The new Samsung Galaxy S4 is this year’s replacement for the company’s hugely popular Galaxy S III, introduced a year ago. The S III has been a huge success because it took the lead in bringing Google’s Android OS to a phone with a beautiful large display in a thin, lightweight package. If there was one criticism about the S III, it was the cheap feeling of its plastic enclosure. It’s the tradeoff Samsung makes for cost and thin shape.

Physically, the S4 looks much like the S III. The enclosure is still plastic and looks even cheaper with gaudy, dark chrome plating and a black pattern of dots. (If I owned the phone I’d buy Samsung’s clever case, a book-like folding cover attached to a replacement back cover.) It’s now even more slippery to hold. And like its predecessor, it might feel a little large for a person with small hands.

The Galaxy S4 is intended to be an improvement to the S III; it does offer a few advantages, but creates usability problems with new software additions. The display is slightly bigger by 0.2 inches, the phone is 3/4 millimeter thinner, and the camera is slightly improved.

The major changes are new software features that, for the most part, seem unfinished and scattered. It’s as if the designers came up with all the gimmicks they could think of and then built them into the phone, with little thought to ease of use, value and performance. While it adds to the checklist of features, it makes the phone seem unpolished, especially compared to the HTC One, the Nokia 920 and the Apple iPhone 5.

The Galaxy S4′s display is slightly bigger by 0.2 inches, the phone is 3/4 millimeter thinner, and the camera is slightly improved. Photo courtesy of Samsung
In addition, Samsung added many of its own apps to take advantage of these features, but that added even more confusion, because it duplicated many of the standard Android apps. I found it to be a hodgepodge.

Some of the new software features are interesting in concept, such as the ability to use eye movements to scroll or to pause video. I also liked hovering my finger over the screen to open a selection list. But they worked inconsistently on only some apps, and, even when they did work better, seemed more of a gimmick than something of real value.

Samsung offers an escape from all of this with an Easy Mode that provides a simpler interface with larger icons and fewer menu options. But for me, this dumbed down the phone too much. I’d rather just turn off all of the software functions.

The S4 has a gorgeous 5-inch Amoled (1920 x 1080) display that looks beautiful, albeit with Amoled’s characteristic exaggerated colors. Outside in the bright sunlight, it was more difficult to read than the LCD displays found on most other phones.

The phone has a super-sized user replaceable 2750mAh battery, which is twice that of the iPhone’s battery, but the extra battery life is needed to get the phone through a full day of use. With this type of display, consumption is more for white than black pixels, so you’ll find many of the built-in menus displaying white text on a black background to save battery power.

Samsung provides an excellent camera that takes a picture using both the front and rear cameras at the same time, and inserts your image in the photo. Camera performance was excellent. With its 13-megapixel sensor and excellent color balance, it produced detailed and vibrant images.

Call clarity and reception on this AT&T phone was very good and is one of Samsung’s strengths. But its single speaker for listening to music is disappointing. Compared with the excellent sound from the HTC One with its Beats technology, the Samsung sound was poorer at playing music, suffering from distortion even at low volumes. It worked a little better as a speakerphone.

In summary, the S4 is a good phone that will likely sell in huge volumes; it has a fast response, a great display and speedy performance. The one disappointment is the piling-on all of the extras, which takes away from the otherwise positive experience. I much prefer the HTC One phone, which is much more attractive, solid and fun, rather than frustrating to use.

For those with a Samsung Galaxy SIII, my advice is to save your money and don’t upgrade to the S4. For those looking for a new phone, this is a good choice, but not the best. It’s available from all of the major carriers for about $200.

With nearly a million apps in Apple‘s iTunes store, it’s nearly impossible for an app company to get noticed. I’ve found that a better way is to check with friends and see what they like. Word of mouth seems to be the most effective marketing approach.

So, here are a few apps I’ve recently been trying and like very much. How did I find them? Mostly referrals from other users.

BizXpenseTrkr

While I’ve tried a number of apps that track business expenses and manage track time, this app has become my go-to product for managing both. It’s simple to use, comprehensive and flexible. For example, it lets you set different rates for different clients and use different currencies, whose conversion values are automatically updated over the Internet.

You enter your clients’ or customers’ names one time to track both time and expenses. It prompts you to take a snapshot of your receipt and integrates it with the expense description. You can export your records, including the photos, onto your desktop or send a report by email.

The app allows you to establish custom categories, such as personal and business, and assign your expenses to either. One of its latest features is tracking mileage, which using your GPS to monitor locations and distance.

The product, along with other tracking apps, comes from Silver Software, one of the pioneers in creating products for mobile devices, going back to the Apple Newton. It’s a product that shows a deep understanding of how such a product is used in real-life situations. ($5.99 from the App store; Apple only)

ScanBizCards

Remember those stand-alone card scanners that cost about $150? Now all of that functionality is in your phone thanks to ScanBizCards. It’s a $2 app that turns your iPhone into a powerful business card scanner.

I learned about this app from a San Diego lawyer who I sat next to on a recent flight from San Francisco. I watched him take a stack of business cards and photograph them one by one into his iPhone. The display shows the card information and imports the data into your Contacts list, including Outlook, iPhone address book, Evernote, etc.

The scanning accuracy was very good. The image is automatically cropped, properly oriented and you can easily make corrections with the text entry window adjacent to the image of the card.

You can also scan both sides of a card, particularly useful when you take notes about the individual. Or you can attach a picture of the person. Available for iPhone, Windows phones and Android phones. ($3.99)

Twixt Time

This Apple app tracks the long-term accuracy of your mechanical watch. It works by analyzing pictures you take of the watch dial over successive periods of time and then displays the daily error in seconds. It’s an interesting product for those who use fine mechanical watches, which tend to be far less accurate than a quartz watch. Typical accuracy of mechanical watches is within 10 seconds a day.

