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Nokia’s Windows Phone 7 concept emerges

Matt P. — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 06:46:30 +0000

Right on the heels of Nokia and Microsoft announcing they’re joining forces we get an early glimpse of what they’ve been working on. Details on these devices are very scarce at the moment, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing something come out within the next few weeks and months. But until that day comes, lets sit back and admire these tri-color concepts Nokia and Microsoft have came up with. Closer look at the back three after the break.

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Nokia Shows No Class, No Class At All

Zealot — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:49:11 +0000

This is really sad, since I was actually beginning to think my dismissal of the new Nokia lineup was a bit hasty. The new screen technology seems to be really nice, and there is no denying the N8 and E7 are slick looking phones (if horribly named), even if the software is showing its age. I also enjoyed the tasteful shows of attitude the Nokia execs have been showing at Nokia World, saying they refused to apologize for not being Apple. It was as if Nokia was signaling they were comfortable as the elder statesman of the mobile world, and were ready to focus on the things they were good at, despite calls to do otherwise.

Then things go bad. Admittedly, Nokia World in London was booked well in advance and the HTC event was just scheduled a few weeks ago, so Nokia may be feeling a bit shirty about it. However, dig the calendar Nokia, just about EVERY tech vendor is having an event or announcement over the next couple weeks. There are BOUND to be some conflicts. Take the high road, choose tolerance, be gracious, show WHY Nokia is viewed as such a mature, stable company, yadda yadda.

Instead, they decided to go pure bush league.

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The Last Days of Nokia

Zealot — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:35:39 +0000

They had quite a run.To a very real degree the Finnish giant Nokia created the mobile phone market from nothing and for well more than a decade they reigned supreme over it. However the market Nokia created and Nokia has inexplicably refused to for years….until now. And now, the changes that have been unleashed in Nokia are looking more and more like bad choices and pure chaos as the 15th annual Nokia World begins tomorrow with the company with even less to show than last year…and everyone agreed last year’s Nokia World was dire.

Remember the devices that were the big reveals at last year’s Nokia World? The Maemo OS which is already dead and gone, the N900 which is already off the market and will mainly be remembered as the only device to ever natively run Maemo, and the Nokia Booklet, an overpriced netbook which may have been sold to one or two Nokia employees but that’s it.

So what has changed for Nokia over the last year? First and foremost the longtime CEO, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was shown the door after Nokia bled away 75 percent of its market cap over the last three years. He was replaced by 43-year-old Stephen Elop from Canada, the first non-Finn to head the company. He was headhunted from Microsoft where he headed the Microsoft Office division. Looking at his resume, I would say his biggest advantage in his new job is that he has long experience working with the Silicon Valley culture that has so confounded Nokia in the past.

However, in addition to the likelihood a Canadian head will fail to win the heart of his Finnish workers (or for that matter, a nation which supports Nokia like it was a football team, or their greatest claim to fame) he is also a logistics guy and a manager…when what Nokia really needs is an inspirational, product-design minded visionary. That is even more true today as the man who has been called the Jonathan Ive of Nokia, the smartphone evangelist with the big plans, Mobile Solutions head Anssi Vanjoki just resigned. It may be that he lost a bid to be CEO, or is casting a no-confidence vote against Elop in advance. It may be that he simply sees that the old order is changing at Nokia and feels he should change with it.

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Nokia, RIM Respond To Apple’s Claims

Diego Samuilov — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:00:00 +0000

After last week’s “they do it too” from Apple regarding the iPhone 4’s signal problems; Nokia and Research In Motion have responded to Apple’s claim. The Antennagate seems to continue forever. Had Apple resisted the urge to hit back, with childish justifications for what is clearly a hardware design flaw and replaced the faulty units; this would have been water under the bridge by now. Instead, now Nokia and Research In Motion (makers of BlackBerry smartphones) are hitting back hard defending themselves for an unjustified attack from Apple.

