Gadgetory

this is stephen skarlatos of pocketnow.com and in this part of the video review of the mwg zing 2 we're going to take a look at the preloaded software accessing YouTube and using the keyboard first off let's look at the preinstalled applications under the main start menu we have the basic calendar application pocket Internet Explorer pocket outlook task manager in windows media task manager is a new Windows Mobile 61 application which allows you to view what is running and also n tasks this application provides you with many more viewing options than the original windows mobile memory applications we found under the system setting next we'll go to programs first off we'll go to the mobile office programs which include word excel one note in PowerPoint and they're all compatible with office 2007 in the main program group we've got the standard calculator camera standard contacts file explorer GPS viewer which I used in part two internet sharing the java runtime is preloaded messenger IM i installed the windows live search the mwg auto config which does not configure the device for North American cellular carriers go figure how they did that I did install my mobile er which I used in part to the standard notes remote desktop which is new to Windows Mobile 61 the search application sim manager streaming player tasks windows live search in the zinc to menu system which is what i call a poor man's HTC touch flow all kidding aside the zinc to menu allows you quick access to windows media pictures and videos camera and games it's easy to use with your fingers as well there's no way to terminate the application on the screen but you can use the button on the left hand side let take a look at settings under the personal settings all the basic settings are there in the system settings all the windows mobile basic settings are there and in the connection settings you've got a couple additional programs one is the band selection which allows you to select 3g 2g or auto the wireless manager at the bottom here which allows you to control flight mode and turn on and turn off radios and then you have the Wi-Fi utility which allows you to see which Wi-Fi hotspot you're connected to let's bring upward and test out the keyboard first of all we'll pull out the screen and you can see that the screen rotation that happens quite quickly which is very good so the keyboard has three rows of keys a dedicated start okay and soft menu keys the keys are not raised this is a flat membrane keyboard with ridges between the keys at first I thought it might be difficult to type with but you do get used to it because the keys themselves are large and the tactile response of the membrane is quite good you do have to use the function key for numbers and symbols and I wish they would have made the spacebar key larger it's basically the standard key size but overall I have to say that I like this keyboard now for the final test in this review will take a look at youtube I'll bring up pocket Internet Explorer which up preloaded with the mobile YouTube and then we play the video which initiates the streaming player that connects to youtube and starts buffering my signal strength here is pretty poor so the buffering could experience some issues but it's playing pretty smoothly right now by pressing the screen I can go into landscape mode and into full screen and you can see it's doing pretty well although here it stopped offering and went back to portrait mode so my next test will be to see if I can get a better signal through Wi-Fi so I'll jump over to the wireless manager and bring up the Wi-Fi which will connect to my access point exit out of there and go back to pocket Internet Explorer and try to reinitiate the streaming player I've had a problem where when I go back into pocket Internet Explorer sometimes the link to the streaming player won't work i have to close out internet explorer go back in and then click again in the second time it seems to load the streaming player i'm not quite sure what that's about the streaming player here tries to connect but with Wi-Fi turned on I keep getting errors so my deduction is that the streaming player only works with the cellular data network and because I don't have a good enough signal in the house it's not connecting well at all which is I think a very poor design it should use the fastest available network whether it be Wi-Fi or cellular that does it for this part of the review and I'll be back with some final thoughts and a usability test