Today, Meraki released a wireless census and found out what many in the tech sector already knew — the number of Apple wireless devices have increased in the past year. This is mainly due, of course, to the demand for the iPhone.

Another mobile charger review, these are getting to be fun! This time it’s a solar-powered charger that can be attached to pretty much anything with it’s velcro, fold-over strap. Unfortunately, because it is solar-powered, it takes a while to charge; according to the instructions that came with the SolarStrap (which you can download and read on their site), if it’s a sunny day it will take 12 hours to charge, if it’s partly cloudy you are looking at a full 24-hour charge time, or if it is completely cloudy it’s going to take 5 days of charging.

To speed up the process, though, (or if you just so happen to get it when the heavens decide to rain every day of the week) they include a handy AC charger and a USB charge cable. I let mine hang on the blinds in my office at home for a day and then plugged it up that night to top off the charge.

To show the charge status of the SolarStrap you are given two LEDs, one green and one red. The green one, when a device is plugged in, will flash according to the SolarStrap’s battery charge. Four green blinks is full, three green blinks is nearly full, and so on until you have no green blinks and only the red one blinks once, which means the battery is empty. When charging the battery with an AC adapter the red LED will continuously blink and it will cease blinking when the charge is complete.

I received a few adaptors with my review unit as well, along with a generic “charging” cable I received: USB-B, USB mini, USB mini 8-pin, USB-A female, Samsung D600/A300, Samsung G600, Nokia 2.1mm, Sony Ericsson, and iPhone/iPod adaptors. There are other target specific adaptors available as well as a cigarette lighter and AC adaptor. According to the instructions you only get the strap, the charging cable, and the user guide, so you will be able to buy adaptors to suit your needs when you get it.

The SolarStrap has kept a charge very well and is pretty flexible. It’s made of some kind of a foam exterior with the wiring, battery, and solar panel glued into place between the two pieces of foam. I was assured that this was not a production unit and it had been hand-glued, which is good because in one or two places around the solar panel the foam wasn’t glued down all the way.

As for the foam itself, I don’t know how well it will hold up, after unvelcroing and velcroing a few times I could see how it could start to break up if it was used regularly. Also, if it was left out in the sun (on your car’s dashboard or in a window sill) I’m not sure how the foam would hold up.

The only beef I have with the SolarStrap is that I don’t know what the charge amount on the battery is until I connect a device to it. I wish there were a button on the battery to show charge status of the battery, or something along those lines. But, overall, it’s a great charger if you are out and about a lot but if you are like me and stuck in a windowless office all day it may not be ideal for you.

The charger is scheduled for shipping this month (August ‘09) and currently there are only a few dealers listed on their site, with only one being in the USA. The SolarStrap is priced at 29.00€ (about USD$41), for more information visit the Suntrica website.

Zenulator’s Hero build for Vogue.

A year ago I did a review on DZO’s Android for Vogue project. It was a great idea and worked well enough to show what could be done, but I removed it from my phone and forgot about it for a few months. Then a couple of guys that work with me bought G1s and I started looking into it again, it seemed that DZO and a couple of others had kept on developing this project and I downloaded the newest release (Android 1.5 Cupcake) and fell in love with my phone all over again.

Now it is even EASIER to get Android working on the Vogue! Just go the android-vogue Google Code page and download the newest Bundle (currently named android-1.5-2009-07-23.zip), unzip, and move the files needed to the root of your SD card. The instructions are on the project’s wiki on Google Code and are easy to follow. (I’m currently using mssmison’s Hero-themed system image and am very much enjoying it!)

It might not have all the features and the Vogue is missing things like an autofocus camera and accelerometer, but those things can be forgiven since you will just blown away by the fact that you are running Android on your HTC Vogue. I have tried a few apps so far and most of them work (ones that require the G1’s camera, accelerometer, or 3G connection don’t seem to work) and the Android Marketplace is such a great little piece of software.

And this isn’t just for the Vogue (Verizon HTC Touch), no there are more than 4 other phones that the dev team is working on getting Android working with. I would suggest going to the XDA-Developers forums and searching for “android on [your phone name here]” and seeing what comes up. You might just be surprised.