First was Nokia’s rebuttal, then RIM’s but both have pretty good points to make. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that none of the smartphones mentioned actually lose enough signal to the point of dropping a call or broadband connection altogether. You can certainly hold all other devices from any side without the drastic loss of signal you would experience in an iPhone 4. Both rebuttals have been strong punches back. While getting to the point, they are both classy moves that show Apple’s errors while trying to give the whole issue a PR spin.

Nokia has officially responded with a long but milder statement: “Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict. In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.”

RIM’s co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have issued a statement that was quite stronger: “Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.”

Both companies point fingers at Apple’s “form over function” choices, while stating clearly that their products are backed by both R&D tests and market proven products measured in multiple decades. They also make a point of highlighting the audacity of creating a “shiny object effect” that can lead consumers to selecting a product that has not been thoroughly tested so it could be brought to market faster whose sole objective is to round up as many dollars as possible.

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Gartner: Android is the Iceberg Awaiting the RMS Symbian

Zealot — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:01:34 +0000

Nick Jones, a VP at Gartner, is not holding out much hope for recent changes aimed at making Symbian viable again. Sure Symbian and Nokia still have enormous market share, but with Samsung closing in on Nokia’s handset crown, and Nokia relegating Symbian to feature phones in the future due to pressure from Android and iOS 4 it is clear the Salad Days at the Symbian Foundation are over.

Jones feels that the only way to save Symbian is for the Symbian Foundation and Nokia (who write most of the actual code) to focus every single resource at the upcoming new version….and he doesn’t see that. Instead, Symbian is still acting like the comfortable incumbent, dabbling in side projects and interesting academic discussions. Everyone else knows that Symbian is fighting for its life and losing…why doesn’t Symbian?

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Nokia N9 Hardware Gets Videoed

Zealot — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:50:26 +0000

Big changes going on at Nokia as the gang from Finland are desperately trying to regain relevance before the massive number of feature phones they have sold in Europe go EOL and the users buy Android or iOS products. It has already been announced that the upcoming N8 will be Symbian’s last stand as a smartphone OS. The new version of Symbian will shore up Nokia’s feature phone dominance, making all the handsets Nokia sells, if not smartphones, then cleverphones.

Maemo is dead already, the N900 will have been it’s one brush with greatness, but the OS is part of Meego (along with Intel’s Moblin) which will be powering tablets and smartphones such as the quite impressive looking N9, captured after the jump on video by Negri Electronics (apparently an electronics store).

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MeeGo for Tablets Demoed

Zealot — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:19:22 +0000

If Nokia is indeed going to release a Tablet this year, it is tipped to be running the MeeGo OS. MeeGo is a joint project by Nokia and Intel and is built two from the remains of two partially completed Linux based mobile OSes. A few months ago they combined Nokia’s Maemo and Intel’s Moblin into a single entity (confused? me too…who thinks up these names, and what is up with all the M’s?).

Whatever the convoluted history of the new OS, it does seem to be getting close to reality. Engadget recently scored a video demo of the OS running on a Tablet and I admit it is pretty impressive. If you can get past the inept voiceover (Glad I didn’t see this demo live…“Hello tech fans and welcome to the MeeGo demo What is MeeGo you may ask. Well, Me Going to Tell You ”), you’ll see that MeeGo looks fast and sexy and well suited to a touch screen operation.

Will it challenge iOS’s early lead? It certainly looks like it could, but I have learned not to underestimate Nokia’s ability to mess up product launches, so I will reserve judgment…assuming they really ARE making a Meego Tablet.

Check out the video after the jump.

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Nokia Tablet by the End of the Year?

Zealot — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:08:25 +0000

This rumor is coming from Digitimes, my favorite Taiwanese snipe hunters so take this with the appropriate grains of salt, but they say that Nokia has a tablet coming.

A Senior Research Analyst (whatever that is) at Digitimes says that Nokia is preparing a 7 or 9 inch tablet for release in the fourth quarter of this year. In addition the analyst contends that the tablet will be ARM based and run Meego.

