In May 2011 I used the Sony Ericsson Experia Arc exclusively in place of my iPhone 3GS for one full week and then I did some comparisons side-by-side as well. Here is my conclusion on how the device and the operating system compare with the iPhone 3GS (keeping in mind that this is now one full version behind and the iPhone 4 is Apple's latest smartphone).

Here are a few points to keep in mind related to my testing:

- I did not try to make the Arc/Android work like my iPhone, instead I tried to figure out the best way to use the Arc/Android to accomplish what I needed to do
- I did not root or hack the Arc in any way, I kept the original clean configuration and I only worked within the confines of the default operating system functionality
- I only installed apps that I could trust
- I only changed settings that needed to be changed
- I typically use my smartphone for: phone calls, voicemail, texts, email, reading news, facebook, taking notes with evernote, identifying songs with shazam, looking at documents through dropbox, listening to music, watching movies, taking and sharing photos and videos, reading books with iBooks and Kindle.

Hardware

Display

The display on the Arc is slightly wider and almost a full inch longer than the iPhone. The result is that widescreen movies are a lot bigger on the Arc's screen. I had no trouble using the Arc's screen in bright sunlight and I thought it was very nice. That was, until I compared it side-by-side with the iPhone 3GS and despite the 'Bravia' engine, the images on the Arc are considerably duller than the iPhone.

I compared movies and apps side-by-side and the iPhone 3GS screen was much brighter and clearer.

Touchscreen

I had no problems using the touchscreen on the Arc; however, it felt quite different than the iPhone. It was noticeably less smooth when swiping and the tap gesture was much less reliable. Not sure if this was hardware or software. I found that the interface was much more likely to slide when I was touching buttons than in IOS. I also found that a lot more touch (swipe and tap) gestures failed than with IOS. Some of this is probably just practice, but I am pretty sure that overall the touch controls are less responsive than IOS.

Sound

I thought it was strange that so many Arc reviewers made a comment about the external speaker being "tinny" and without bass. I mean how much bass can you get out of such a small speaker? That is until I listened to the speaker. The best word to describe it is "tinny". It sounds terrible. I listened to the same songs side-by-side with my iPhone 3GS and the sound quality was much, much better on the iPhone. The Arc was louder at full volume, but it sounds terrible.

The sound through the headphones was excellent and I could not tell any difference between it and the iPhone 3GS.

Battery

I was very disappointed by the battery life. I completely drained and charged the battery 4 times and it was still maybe at par with my 2 year old iPhone 3GS battery. No wonder Android has so many awesome utilities to see what is using up your battery - you need them. You need to turn off everything you are not using, all the time, or your battery drains very quickly. By the end of the week I was lucky to get one day of normal usage on a single charge (at the beginning it was worse).

Camera

I liked the camera and it is definitely better than the camera in the iPhone 3GS. The movie quality on the other hand was quite poor. As other reviewers have noted, there appears to be some software enhancement that makes it look weird if you are moving / panning the camera while shooting. I really like having a separate camera button, but on the Arc it is almost useless. You have to hold it down really hard, and half the time it doesn't even bring up the camera mode, and if it does, it takes forever. Forget about catching the moment. Unlocking the phone and clicking on the camera app is much faster.

Phone Quality

The Arc was disappointingly no better or worse than the iPhone 3GS and I was using the same network I always use with my iPhone 3GS. The phone quality on the iPhones has always been good at best. Not as good as most Blackberry's or Motorola cell phones I have used.

IOS v4 vrs Android 2.3

Setup and Data Transfer

I had no trouble at all getting started since most of my data is already in the cloud. I added my Google Apps account, my facebook account, I installed and logged in to Evernote, Kindle, and Dropbox without any problems. So within minutes I had my email, contacts, calendar items, facebook, notes, books, and files all synched up just as painlessly as on any iPhone.

