{"id":700,"date":"2008-11-25T12:56:21","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T19:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perivision.net\/wordpress\/?p=700"},"modified":"2008-11-25T12:56:21","modified_gmt":"2008-11-25T19:56:21","slug":"the-next-andriod-phone-is-a-swiss-army-knife-shame-its-zzzphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.perivision.net\/wordpress\/2008\/11\/the-next-andriod-phone-is-a-swiss-army-knife-shame-its-zzzphone\/","title":{"rendered":"The next Andriod phone is a swiss army knife … Shame its zzzPhone"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been hearing on the interWebs that zzzPhone <\/a>is at it again. This time, an Andriod phone. This looks about as dodgy as it gets, but I love the concept.\u00a0 I heard about these guys back in March and dismissed it.\u00a0 Well, they pop up now and again.. This time they are running Andriod.\u00a0 Now that makes sense.\u00a0 When I first looked at this back in March, people were saying the windows OS was hacked, then it was a hacked version of Sybian.\u00a0 Heard rumers that the onscreen keyboard was extra. FTW??\u00a0 All kinda of messy.\u00a0 Now with Andriod, at least you know the OS is solid and well thought out.\u00a0 Cant say the same for the hardware…<\/p>\n

If you do not know about these guys, read this from Gearlog..<\/a><\/p>\n

If you haven’t followed the zzzPhone saga<\/a>, they’re a small bunch of Americans who went to China to try to build a business selling cheap phones with lots of features direct to Westerners. I’ve spoken to both their China-based management team and to zzzPhone’s former US representative Jesse Nowlin, and I don’t think they’re scam artists. But I do think they’re in over their heads. First, they took a bunch of orders on phones that didn’t work in the US, so they couldn’t deliver them. Then they started delivering phones, but some of the purchasers seem underwhelmed<\/a> with what they got. And although I’ve handled a few of the models – brought to me directly by Nowlin – I haven’t seen them successfully deliver a full retail unit to a major reviewer yet. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

So what is cool about this phone … something I wish others would do … is it has a simple small form factor that you can click modules on to expand it functionality. From CrunchGear..<\/p>\n

Stock, the zzzPhone is priced at $149, but that\u2019s just a starting point. Want a 5 or 7-megapixel camera? Yours for $39 or $95 respectively; you can add a front-facing camera for just $18. zzzPhone will install mobile TV & FM radio for $29, add four stereo speakers for $18, fit GPS for $119 or make the whole thing water-resistant for $7. They\u2019ll even preload music, video or games – for a price, of course – and for $36 they\u2019ll install Skype. <\/em>I think the prices has changed a bit though, but you get the idea.\u00a0 This can get real costly really fast.<\/p>\n

The TV commercial from the site is horrid and shows windows as the OS.\u00a0 Check it here.<\/a> No idea what to take away from that.\u00a0 Then have a look at this oddness<\/a>.. Showing the iPhone OS?<\/p>\n

I also looked into http:\/\/zzzphone.org\/\u00a0 Suppose to be a forum for the phone.\u00a0 Empty..<\/p>\n

And is it just me or could they not even bother to do the photoShop\/flash animation on this correctly?\u00a0 The keyboard does not align with the phone. And a big ‘delete’ key?\u00a0 where’s ‘enter’?\u00a0 And a grid layout?<\/p>\n

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Now, is the phone any good?\u00a0 I have no idea.\u00a0 I will be keeping an eye out,\u00a0 but I can say this.. As of now, no way will I buy this phone, HOWEVER, I would love to have this type of clip on options for a quality device.\u00a0 And who knows?\u00a0 Perhaps with a solid OS,<\/p>\n

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