The analyst says that Nokia has already made 100 engineering samples of the new iPad rival, which is being manufactured by Foxconn International Holdings, which is a Hong Kong based subsidiary of the more infamous Foxconn based in China. Nokia is expected to provide the their tablet through their Telecom partners, just as they did with their Booklet mini-laptop.

It would be somewhat appropriate if Nokia is really planning to sell this tablet via their Telecom channels, since I expect it to flop even more badly than the Booklet did. Nokia’s recent tech history has been filled with instances of them arriving late to the party with badly overpriced devices. I expect a Nokia tablet to be more of the same…if it happens at all. A hundred engineering samples is a lot of devices to have out there and still avoid some kind of leak or picture, especially if it just months from release. Also, there have been no rumbles from the usual suspects of a new Nokia product being spotted on website logs. I will believe this one when I see it.

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Three NEW handsets from Nokia

Jack Cook — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:48:17 +0000

Nokia has announced three new handsets – the Nokia C3, Nokia C6 and Nokia E5 – designed to put better messaging and social networking tools in the hands of more people around the world, at affordable prices. These new handsets feature full QWERTY keyboards, and enable access to a range of different email accounts, IM communities and social networks.

The Nokia C3 is the first device to bring a full QWERTY keyboard to the world’s most popular mobile phone platform – Series 40 – and is the first in the range to enable access to social networks directly on the homescreen. People can view, comment, update their status and share pictures to their favorite social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

The Nokia C6 is a Symbian-based smartphone combining the benefits of a 3.2 inch touch screen with a full slide out keyboard. The large screen provides a great Internet experience, as well as offering access to Facebook feeds directly on the homescreen. A full suite of email and social networking capabilities means the Nokia C6 is perfect for people who want to stay up to date while on the go.

Rounding off the trio is the latest addition to the Nokia Eseries range, the Nokia E5. Designed for those that want to be productive in both their professional and personal lives, the Symbian-based Nokia E5 follows the successful blueprint of devices such as the Nokia E72 and Nokia E63. The Nokia E5 combines high quality business features with all of the personal networking and entertainment capabilities that a busy professional expects from a smartphone.

Check out these new additions here at Nokia

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Getting used to the Nokia n900

Rich Bilancia — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:01:39 +0000

I have now used the Nokia n900 as my primary device for about six weeks. I figured it’s about time for me to post what I’ve been doing with it. I will not attempt an exhaustive review for MobilitySite.com as "Chris H" has already done a Nokia N900- Hands-On and is doing the official review for MobilitySite.com.

I’ve decided to take a different approach. Forget about the specs, software, first impressions, etc. Rather, I will focus on what I’ve done with the n900. I will report what works well and what doesn’t as well, all from the perspective of a committed Windows Mobile user for much of the last decade. Since I’m also a T-Mobile customer, I’ll share my experiences with the device on a 3G network.

As has been written elsewhere, I absolutely agree that:

the n900 has the absolute best browser ever available on any handheld device. Yes, it is that good!
the n900 is not for everyone. It is a device for “tweakers” and has enormous potential.

The phone is not an iPhone competitor. As stated in the Brighthand.com review, “…it’s just not a device for mainstream or prosumer smartphone/mobile computer users. This isn’t a knock on Nokia, they announced the device not targeted to these types of users. The N900 is meant to be pushed, tweaked, and built on.” By way of example, there have been two over-the-air (OTA) updates in the short time that I’ve had the device. The first of these updates was a major update and the second was a minor update. For what it is worth, I’ve never experienced an over-the-air update for Windows Mobile.

As an old UNIX hack and since Maemo, the OS of the device under the hood of the Nokia n900, is a version of LINUX, I’ve been right at home doing my share of tweaking. The list of apps available for Maemo and the n900 is compelling and growing. I started using the device by first trying to see if I could replicate everything that I liked best about Windows Mobile. As you might guess, not everything is yet there. However, what surprised me is much, if not most, is there.

