Cibbuano
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Matt Shea
David O'Connell
Mountain FogThe LG Arena
June 17th 2009 01:34
I've been so used to using my underpowered, simple mobile phone that I've never realized how much power can be contained in these little devices. It's easy enough to fill your pockets with gadgets - music players, pocket computers and mobiles - but that's just weighing me down. And I'm only holding up my pants with a length of electrical tape.
The smartphone revolution is here, promising consumers a single device to converge all these technologies into one simple package. We've seen a variety of releases, starting from the high-profile iPhone, and LG enters the battleground with a fitting name: the LG Arena.
Sitting comfortably in my hand, I'm initially thrown off by the idea of using the touchscreen to move the menus around. The applications sit happily on the sides of a rotating cube; flicking my finger across the touchscreen turns the virtual shape, allowing easy access to contact, music and apps.
Even better, the built-in camera works great, taking appropriately gloomy pictures of the Blue Mountains. I was up there two weeks ago, in the middle of a foggy afternoon, scattered showers emptying the walking paths. A low-hanging cloud moved menacingly through the valley, obscuring Wentworth Falls and casting an eerie pallour over the sky, like the opening scene in "Aguirre, Wrath of God".
Unfortunately, the LG Arena suffers from some drawbacks - the phone can crash while executing applications, such as taking video, and sometimes, it just doesn't feel responsive enough.
Regardless, I found it quite easy to use, with thoughtful features making my life easier, like phone number auto-complete. There's almost no greater mobile-related joy than having your little phone guess the right number as you type... it saves me from making mistakes with my clumsy fingers. Additionally, the phone has a built-in FM transmitter, allowing you to program your own radio stations while on road trips.
There's one point about the Arena that made me an enthusiastic advocate of the phone: accessing the files on the device. It can be a real hassle to get information on and off your mobile phone, with most manufacturers providing some awful software to allow users to access photos and video.
Sure, the LG Arena comes with a utility disk, which allows WIndows users to run software to access the phone, but I'm using Linux. The air tastes free, but it only blows from one direction. What could I do?
Lovely! Once plugged into my USB port, the phone lights up with several options, including one for 'USB mass storage'. Selecting this option converts your LG Arena from a phone to - get this - an external storage disk.
I could freely access all the photos I took, as well as video, from my file manager. This is such an excellent option that it makes the LG Arena the perfect choice for Linux users, who are reluctant to boot into a Windows partition just to access a few photos. Windows users will also enjoy this feature, as it makes it easy to upload or download video from the phone.
Now, the Arena is back in its box, silently waiting to be turned back on, begging me to rip open its tomb and free it from the shackles of disuse.
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Comment by Jason King
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Comment by Perhaps they are searching for particular colored phones?
Maybe they are not just looking for the gold line, but also different colored Chocolate phones? There was not only basic black, but also white and pink, and especially the purple one that launched later! The various colored phones may have been sold in different countries, so maybe the new Chocolate phone rumored to come out is going to be in a different color too…