Samsung JET S8000 vs. HTC Wildfire (smarter than smart phone vs. entry level smart phone)

Or why "Samsung JET S8000" has nothing to do with "smart" or "smart phone" at all....

Ok, I could not bear it more... I got HTC Wilfire replacement... And here is just few points why.

In red color is the clear loosing side and in green - the winning.

I challenge anybody to prove me wrong in my statements!

Samsung JET S8000	HTC Wildfire
Numbers with country code and without are considered as different numbers. My provider sends the the caller number without the code and SMS with - as result I have to add in every contact both versions in order to be recognized normally.[5,6]	What?!? This is not serious... All my previous phones did not have this problem, even with this particular provider...
Every program group have their own Internet access profile. Let me count: widgets, browser, GPS, Java programs, e-mail, active sync. So, every time I was connecting to Internet I made sure that I have selected the proper profile!!!	What for? When you turn Wifi ON, it checks for available predefined access profile and connects. One can explicitly disable the mobile provider connection or all synchronizing services... so simple and intuitive
Touch sensitivity - resistive - simply unacceptable.[5]	Pointless to compare - capacitive.
Virtually no support for additional widgets or programs. Only Java alternatives.	Just look what is available on the Android market.
Bluetooth: Every time it connect you need to confirm the connection... Every time the connection is lost and you want to reconnect!	Automatically connects and reconnects any paired device.
Graphical interface: Mediocre graphical interface - I really expect more from 480x800 pixels resolution...	240x320 pixels is on the border for this size screen but it is acceptable and the GUI is simply perfect.
Ridiculous lock screen - time and date. You have to unlock to see any events.	Excellent. Events can be marked by flashing led as well.
Video player: HERE the JET is unbeatable! Many formats, and large resolutions - excellent! DLNA server (I have never used it). Analog TV out (PAL&NTSC).	Wildfire is not a near match...
Music player: - with good head phones it sound almost perfect, sound profiles, fancy art, no option to only play files in certain folder.	Simple player, art is fine, no sound profiles, good sound.
GPS - on-line Google maps (without navigation) - maps are locally stored - impossible to import POI - expensive navigation fees	- on-line Google maps and navigation - mobile data plan(rouming) dependent - Free off-line maps applications i.e. RMaps..
Contacts, mail and calendar synchronization - it feels almost as gambling. I was left in two occasions without a single contact in my address book...	- absolutely flawless to sync with Gmail service.
SMS - SMS capabilities of a regular phone and limit of about 200 SMS to store, because it stores them on the SIM card?!	- unlimited features and SMS number limited only by the storage of your phone.
Text input - a bit small keyboard	- unlimited features
Updates: What updates?!? ...well I was lucky to get one quite easy firmware update...[4]	Automatic.
PC suite Samsung New PC - bulky, does not provide full access to your phone features, no backup.	HTC Sync I have not tested it yet...

This table will obviously continue to expand...

Anyway, the above summarizes why I think Samsung Jet S8000 is not even close to a smart phone, not even a good mobile phone. It is some sort of semi-advanced media player with phone features.

More links on the subject from the same author (make sure you read the bottom two reviews):

1. Samsung Jet S8000: ActiveSync and Google 
2. Samsung Jet S8000: use as modem (via Bluetooth) to connect to Internet 
3. Samsung Jet S8000: eduroam settings
4. Samsung Jet S8000: firmware update from NPS 
5. Samsung Jet S8000: second round
6. Samsung Jet S8000: my personal opinion

P.S. I have never believed the commercial "Smarter than Smart Phone", that is obviously lie, but I never expected to be so bad... I do not associate with brands, but that particular phone felt like scream in my face ".......".

Samsung Jet S8000: ActiveSync and Google

It is almost unbelievable but i was able to sync my Gmail e-mail, contacts and calendar with the phone (firmware S8000XPJA1)!!!

Warning: Make sure you have backup of your phone contacts before you attempt the first synchronization. All contacts on the phone will be erased, regardless of your contact sync settings: ON or OFF !!!

Here are the server settings:

Server URL: m.google.com
User name: username@gmail.com
Password: *******
Domain:
Use SSL: Yes

Then, one can configure how old e-mails will be synchronized, as well as what period of the calendar should be synced to the phone - neat. Tasks are not supported.

There is very nice feature that schedules when the device is synced in PUSH mode (initiated by the server) or manually (from the device). I have experienced some problems with the PUSH mode, so I use automatic sync on every 15 minutes and that seems to work fine. I have also selected wifi access point for syncing. If the connection is unavailable it does not sync - which could be good or bad (If you don't have data plan, this particular feature works for you).