What works comparably to Windows Mobile

Connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server – e-mail, contacts, calendar and tasks sync out-of-the-box. Notes do not sync. While tasks and calendar entries do sync, they are blended together rather than being fully separated. Push e-mail does not work, but the n900 can be configured to sync in as little as every 15 minutes.
Virtually everything that you can do with your browser on a PC can be done on the n900 browser that is included with the device. In addition, FireFox Mobile v1.0.0 has recently become available for the n900.
Tethering (connecting to and using the T-Mobile internet access on a laptop) – after installing Nokia’s PC Suite, tethering over a USB connection works. However, I prefer Bluetooth wireless tethering and and that too works after installing an app called “Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking” v1.1-1
Remote Desktop control of a Windows PC (RDP) works with the installation of the “rdesktop” v1.6.3-maemo3 application.
Over the years I’ve learned to rely upon Windows Mobile apps (like MyMobiler) to control my Windows Mobile devices from a Windows PC and to be able to take mobile device screen captures and immediately and directly store them on the controlling and connected Windows PC. Such remote control functionality is also available on the n900 by installing, using and starting “x11vnc” v0.9.3-maemo7 on the n900. Then, connecting via WiFi to the n900 IP address from a VNC viewer on the Windows PC. I found that lengthening the n900 screen timeout helps when used in this manner. In addition, I found that using “Personal IP Address” v0.3-6 helpful to show my IP address on my desktop, allowing me to easily know the IP address to enter into my VNC viewer on my Windows PC.
WithUNIX tools that have been ported to Windows and are freely available, the n900 can browse files on networked PCs and vice versa.
I also learned that the device can perform its own screen captures directly by pressing [Cntl][Shift]P. Screen capture images are stored in the “~/Images/Screenshots” directory each time this key combination is pressed.
MSN chat – to get this working, go to Maemo.org and search for the “Maemo Extras” or “Maemo Extras Devel” repository settings. Once you add these catalogs, look for “MSN (pecan) protocol plug-in” to add MSN.

What’s missing compared to Windows Mobile

I’m a big user of a subset of the functionality in Microsoft’s Voice Messenger for Windows Mobile. Specifically, I like to enable the automatic text-to-voice of high priority messages so that they are read aloud to me. Unfortunately, I could not find similar functionality in Maemo for the n900. I did find an app, “eSpeak Speech Synthesizer” v1.43 that does simple text-to-voice, proving that the n900 device has the capability. Unfortunately, is does not yet integrate with other apps.
I also use Microsoft’s Live Mesh (beta) regularly and have become quite dependent on it. There is no Live Mesh app for the n900. I thought that I might be able to do what I needed from within the n900 browser but was unsuccessful.
The Live search (now called Bing search) application with the included ability of voice recognition is similarly not available.

What’s included that’s not in Windows Mobile

If you’re not familiar with DLNA, you should be. According to Wikipedia, the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) “…is a standard used by manufacturers of consumer electronics to allow entertainment devices within the home to share their content with each other across a home network.” When I first connected the Nokia n900 wirelessly via WiFi to my home network, I got my first real world experience with DLNA. Without doing anything else at all, my entire library of music, video and pictures was accessible from the Nokia n900. Needless to say, I was very impressed. DLNA simply and easily allowed me to listen to my music and watch my videos that had been previously stored on my Windows 7 computers.

3G on T-Mobile

While I’ve been a long-time T-Mobile customer, this was the first device that I’ve used with T-Mobile’s 3G data services (3G in Northern Colorado just got turned-on a couple of months ago). Not only was I able to use the 3G service with my existing Total Internet plan with T-mobile on my post-paid account, I was pleasantly surprised to also be able to use it with a T-Mobile prepaid SIM as long as I changed from a regular prepaid account to a SideKick prepaid account. Such capabilities should give lots of people lots of options!