To use, you take a close-up image of the watch face and move markers using the touch screen over the tips of the hands and the center of the dial. You can monitor the accuracy of multiple watches at the same time. ($4.99)

Of course, another way to check accuracy is to use the free Official U.S. Time app, which gives you accurate time checks, and then record the information by hand.

Vintage-45

This app for the iPhone is one of several products that re-create one of the classic Hewlett Packard calculators from the 1970s and 80s. This particular 99-cent app from CuVee software does a superb job of re-creating the iconic HP-45, which, along with the HP-35, made up the world’s first pocket scientific calculators.

Key clicks and displays are accurately re-created, and it uses reverse Polish notation for data entry, just as the originals. The company also offers a free version of the HP-67, a later model, along with a simulated paper tape displayed on the screen.

New smartphone stand,
camera timer app

For all smartphones, insert the Keyprop prong into the headphone jack, and Keyprop rests against the front panel to prop up your phone. Courtesy photo

KeyProp is a clever tripod and stand that fits on your keychain. The key-like device fits onto a phone using one of its connectors to prop up the phone for taking pictures, reading, watching a video or playing a game. It comes with an app, KeyCam, which provides a camera timer so you can be in the picture. Clap your hands to start the countdown timer.

Since Keyprop is on your keychain, you always have it at your fingertips. For all smartphones, insert the prong into the headphone jack, and the Keyprop rests against the front panel to prop up your phone. Adjust the angle of the stand by propping the stand on your keys. It works with phones, with or without cases or bumpers. The product is now on Kickstarter and will retail for $15. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alisonw/keyprop-simple-smartphone-stand-self-timer-app)

The Pear Sports training system is a clever approach for those who do personal workouts. It’s designed to make these workouts more effective by providing a level of feedback and interactivity that’s previously only been available with a coach by your side.

It uses your iPhone to provide audio from a professional coach and to maintain a proper exercise level by monitoring your pulse.

Pear is the brainchild of co-founder and president, Kristian Rauhala, a local entrepreneur who also founded H2O Audio, a San Diego company that makes waterproof headphones and iPod cases for water sports participants.

I spoke with Kristian in his office in Solana Beach. Rauhala, born in Finland, came to San Diego to work for Nokia. He’s a triathlete and surfer, and he combined those interests with his wireless and mobile experience to develop Pear. His initial product used an electronic device with a small iPod affixed, but this latest iPhone-based product adds more features and costs half the price.

While I’m not an expert in marathon training or running — an occasional bike ride is my preference — the product has been getting much praise from several friends who have been using it extensively since it first came out late last year.

With the unusually named “PEAR Mobile Training Intelligence,” it uses a downloadable app on the iPhone 4S or 5 to provide personalized workouts. By using a Bluetooth heart monitor that wirelessly connects to the iPhone, it’s able to provide feedback and adjust the exercise program in real time.

The Pear heart rate monitor. Photo courtesy of Pear Sports

The Pear device provides a variety of workouts with audio coaching from a wide range of athletic coaches. Each of these workouts covers a particular activity, with names such as Fat-Burn 1, Starter Running, Speed Treadmill, Fitness Walk, etc. Fitness Walk, for example, provides an 80-minute walk designed to provide a full body workout.

The product comes with 50 workouts and 11 training plans, and allows access to many more from a library on its website. They range in price from free to about $30. You select the training plan you’d like from within the app, and it’s downloaded onto the iPhone in about 30 seconds.

The coaches and trainers themselves, using a simple-to-use authoring system, create each of these plans. In our meeting we were able to create one in a matter of minutes, recording the phrases we wanted to provide for specific events. All of the audio feedback is provided using the actual voice of the trainer.

Once you download the training and are ready to begin, it prompts you to get ready, checks for a connection to the heart monitor, and tells you to begin. You’ll be provided with information along the way, such as what you’ll be doing next, and you will be prompted as you make changes to your training, move between phases, and will be told how far you’ve gone using the phone’s GPS. The app visually displays information such as calories burned, pulse rate and time. You can then archive each session.

There’s also supporting information you can read in the app from various coaches. The coaches are encouraged to create their own routines and publish them on the Pear site, much as authors do.

In addition to the free app, you need to buy a Pear kit, which includes the Bluetooth heart rate monitor that straps around your chest, and a pair of water-resistant wired ear buds to listen to the coaching instructions. I found the ear buds to be comfortable and secure in the ear, with clear and loud sound.

Pear’s water-resistant earphones. Photo courtesy of Pear Sports

During your workouts you can integrate the coaching instructions with your iTunes library or streaming music service. The music will play and then fade away when there’s a message. You can also call up information, delivered by voice, using controls on the headphones. A comprehensive website allows you to analyze your results and share them with others.

It’s a clever product that makes use of many of the iPhone’s capabilities: audio, Bluetooth, GPS and music, all to provide an enhanced workout experience.

The kit is available from Pear as well as in the Apple stores. It costs $99. It works only with iPhones 4S and 5. (pearsports.com)

New case for iPhone 5
You’d think there could be nothing new when it comes to cases for the iPhone. Yet a U.K. company has managed to create a design that’s become a huge hit at the Apple Stores. Tech21 has developed a thin, flexible case that’s lined around its inside perimeter with a material it calls D30. It’s a soft substance designed to absorb and disperse energy when the phone is dropped, yet show no signs of damage.

I bought one and have found it to work well. I dropped my phone on a concrete surface from about 4 feet and it just bounced, with no damage to either the phone or case. The Impact Mesh Case is available for about $35. (tech21.uk.com)

HTC is a Taiwanese company that began making mobile hardware products as an original design manufacturer for the Compaq iPaq line of PDAs, and rapidly grew into products for HP, Palm and other companies. HTC is highly regarded in the industry for its engineering prowess.

Several years ago, the company began developing products under the HTC brand. But like many engineering-driven companies, HTC apparently underestimated the importance of marketing and distribution, and has been trounced by Samsung in the Android phone marketplace. The HTC One represents its attempt to come back with a phone that leapfrogs the competition.