 

Now, after some tuning, everything (almost) comes to its place. It feels that I will never use Samsung New PC Studio (NPS) again... for obvious reasons.

Hint: There is something else interesting, that I have discovered by chance. In my (e-mail) contacts I have people that I communicate rarely and only by e-mail, so those contacts does not fit at all on my phone. I have added a group "NOTinMyContacts" and moved all those contacts there. This way I got only the contacts that were originally in "My Contacts" group. 

Update: It has never been easy with this phone, why this should be any exception... From time to time, synchronizing the phone, it complains that it will initialize the setting and this will delete my data... And, yes if you confirm - it will delete your data and profile settings! I suspect that the problem is related to synchronizing the mails, so now I am experimenting without syncing the mail... next step - not syncing?...

MobaXterm: free X server for Windows

I work under Linux and Windows on a daily base, so from quite some time I was looking for simple, free and reliable X server for Windows. Just to mention that I have tried several solutions before: X server under Cygwin, Xming, and some commercial software as well.

Cygwin: I have tried that solution long time ago, perhaps now it is way better. At that time, it was quite slow, heavy and not that simple for occasional purposes.

Xming: That is in principle what I need. It works... almost... I have problems running it under limited user account, I heard about problems under Vista, as well...

As result, I kept using alternative ways to avoid using X. Usually, as awkward as: NoMachine (or VNC over SSH) to Linux machine at work, then to the target Linux machine... This solution is still acceptable for occasional use, since I have already everything setup to connect at work. Of course, this "solution" is very inconvenient for occasional use to a regular Linux machine.

Anyway, today (yes, it is only one day and I am already excited) I have found another free software that completely fits my need!!! MobaXterm. It has embedded all the tools one needs and some extra in a single PORTABLE file of 13 MB! No installation (well there is such possibility if you insist) - just run and enjoy. You get more than what you can expect. 

• X server - you can turn it on/off interactively
• Simple file transfer - very neat
• Remote XDMCP session - certainly handy
• Local applications: mc, wget, vim, ssh - just to mentions some...
• rsync - this one is just a jewel (providing that ssh environment is available)
• Many more, not that important... I keep exploring...

Exactly what I want. I can't imagine what could be better... Do you?

Voltcraft IPC-1L

This is rather old news but let me have my say anyway.

To start with, it is how a battery charger should be done.

Once you use it, you will realize what a "cheap" simplification you had before. At least in my case, despite the fact that my old charger was among the decent ones, it had only 2 channels and other disadvantages. Anyway...

IPC-1L takes care for each battery separately. By default it charges with 200 mA current that will require about 16 hours to charge a common AA NiMH battery. You can select 500 and 700 mA as well that will, of course, charge faster. Once it is fully charged it will keep the battery full by topping it with low pulse current. And this is one feature that makes it quite useful and requires changing your usual habit of charging batteries.

Finlux 32FLD882H - brief review

This will be really short, since it really does not deserve more.

TV broadcast programs become more and more redundant with time and for me they are already old story (official local news are the only get my serious attention). Anyway, the point is that we needed a simple LCD TV to replace my old and bulky 28'' CRT TV.

We bought Finlux 32FLD882H on sale because of the price and couple of obvious features. Before you start searching for the specs - save your time - it doesn't worth it. If I have to buy it again (even cheaper) probably I would not do it.

Pros: (only in comparison to my old CRT)

• VGA and HDMI inputs, (DTV that is a standard nowadays, not an advantage)
• The best of all - AVL (Automatic Volume Limits). It normalizes the sound level, so the abnormally loud commercial breaks are just leveled down!

Cons: (taking into account that this a cheap TV-set)

• Very bad picture quality.
• Sound that does not sound stereo at all...
• Humming noise - this is really bad! Can't believe it that someone can make TV that is not quiet...
• The first labels from the remote control start to peel off on the second day!?
• bulky remote control (not that I use it anyway...) 
• No support for DTVB-C (Digital Video Broadcasting - Cable) - there is only support for DTVB-T ( - Terrestrial)
• many more...

Overall assessment: BAD! Perhaps, sale price is the only reasonable price for this TV... If you are serious about LCD TV - wake up, you are in the wrong section in the shop...

Update 20.01.2013: To be completely fair, 2 years later the TV is working just fine without any problems or hassles. It feels like money well spent for what one gets.