Downloads are quick with 3G, but they are even quicker with WiFi. One of the nice features of the n900 is to configure WiFi networks with a higher priority than 3G. When you’re able to connect to a remembered WiFi access point, WiFi is used rather than 3G. When no remembered WiFi access point is available, a 3G connection is used.

The Cameras

The 5MP camera with the Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash takes pictures that to my eyes are simply gorgeous. I take long walks every day around a lake adjoining a state park with my dog and have always enjoyed the convenience of a cell phone camera to take pictures of the wildlife that I see. The camera on the n900 has made that habit even more pleasurable. To see a sample of some pictures taken with the n900, click here.

Other apps and capabilities

I’ve been using these apps regularly:

OVI maps with the GPS radio – I‘ve found that also installing GPSJinni makes OVI maps work more robustly.
Bluetooth dialup networking
The FM radio player
ForecaWeather
Freoffice to view Office documents
the Firefox browser
StockThis – for monitoring the stock markets
listen to music with the included wired headset
listen to music with a Bluetooth A2DP Headphones
watch a videos and movies
talk on the phone using a Bluetooth headset
make & receive calls over the Bluetooth “hands free” function in my Honda Accord
use the ussd-widget for determining my cell phone usage

I’ve used these occasionally:

fbReader for e-book reading
MGutenberg for e-book reading
Skype
Google Talk with DialCentral
video out to TV
JoikuSpot – turns the device into a mobile WiFi hotspot
Integrated FM transmitter and listen to my music collection through my car radio
Vim – the UNIX visual editor
eSpeak – the speech synthesizer I mentioned above

I noted and need to try these:

QIK: uploads video to Youtube
Maemo Wordp & MaStory for blogging
iNES – a NES emulator

If you are interested in adding any of these or other such application, you will need to learn how to use Maemo repositories. This site has the directions clearly laid out for adding new catalogs to find such apps.

Some tips and tricks

There are few ways to zoom in and out with the browser:

Circular gestures for zooming in and/or out
double clicking in an area zooms to the column width of that area
the volume control button can also be used

The Nokia n900 does not come with a case. You should be aware that cases with magnet latches awaken the device. My work-around for this issue has been to place the device in “secure” mode with an unlock code.

Mugen Power Batteries has announced a bigger battery for the N900 that should give more hours of use when it is released next month. The details on the battery can be found here.

A couple of problems

I’ve not had perfect success with everything. In fact, I’ve experienced two challenges that I’m still working to resolve:

I occasionally like using a Bluetooth keyboard (specifically an iGo StowAway) with phones when I need to do a lot of typing. I’ve been able to pair my keyboard with the n900 but have not yet successfully gotten it to work. Others seem to be having similar problems and there is a discussion here that I’ll be trying.
I’ve also had some problems with the GPS, but I think it’s been my fault. The difficulty began after I tried to move the maps from internal memory to my 16GB microSDHC card. I may need to re-flash to get things working again.

Conclusion

As I stated at the opening, the Nokia n900 is not for everyone. But since I am a tweaker and comfortable with Linux, this is a phone for me. Even though it may be missing a few of my favorite capabilities of Windows Mobile 6.5, I plan to use the n900 as my everyday device for the foreseeable future.

Finally, the n900 has just had an official list price decrease. It had been $649 but is now $569. In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen it for as low as $429 at Dell.com. If you decide to get one, I hope that you’ll enjoy it as much as I do!

Technorati Tags: nokia,n900,maemo

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Nokia E72 review

Dan H. — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:57:27 +0000

When the Nokia E71 launched a while back, it was popular and it was hailed as the thinnest full QWERTY smartphone on the market. It made it’s way to AT&T as the E71x, and the successor, the E72 is here.