I asked the dev team if they would like to answer a few questions about the build and got a resounding YES! So, below are the questions and the answers that I was given from each of the team.

***

Q: How long have you been working on the Android for Vogue project?
DZO: I first booted android in march 2008, so about 16 months now.
vilord: Since the beginning of May
mssmison: Maybe 5 months full time..
srwalter: I’ve been working on the project since I got my Vogue, which I purchased expressly for running Android. I’ve probably only made two calls in winmo in the two months or so that I’ve had it.

Q: What prompted you to begin work on the project?
DZO: I got a new phone and was shocked at how useless windows mobile is. I teach operating systems and thought there must be something better, I’d tried the android emulator so thought I’d give it a go.
vilord: curiosity, and wanting my phone to work better… didn’t have any idea there were so many others who were interested and would benefit
mssmison: Well I remember I tried one of DZO’s first bootable beta’s. Nothing worked but I was super intrigued by the interface. I tried all the windows mobile ‘android’ skins before I checked back on progress. By that time foobar had his initial cupcake build but development on the system had pretty much stopped. I saw hakuro had released the apk for the htc ime and decided I needed to figure out how to get that into the vogue build and things just took off from there.
srwalter: A colleague at work had an AT&T Tilt (Kaiser) that he’d been using to play around with Android. I thought that was pretty cool, but liked my plan with Sprint and didn’t want to switch carriers just for that. While browsing the XDA forums, I noticed some references to the Vogue, which I had never heard of. When I read that it was an android-capable CDMA phone, I was sold.

Q: How many hours a day do you spend on the project?
DZO: It depends, I have a full time job and a family with two kids so any time left over I spend on the project. I spend plenty of time thinking about it though.
vilord: it ranges from about 20 minutes of forum chatter all the way to 8-10 hours, depending on the day (or night!)
mssmison: Somedays none, some days 2 or 3
srwalter: Lately I’ve probably only been working 3-4 hours per week on android. When I was working on GPS support, I was spending a couple of hours per night on it after work.

Q: What do you consider your highest achievement in the project?
DZO: I’m quite happy about getting USB to work since that had to be done from scratch because there wasn’t an existing driver. Getting the camera working and figuring out the power management were quite satisfying too.
vilord: Umm… there’ve been lots of small things… I’d say the biggest was getting cupcake/1.5 to a point that was stable with google signon/market working
mssmison: Well I was really stoked when I first got the htc ime working. That’s what made me decide to use android full time. But best overall so far? All of it.
srwalter: I think GPS support is my best contribution. It seems to have been on a lot of people’s wishlists for a long time. The reverse engineering involved was pretty fun too; for example discovering that they encoded latitude and longitude as 50th’s of an arcsecond…

Q: What are you currently working on in regards to the Android for Vogue project?
DZO: I’ve just got audio input working and will have a look at bluetooth next since that’s just about the only significant thing that doesn’t work at all.
vilord: Bluetooth support, internal storage support, wlan on GSM devices, keymapping, better GSM radio
mssmison: Hero build
srwalter: My next project will probably be cell triangulation. Unfortunately, I haven’t even gotten this working in Windows Mobile yet, so there may be some hardware limitations to complicate things.

Q: What’s your favorite thing about having Android on the Vogue?
DZO: I use maps most but everything is good, having an internet device in your pocket just makes a lot of things easier.
vilord: It is SO much cleaner than windows mobile, syncing just plain works, and I can install hundreds of apps for free!
mssmison: Well I hate windows mobile, and android is just soo much more slick and finger friendly.. I mean why have an all touch screen phone if you have to use the stylus so much.
srwalter: I really like the google integration with mail and calendar. I find that if my phone is not on my person, if it’s on the charger for example, I won’t check my email or calender because I’m so used to being reminded by the vogue.
craig0r*: My favourite thing about having Android on the Vogue would probably have to be how well it’s designed for fingers-only use. It really bothers me when I am in WinMo and I have to pull my stylus out.

