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Huawei RBM2 quick-review

Michael Kamleitner — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:21:45 +0000

after spending the better part of last weekend using the Huawei RBM2 from Red Bull Mobile (unboxing-pictures here) I won’t deprive you of my thoughts on the device. the RBM2 basically offers everything you’ld expect from an Android-phone nowadays, given that the platform is out now for more than a year. in other words: the RBM2 is a rock-solid phone lacking any exceptional highs or lows. overall I’ld compare it to the HTC Magic, which has a similar form factor, similar hardware & similar featureset. while the RBM2 seems to be snappier & more responsive compared to the HTC Dream aka G1 (which I’ve been using thoroughly), it is still using the same CPU (Qualcomm MSM7200A at 528MHz) – any increased resposiveness might be due to Android 1.5 and less app-clutter.

the RBM2’s touch-display does the usual half-VGA (320×480px) and is in one league with the iPhone in terms of size, crispness & brightness. other features include a 3.2megapixel camera with LED-flash, integrated GPS, wifi-, bluetooth- & UMTS/HDSPA-connectivity.

if you’re in the market for a Red Bull Mobile contract, the RBM2 is a no-brainer – it’s the only smartphone in RBM’s portfolio of handsets, and a worthy choice if only for the Android operating system.

if you’re in the market for a Red Bull Mobile contract, the RBM2 is a no-brainer – it’s the only smartphone in RBM’s handset-portfolio, and a worthy choice if only for the Android operating system. with a two-year contract (EUR 29,-/month – 2.000min. voice & 2GB data), the RBM2 comes for free.

Disclaimer: Mobilkom / Red Bull Mobile have loaned me this device for testing purposes.

unboxing redbull rbm2 by huawei

Michael Kamleitner — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:19:12 +0000

unboxing the RBM2, which is produced by Huawei exclusively for Red Bull Mobile and should hit stores on monday, nov. 9th. the RBM2 seems to be a quite decent Android phone, with a form-factor & featureset (UMTS, GPS, half-VGA 3.5″ touch-display) similar to the iPhone. the RBM2 comes with a modified Wikitude AR-browser displaying Red Bull-related POIs and media-upload-tools for the RBM-community. and of course plenty of stier-branding

update: the modeltype of the RMB2 is “Huawei U8320″ and its based on the Qualcomm MSM7200A CPU (528MHz). Full specs at: http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1948&c=huawei_u8230

Disclaimer: Mobilkom / Red Bull Mobile have loaned me this device for testing purposes.

Yasssu.com – Mobile Podcast Service

Michael Kamleitner — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:53:16 +0000

you love podcasts, especially on the go, but feel limited by the need to download those audio-files to your computer just to sync them to your mobile device? or, if you’ve got an iPhone, have you ever tried to download a podcast which is >10mbytes over the air (don’t bother, Apple won’t let you)?

enter Yasssu, an Austrian-based startup offering an alternative way to listen to podcasts. once signed up, it’s pretty easy to use Yasssu’s podcast directory to build your own personal subscription-list by browsing by category, industry or media (which makes it easy to find all podcasts by one certain media-outlet) or using the search-bar. there’s also a section ’special interest’, containing editorial bundles of podcast-episodes on certain topics (i.e. “Fincial Crisis”, “Middle East Conflict” etc.). another way to find interesting stuff is to filter by language or ranking. If you’re missing one of your favorite shows (like I wasn’t able to find the TWIT-network’s shows or Gillmor Gang), you can request them for future inclusion. nice, but what I really would like to see is the ability to add any arbitrary podcast-feed to my Yasssu-portfolio (update: according to Yasssu, this feature is already in the works! ).

once you’ve set-up your subscription-list, there are several ways to consume your media-selection: YasssuMobile is the way to go if you’ve got an internet-enabled smartphone with a reasonable data-plan. just point your browser to m.yasssu.com, login, and find your subscribed podcasts waiting for you. while Yasssu is optimized for smartphones like iPhone or Blackberry, this should also work fairly well on most older devices. haven’t got an internet-connected phone or want to avoid expensive data-rates ( f.e. when being abroad)? no worries, YasssuCall provides an easy way to call-in utilizing a normal voice-line. using the keypad of your phone allows navigation, skipping etc. of podcast-episodes. while audio-quality naturally suffers a bit, it’s still good enough for most spoken-word content.

Yasssu is currently available as a free service with a premium option at the cost of EUR 3,90 a month. the free version restricts your portfolio to 5 podcasts and limits call-in time via YasssuCall to 30minutes/month, if you want more (and you probably will), you’ll have to go premium.

Web: http://www.yasssu.com