What’s inside the box:

Nokia E72
Nokia BP-4L battery rated at 1500mAH
Wall charger (microUSB based)
USB cable (microUSB based
Case
Cleaning cloth with Nokia E-series printed on it
Earbuds with an in-line mic and also some additional ear gels

Hardware

The hardware on the E72 is exceptionally good. It packs a full QWERTY keyboard, a 2.4” screen, and a 5MP camera in a body that’s 10.1mm thin. My main complaint about the hardware is the screen. It’s a 2.4 inch screen with the resolution of 320 x 240, which is kind of disappointing since smartphones these days have screens that are larger and higher resolution. You can navigate the E72 with the d-pad, and the center select button doubles as an optical trackpad. The QWERTY keyboard is quite good, the keys are raised and domed, and they have a nice click to them. In the areas that aren’t made out of stainless steel, they used a matte finish which is ok, although I would have liked it better if they used a soft touch finish.

Nokia FINALLY moved away from their proprietary port, in favor for a standard microUSB slot, and they also added a 3.5mm headphone jack. The microSD card slot is externally accessible, which is awesome and it comes with a 4GB card pre-installed. It has a 1500mAH battery and the battery life on the E72 is really good, it could get me through a day or two. Build quality is sturdy, I wouldn’t worry if I dropped it. Not that I would try it….

Software

Instead of going into the S60 OS in-depth, I thought I would give you my overall impressions and thoughts about S60. The E72 is loaded with S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2. It has some great features like Modes, which means that you can set up two different home screens with different application shortcuts, and with one click, you can switch between the two modes.

The email experience is good, although when you scroll through emails, you get a kinetic scrolling effect, which is annoying at times when using the trackpad. I had some problems setting up Gmail at first, but overall setup is fast and easy. The browser is just average, there is support for inline YouTube playing, although the screen isn’t large enough to view a video without being it slightly cut off. I also noticed the cursor was kind of jumpy when scrolling with the trackpad, but worked realy well with the d-pad. The Ovi Store works great, although it took a little bit to create an account, Ovi Maps also worked pretty well. The E72 comes preloaded with some nice applications such as Quickoffice for editing and creating Microsoft Office documents, Dictionary, Adobe PDF, Realplayer. The music player isn’t attractive, you control it with the d-pad/trackpad and the album art would appear to the side of the controls. It gets the job done, but I would have liked it better if it had a little more eye candy.

Some of the more recent smartphones have OSes that integrate Social Networking like Twitter, Facebook, mySpace. No integration here, all I found was links to mobile YouTube, mobile Facebook, and mobile mySpace. It would be nice to have features like Happenings on MotoBLUR, or Friend Stream on the most recent (upcoming) build of HTC Sense, but I guess the E72 is all about business, and they probably thought it would have been a better move to leave those out.

My overall comment on S60 would have to be it needs a revamp. The fonts look old fashioned, the UI is relatively clunky and way too complex for the average user. There were some visual aspects of the OS that were quite nice, such as the Ovi Maps UI, but the main UI of the core apps wasn’t that great.

Camera

The 5MP sensor on the E72 isn’t bad at all. The autofocus takes a while to focus, and it’s hard to make it “focus” on an object, and I noticed a 3-4 second lag when taking a picture. When it’s focused correctly, photos looked really good. There is a secondary camera on the front of the E72 since the Europeans have video calling capabilities, quality isn’t as good as the 5MP sensor on the back, but that’s expected since it’s just used for video calls and the occasional picture of yourself. Flash was bright, no complaints there.

Call quality

Call quality on the E72 was amazing. Caller sounded crisp and clear, and the caller said I sounded really good. Similar to the earpiece, the Speaker was loud and clear, could make conference calls with ease. In Philadelphia where I tested the E72, AT&T 3G wasn’t too bad, signal was strong and data speeds were pretty zippy.

Pricing

The E72 is not available on any US carrier as of now, but you can get it for $359.00 from Nokia online. Nokia priced this pretty well, it’s not as expensive, considering it’s unlocked.

Conclusion

In a couple of words, the hardware is great, and the software needs work. I really like the candybar form factor, but it would have been much better if it had a larger and higher resolution display. S60 needs to be revamped with a newer and more modern UI. If you don’t mind a slightly lower-res display, and if you don’t mind S60, the E72 is really a great smartphone.