After using it for several weeks, I’ve concluded that it’s a superb product and handily beats the leading Samsung Galaxy phones and, in some ways, is even better than the iPhone 5. In fact, I can envision HTC saying when it began, “Let’s create a new phone that’s what Apple would do for their next generation iPhone.”

The HTC One has a sleek, modern design of glass and solid aluminum, reminiscent of the MacBook Air’s unibody construction, in which the back housing is machined from a solid block of aluminum.

The HTC One. Photo courtesy of HTC

The display, covered with Corning’s Gorilla glass, reaches edge to edge with no visible gaps between any of the pieces. A thin white polycarbonate plastic wall runs around the perimeter, between the glass and aluminum, fusing it all into one solid block, which weighs the same as the iPhone 5. The phone I tested came from AT&T and was aluminum in color; it also comes in all black.

But its beauty is more than skin deep. It excels from its ultra-high resolution 4.7-inch display to its improvements to the Android OS, which provide a much less complex interface along with some clever new features.

The LCD display is the highest resolution of any current product, at 468 dots per inch (compared to 326 dpi for the iPhone 5). Colors are vibrant and text looks likes a finely printed magazine page with no visible pixels. It’s probably the best phone display to date.

The One feels great in the hand, and appears slimmer than most phones because the back is thicker in the middle and tapers to a thinner edge.

It makes the Samsung products, constructed out of thin, flexible plastic, seem almost toylike. And perhaps that’s worrying Samsung, who this week apologized to Taiwan’s FCC, after being caught instructing its employees to post anonymous criticisms of the HTC phones on Taiwan websites.

Samsung would argue that its plastic construction allows the back cover to slip off to replace the battery or add more memory, which is not possible on the One.

The HTC, in fact, doesn’t appear to be designed for its battery to be replaced. (A teardown report from iSuppli shows that many parts would have to be destroyed to reach the battery.) HTC told me that the battery could be replaced at a service center, but I doubt that would be practical. In any event, the original battery should last three or four years.

In every area that I examined or tried, the construction, display, sound, UI and camera revealed a level of excellence unmatched by any other single phone.

The One uses a new version of Sense, HTC’s user interface, which significantly improves on Google’s Android interface.

There are no varying size icons that make for ugly home pages on most Android phones. Everything neatly lines up and is easy to access.

When you turn on the phone you can immediately go to your favorite four apps based on where you begin your swipe. So, it takes only one swipe to make a call or read email.

Or you can open up the BlinkFeed page, a home screen that displays content from hundreds of your favorite sources, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

It looks similar to Flipboard, a popular app that aggregates news into a virtual flip book. You view a continuous montage of images as you sweep vertically, and can touch one to open it up to a full page and dig deeper.

At first I found it a little off-putting to find hard news interspersed with Facebook gossip on the same page. But I quickly got used to it and found it to be a quick way to scan items of interest within a minute or two. Everything moved smoothly and rapidly, thanks to the fast Qualcomm quad-core Snapdragon processor.

There are two stereo speakers above and below the display. HTC calls its sound BoomSound, an unfortunate name considering the excellent clarity of the sound. The sound was crisp and particularly clear when used as a speakerphone or for listening to radio. The sound system was designed by Beats by Dr. Dre. The camera also exceeded most others and outperformed the excellent iPhone 5′s camera in low lighting. It also had a few other tricks, such as taking short videos.

A TV app turns the phone into a remote control, and by entering your cable system, you can be reminded when your favorite shows are available on your TV.

Below the display at the far left and far right are two touch buttons, back and home. On many occasions these did not light up and I was fishing in the dark for them. It’s likely a software bug. I would have preferred a real home button in the center. Also, some of the touch spots on the screen are fairly small and require careful aim. On a few occasions, when I gripped the phone by wrapping my fingers around the front edges, another function was activated.

HTC’s email app is particularly good; email is easy to read with clear, modern fonts and visible indicators of whether the mail has been unread. The calendar is not as good, as you cannot see the names of the appointments in the portrait mode.

Battery life lasts about a day, perhaps slightly longer than an iPhone 5. Call quality was excellent, and I found my Plantronics Legend Pro headset to work much better on the One than on my iPhone 5. The phone is available from AT&T for $199 (16 gigabytes) and $299 (32GB) with a new two-year contract.

So how good is this phone? One of the top phones I’ve tested. Ranked among those I have reviewed I’d give it an 88/100 compared to a 92 for an iPhone 5, 75 for a Galaxy 3, 85 for a Nokia 320, and 68 for a BlackBerry Z10.

(A special note to Joe Sent Me subscribers. See the latest surprise update in the story in bold just added for you.)

I’ve written about customer service before, particularly when it comes to high tech companies. Poor customer service has caused huge problems for Dell while, on the other hand, great customer service has been an important factor in Apple’s success. Good service seems like such a great opportunity for a company to make a positive impression, one that can be communicated far and wide over social networking sites. But bad service will populate these sites even more rapidly.

When it comes to technology products, the company that chooses the side of satisfying the customer first will come out ahead every time. Yet Mophie, a company that makes battery cases hasn’t figured that out. I recently bought one for my iPhone 5 at an Apple store. The $79 Helium model worked for a day and then stopped, with the phone displaying a message that said it was incompatible as an iPhone charger. After checking the web, I found this to be a problem experienced by others.

I emailed Mophie, and two days later received a request for proof of purchase, and a second email the following day with a printable mailing label and statement saying, “If upon receipt of the product, Mophie determines that the problem is not covered by this limited warranty, you will be contacted to determine whether Mophie should repair the problem for a charge or whether the product should be returned, for an additional cost, to you as received by Mophie.”

There was nothing said about when I’d get a replacement. I told them, “nevermind,” and that I’d return it to the Apple Store.

While not exactly high-tech, on a recent trip to Kauai with my family I had two notable customer experiences, one poor and the other superb. The poor one was with Avis, a company I’ve done lots of business with for more than 20 years.

