I managed to resist temptation during O2’s first Joggler special offer, but after having a look at someone else’s I failed to resist the second time round. If you can find an O2 cashback deal on their mobile broadband dongle, it’s even possible to get a Joggler for £35, although I must admit I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to cashback offers.
The Joggler doesn’t appear to have got particularly good reviews and in trying to describe what a Joggler is, it’s easy to see why people are skeptical; it’s a bit like a really bad iPhone that you a) can’t use to phone anyone and b) can’t use outside your house. The software that comes with the Joggler is disappointing, which doesn’t help. It’s a shame because I think the basic principles for the apps are good as far as they go, but the execution is just not there yet. For example, the guide rightly notes that a tap-and-hold is not intuitive, but to move or delete apps that is exactly what you have to do. I also quite like being able to tap the time to display the clock screen saver straight away, but that isn’t exactly obvious either. The on screen keyboard is inconsistent, although I have on seen two so far. There’s a ‘commonly used’ information icon, but it’s so uncommon that I don’t think I’ve actually seen it. Right up there next to the home icon for every app would be nice. Browsing through music or photos is painful. The messaging app doesn’t allow short SMS codes. Let’s just say that there’s plenty of areas for improvement, although it is just possible that things will get better: the Joggler does get updates and something decent may yet turn up in the Joggler app store!
You might think that I’m disappointed by the Joggler, but I’m actually very happy with it, especially for the price. One big bonus is that the hardware is excellent, although even here there is one tiny omission… how can it possibly not have some kind of SD card slot? That just seems mad. Still, unlike a few people I know, I’m not quite ready to ditch the O2 software and replace it with something completely different. Despite shortcomings with the current apps, I like the concept and it’s certainly good enough for the (reduced) price. For example, I’ve been using the internet radio a fair bit; it disconnects now and then but is otherwise far better than DAB radio. I’ve also been checking the traffic app most mornings. It’s not great (I wish it at least had motorway junctions marked on the map) but it’s good enough to see when the worst of the morning rush is over. I would really like to use a calendar app as well and, having tried the google one, I may actually sign up for an O2 calendar to see how it compares. Google calendars are fine, but I don’t want to see all my google calendars on the Joggler and I couldn’t see any way to pick which calendar(s) to show in the app.
So for now, apart from a bit of tinkering (downloading Ubuntu for the Joggler at the moment for a quick look), I’m planning to leave it mostly as is. In the future it would be nice to get it to run the few bits I have on my other home server, some home automation apps would be interesting, a decent feed reader instead of that Sky news rubbish would be handy, an Opera mini app would be great, etc. etc. Thinking about getting hold of the Joggler SDK to see what that’s like.
I was collecting a few handy looking links while investigating whether to buy one…
…but Graham and Nathan have that pretty well covered already.
All in all, £35 for a hackable internet radio isn’t bad. And I do really like the clock!
Notes from a small field 
I got my joggler over the weekend, and I really like it, and even better, Mrs D loves it. I haven’t tried hacking it yet, but I like the idea of the ubuntu USB idea. I will definately be giving that a go.
The price, for the radio alone, is worth it in my opinion. I love the radio on it.
I downloaded the SDK yesterday thinking I might have a look at trying to develop an app for it. As you say, there is literally nothing in the app store.
What I didn’t realise is that all the apps are flash – as far as I can make out. The SDK is basically a flash file with a bunch of flash scripts.
So on one hand, it will probably be pretty straight forward to create the apps – is there an open flash twitter client anywhere?? But on the other hand, this probably explains why there is no web browser yet. I also wonder whether they will move to a different platform in a future release, as I just can’t see them sticking with flash for the apps.
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Work in progress but you might be interested in http://www.vimeo.com/10895264
Cheers,
James
Just spotted that it’s possible to run Chumby widgets on the Joggler after following the ‘any flash .swf file can be launched easily‘ link on Anton’s post above. For some reason I hadn’t made the connection between the two devices so it was a bit of a lightbulb moment. I wonder if the freeware FlashDevelop, mentioned on the Chumby widget development guide, will work with the Joggler SDK.
That shopping app looks interesting. I wonder how good it would be to handle a full shop from scratch but would be neat to use/tweak preconfigured shopping lists. Search by barcode number would be handy as well.
Looks like there’s more info. on the Tesco app that James mentioned on the Joggler.Info forums.
If you think the internet radio app is great, you should load up the Logitech Squeeze Player app (birdslikewires.co.uk), it is flippin’ awesome… blows the internet radio app away… if you have a server with music on it, the Squeeze Server software shares it all to the Squeeze Player… its lovely… :)
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