a netbook, there are products available that would likely fit the bill much better and for a lower price!

Will anyone here at Glo be buying one, I have my doubts..

Posted by James in Desktops and Laptops, Mobile | No Comments »

So it appears that last night TomTom was released for the iPhone in the UK and other countries. They are charging a princely sum of £60 to own it and that’s for the software only !

We’ve also spotted CoPilot out recently and iGo so now there’s choice. Interestingly we have been using CoPilot and it seems a vastly superior product to the Navigon. Hasn’t crashed once yet, holds the GPS single a lot better.

TomTom’s iphone website is still the same one that’s been there for months, telling us that the software is coming soon. Does that mean they’re saying that the cradle is no longer needed ? Or are they just slow at releasing it ? Are people really going to bother paying £60 for the TomTom and is it really any good ? We’re holding our breath and waiting for other people to buy and review it .

However we can recommend the CoPilot software so far and advise you steer clear of Navigon.

Posted by Chris in Mobile | No Comments »

So Navigon have released 1.1.0 a day or two ago. So have they fixed the problems that I believe made it usless ?

Post Code Search
Still only able to search on the first 5 characters of a UK post code. So it’s a right pain when quickly trying to find somewhere. BROKEN

Decent Call Support
The ability to sort and take a phone call without completely killing the navigation. A call comes in and right away you loose the direction screen. Very handy if you’re using it to navigate somewhere ! BROKEN

GPS Stability
On a motorway the bar at the top of the screen turns red and you loose the signal. Can’t see why so just leave the Navigator to pic the signal back up again. If your lucky it will, however 2 out of 3 times you need to exit to the home screen and reload the software. Then you get the signal right away so it’s not the signal rather the lovely software. BROKEN

Map Data
Still using map data that’s at least 4 years old … great . BROKEN

Exit / Crashing
This one is new to me, but on a 2 hour journey today a number of times the device dropped back to the iPhone Home screen. No calls came in and it was happily powered on a car cradle but at least 5 times it just gave up. NEW FAULT

And before someone comments. Before the install of this version I erased and setup the phone from scratch. It’s not jailbroken and a 3GS. Would love to know the fixes ….. but doubt there are any ! Worth the money … what do you think ?

Will TomTom be any better or is GPS on the iPhone just impossible ?

Posted by Chris in Mobile | 2 Comments »