We rented a minivan for seven of us, including five- and eight-year old boys. We put little mileage on the car during the six days we had it. When we returned it, an agent checked it over carefully and gave us a receipt saying all was good. Two months later I received a letter from Avis stating that my credit card was being charged $150 for excessive sand/dirt.

Now, the car was sandy from the kidsí beach toys and sandy feet, and all of our sandals. This is Hawaii, after all, and it’s all about going to the beach!

When I called Avis’ customer service in near disbelief, they said the car must be returned in the same condition as received, said they needed to detail the car, and that it was out of service for five days. They sent me photos and, from what I saw, the sand could have been vacuumed out in 10 or 15 minutes. Yes, there was sand, but nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing they found notable when we returned the car.

I asked for some sort of compromise, suggesting I pay for a car wash, and noted that my annual rentals amount to more than $6,000 a year. The agent refused to compromise, as did her supervisor.

So they were about to lose all of my future business, all for the sake of $150. Ironically that $150 was being whittled away based on the time they spent on the phone with me and the time they would spend with American Express, who is supporting me in disputing the charge.

In one final attempt, I emailed the CEO and the VP Customer Service and related this experience. The latter responded, “As a valued customer and further review of your inquiry we will be removing the $150.00 charge.”

My question: Why are none of your people in the lower levels interested in saving a customer?

Update: The day this column ran I received an automated email from Avis thanking me for updating my account. But I didn’t update my account. What I believe happened is Avis went in and deleted a discount code I had been using for 10 years that was given to me by a former client to use. Not only did Avis delete it, but informed the past client that I was using this code.  Since my relationship with this client is past, the client requested I refrain from using it.

Now Avis certainly has the right to do this and maybe even an obligation to their corporate accounts. I contacted the two executives I had been communicating with, the CEO (Ron.Nelson@avisbudget.com) and VP Customer service (Joe.Bartee@avisbudget.com) to ask them about what might have been retribution for writing the column, and they did not respond.

On the other hand, some companies do practice great customer service and one is Alaska Airlines. On this same trip, we booked our flight to Kauai out of Oakland, so we could fly with the rest of the family leaving from the Bay Area. But a few months before we were to leave, Alaska changed their return flight time to a much later hour that would cause us to miss our connecting flight to San Diego and the rest of my family to return much too late for their kids.

When we explained the problem, Alaska said that was their only return flight, but they would find all of us flights on other airlines. They routed my family through Maui to return earlier, and booked my wife and me on a return flight with one of their competitors, Hawaiian Airlines, via Honolulu to San Diego, with a connecting flight on the tiny Go! Airlines from Kauai to Honolulu.

But on the day of the flight, Go’s single plane had mechanical problems so we couldn’t get to Honolulu, and there were no other alternate flights available. (Fortunately we found a United flight that we were able to take using mileage.)

I spoke to Alaska when I got home and they apologized, saying even though it wasn’t their airline, they’d work on getting us a refund on the non-refundable fares. Two weeks later a credit appeared on my credit card along with an email with two $150 certificates toward a future Alaska flight, apologizing for our inconvenience.

Thereís no question that I will be loyal to Alaska and use it whenever possible. As for Avis, I’ll give the company another chance, but the next time I go to Hawaii with my grandkids, I’ll be using Hertz!

Last week I decided to upgrade my two home audio systems to better enjoy the HD movies and video entertainment that are now available. As a once serious audiophile, I’ve gradually traded audio quality for ease of use over the past decade, and was using speakers in the TV.

One of the motivating factors in my choice for simplicity over fidelity has been the decreasing quality of audio recordings, as the industry moved from vinyl to CD and MP3. These recordings make it difficult to justify expensive audio equipment. (Note: I have good reason for believing that this will change later this year, but that’s for another column.)

Another consideration was to meet my wife Jane’s request that it not take three remotes to change a channel or to go from watching a DVD movie to a TV show. She also implored me to avoid towering speakers scattered around the living room.

My focus this past week, then, has been to improve the sound of what’s playing through my 10-year-old, 50-inch Pioneerplasma HDTV in my family room and a one year old  54-inch Samsung LCD TV in the living room. I wanted to better enjoy DVD movies and watch some newly released Blu-ray video archives from some of my favorite recording artists.

Thus, my task was to find an economical and simple way to upgrade the audio in each room.

Since my wife usually watches her programs in the living room, my goal there was a speaker system that could play TV, Blu-ray and DVDs, using a single remote. My solution was the new Sonos Playbar, a long black bar that sits below or above the TV to provide the audio for TV and the players.

The Sonos Playbar. Photo courtesy of Sonos

(Sonos is known for its small bookshelf-sized wireless speakers that can play music throughout your home by streaming content from the music on your computers, as well as from Internet sources such as Pandora, Spotify, Internet radio, and SiriusXM.)

One of the Playbar’s pluses is that it connects directly to the TV with a single optical cable and creates excellent expanded sound from the single bar.

The Playbar is 36 inches long by 5 inches high by 4 inches deep, and contains six midrange speakers, three high-frequency tweeters and sound processing circuitry to produce its wide soundstage. I placed it directly above my TV.  Sound quality was very good, comparable to a couple of premium bookshelf speakers.

While the Playbar is an excellent solution for a small home theater, it doesn’t quite match an expensive multispeaker surround sound system. However, you can add two Sonos bookshelf speakers to the Playbar, and obtain five-channel sound with all your speakers connected wirelessly.

Because the DVD and Blu-ray player, go through your TV, setup and use is simple. The sound from these devices plays into the Playbar when you switch between the TV inputs.

No separate amplifier is needed because it’s contained in the Playbar. To control Playbar’s volume, you use your TV remote. It’s programmed, using the Sonos setup program on your computer.

You can also use the Playbar as a Sonos system and listen to all of your music through it, just as you do with their other speakers. You use Sonos’ free app for iOS or Android to as a powerful remote control that lets you select content.

