My last posting was a description of our dilemma with the LG Optimus V price increase. Since that time I have received 3 more phones, 2 of which were low cost Chinese imports and the other two mainstream phones purchased on eBay. Let's start with the low cost Chinese phones. The first one from China Vision called Eclipse is an attractive phone with Android 2.2, an attractive 3.2" capacitive screen and a unique (for US market) dual SIM design. I installed the AT&T SIM in SIM slot 1 and after some modest configuration time was able to send text messages and acquire ATT 3G coverage. The WIFI radio is a bit shaky, constantly connecting and disconnecting similar to the way the Galaxy Tablet often acts so no reason to put it down for that reason. I turned off the WIFI and began to test it on our application. The first problem was the phone does not come standard with the USB drivers required for side loading applications. After reading the worthless manual and contacting responsive but non helpful technical support I gave up. We have the ability to load the application via a server link so I went that route. Once I had the application installed I received an error message that it required an SD memory card. After installing a 2GB SD card I rebooted the phone and launched the application and it loaded perfectly. I performed routing testing starting with the thermometer, pulse Oximeter, and blood sugar monitor. The first two tests were flawless and then the Blood Sugar Monitor failed to connect and began requesting the pairing code which had already been entered. I went through this process 4 or 5 times and then threw the phone into the trash can! Just kidding, but I could not determine a method of getting it to work. I have set it aside with the idea of getting back to it after testing some of the other phones. The next phone was the Huawei IDEOS phone. This phone appears to be a very high quality device with a smaller screen at 2.8" with a beautiful and responsive capacitive screen and version 2.1 of Android O/S. This phone was well equipped with memory and had its USB drivers preinstalled and loaded Gmail, app installer and the Androiter application flawlessly. Same with pairing the devices and running through the tests and then BAM! It began rejecting the Nonin Pulse Oximeter and the blood sugar monitor despite repeated successful pairings with the phone. I set that aside before it went flying out the window, count to 10 and all of that nonsense. I thought I should shift gears and work with the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S and T-Mobile Motorola Defy phones. The Motorola Defy was a joy to load the SIM and turn on with the exception of Moto blur. What a bloated piece or crap that is, but once you are past the early stage of enabling this is a nice phone and very appropriate for the M Health market due to its water proof and dust resistant characteristics. Samsung had a huge hit with the Galaxy S selling over 10 Million phones in 2010. It is a beautiful full featured device and I looked forward to getting back to 4" screens and predictable performance from US carrier phones. Wow did I get kicked in the teeth. I paired all the devices and upon loading the Androiter application I am given an error message that the phone will not accept non market applications. I quickly went to settings/applications and found it does not have the selection for Unknown Sources. I Googled side loading on ATT Galaxy S and found much to my chagrin that ATT's version of the Galaxy S indeed blocked loading of any non market application. Not to be outdone, I Rooted the damn thing. Didn't matter, still blocked non market apps. Android Central to the rescue with their Sideload Wonder Machine. This wonderful little tool enables side loading on the phone. Success, I loaded the app and it works great. Nice phone, but what a pain in the butt. So, to recap, my wonderful idea of buying low cost phones resulted in wasting a ton of time and getting scared that Android phones and the various Android versions they use are so fragmented that they will cause a nightmare for M Health providers such as LifeSignals to support. At the end of the day, we have concluded that we need to certify as broad a selection of phones possible from carriers in the US market. If we are diligent in this process we can proactively identify the problematic devices and Android builds and either solve the problem or identify in advance that we don't support the device.
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