Ice Breaker

Ice Breaker has indeed vanished from the Android Market, but I'm happy to report it is still available from Android Zoom as well as through the link now shown below the review.

Sorry about that.

Al

http://www.androidzoom.com/android_games/brain_puzzle/ice-breaker_bwxzw.html

From the author

Folks, the dm1's boot time from switched off to running and looking at a loaded page in Chrome is 1:24. That's more than fast enough for me.

Notification bar

You can disable the notification bar icon in Settings - just scroll down to Show Notification Icon and uncheck the box.

Battery Life - From The Author

Folks, I thought a few words of explanation would be in order.

The 48 hours figure was arrived at using the Note as my day-to-day handset in place of my Desire HD.

My average daily usage regime involves 30-45 minutes of cellular calls, leaving the Wi-Fi on continually, having the screen at 75% brightness, setting K9 to poll every 15 mins, 30-odd mins of web browsing and an hour or so of ebook reading. It doesn't include watching full-length feature films or any serious gaming beyond 5mins of AB here and there.

That regime drains my HD in 12 hours but the Note regularly got me through two full days. That didn't come as shock to be honest - the Note has twice the battery capacity and though the screen is larger being OLED rather than back-lit LCD it should be more efficient.

The Note's battery performance was easily the best I have even encountered on an Android "phone".

from the author

Folks, I've had a few e-mails telling me that a double-tap of the screen with the stylus (with the button held down) takes a screen shot. Not for me it didn't. Maybe an issue with my handset or the Wacom pen, maybe me being ham-fisted. Either way none of my efforts to grab a screen shot bore fruit.

Al

Time to deploy superior fire-power...

and endure.

from the author....

@bigphil9009 - it's the built-in reader app. It's called Asus MyLibrary. If it's a re-brand of another ereader app it's not one I'm familiar with. It is very good though.

@ Craig12. H.264/MP4 files will play at 1080p but, MKV, AVI and WMV files will only play at 720p. That's from a combo of MoboPlayer, V Player and the stock video player.

@ jedit. I think you underestimate the potential. I took the Slider down the London for a day of meetings last week and the option to either use it as a regular tablet or set it up on a desk to bash away at my mails came in very handy. It's the first tablet - iOS or Android - I'd actually consider buying because it could earn it's keep at work and replace my netbook.

From the author

Folks, that screen grab of the smartphone app is a stock image for illustrative purposeds, not one I took myself. Renault weren't about to let us all log into their test fleet vehicles at the hotel and start messing with charge cycles.

I'm guessing the app was connected to a Twizy at the time, it has a much smaller battery so those numbers would make sense in that context.

Al

From the author

@ HeyMickey. I described it as faux because the image isn't truly stereoscopic, The way the Arc S does it, as you say, is a "trick".

@ DrXym. My reasoning ran like this - I use an HTC Desire HD and I have a lot of apps on it, all stored in the system rather than on the SD. I loaded up the same apps onto the Arc S and still had 40MB free. When I moved the five largest to the SD card that number jumped to 85MB. On that basis I reckon the average user will get by with 330MB as long as they clean out the various app caches on a regular basis.

from the author

I was in two minds about mentioning the fixed data notification. On the one hand it takes up space, but on the other for anyone on PAYG or with a limited data plan the option to always see - and quickly disable/enable - the data link could be rather handy. Either way the option to remove it would have been nice.

from the author

@ Chrome - what phone are you using? The app takes around 10 seconds to launch and update on my Desire HD.

@ Dapprman - In a word yes. When you stream media to your handset Skifta asks which video player on your phone you want to use.

from the author

@ Bassey

Yes, you can use the app to play media stored on a PC or NAS on your Android handset. I should have stated clearly in my review. Apologies.

Linux - from the author

Stfn - it was 11.04. The system booted off the memory stick A OK - the touch screen worked fine with the BIOS - but as soon as I attempted to launch Ubuntu it got a screen full of error messages. I'm no Linux expert so this was more of a quick'n'dirty test but it didn't look a problem with an easy fix to me.

from the author

@ Fibbles

Yes, with 256 levels of pressure sensitivity.

from the author

@ Mike Flex

Mike, I take your point but I had to judge the MC as a handset costing well under half the price of my own 800 x 480 4.3" Android handset, the Desire HD.

