It’s been a week of trying out tech, with a recent visit from Microsoft promoting their business “goodies” particularly giving me a chance to try some new products out!

Microsoft surface

The highlight, for me, was trying out Microsoft Surface, the tabletop multi-gesture surface (or, probably more accurately, it’s a smoked glass touch sensitive coffee table). The one I tried was their original £10 model but with Samsung now manufacturing these the price has already come down to £5k. Once it hits around £1k they think the home user may be interested.

But this isn’t just a large table-top tablet. The abilities of the Microsoft Surface are really quite amazing, which it’s able to implement using IR sensors below the table top to detect levels of heat.

Two demonstrations of what it could do stood out. First, a transparent pass card was placed on the surface. Embedded in the card, but not visible to the eye, were the user credentials. Upon seeing this the Surface, below where the pass card was placed, showed a keypad and allowed the user to enter their password. This means the card itself became the pin pad.

The other demonstration used a combination of physics and graphics. Balls dropped down the screen to settle on one side. You were then able to pick a number of disks and place on the surface, each performing different tasks – one could adjust the gravity, another would be seen as a solid object, etc, etc. So the gravity one, when turned, would cause the balls to realistically tumble around the table depending on where you’d pointed it. A simple demo but powerfully showed what the table was capable of.

I’d say the only thing about Surface that I wasn’t keen on was the slightly matt finish of it – I’m guessing to reduce finger prints, etc.

Windows Phone 7

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve not tried out Windows Phone 7 before and, thanks to a nice man from Microsoft, I was able to try out his personal HTC phone (which I believe was an HTC Mozart). As a die-hard Android fan, I have to say that I was quite impressed. The interface looks very nice and is very smooth in use.

I’m still not sold, however, due to various shortcomings of the OS (lack of apps, 3rd party apps can’t fully multi-task, etc).

I’m told that at my place of work, who currently use Blackberries, will shortly also be offering managers the option to use Windows Phone 7 instead. I’d go for the Microsoft option.

Nintendo 3DS

Also, a few days ago, I had my first opportunity to try out the Nintendo 3DS running Pilotwings. It was only a brief try-out, concentrating on the game and the 3D camera.

The 3D is, it has to be said, impressive – it has a real feeling of depth. It takes a second or so to adjust your eyes to it, though, and there is my main issue – after playing for a few minutes my eyes struggled to adjust back to normal. A colleague of mine started to get a headache.

Ignore all the tat in the papers at the moment about massive returns as that’s not the case. However, BBC’s Click programme recently reviewed the 3DS and said that pretty much everyone that tried it in their office switched off the 3D after a few minutes. If the 3D is all you’re buying it for – try first!

If, though, you’re happy to turn off the 3D then you’ll instead have a powerful games console. The graphics are vastly improved and the improved controls are easy to use.

The day has finally arrived and Android 2.2 (Froyo) is now available for download for the Creative ZiiO 7″!

Downloadable from the Creative website, it’s a 119MB file which is installed like any other app – this download includes both the Android update plus ZiiO firmware updates. Download links are at the bottom of this post.

According to Creative the changes are as follows…

• Upgrades the OS from Android 2.1 (Eclair) to Android 2.2 (Froyo).
• Adds support for Text-To-Speech.
• Adds the new Recovery mode.
• Adds the new Amazon Kindle application (for US region only).
• Updates the ZiiAcademy and ZiiStore applications to the latest versions.
• In the Browser application, you can now set User Agent to Desktop or Mobile.
• Allows application data to be moved from the system storage to the device media storage if the application supports it.
• Updates the User Guide to reflect new features.
• Adds eight additional language translations (Danish, Greek, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Swedish, and Turkish) for the User Guide.

Nothing particularly stand-out, other than being able to installs apps on media storage. However, a quick look at the Froyo upgrade list also shows that we should be looking forward to a faster, more optimised, experience and the ability to run Flash.