Setup time for the Sonos took about 10 minutes

For our family room I already had five small Boston Acoustics speakers, two mounted on my walls and three in a bookcase. The speakers came from their theater-in-a box-system that has since been discontinued. The central unit that combines a DVD player, tuner and amp no longer worked, so I needed to find a replacement..

The Playbar does not work on a few models of TVs, including my old Pioneer HDTV, because of the incompatible optical connection on these models. Since I already had speakers that were adequate for my needs and had the benefits of full surround sound, I purchased a low-cost, five-channel Yamaha receiver (RX-V375BL, $249).

For this more conventional installation, the receiver rather than the TV is used as the hub. The Blu-ray/DVD player and the TV each plug into it. Because they all go through the receiver, the input selector on the receiver is used to select TV or DVDs. As a result, you’ll need to use three remote controls: TV, receiver and player. This contrasts with the simplicity of the Playbar.

Setup is also more complicated with the wiring together of nearly a dozen components, including speakers. While I could have spent the better part of an afternoon doing it myself, I thought this would be an opportunity to try out Best Buy’s Geek Squad, a service that’s gotten mixed reviews and even occasional ridicule on the Web. I was offered the service when I purchased the receiver at the local Encinitas Best Buy.

Cost to set up a complete audio and video system is $169 per room. I scheduled an appointment for a week in advance. Two techs arrived on time and immediately began work. They were finished about 90 minutes later and everything worked as planned, and they were professional and courteous.

The sound on this five-speaker system is not as rich or full as the Sonos, but it does offer better surround sound for movies. But using it is more complicated and not worth the hassle for many. That’s where the Sonos excels and provides a better overall experience. Comparing costs, the 5 Boston Acoustic speakers plus the Yamaha receiver cost a few hundred dollars more than the Playbar.

BlackBerry is back with a new phone that’s intended to catapult it back into the frontlines of the smartphone competition. But it’s come after long delays and the ouster of the company’s co-CEOs, who were oblivious to the iPhone/Android bulldozer that nearly crushed it to death. BlackBerry’s new Z10 is the company’s answer, perhaps its last hope (hence the “Z” designation?).

For the past two weeks I’ve been trying the AT&T version, which costs $200 with a new contract. (It’s also available from Verizon and T-Mobile.) The Z10 is based on a new operating system, which provides faster response and multitasking.

It looks more like an iPhone than a BlackBerry, particularly with its on-screen touch keyboard; BlackBerry’s famous thumb keyboard is gone, although it will be back on another model. The Z10 has a touch-screen display just slightly larger than that of the iPhone 5. The phone resembles the iPhone 5 with a similar shape and profile, but made of mostly plastic rather than aluminum.

I found the Z10 to have one of the longest learning curves of any smartphone I’ve used, and after two weeks it’s still a bit confusing. There’s no home button as found on other phones, just an on/off button at the top (plus a volume rocker on the side).

BlackBerry’s new Z10. Photo courtesy of BlackBerry

To use the phone, you swipe the screen: Swipe up to unlock if the phone is locked; otherwise to go to the Active Frame screen that has recently opened apps. Swipe down to access a settings menu, and left and right to move between screens. The leftmost screen contains a short list of frequently used apps.

The screen to the right is Active Frames, and the next three are screens filled with an array of app icons. But apps open between the first two screens

There are no clues when and in which direction to swipe. I’ve frequently stared at a screen, trying to figure out what to do next. With some apps, nothing happens when you swipe. And in a few cases, when I swiped, I accidentally activated a button push.

Back to first screen that contains a short list of some of the more frequently used apps, such as Gmail or Facebook; touch an item on the list, such as Gmail, and the Gmail inbox screen slides in from the right.

Another item that’s in the list is “BlackBerry Hub”; it slides in a screen much like Gmail, but is a unified inbox that includes messages, calls, appointments, alerts and email, all in chronological order.

There are few options for choosing what’s on this list, but there’s no way to add items. In particular, there’s no phone or calendar in the list, an odd omission, since they are most frequently used. The list does include a call log, something of lesser importance.

To make a call, you need to swipe twice to the left and do two on-screen button pushes to get to the dial pad. It’s quite inconvenient to have the phone functions spread out among multiple screens. It’s a phone after all!

The app you are using can be sent off to the Active Frame screen by swiping your finger upward from the bottom of the display to the top. A reduced ¼ page icon appears on the screen, where you can relaunch it or close it. There’s no way to close the app directly.

While on the Active Frame screen, slide your finger to the left to go to the next screens, and you’ll see three successive pages with all of your apps arranged in a grid of 16 icons per page, looking much like it does on Apple and Android phones. You can hold down any app to rearrange the collection or create folders, just as on the iPhone.

What’s confusing is that there are very different interfaces to master from page to page and the swiping action is not always predictable and sometimes frustrating. The user interface and operating system just don’t feel finished; it seems like additions were made at the last minute, and the whole thing was pieced together and rushed out.

The phone has the usual complement of features, including an app store, 4G LTE cellular capabilities, a front and rear camera, and built-in navigation. It does not have an easy way to silence the ringer and, instead, requires a swipe and touching two buttons on the display, unlike the iPhone that has a physical on/off switch.

BlackBerry’s store, called BlackBerry World, is where you get apps and content. Being just released, it has a small number of the most important apps, and lots of mediocre apps that seem to be there just to increase their number. What that does is make it more difficult to find the good apps.

One of the Z10′s best features is its on-screen keyboard. It has the most powerful autocorrect system of any phone I’ve tried, and it’s the one redeeming feature. While you type, suggested words appear above some of the letters in between the rows, often above the next letter you are about to type. When you see the correct world, swipe up on that key instead of pressing on it to complete the word and add a space.

After some typing, it learns and even brings up proper names. It really works well. I went to type “My vacation is next week” and it required only seven keystrokes or swipes.