As a video and games machine the Monte is poor, but for everything else it's fine.

The large screen makes working in Google Docs or Docs to Go a joy, ditto web browsing as long as you are prepared to forgo Flash. Similarly, for reading/writing e-mail, looking at Facebook, using your Google Calender or reading eBooks - which I do a lot on my phone - the large screen is an absolute boon.

Is it worth an extra £50 over the San Fran? In my book yes because I really don't like working on a phone with a screen any smaller than 4 inches and frankly the larger the better.

I would have liked a good GPU, at least 1GB of system storage, a better camera and a glass screen - just as I have on my own phone - but at the moment you are not going to get that for £150.

Yes the Monte C. is flawed, but it's a still a lot of phone for the money, hence my rating.

from the author

All screen shots taken using the Android SDK running on an Ubuntu laptop.

from the author

re. the Kogan Agora, the screen and UI were just fine on my review sample (I'd like to know what "terrible screen" actually involves), nor did I notice any powering up/down issues looking for a 3G signal though I did have the Wi-Fi radio switched on constantly.

Assuming the power/up down issue is real I'd try turning off the auto-sync and background data options.

from the author

@ zxcvbnm - apologies for the oversight, the AndyPad's screen is 7 inches corner-to-corner.

re. the Archos 7c and Hanspree etc as is often the case with these round-ups it's not always possible to lay hands on all the desired kit in the allotted time frame.

From the author

@ Alex C - In my experience the app has no noticeable effect on battery life.

@ Chris007 - the auto-GPS enabling works on my unrooted 2.3.3 HTC Desire HD so I'm assuming that when the developers say you need a rooted handset if running ">2.3.3" they mean 2.3.4.

From the author

Granted Android Lost includes the same set of core features but the browser interface is a bit rough and ready and it's nothing like as easy to use. There are at least half a dozen apps similar to this in the Market but Cerberus has proved the most reliable in my experience and I reckon that alone justifies the cost.

from the author

@ N15L3

The fees will be the same as if you had sent an sms from your handset - the app simply pushes information back and forth to your Android phone over its data link, it doesn't sent messages directly from Gmail or your browser.

From the author...

Studley, sadly a demonstration of my lamentable habit of going over word count!

Once you have synced your contacts with DeskSMS you can trigger your phone to call a number from the browser. I couldn't convince myself this was a key feature so I dropped the paragraph. If you have your phone rigged to some sort of hands free device on your desk it could be of use.

@ AC - it's free at the moment. It moves from a free beta to a paid app at the weekend. There may be a yearly or an all-time fee offered. As I understand it the developer hasn't decided on that yet but as you say $4.99pa seems most likely.

Batteries

My review unit came with two flat Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries. I replaced them with two of the same but fresh for my test.

From the author

@ FanMan

I've been using the review unit as a screen mount for three weeks now in several cars - including a trip down the M6 in a Ford Transit - and there has been no sign wobble, shake, rattle or indeed roll - it's every bit as solid as any satnav unit I've had on test. Also there is a cuff around the ball/socket joint to tighten it up if needs be.

Start/Stop and lights

I should point out I'm not defending keeping my foot on the clutch at lights, but I do a lot of urban driving and without a footrest to slide my left foot onto - something my manual S80 had - it's something I ended doing a lot in the S60 unless I knew I was in for a long wait.

Granted it's not safe and it's not clever but a lot of people do it and it takes the wind out of the start/stop system's sails.

As for the lights, I managed to leave them on twice in the space of a week, the first time a neighbour let me know, the second time I noticed before I turned in for the night. My point is, it is possible to leave the lights on, lock up and walk away. That wasn't the case in the S80 (keys out = lights off) and if you try that same trick with my current car a buzzer sounds that could wake the dead.

@ Flugal

If you tap the top of the Lap Time column it shows the gap between ech car and the leader on the last completed lap. Tap it a second time and it shows the gap between each car and the one immediately ahead of it.