The Nokia E72 is messaging smart phone with amazing audio/video features – perfect choice when buying a new mobile phone.

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Calendar 1.5 for S60 Released! – SBSH Mobile Software

Jack Cook — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:32:40 +0000

SBSH just released a new update for Calendar for S60 smart-phones to version 1.5! Wouldn’t you know that the day after my review of the Nokia E72 that it was released. I would have loved trying the updated version on the E72 before I had to send it back.

The update features an overhauled design, filters, empowered engine, view picker, advanced recurrence support and much more!

SBSH Calendar 1.5 Highlights

Empowered Engine – The database engine has been rewritten from the ground up, providing a dramatic speed improvement!
Landscape Monthly View – Monthly Calendar layout will automatically change for optimized display in both landscape and portrait screens
Overhauled Design – Redesigned for better look and optimized usability for smart-phones: OS scrollbars, new category icons and more!
Advanced Recurrence – Now offering powerful recurring item configuration, supporting all types of recurring item creation
Filters – Powerful filters system! Filter the display by multiple categories at the same time, assign names to each of your filters
View Selector – Easily jump between views using the new optional View Selector or navigate between views using the view toggling tray button
Customization – Myriad of new settings added. Ensuring Calendar perfectly fits the needs of all users, from the home user to the busy professional!

The new SBSH Calendar for S60 is available as free update for all registered users. You can get more information in their Press Release here.

If you have not tried SBSH Calendar for s60 then check out the website here

And BTW, if you are a Windows Mobile user, check out Calendar Touch here

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Maemo update for n900

Rich Bilancia — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:26:27 +0000

I turned on my n900 this morning and was notified of an over-the-air update to Maemo 5/PR1.1 (5.2.2009.51-1.002). The download was 90MB and includes the following:

Hutchison SIM cards are supported.
MS Exchange 2003 support.
and many, many other changes, fixes and improvements.

A full change log can be found here.

Technorati Tags: Maemo,n900,Nokia

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Ovi Store now open from the Nokia n900

Rich Bilancia — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:12:51 +0000

Technorati Tags: n900,nokia,Ovi Store

Like, Mr. Hi-Definition I too have received a Nokia n900 phone and will be posting on it. In fact I just turned it on for the first time yesterday. When I did, an OTA firmware update was available that allows access to the Ovi Store directly from the n900 itself.

While I need to play around with both the device and the Ovi Store, I thought that I’d pass along the news on the Ovi Store and firmware update.

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CES 2010 is over—here’s my recap

Rich Bilancia — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:01:48 +0000

I’m back from another CES and as usual I’m glad I attended. As I did this year, I generally allocate two days to wander aimlessly through the cavernous exhibits. Similarly, rather than try to attend every press conference, visit every booth and post about everything that I see, hear or get told about, I prefer forming opinions and later write about those as recollections. So here goes….

The media hype prior to the show was all about 3D HDTV, eReaders & Tablets. There were certainly enough of those to go around, but there were also thousands of other devices, products and services. One of the more unusual non-mobility things that I observed included the Brother Quattro 6000D sewing machine. The Quattro 6000D combines printed images with embroidery designs for 3D art. Since my wife is a quilter, even though it might take some money from my technology budget, I had to tell her about this machine.

3D HDTV

You may already know that CES is laid out in areas of similar technology. As such, it was the Central Hall that had all the 3D HDTV demos that had been hyped by the media prior to the show. Every major HDTV vendor was showing their 3D wares, most of which utilized the shutter glasses technology. The demos were worth stopping to see, although waiting for a chance to get handed a pair of 3D glasses from one of a thousand of your closest friends in the H1N1 era was at times discomforting. The technology I saw includes: OLED 3D, plasma 3D, LCD 3D and LED LCD 3D. (...) Read the rest of CES 2010 is over—here’s my recap (857 words)

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