I found call quality on the AT&T network to be fine. Battery life seemed about average, requiring a daily charge. (The battery is sealed in the phone like the iPhone). Navigating to websites was quick, but some of the text appeared a little soft as the pages were rendered.

I really wanted to like this phone. I was a BlackBerry user for many years, having used five or six generations of its phones. But once I migrated to the iPhone, it was hard to go back. The Z10 does not have enough to tempt me now, nor will it likely attract other Android, Apple or Microsoft phone users, whose phones are all easier to use and much more polished.

BlackBerry may have survived for a while, but the Z10 is not enough to take it off life-support without a major software upgrade very soon.

I’ve written before about how much I like TripIt, an app that keeps track of all your travel plans. Simply forward it all of your emailed reservations and confirmations for hotels, air, rental and restaurants, and it returns an organized itinerary with all of the details neatly organized and adds it to your calendar.

TripIt is free, but its Pro version is well worth the $50 annual subscription. It sends you messages with gate information, delays and alternative flights.

TripIt Pro now also checks the cost of your flights and can save you lots of money. Over the last several months it’s sent me emails alerting me to a drop in the airfare of flights I’m schedule to take. The alerts tell you how much you’ll save, factoring in change fees. I’ve then gone back to the reservations site, usually Southwest, Alaska and United, and have rebooked the same flights.

I’ve saved about $800 since January, much more than the cost of the service. (tripit.com)

Hang your iPhone from your dash

While on the road driving rental cars, I use my iPhone as a personal navigator. But I’m always fiddling with propping the phone up on the center console or in the ashtray.

I’ve tried carrying phone mounts, those cumbersome plastic holders with a folding arm and a large suction cup, but they take up lots of room in a briefcase and don’t work well.

I recently tested two new products, the Norm from Insanely Great Products and MT5000 from Mountek. The Norm is a flat metal tray, with a binder clip at one end. A bare iPhone fits on the tray and stays firmly in place, gripped gently between two foam-wrapped arms. The clip at the top secures phone and holder to one of the air conditioning vents on your car’s dashboard, “hanging” the phone in plain view and within easy reach. It takes up little space in your briefcase or purse.

The Norm has models available for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5. ($35, igproducts.us)

The Mountek product also hangs lets you hang your phone from your dash and is adjustable so that it works with a wide variety of phones, including normal-size models from Samsung, Apple and Motorola.

The product attaches to the CD-player slot found on the dashboard of many cars. It’s designed to fit in far enough for support, but not too far so as to activate the player.

The product is constructed of heavy-duty, matte-finished plastic and is very well engineered. ($20, mountek.com)

Of the two, I found the Mountek worked best in my BMW X3 and the Norm worked on my wife’s Toyota Highlander because its CD slot was hidden behind the display.
LinkedIn

I’ve used LinkedIn’s free version for years, but haven’t paid much attention to all of its features.

It’s been a handy way to search and network with business friends and their friends, specifically for business needs. LinkedIn is also widely used by companies and search firms for finding job candidates. It’s easy to find employees of any given company by searching by company name.

Recently, I wanted to identify and contact an executive at a specific company. I upgraded my account to the BusinessPro level for one month for $40 and was able to search for employees at that company and contact them by LinkedIn’s internal email called InMail.

LinkedIn allows 10 InMails a month at this subscription level. While they guarantee you’ll get a response, what that means is if you don’t get an answer they won’t count that as one of the 10. Another feature this level provides is to see the name of those that check your profile.

LinkedIn is a good way for professionals to present their profile to the outside business community (and recruiters) and to expand your network with others with similar business interests. (linkedin.com)

I’ve just begun testing the new BlackBerry 10, the company’s best hope for a comeback.

My first day was spent trying to figure out its unusual interface. Devoid of buttons, almost everything is accessed by swipes on the touch screen from different directions. So far it’s not intuitive and reminded me of the Chinese box puzzle with the numerous sliding panels that you need to open to get inside.

But I want to give this phone a chance before I draw any conclusions. Often, once you get past the interface, things can improve. Expect a complete review in the next week or two.
Tamrac’s Zuma 2 case for iPad and camera

This slim, vertical bag is designed to carry an iPad along with a medium-size digital camera. It’s also full of other pockets for carrying business cards, pens, batteries and memory cards.

It has a shoulder pad that stays in place and a slash pocket on the back for a magazine or boarding pass. What makes it so effective is its thin profile that automatically expands as you add a large item such as the camera. So it’s the best of both, a slim carrying bag and a camera/iPad bag in one.

This well-constructed fully padded nylon bag is a bargain at $50. (tamrac.com)

Compelling new evidence appears to substantiate charges, made in this column and elsewhere, that Toyota has suppressed evidence that electronics could be a possible cause of unintended acceleration (UA), responsible for many deaths, including San Diegans Mark Saylor, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law.

Much of this is discussed in an article by David Hechler at Corporate Counsel at the law.com website, “Is Toyota Telling the Truth About Sudden Acceleration?”

The article cites a panel of independent experts that now doubt Toyota’s explanation that floor mats or sticky accelerator pedals explain the surge in complaints. “Instead, they believe precisely what Toyota has for many years steadfastly denied: that the problem is rooted in electronics,” the article states.

The panel’s opinion has been reinforced by the disclosure of internal Toyota documents that directly contradict testimony given to Congress by several key Toyota executives. Hechler quotes excerpts from these documents to make his case. Some are included below, along with additional quotes taken from the same set of documents.

For example, Jim Lentz, the CEO of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., testified that “We are confident that no problems exist in our electronic throttle systems in our vehicles,” and that “We have done extensive testing on this system, and we have never found a malfunction that caused unintended acceleration.”

Takeshi Uchiyamada, then executive vice president and chief engineer and now named as Toyota’s next chairman, said in his prepared statement submitted to the Senate Energy, Commerce, and Transportation Committee in March 2010: “I want to be absolutely clear: As a result of our extensive testing, we do not believe sudden unintended acceleration because of a defect in our ETCS has ever happened” (emphasis added), and “We have testing data that confirms its reliability for all the markets in which we trade worldwide.”