Q: What do you most dislike about having Android on the Vogue?
DZO: Not having an accelerometer is a bit of a problem.
vilord: In order from dislike most: Too many people whining that things don’t work, Things not working
mssmison: Nothing
srwalter: There are a few downsides, like not being able to swap SD cards and the relative lack of hardware buttons. But overall, I find it hard to really fault the Android on Vogue experience
craig0r: I can’t really say I dislike anything about having Android on the Vogue. I mean, I’d really like to have bluetooth, and to not have to run it off my SD card, but those issues are both being worked on. I wouldn’t call them “flaws” or “dislikes”; just work-in-progress.

Q: If you could change one thing about the Vogue what would it be?
DZO: Leaving out wifi wasn’t such a good idea, and a couple more buttons would be really useful.
vilord: a couple more buttons and a higher resolution screen. Nothing else.
mssmison: Bigger screen, better camera, accellerometer
srwalter: I’m torn between wanting an higher-resolution LCD and a capacitive touchscreen. The form factor is awesome just like it is, however.
craig0r: If I could change one thing about the Vogue, it would be to have a few more buttons on it. That would make Android slightly easier to use (so the volume rocker could actually be responsible for volume instead of needing a “shift” button) and it would also make things a little easier in WinMo too. I got a pretty sweet NES/SNES/Gameboy emulator in WinMo, but it’s not all that functional due to the lack of buttons.

Q: Which phone do you currently use as your main phone?
DZO: Android on Vogue of course, I have 2 Vogues, one isn’t connected and I use it for development but I’ve been running android on the other full time for about a year now. Vogues are really cheap here, you can get a used one for less than US$100.
vilord: my vogue in android
mssmison: My vouge, with unlimited data why switch to anything else
srwalter: The Vogue
craig0r: My main, and only phone is my Vogue, and I run Android on it 99% of the time. I only go back to WinMo to update Android or to use bluetooth audio in my car… but hopefully I won’t have to even do that much longer.

Q: If an Android phone came to your provider would you switch to it?
DZO: You can get the Magic here but I can’t really justify the cost and I like the size of the vogue better anyway.
vilord: That depends on how much progress we’ve made with vogue, and also how close the new device is to the vogue. I like the small phone, and won’t bother getting anything bigger.
mssmison: No, my provider offered a special deal with the vogue of unlimited data, I just can’t pass that up.
srwalter: It would be hard to beat the value proposition of the vogue. When you can pay $100 out-of-pocket for such a functional device, it makes me really disinclined to re-up my contract.
craig0r: I would absolutely get an Android phone if Telus gets one. They (and Bell) are upgrading their networks to HSPA, apparently in October, so I’m hoping they announce some Android phones at that time. I become eligible for a phone upgrade in November, so that’d be pretty good timing.

Q: What is your favorite app/game for Android?
DZO: I think snap-tell is a pretty cool app, my kids like Buka.
vilord: changes from week to week (there are so many!!!) i’m very happy that copilot is now here for standalone navigation…
mssmison: I’d say lattitude and google search
srwalter: My favorite game is called “Iconic Memory.” It is a really simply game in principle, and actually doesn’t look quite right at 320×428, but it is surprisingly addictive.
craig0r: My favourite game would be either Trap or Zombie Run. Zombie Run uses GPS and actually gets you physically active, which is pretty amazing for a free mobile app I think. As far as non-game… I dunno, Shazam’s pretty freakin’ sweet.

Q: What app do you wish worked on the Vogue?
DZO: It would be nice if all the apps that use an accelerometer allow the d-pad to be used instead.
vilord: nothing comes to mind… it already does about everything I need… except for tethering… that’d be nice.
mssmison: I’m a big star nut and we camp alot so if sky map had an accellerometer to use that would be awesome
srwalter: Most of the apps that I want work acceptably well for the Vogue. My wish would be more generally for resolution-independence of android apps, so that they would function better at the LCD’s native resolution.
craig0r: I’m not really sure what app I wish worked on the Vogue. I think everything pretty much works now, except for bluetooth.

