Do you ever read about a piece of technology and get excited by the very thought of it? Do you then become more and more annoyed when you purchase said tech and find it to be a useless pile of knob? And do you think I should stop opening blog entries with questions?
Anyway, the topic of today’s blog post is my phone. The Sony Ericsson Satio.
I’ve had my Satio since November. When I first upgraded to it I was very excited. A smart phone with a 12.1 megapixel camera? I thought it was going to be the dogs b*”*cks so didn’t mind the 24 month contract that I had to agree to in order to get it.
But the longer I’ve had the phone the more I’ve become annoyed with it. Part of it is to do with Vodafone I have to admit. The Vodafone App store just plain didn’t work for the first 3 or 4 months that I had the phone. When I finally got onto it I was appalled at the stupendously awful apps that were available, and how few of them there were. The apps available through Sony Ericsson’s own PlayNow service are a great deal better, although a lot more expensive too. Spotify is free to download, but can only be used if you’re a premium member. WisePilot is decent free GPS software, but you have to pay a subscription for that one.
Not long after having the phone I received a text from Vodafone to tell me that there was a software update available for it and I needed to log onto the SE website to update. So I did. And I can’t. Because I have a Mac. Turns out the update has to be via SE’s own software, which is only for PC. More recently they have released an add-on for iSync to help Mac users, but as of yet my phone seems to be unsupported by this.
The camera is very good, but the odd 4:3 aspect ratio on the 12 mp mode stops me taking the kind of pictures that I actually want to. Drop down to 10mp and the ratio is better, drop to 9mp and you are able to take photos that fit the 16:9 screen. The other thing that’s bugged me is just how easy it is to switch to camera mode. One slight accidental touch of the button as you hold the phone will turn on the camera and lose whatever it was you were actually doing.
Media playback is decent, but there seems to be an intermittent problem with playing music. Now and then a song will skip and then catch up by playing at the wrong speed, which sounds awful! Even if the handset is laying flat and not being jogged I still get this problem.
Sending an SMS is also a pain in the derriere on this phone. The touch screen is so annoying, sometimes overly sensitive and sometimes it has the reactions of a stick. The handwriting mode never fully understands you and is so slow it’s not worth it. The mini keyboard is far too small and forces you into using the little pen that comes with the phone, making you look like a knob in the process.
I find all of these things even more annoying when I think that I could have waited another 6 weeks and got myself an iPhone.
So, after months of frustration and with another 16 months until my next renewal, I decided to see if there’s any way to make my experience better. I’ve been looking online at other people’s experiences and ideas. And I notice a lot of people are “hacking” their Satio’s.
Finding out how to do this was very simple, one Google search gave me all the information I needed. The process itself sounds effortless. The results mean being able to install any free Symbian apps on the phone.
Free apps like the Ovi Store app can be installed, allowing access to actually good apps, which would be a nice change. Having browsed the Ovi store online and the Apple app store on our iPod touch, the difference between the two of them and the Vodafone and Sony Ericsson offerings is remarkable.
Ovi Maps, the free map service from Nokia, could also work on my phone. That would be great if it weren’t for the naff GPS signal on my Satio, which thinks my location is always about 2 miles away from where I actually am.
Opera web browser is also available. Making mobile browsing so much easier, quicker and generally more fun (alledgedly) than the default browser. And there’s a bunch of twitter clients like TweetS60 that don’t rely on a wifi connection (like my current one). Messaging services like Fring, MSN, Skype and more that allow easy ways to chat online. And games by the bucket load. All being given away for free, legally. On other app stores.
So, not bad for the first weekend of looking. If the Satio had apps like this available then maybe I could turn my opinion of the Satio around somewhat. But, currently, the only way I could get these legally free apps is by hacking my phone. The question is, is it worth it?