Meanwhile, a few days later, senior Toyota electronics engineer Takashi Ogawa, in stark contrast to the above testimony, admitted under questioning by House investigators that there is no test in existence that can conclusively prove UA cannot occur: “It may be hard to understand, but there is no particular or special testing that would directly prove that there is no unintended acceleration.” Instead, he said, the engineers demonstrate UA prevention by cobbling together proof through testing under “all conceivable conditions” and to confirm it is “correctly realized as a design.”

But Toyota’s R&D chief Masatami Takimoto contradicted his own engineers, admitting in a March 2010 memo that every conceivable condition had not been anticipated: “When this Electronic Throttle Control System (ETCS) system was inspected, didn’t we fail to anticipate malfunctions such as an accelerator pedal itself remaining open?”

The company’s problems with its quality control activities were pointed out by vice president Katsuhiko Sakakibara in a memo dated February 2010: “practices that prevent quality verification are now proliferating everywhere worldwide” (emphasis in original).

And again in testimony, in response to a question by then-Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), Uchiyamada stated flatly, “There was not a single case where we could identify that the ETC defect was the cause of the unwanted or unintended acceleration.”

The claim was completely disproved in the same hearing by a description of a Camry owner named Shepard whose car had a UA incident. As described in the hearing transcript, Shepard’s own mechanic later found an accelerator pedal sensor failure. This documented failure of the ETCS was reported to Toyota at the time of the incident, in 2004.

These newly revealed documents also tell a story of what was happening behind the scenes among Toyota’s engineers, further contradicting the executive testimony. The engineers admit to electronics causes of UA events in the field.

In one email, a Japanese engineer based in Toyota’s U.S. offices requests help from colleagues in Japan to fix a “software bug” in the Tundra that causes the truck to behave in ways that “drivers consider UA.” His colleague in Japan responded that this problem would have to wait because they were too busy.

Another document is a Technical Field Report from Toyota’s Cyprus dealer written in January 2009. The dealer pleads: “… Engine revs stick at 6000 rpm without any reason. This issue occurs without any warning and at random cases. … (there were) two big car accidents in which the drivers miraculously escaped injuries. … the vehicle accelerated in an uncontrolled manner … more than 5 times … the Accelerator Sensor Assembly was replaced. … This issue could cost lives!!”

In another communication, a driver reported a Tundra zooming to 80 miles per hour, uncommanded, with ineffective brakes. When the truck was fixed, the technician noted, “short (circuit), insulation defective,” and replaced the gas pedal sensor assembly. The same document lists 547 pedal position electronic sensor assemblies that were replaced to fix speed control malfunctions that had been attributed to a mechanical “sticky pedal.”

Japan engineers also noted or investigated many varied electronics-related causes of UA and speed control issues. They include short circuits in the pedal position sensor, cruise control, poor wiring connectors, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and voltage irregularities. Numerous times throughout the documents, the electronic Engine Computer Unit (ECU) is mentioned as a possible cause for vehicle behavior that they could not understand.

Another document shows that Toyota investigated speed control issues in the car of Crown Prince Naruhito in 2008, and admitted the cause was the endless problems with the ETCS’s many components.

In spite of all of the internal discussions about electronics, Toyota stuck with its public story through its PR campaigns, advertising, sworn testimony and in its recalls, that UA is caused by floor mats and sticky pedals.

When evidence surfaced that there were other, electrical-related causes, and independent experts advanced plausible theories, Toyota never changed its public story. In several cases Toyota representatives disparaged these experts and even sued.

So where did these documents come from? They were provided to Congress by Betsy Benjaminson, an Israel-based translator who was hired to translate Toyota documents used by law firms working for Toyota in their litigation. Most are marked “secret” and “confidential” and, as a set, they disprove many of Toyota’s public pronouncements.

Benjaminson says she has gone public because she considers this to be a situation that involves life and death. She says she saw with her own eyes many hundreds of documents that revealed important details of just how much the company knew, and when the company knew it.

The documents were provided last year to the staff of Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, who has been investigating this issue. Sen. Grassley’s office said the documents were reviewed by experts who found them to be inconclusive.

When asked about the new documents, Toyota issued a statement, saying, “At Toyota, our core values have always been to pursue the highest levels of safety and quality and to continuously improve. To conclude otherwise based on a few handpicked documents, including internal deliberations about quality improvements or descriptions of prototype system testing, is misleading and simply wrong.

“At no time has anyone ever put forth any reliable scientific evidence of an alleged electronic defect in our vehicles that could cause unintended acceleration (UA). In fact, despite more than two years of unprecedented discovery and full access to our proprietary source code, plaintiffs’ counsel in federal multidistrict litigation acknowledged that they were ‘unable to reproduce a UA in a subject vehicle under driving conditions,’” Toyota said in the statement.

Yet the documents indicate that the engineers consider the electronics to be a possible cause.

But it’s not only Toyota that has tried to dismiss electronics as one of the causes of UA. When the root causes of UA remained a mystery, despite all the Congressional hearings, Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, enlisted the help of NASA engineers to perform an analysis of Toyota’s electronic throttle control system. But before their investigation could be completed, LaHood exonerated Toyota, based on NASA not having yet found conclusive evidence of a specific flaw in Toyota’s system design.

But subsequently, the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, which administered the NASA study, admitted that no system safety analysis was performed. According to engineering experts, such as those quoted in the Corporate Counsel article, LaHood’s sound bite summarizing NASA’s findings as exonerating Toyota, was inaccurate and misleading.

In fact, a source that I spoke to within the government with knowledge of this work at NASA, said NASA engineers were quite incensed at LaHood’s statement, particularly because they were not given the tools or evidence to conduct the investigation. I would not be surprised if NASA eventually comes forward with evidence that shows some electronic anomalies.