Next I wanted my media. At first I looked at how to get my iTunes media synced. I used the Sony Ericsson Media Sync program and after figuring out exactly how to select the correct usb connection mode, I was able to copy media files to my Arc. Converting movies was painfully slow, but that is to be expected. I also set up Doubletwist and had my songs and playlists syncing wirelessly from my Mac iTunes library to my Arc. I did not use this extensively but it seemed to work great for all non-DRM protected music. The Doubletwist app also let me stream media to my Apple TV which was nice.

After working out the iTunes stuff, I also looked at what a typical user would use in a Windows environment if they were starting from scratch (no iTunes). After stumbling around for a while, one of my colleagues pointed me to a program I already had installed on my Windows machines, that I had faithfully ignored for many years: Windows Media Player. It synced very nicely to my Arc and I can honestly say that Windows Media Player is likely better than iTunes now. How the tides have turned. Too bad Microsoft burned itself so badly with earlier versions of this product. The current version seems to mimic almost all of the useful iTunes features and does a much better job in other areas (like grabbing album art/info, updating album/art info, leaving your media in whatever location you want, updating your library based on your media folders automatically, etc.). A very pleasant surprise.

Typing

I really liked the default Android keyboard and the 'vibrate on press' also seemed to help out. I don't think that there was any clear advantage either way here, except for the fact that with Android you can download additional keyboard types including some really new input methods like swype.

Home Screen

The home screen setup on my Arc was very much like IOS. You dragged left and right to see additional screens, you dragged an app icon on top of another to create a folder, etc. I don't know if this is standard Android or part Sony customization. The big difference was the ability to add gadgets to the home screens and also the ability to have animated backgrounds (very cool - even if they are mostly useless). I also liked the ability to add to the home screens the on/off buttons for all the various battery-draining features (wi-fi, data network, gps, screen dimmer, etc.)

Apps and Android Market

Even though I had no trouble finding most of the key apps that I am familiar with from the iPhone, I had some trouble trying to find any other useful apps. I definitely did not spend a lot of time on this, but I did find that I was paranoid about installing apps I did not recognize and it did seem more difficult to find apps (search results always seemed to be cluttered with unrelated apps). I suppose that Google would help me more here and that a bit of research on the Internet would quickly lead me to the right apps. I am used to using the Apple App Store and being able to quickly find and download what I need right away without turning to other sources for help.

There is no doubt that the included Nav app is awesome. If you want turn-by-turn directions and you like the 3-d directional view, this app has you covered and it is free for Android. Any similar app for IOS still costs a lot of money - although I am sure this will likely change.

One byproduct of the "open" system that can cause confusion is the fact that the phone comes with some operating system customization from the phone manufacturer and some customization from the carrier. This means that there are a myriad of phone/carrier combinations all running Android - but all appearing quite different. Unfortunately, the only way to get things back to a standard Android configuration (if such a thing really exists) is typically by "root"ing your phone which is really beyond the average user.

Utilities

Here is where Android shines for all you geeks. There is an awesome utility that shows you what percentage of your battery has been consumed by what apps. You can get right under the hood and look at applications and processes and all sorts of other neat things that the average user won't care at all about.

Stability and Performance

I did not have the Arc long enough to really comment on the stability; however, I did get two device crashes during the week (device rebooted on its own) and I often had apps crash (at least a dozen times on different apps, even after power cycling).

As for performance I was not impressed. Although generally quick to respond, I did notice frequent "lags" between gestures and response. I also had clipped audio and video playback when multi-tasking - something that virtually NEVER happens in IOS (or in iTunes for that matter - how do they do that?).

Summary

From my limited testing I came to the following conclusion: the Arc is a nice phone but I didn't like it nearly as much as my iPhone 3GS and I suspect it would pale in comparison with the iPhone 4. If it had better battery life, a brighter screen and better phone quality, it would be a great choice for the style-minded. The external speaker and video recording should be improved too, but most people will not use these features enough to care.

Android was pretty much what I expected: mature, highly customizable, feature-rich, but definitely more geared towards the technically-inclined.

People make fun of Steve Jobs and his aversion to buttons, but the reality is that the more user controls there are, the more difficult it is to use. Period. The arc has three physical buttons along the bottom of the screen, it has a similar layout of on-screen buttons as per IOS, and it also has a pull down menu from the status bar. I had no trouble using all the controls, but I am not an average user.