Q: What is your dream app for Android?
DZO: It’ll be good when some more opengl apps are available, if you look at the neocore demo you can see what the vogue hardware is capable of.
vilord: don’t really have one that hasn’t already been made… maybe some kind of home automation control (probably already exists) or maybe a remote control for my car like james bond’s bmw/ericsson combo in tomorrow never dies.
mssmison: I’ve got all the ones I love.
srwalter: It would be awesome if I could lock/unlock my car from my phone. I drive a SAAB, and its key fob is not pocket-friendly. I already carry one sizable electronic device, so it would be nice if it could subsume the functions of my other sizable electronic devices.
craig0r: My dream app… that’s a tough one. I’ve actually been considering writing a program that would allow seamless audio streaming from your home PC. It would be practically the same as playing the files locally, but not restricted by the size of your SD card.

*craig0r fixed the looping ringtones problem, so I included him in the list of devs. If I missed any devs, someone please let me know by emailing roryrezzelle@thismobilelife.com, I don’t want to miss any one.

Android for Vogue is available for download free of charge and is not an official release from any provider. Using it may cause your phone to be unusable, download and use at your own risk.

Very rarely do I get the chance to go hands on with some of the items that I read about daily but this time I was pleasantly surprised to be allowed the chance to review a great accessory to any mobile device from Digipower — JumpStart, the end-all to your mobile charging needs.

The Skinny
I was contacted by a representative of JumpStart and asked to do a review of the product a few weeks ago and after agreeing to it I was sent my own JumpStart. The first thing I noticed, after pulling it out of the box, was that it was in a clamshell package. I HATE clamshell packages and I nearly cut myself trying to get the product out more than I cut the package itself.

I finally got the product out of its package and was surprised at how lightweight it was, the packaging claimed it was 2 ounces and I can believe it. The size of the JumpStart reminded me of a lighter and could easily be slipped into a pocket or purse and barely noticed. There is a button on the side of the casing that is marked “TEST” and pressing it lit up 3 green lights on the top. Below the test button is a USB Mini and USB A port (marked IN and OUT, respectively). I plugged the JumpStart into the wall to charge and 4 lights came on, I’m not sure why but I left it that way for a while and they never changed.

The company claims that the JumpStart will hold a charge for 1 year and can recharge a “typical” cell phone 3 times before it needs recharging (more on that later).

Seven adapters came with JumpStart, a few I knew right away (Mini USB, 5-pin micro USB, Nokia, Samsung) but the others I couldn’t figure out. There was no iPhone charging adapter but as long as you carry your iPhone cable you will be able to use the JuumpStart. Also, the charger came with a retractable USB cable with a proprietary end for the adapters and an AC adapter with a USB A plug to plug in the USB cable.

My Impressions
I had the chance to really use this charger the other night when I lost power at my house for about 9 hours. I needed my phone fully charged the next morning, since I use it as my alarm clock, and my wife needed hers charged as well. As far as I know the JumpStart was fully charged when my wife plugged up her phone (an HTC Titan). She charged it to 80% and then I checked the battery status on the JumpStart, it had two lights so I plugged my phone up to it (an HTC Touch) and let it charge until the JumpStart was all out of power — I had about 50% charge.

Now, neither of our phones are “typical” and we both had data turned on, so take the statement that it will charge a typical phone 3 times with a grain of salt.

I plugged the JumpStart back into the AC adapter and it charged again in about 2 hours. (As charged as it can get, I figure. Once again it had 4 green lights and they didn’t do anything after that, so I’m not sure if it was complete or not.)

According to Digipower, the device will be available this month (June) from select retailers and will sell for $49.99. If you drain your phone’s battery while on the go then this product should definitely be your next purchase.

Today I received an email from my friends over at Kinoma, they have released a new version of their mobile media browser — Kinoma Play — that I reviewed last year and this update is smoking!

Toshiba TG01 (docomo PRO series T-01A) + Kinoma Play walkthrough from KinomaTV on Vimeo.

