Alright so it’s been a week since I’ve switched from my beloved iPhone to Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10a and Android. So far, I have to say I’m impressed with it. It’s a really good, fast and responsive device that covers most of the features the iPhone has and even improves some. Keep in mind though that my iPhone was jailbroken about a month after I bought it, so some features, such as StatusNotifier, are somewhat taken as “default” for me. That being said, here’s what I have to say about the Xperia X10 after a week of usage:

Even if Android is an open platform, distributors (Sony Ericsson) and carriers (Rogers) will do everything they can to lock you in and make your device feel as proprietary as possible. In my mind, an open platform like Android means I can happily hack away ANYTHING I want. One of the first question I asked the Rogers’ representative who was selling me the Xperia X10 was “So, be honest here and tell me how Sony Ericsson and Rogers have crippled this phone?” and obviously he couldn’t answer. Well, you heard it here first, this phone is crippled. For one, the Xperia ships with Android 1.6. As a little progress indication Android 1.6 was released in September 2009. 2.1, which is the current version, was released a month later, on October 26th 2009 – although we’ll give Sony a bone here and say that the 2.1 SDK was only released on January 12th 2010. Sony’s explanation for using 1.6? None. Supposedly, their Timescape and Mediascape softwares are incompatible with the latest Android version. In other words, the two shittiest proprietary force-bundled apps on your device make that same device unable to be up to date. Fun isn’t it? They’ve announced a 2.1 upgrade available in Q4 of 2010… which means half a year at a minimum. By that time, my guess is I’ll already be running 2.1.

I’ve found some cool applications that I’ll blog about soon, customized some things but nothing as intense as jailbreaking an iPhone. I’m still relatively in the ‘acceptable usage’ realm for now, and the interesting thing is that I don’t feel I need more. The Android Market really has all you need – although some applications are not in it (like Helix for example). The hard part is really just to figure out which app is worth it and which isn’t. The Android Market is open, which means everything is on there… which, I’ve come to realize, is not always a good thing.

All in all though, the Xperia is a great device. Its hardware is pretty impressive and the device itself is built very well. My grudge against Sony Ericsson lies with the sub-par applications they’re forcing their users to use. However, like any mobile device, the X10a requires a bit of tinkering before it does and looks the way you want it to. For example, the default keyboards are… well, ordinary. The HTC keyboard on the other hand works amazingly well for me, I can type as fast as I used to with my iPhone without having to learn a new keyboard/finger-positioning layout.

Another thing I have against Sony Ericsson is the completely useless support documentation they provide. This device is recent, there aren’t that much HOWTOs and tutorials available to do this and that on the ‘net so far… so figuring out simple stuff like how to add your own custom ringtones/notification sounds is extremely annoying (yeah, I’ll make a post about that). I haven’t found a need to debrand the X10a so far… but I’m not done playing with it.

Overall, I’m happy with my switch.

While we’re here… here are two very useful resources for your X10a:

XDA Developers forum

Xperia X10 Blog

Sony Ericsson’s support site (remember how I said two very useful resources? Yeah. This is number 3. Draw your own conclusions)

I’ve been rocking a jailbroken iPhone for a few months now, and I must say I absolutely love it. It feels just like when I switched to Linux: power to the community, freedom of choice and usage, open source spirit… and you’re pretty much on your own if shit hits the fan. I’ve blogged about the best Cydia applications I found in the past (Top 10 Cydia Apps and Top 10 Cydia Apps Redux), but I feel it’s time to update that list and share it with you all. “Why?” might you ask. Simple. My needs and interests change regularly. The software source being Cydia, applications can be harder to find than with the centralized Apple App Store. New apps are added to Cydia on a daily basis, and new repositories are created daily, so new stuff is easy to find – good stuff is harder. There are a few tools on the interwebs to help you by attempting to centralize the Cydia apps information (appRater, ModMyi, hackint0sh, iPhoneFreakz, BigBoss, iSpazio), but it’s still more challenging than your search-and-tap routine.

Here goes a revamped list of my current essential Cydia apps for your jailbroken iPhone in no particular order. I’m gonna leave out the obvious like Cydia and OpenSSH.

more…

About a month ago, I jailbroke my iPhone and made a list of my top 10 Cydia apps at the time. As everything else in life, that list has since evolved, and looking back at it today I felt like it needed to be revisited. The main reason why I need to write about that list is because some of the apps that I found cool at the time turned out to be inadequate in the long run. So I’ll give you my current top 10 Cydia apps, now with 100% more knowledge! more…

I’ve had an iPhone for about 7 months. I’ve been a regular App Store user, buying all my stuff legitimately. This weekend, I decided to JailBreak it (how?). What convinced me to jailbreak it? I wanted control over my SMS alert. I just wanted a simple beep, no fancy 5 seconds long tone, just a goddamn beep. Apple didn’t judge it important to give its users control over that. I actually didn’t know much about the pros – but I knew everything I had to know about the cons. So, I figured I’d give it a try, for the sake of having more control over my device and just trying something different. I was pleasantly surprised! The whole “breaking” process was ridiculously easy – it just implied installing an application on my MBP, connecting my iPhone and running it. Everything went smoothly, and when my iPhone rebooted, it was jailbroken. That introduced me to a whole new world I wasn’t aware of, honestly. First off, I had the option of installing yellowsn0w, which is an application that would allow my iPhone 3G to be carrier independant. I didn’t need that, so I just didn’t install it. It might be something interesting for other users though, and the possibility is there and equally easy.

Basically, jailbreaking your iPhone will give you more customization power and, if you’re a Linux enthusiast, will allow you to SSH to your device and explore they filesystem. The great thing about it is that it doesn’t affect everything you did before jailbreaking – you can still sync it with iTunes. Here are my favorite applications, the ones that made jailbreaking worth it for me. more…