I will continue to recommend the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 to all of my clients, friends and family who are not geeks. The geeks don't need my recommendation since they already know what they want.

Here is an excellent short, illustrated ebook that describes the Internet in mostly non-technical terms. A must-read for any business person that needs to work with the Internet.

http://www.20thingsilearned.com/what-is-the-internet/1

(updated Nov 7, 2010)

I have been using my new 13" MacBook Air for just over a week. It is unbelievably thin and light. I am on a business trip now, so I have already used this laptop at home, at work, in cafes, a hotel, the airport, the airplane, in cars, restaurants, and more. Right now I writing this review with the Air and I am sitting at the Banff Springs hotel tethered to my iphone, half enjoying the breathtaking view of the mountains.

It is much faster than I had hoped, the screen is spectacular, and the battery is much better than any new laptop I have ever used. After such a short time, my 15" Macbook Pro seems ridiculously clunky and heavy. This is by far the best laptop experience I have ever had and I truly believe that this is the future of mobile computing until we find a better alternative to the traditional keyboard.




The biggest problem with the original Air was the cost and the power. Too much cost (way too much for the SSD), too little power. With the new Air models, that has all changed.

I am currently testing the 13.3" model with 1440x900 pixel screen resolution, 4GB of RAM, 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 320M, and 128 GB flash storage (in other words, the base 13" model with a RAM upgrade). This exact model cost $1450+tax. I am hoping that it will replace my current 15" MacBook Pro which runs something like this: 1440x990 pixel screen resolution, 4GB of RAM, 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT, and 500 GB 7200rpm hard drive.

The real question is: how does the flash storage compare to a hard drive? The answer is: the increase in speed changes the feel of the computing experience. Anyone who has used a recent iPhone or iPad will know what it is like. Instant on. Applications load in seconds, not 10-20 seconds. I understand that flash memory performance can degrade over time - so I guess only time will tell how this new technology fares in the long run. Right now - it is great.

My standard software configuration is a full suite of Apple (including iWork and Aperture), shareware, and open-source software running in Mac OS X and Windows 7 running in a virtual environment with my development tools, Microsoft Office, Cisco VPN, etc. I switch between the two constantly throughout the day. On my MacBook Pro I have been using Parallels (always the latest version) for virtualization, but on the Air I am currently trying out Oracle's free Virtual Box. The response times from apps within Windows 7 on the Air are fantastic and better than in Parallels on my Pro (although to be fair my Pro is in need of a reinstall).

Everything feels snappier. The low profile is more comfortable to type on. My shoulder bag feels like I forgot my laptop. I can sense the beginning of a long and enjoyable relationship.

Is there anything I don't like? There are two things that I will have to learn to live with. One is the absence of the backlit keyboard. It is a small thing, but if you like working in low-light settings like myself - you might miss it at times. The other is disk space. I find disk space on a laptop is like space in a house. The bigger the house, the more junk you end up with. Just as moving in to a smaller space forces you to trim down your possessions moving from a 500GB hard drive to a 128 GB flash storage does the same thing. I think of this as a positive change. I could have spent the extra $$ on 256GB flash storage, but I wanted to make things work with less space and less cost. The only thing I am going to miss about the space, is having my entire Aperture library on my laptop (not the source images - these won't even fit in to the 500GB drive, which is why I bought Aperture - so that I could store my source images offline while still having access to all my photos). Fortunately Aperture allows me to export portions of my library as a separate project which I can then import back in to the main library.

In summary, I think that these new MacBook Air laptops represent the future of mobile computing. It is hard to want more. Hopefully storage and battery life will continue to increase, and apart from that - this is clearly the most enjoyable computer I have ever used.