Before installation, be aware of the following…

• After installing this firmware, you will not be able to downgrade back to the previous firmware.
• If you are currently using a live wallpaper, it will be reset after installing this firmware. Shortcuts and widgets on the Home panel will also be reset. You will need to reselect the wallpaper and add the items and widgets back to the Home panel.
• Before you install this firmware:
  1. Back up the tablet contents.
  2. Delete current widgets on the Home panel so that the upgraded widgets can take effect.
  3. Ensure that your ZiiO’s battery level is at 25% or higher.
  4. Use Task Manager to close all applications.

I have to say, the upgrade process is really smooth – everything is explained on-screen as you go through it and it took less time for the upgrade to install (about 5 minutes) than it took to download it!

Once complete, I was presented with a reset Home screen. Next to the X-fi bar is now a Task Manager widget, which shows the number of running apps and a shortcut to the Task Manager app. But that’s about it – the ZiiO is already quite nippy so I haven’t, as yet, noticed any speed improvements.

Amazon Kindle has been installed (I wonder how much Creative were paid for that one – especially as the ZiiO comes with its own book reading app!).

I then installed Flash Player 10.2 (a 4.2 MB download) and headed off to YouTube – works great. The recent launched iPlayer app only works with Android 2.2 but is a little harder to find without the Android Marketplace. However, I did, and that too works too – unfortunately I’m on a slow wi-fi right now so can’t test it properly.

All-in-all, a nice and easy upgrade process which I’m sure over time will be beneficial – nothing too obvious to see right now, but that’s probably a good thing!

Downloads

There are separate download depending on your current ZiiO firmware level. You can check the firmware version by tapping Settings > About. The firmware version is displayed under Build Number.

Download Android 2.2 (for firmware versions 1.00.27 and 1.00.28)

Download Android 2.2 (for firmware versions 1.00.13)

Download Flash

Download BBC iPlayer App

I wasn’t going to blog about the iPhone announcement as, well, it didn’t really interest me. About the only feature that I think is ahead of other manufacturers is the high resolution screen – not much higher than the latest HTCs, though, and not AMOLED, but none-the-less impressive.

Here’s what developers said about the “revolutionary” FaceTime feature on the new iPhone…

“FaceTime is the feature that will really take the iPhone to the next level for me,” said Vincent Ganneau of Haploid.

“Everybody has been talking about face to face chatting for a long time,” said Sean Vosen of Vokal.

“This changes everything in terms of what we can provide, what people can do, the reach, the speed and who can use these devices. It has blown me away.”

Wow. What is this amazing new feature? It’s video calling. Something I had on my phone years ago.

Except FaceTime (poor name) only works across iPhone 4s. And on Wi-Fi. And on the same phone network. Unlike my chunky old 3 mobile which would work on the 3G network to any other 3G connected phone.

Or have I missed something?

Sorry, distracted by the chance to have a rant about a product that isn’t actually revolutionary. New iPhones often have a single feature that’s new, but everything else is old hat but re-packaged. And the iPhone 4 is more of the same.

No, what I was going to write about was something that has been mentioned before on BBC blogs, and even on the BBCs own Feedback radio programme.

Everytime Apple launch a new product, the BBC go to town with what amounts to nothing more than full page ads for Apple. So, a new product has been launched – it’s evoltunary rather than revoluntary.

But where’s the BBC page about the HTC Desire or HTC Evo? The HTC Desire has already been declared to be an iPhone killer and the HTC Evo advances that further with a front facing camera (yes, HTC beat Apple to it), 8 mega pixel rear facing camera with twin flash and the ability to create WiFi hotspots.

But there’s nothing on the BBC site.

Indeed, the last time HTC had more than a glancing mention, it was when they were suing, yes, Apple. I could be cynical and say that it probably only got a mention then because of who they were suing… but I won’t

Seriously, BBC? Unfortunately, they hide behind the fact that these Apple events are incredibly popular and is, therefore, in the interests of the public.

However, the Apple fan-boy who is desperate to read about the latest Apple product launch is not the majority. And when this level of publicity does nothing for Apple except promote their product, then the BBC should be re-thinking its policy.

Maybe stick a page about it in the technology section and leave it as that. Oh, and make sure you cover other big product launches too.