While the documents don’t show that the company fully understands the exact electronic failure mechanisms leading to UA, they offer compelling evidence of misrepresentations of the company’s knowledge about the many kinds of electronics-related causes of UA that occurred and could not be attributed to mats, sticky pedals or driver error.

Other memos and emails show a lack of understanding of the true causes of UA resulted from Toyota’s failure to do a thorough job in the design and quality testing of the cars in question.

One admission comes in a memo from Toyota’s then-R&D chief, Masatami Takimoto, written to Uchiyamada and Sasaki who were about to testify in the Senate.

“This is Takimoto. I read in the newspaper that you were both called to testify in the Senate. I think the cause of all this trouble is that we did not complete the vehicle development process sufficiently. There is no excuse and I am sorry.”

Meanwhile, Uchiyamada insists in an email to a subordinate prior to his testimony: “We are severely tortured to no end, aren’t we? We may have made technical errors and our response may have been slow, but all we can do is keep the faith that Toyota is not lying or being deceitful (Toyota is not that kind of company).”

Well, is it, or not?

On Feb. 15, 2010 in this column I wrote, “In the case of Toyota, its recent problems are not that they occurred, but that the company failed to take quick action to fix them once they were discovered. Instead Toyota risked its reputation, built up painstakingly over five decades, by minimizing the seriousness of these issues, by not being forthcoming, and by covering them up.” Based on this new evidence, that remains true.

My conclusion is that there were, and hopefully still are, dedicated, hard-working engineers within the company trying to find the electronic causes of UA. There is nothing that indicates that Toyota has found an answer and has covered it up. Its fault has been in providing false reassurances to the public that electronics can be ruled out and the causes of the problem have been identified.

Toyota executives let their engineers down, as well as owners and future buyers of Toyota automobiles who continue to face risk. And sadly, our own government was complicit, as well. Most importantly, Toyota owners, including myself and my family, should not accept the assurances from Toyota executives that electronics is not a cause.

Twenty years ago, when I was with Seiko, I worked on a gadget called the Kitchen Whiz. This was before the Internet, before Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but even back then, companies were trying to bring technology into the kitchen, an area thought to be ripe for opportunity.

The Kitchen Whiz was a glorified calculator that let you figure out the appropriate portions of ingredients for recipes. It had a collection of other features, including a built-in timer and clock and was able to convert units used in cooking. It sold for about $30 and it was a huge failure. Why? It was difficult to use, and it was designed mostly by men who thought they knew what women wanted. And it was made on the assumption that the kitchen was in need of technological gadgets.

But that wasn’t the only failure of products aimed for the kitchen that flopped. In fact, most attempts failed. One infamous product was an LG refrigerator with a built-in computer, screen and all, on the door. HP tried marketing a family computer with a touch screen that sat on the counter with a calendar and a message center, only to fail, as well. And 3Com developed a product called Audrey that reportedly sold just a few dozen.

There was the SmartShopper Grocery-List Organizer, a $150 electronic gadget that you would use to record food items to add to its shopping list. You would then print out the list to take with you to the grocery store. My wife Jane assessed it correctly when she said it’s harder to use than paper and a pencil.

But technology for the kitchen is changing. At last we’re seeing some products that make much more sense. Appliances such as those from Breville add electronics to measure moisture and make better toast. Most notably, the iPad has caught on as one of the first and most useful “kitchen computers.” It’s finding wide use to search for recipes on the Internet and to display eBook cookbooks, some with gorgeous images and how-to videos.

Williams-Sonoma has developed a Smart Tools series, which are kitchen accessories for use with the iPad. One is an attractive circular stand clad in brushed metal that blends with high-end appliances. Another is a Bluetooth speaker with a built-in microphone to take calls.

The Kitchen-Stand for iPads holds any size tablet in a horizontal or vertical direction. It’s just less than five inchess in diameter, heavily weighted for stability, with a non-slip silicone base. It costs $50.

Williams-Sonoma’s Smart Tools Bluetooth Speaker is an accessory speaker for the iPad that matches the stand’s appearance, so that the stand can stack on top of the speaker, making it look like a single product and reducing counter clutter. Use it to play music, watch videos and as a speakerphone. It has a built-in battery and can be used to charge an iPhone and iPad simultaneously through its two USB ports. It sounds good, similar to other portable speakers such as the Jambox.

One gadget I like is the electronic scale such as the OXO food scale ($50). It weighs in 1/8-oz and 1-gram increments up to 11 pounds. You can cancel out the weight of the container with a button push. Numbers are large and backlit, and the display can be pulled away from the scale to read when there’s a large container on it. ($50, Williams-Sonoma.com)

There are also a variety of clever apps designed for kitchen use. Kitchen Dial for the iPad and iPhone displays two rotating wheels that let you easily convert measurements you use in the kitchen, including teaspoons, liters, quarts and pounds.

Wave Timer is a simple-to-use kitchen timer that lets you turn off the alarm with a simple wave of the hand, avoiding getting food on your iPad or iPhone. Both apps are free.

In spite of its past failures, the kitchen is still a tantalizing target for LG. It has taken its failed refrigerator computer to the next level. At last year’s CES, they showed their Smart ThinQ technology that connects various appliances together and to your iPhone. LG’s smart refrigerators, stoves and washing machines can be monitored while watching TV. Instead of being interrupted by a commercial, you’ll be interrupted with the message “laundry is done.”

Another gadget, the LG Smart Manager, transforms their refrigerator into a “food management system.” An information panel on the refrigerator check’s the status of the food items stored inside, including location and expiration date. It will suggest recipes that can be made from the the ingredients. You input the data by scanning your food receipts and using voice recognition. Simply absurd.

My advice is if you want to bring some tech into your kitchen, keep it simple. Use an iPad and some of the simpler and practical products such as those described above. Hold off on the other stuff, which is really just technology looking for a purpose.