Some background:

I have been using laptops extensively for 10 years, and I used laptops prior to that ever since the very first Apple Laptop (yes, the one with the lead acid battery). I have spent countless hours working primarily on IBM ThinkPads and Apple MacBooks. I use them in the office, at home, and traveling (in cars, airplanes, trains, campgrounds, hotels). My laptops are well-used. They have scratches and dents, stains and stickers. I work in Windows and Mac OS X and Linux every day and I have used all three operating systems consistently and concurrently for almost 10 years. I am an avid amateur photographer and I currently maintain a 50,000+ photo library in Aperture (on my laptop). I shoot, edit, and create videos regularly. I play video games - but not very often. I am a programmer and spend a lot of time programming.

So far this week I have used my new Air:

- indoors and outdoors,
- tethered with usb and bluetooth to my iphone, wireless, wired (via usb adaptor)
- to import photos using the SD card slot to Aperture
- watching movies from an external USB drive
- work (programming, testing web apps)
- writing proposals, articles, etc.
- to run everything while also running the following background software: XAMPP, Time Machine, Mobile ME sync, DropBox, Growl, and Tortoise SVN (in Windows)

Have I experienced any of the problems that some others have reported? I don't think so. Occasionally it takes a few seconds to wake up from closing the lid and twice I think it has shut down by itself while the lid was closed - but this is probably related to Virtual Box and the other background software I have running. I had trouble on my Pro with Parallels when leaving it running and putting the laptop to sleep. But that is the good thing about a real working test - you test everything all at once.

I have been using the iPhone 3Gs for the last three days and in that time I have traveled from Ottawa to Hamilton and back, and here are my preliminary findings:

- the overall speed of navigating screens and switching apps is considerably faster then the previous iPhone
- the network speed seems faster, but this will require more usage over a longer period of time to establish
- the magnetic compass is very cool, but it does not work well inside a car or bus because of interference
- the magnetic compass is very useful if you are trying to go somewhere and you are walking or on a bicycle, because it will align the maps interface to your actual bearing which makes it a lot easier for most people to see not just where they are, but where they are going
- Voice Control can be very useful in certain circumstances (while driving it was nice to be able to call people and select music while keeping my eyes on the road)
- the video quality is great, video editing is simple, and the youtube upload worked very well, I will use this a lot
- I could not notice a big difference in picture quality of the camera, but more use is needed for this too
- the point focusing on the camera works really well

So in summary, I would say that the iPhone 3Gs is definitely the ultimate PDA with the iPhone 3G in close second. It is fast, easy, and effective. And like most things Apple, it is a joy to use. I have not seen all of the latest devices out there, but I still have not seen anything that comes close to matching the quality of the user experience of the iPhone.

If you own an iPhone 3G, should you upgrade to the 3Gs? Right now Rogers in Canada has some great upgrade options for you, but I can't see justifying the cost unless you are really going to use video or voice control a lot. I believe that all of the unique features (including video, find my iphone, etc.) except the compass are available if you crack your iPhone, but most non-geek people are not comfortable cracking their iPhones.

The other new iPhone OS version 3.0 features work really well too, but they are not specific to the iPhone 3Gs:

- the bluetooth tethering works like a charm (not specific to the 3Gs)
- cut, copy, and paste (not specific to the 3Gs)
- mms (not specific to the 3Gs)
- search (not specific to the 3Gs)
- find my iPhone (not specific to the 3Gs)

Also here are some older, more trivial features that I still love about the iPhone (and iPod Touch where applicable):

- when my phone is locked I can still quickly access music controls (double-click home button)
- when I receive a call as I am listening to music, my music fades out as my ring tone fades in, I answer the call, chat for a while, hang up and my music fades back in where it left off
- if I am watching a movie in iTunes on my laptop but I don't finish, and then I synch my iPhone, and I continue to watch my movie on my iPhone, it remembers where I left off, and vice versa if I synch and continue watching on my laptop
- when I hit a song I really feel like listening too I hit the Genius button and get a new mix of similar songs from my collection, it is just so simple and so awesome!

Here are some great lessons in ecommerce. The first few slides are interesting background, the ten lessons starts on slide 10. Based on our experience this is a great summary.

Pay special attention to lesson #7...

This is a very nice summary by Ben Hunt regarding the current state of web design. He covers the key elements of recent good designs including things like: layout, orientation, scrolling, white space, etc.

http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/current-style.cfm