racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on cars, gadgets, technology and social media

After reviewing Alcatel’s entry-level Android smartphone, the “Glory,” we now get to review its fraternal twin, the “Glory X.” The X is almost identical with the Glory, except for its interchangable covers. We post our first thoughts on the Alcatel Glory X at Tech Wire Asia.

Specs-wise, the Alcatel Glory X is similar to the Alcatel Glory, with a 3.2-inch 420×320 touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera and 650 MHz processor. The only difference is the exterior and a slightly-updated Android OS. At first glance, the two smartphones might look alike from a distance, but once you look closer, the differences are quite obvious. The Glory X shifts away from the rubberized, rugged finish of the Glory, and uses a matte-finish plastic surface at the back and a glossy black plastic bezel at front.

I prefer the matte finish of the original Glory, and I also like the more formal and classy look of that particular model. The only advantage with the Glory X is its interchangable covers, which might appeal to certain markets, such as younger Android smartphone users.

The Glory X also comes shipped with Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread, an incremental upgrade to the 2.3.5 present in the Glory. It’s a bit more difficult to root than the Glory, though, but it can be done with a custom recovery image.

The Alcatel Glory X retails for less than PhP 6,000, which makes it an affordable Android smartphone that competes directly with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Y and the LG Optimus L3, with the advantage of being dual-SIM.

Sony has since broken away from its former partnership with Ericsson in making smartphones. With Sony now taking sole control over the Xperia product line, we have seen a resurgence in Xperia smartphones, ranging from the low mid-range to premium smartphones.

Sony has sent us their latest midrange Xperia Sola for review. I posted my first thoughts on the Sony Xperia Sola at Tech Wire Asia.

We’ll be posting our thoughts on the Xperia Sola soon. So far, after a day playing with the phone, I can say the Xperia Sola is a capable mid-range smartphone that offers excellent multimedia features for the price.

Sony Xperia Sola Specs

• NovaThor U8500 1.0GHz dual-core System-on-Chip processor
• 3.7-inch display at 480×854 pixels (265 PPI)
• 512MB RAM
• 8 GB internal storage (5 GB usable)
• up to 32GB via microSD card (card not included)
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, WiFi hotspot
• Bluetooth 2.1 w/ EDR
• NFC (2 NFC tags included in package)
• 5 megapixel rear autofocus camera with LED flash
• 720p video recording
• FM radio tuner
• GPS with aGPS support
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• 1320 mAH Li-Ion battery
• 116 x 59 x 9.9mm
• 107 grams

The Xperia Sola has an SRP of PhP 16,990, but sells for PhP 15,800 with some retailers.

The Alcatel One Touch 918N Glory is a capable entry-level smartphone that’s a good buy for its PhP 5,699 price.

I’ve recently switched to using Globe’s mobile broadband as my backup connection (through my Android smartphone tethered via WiFi). One thing Globe users would usually complain about is the fuzzy image quality when using Globe Tattoo or Globe 3G. This is because of the image compression that Globe implements in order to save on data use.

A quick source check would reveal that Globe replaces HTML on the fly to prefix images URLs with 64.19.142.10 such that an image with the URL

http://www.techwireasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/AP090721038249-w630-300x180.jpg

would become

http://64.19.142.10/www.techwireasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/AP090721038249-w630-300x180.jpg .

This would be fine for most users, and it also helps speed up access, especially for image-heavy websites. But, this results in ugly websites. Also, those of us who need to view images in full quality — such as people working in graphic design or publishing — would need an alternative.

An online search would come up with various means to go around this issue, such as using a local proxy to filter out the IP-address based proxy that converts image to a lossy format. Others would involve inserting a few lines in a website’s header in order to prevent images from being cached.

Basically, you would need to insert these headers:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Pragma" CONTENT="no-cache">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Cache-Control" CONTENT="no-cache">

Benvallack.com describes how to do this on Mozilla Firefox with an extension called Modify Headers. On Google Chrome, this is also possible with an extension called ModHeader. Given that Chrome has recently overtaken Internet Explorer in terms of popularity, I believe Globe broadband users on Google Chrome would benefit from this.

You will basically need to add the following strings of text to ModHeader:

• Name: Pragma / Value: no-cache
• Name: Cache-Control / Value: no-cache

A quick test of the before and after images would tell us that the trick worked.

Before:

After:

Notice the compression artifacts on the before image.

This may slow down web browsing for you, especially since Chrome is essentially loading all elements directly from the website and using up bandwidth to do so. Therefore, it might be a good idea to selectively activate the ModHeader functionality, to only prevent caching on certain websites.

If compression does not bother you, then you will notice connection speed to be faster if you just leave Globe’s proxy be. But, if you need to view images in better quality, then disabling cache might be the better option.

Nokia has just launched the Lumia 800C in China, and is banking on smartphone sales in this region for a comeback in the smartphone industry. Nokia’s launch of its Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh (formerly “Tango”) smartphone likewise signals the arrival of the WP7 platform for entry-level devices. Will WP7 pose a serious threat to Android and iOS like analysts have been saying?

Perhaps you’d like to review a Nokia Windows Phone handset for yourself. Nokia is offering an opportunity for gadget lovers to take the Lumia 900 (or any other current Nokia device) for a spin. Check out the video below.

Nokia asks what extemes you would go to with your smartphone. I’m not sure if I’ll be jumping off cliffs with my smartphone just yet, although it sounds like a good idea to see how a smartphone peforms under extreme situations.