This video is a 20 minute walkthrough that shows off all the new updates to Kinoma Play, it’s a bit long but it shows all the new stuff that you can do with the newest version of this great mobile app.

The search for THE BEST keyboard for Windows Mobile is one that everyone who actually wants to do work on their PDA engages in every so often. I’ve tried a few of the keyboards out there (not even scratching the surface, I’m sure), but I think I’ve finally found one that’s worthy of being on my phone … at least until a better one comes out — FingerKeyboard v2.1.

I was just stumbling around the forums at PPCGeeks.com the other day and found this treasure of an app. So I grabbed the QVGA version, plugged my phone into my MacBook, and installed the CAB. It took a while and eventually seemed like it had gotten stuck (I left it sitting for about 20 minutes) so I pressed the END button and checked the program list. Lo and behold, it was installed. The keyboard itself is a great keyboard, with copy/paste/undo/redo, vibration feedback, click sounds, customizable emoticon shortcuts, and customizable shortcuts + much more, you can’t beat it. And the price, well, nothing is better than free. That’s right, this keyboard is FREE.

The only problems that I ran into were that on a QVGA device the keyboard with the arrow buttons was too big and only left a small space to see what I was typing, also the landscape orientation wasn’t correct. Whether this was because the application didn’t fully complete installing or not I don’t know.

FingerKeyboard v2.1 is freeware from the guys at PPCGeeks.com. They have versions for QVGA, VGA, and WVGA phones so no one is left out.

The Mobile Manager for Netflix allows you to add, remove, move and watch trailers for movies in your Netflix Queue. I just did a little bit of testing on the app and it worked just like you think it would. I was able to remove a few movies, move a movie around in my queue, and add a new movie to my queue easily and all in about 5 minutes time.

The preview trailers are surprisingly clear and even while I was in a low signal area I still was able to buffer enough to watch the trailer well enough.

This is a free app from Microsoft but you have to have Microsoft Livean account with to download it. I also had to fill out a small form before I could download the app (I didn’t see any way to skip that even though I had a Live account). For all the prerequisites you have to do you’ll be ready to add and remove movies from Netflix at a moment’s notice!

You have a stylus on your touch phone but if you are like me you don’t want to have to pull it out to click one hard-to-touch button and then put it away. No, it would be much easier if you could just have a mouse pointer for a moment, click that button, then hide the mouse so you could get back to work.

Well Innovisoft thought of that idea and put it in an easy-to-use app that is simple and to the point — VirtuaMouse One-Hand. Just download and install, set the view/hide mouse button, and run the application and you are ready to roll. The mouse moves with the directional buttons and you click with the Ok/Enter button.

You can download a free, 30-day trial of VirtuaMouse from the Innovisoft site, and you can purchase your own copy of the application for just US$19.95.

Twitter really wasn’t my thing when it came out, I didn’t understand what the big deal was about telling everyone what you were doing. I think it’s a misconception now, though, as I read/hear people talking about how they don’t think it would be fun for them (or others) to tweet about what they are eating or where they are currently spending their time (especially if it involves a porcelain throne). I also think it’s a matter of how many friends you have and how active they are, but it also depends on HOW you tweet. I was bored with sending in tweets by text message and I wasn’t able to get every person on my follow list on my phone so I went in search of a Twitter client for my phone.

I downloaded a few different clients and finally came upon PockeTwit on the Twitter Fan Wiki, which is quickly becoming my favorite client. Out of the handful of clients that I tried (almost all of the clients that were for Windows Mobile) PockeTwit was the only one that actually ran and performed as I expected it to. The application is quick and updates even when it is “minimized,” which is what the developers called it when you close the program but don’t quit it.

The only drawback to running PockeTwit, as with any app that is constantly checking for updates on a server, is that the battery drains quite fast. Normally I can go all day on a charge (that’s a full 12+ hour day) but with PockeTwit running I’ve had to charge it after 8-9 hours, it’s not a huge thing seeing that I am normally driving home from work around then, but it is much different than I’m used to and could become a nuisance.

PockeTwit is freeware provided under the MIT License.