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Saturday, August 30
Xperia X1 – the first mobile phone yoyo
by
Tim
on Sat 30 Aug 2008 22:43 BST
According to The Register and several other news boards, Sony Ericsson has delayed the launch of the Xperia X1 until December or possibly January.
Since its launch the Xperia was supposed to launch in September then it was delayed until 2009, back to September/October now it’s out to January 2009. Perhaps it can do a few loops around 2010 as well.
This is the same problem as the P990i which by the time it got out of kindergarten was already into middle age. Yet HTC and Samsung have launched their respective Omnia i900 (on Orange) and Touch Pro, both with comparable or better spec, and more pointedly both using Windows Mobile 6.1.
Those that have seen the Xperia are very impressed, but by the time they can buy it the 8Mpx Symbian monsters will have hit the market making the Xperia very much last years technology.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
Apple can’t be bothered with a document editor, so get DataViz Documents To Go on a HTC Touch Pro . (Microsoft’s own document editor is awful)
Wednesday, August 27
What’s the point of Nokia’s N96?
by
Tim
on Wed 27 Aug 2008 22:42 BST
From its announcement in February, Nokia’s N96 has been a drawn out pre-launch.
The N96 was set to take over the top spot from the N95 8GB and compete in the media stakes with Apples iPhone 3G. Yet apple’s launch has been and gone, we have had the N82 and 6220 competing on the imaging stakes with their Xenon flash; and now Nokia has launched the N85.
FM transmitter, low power high contrast screen, Navi wheel, tri band HSDPA, all are the N85’s advances on the forthcoming N96. The N85 even has the N96’s dual slide. To compete the N96 has 16GB of internal memory (well microSD cards are cheap enough alternative now) and a DVB-H TV receiver (few countries broadcast TV using this standard).
On paper at least, Nokia have deposed the N96 before it even shipped.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
Push notification for third party applications appears to have been delayed from the forthcoming 2.1 firmware release. Why was it even necessary? All Apple needed was true multitasking for third party apps.
Tuesday, August 26
Long time coming – a new Microsoft Mobile Standard handset
by
Tim
on Tue 26 Aug 2008 22:41 BST
HTC have been remiss of late with the simpler version of Microsoft Mobile. The announcement of the HTC S740 brings the moribund platform back into focus.
The S740 has some of the Touch Diamond glamour grafted onto it, so it’s a good looking handset. With Mobile Standard 6.1, dual band HSDPA, WiFi, a 3.2 Mpx camera and an effective looking pull out keyboard should make it a competitor to the Nokia E71. Though this is unlikely.
There appears to be no enthusiasm for the Standard Mobile platform, with few networks actively pushing devices, where their main focus is Mobile Pro, Symbian and BlackBerry.
Developers have been caught out before trying to meet a market that existed for very few users; I don’t think this launch will change their minds.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
There was a brief glimmer of hope that third party cut and paste may have been possible. Unfortunately Apple’s 2.1 firmware breaks Zak White’s solution and replaces it with … nothing …?
Thursday, August 21
Nokia Series 40 handsets – a hacker’s dream?
by
Tim
on Thu 21 Aug 2008 22:40 BST
With over a 100 million handsets vulnerable to a number of security flaws, it seems that Nokia have a big PR problem on their hands.
Adam Gowdiak reported his findings, well if you have $20k to hand, of extensive research in the vulnerabilities of recent Series 40 handsets incorporating Java MIDP2 functionality.
According to The Register, Nokia have admitted to the flaws in some of their handsets. These may allow a malicious hacker to access a handset’s file system, phonebook; allow SMS to be sent and calls made, plus many other potentially costly and embarrassing features.
Whether this is a real problem is open to question, but whatever the outcome Nokia’s PR machine will have to go into overdrive.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
Images taken with the 2Mpx camera are pretty poor. The Sony Ericsson P990i has the same pixel count but with autofocus the pictures are far clearer. Why didn’t Apple do the same?
Wednesday, August 20
Good news – a new Palm is launched
by
Tim
on Wed 20 Aug 2008 22:38 BST
After waiting over a year and a half for a new professional Palm handset (Centro does not make the grade) the Palm Treo Pro has most of the features that businesses need.
Tri band HSDPA, Quad band GSM, GPS and WiFi Palm has now matched their competitors. Also if the 320 by 320 pixel screen is anything like their usual one from the 650/680 then it will be very pleasant to view.
Downsides are few. Palm is so late with this handset that companies have moved on to other vendors, particularly Apple and HTC. Also the square screen size will be problematic to some third party applications.
I sincerely hope that Palm can halt their slide and use the Pro as the foundation to build a resurgent business.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
The headset Bluetooth profile is the only one the iPhone supports yet even that limited capability is stymied by the absence of voice dialling.
Tuesday, August 19
Three launches Skypephone 2
by
Tim
on Tue 19 Aug 2008 22:38 BST
Though not intended as a business phone, Three’s Skypephone S2 has some serious small business features.
Priced at only £80 with a 3.2Mpx camera, memory card slot, QVGA screen, and HSDPA, this handset is inexpensive. On top of this it can also be used as a USB HSDPA modem vastly increasing its usefulness to laptop users, and with unlimited browsing at £2.50 a week.
Many small businesses will use the Skypephone for its free call facility, especially useful if part of their business is based abroad, and effectively unlocking them from being in front of a PC all day.
So if you want a good quality reasonably priced handset, with great calling abilities, take a look at the new Skypephone 2.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
Some excellent applications usable in the UK are only available in the US, why?
Monday, August 18
Smart phone or feature phone?kate
by
Tim
on Mon 18 Aug 2008 22:36 BST
Canalys has just released their latest smart phone research for Q2 2008. Canalys
With a substantial 28% rise in shipments to Europe, Middle East and Africa over the equivalent 2007 quarter, the manufacturers must be doing something right. Though it seems some are better than others. RIM, HTC, Motorola (strangely) and Samsung made huge improvements in sales volumes over 2007.
Yet growth is slowing, which could be due to the credit crunch or the rise of feature phones. Until recently few, if any, feature phones had GPS let alone WiFi. Yet this looks to be changing with launches from both Samsung and Sony Ericsson due to hit the Christmas market, with feature sets that shame most smart phones.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
To switch between the inbox of two email accounts takes four screen touches. Could there not be a drop down list of inboxes instead of just the go-back button?
Thursday, August 14
Android & Xperia coming to market sooner than later
by
Tim
on Thu 14 Aug 2008 22:35 BST
After the endless stories of delays, it appears (courtesy of TmoNews) that HTC may ship an Android handset to T-Mobile USA in September. This goes hand in hand with a poor quality video on YouTube showing a working handset, and a slightly better one of an Android Dream live demo.
I’m not too convinced myself, but it would be nice to see a working pre release device.
More positive is the much delayed Xperia X1 will make its debut in October. The hardware has been in operator testing for a while now, and the marketing briefings have begun. Whilst it heralds a new start for Sony Ericsson’s professional range of handsets, it’s up against strong competition, particularly from HTC’s Touch Pro which is just entering the market.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
Having music streamed in the background whilst checking emails, and then returning to the same place within a 20 page open document is simple using S60 or Windows Mobile Pro, it’s impossible with the iPhone as the OS does not support multitasking of third party applications. Apple’s notification service can’t get round this deficiency. Please allow true multitasking Apple.
Tuesday, August 12
Will S60 make an impact in China?
by
Tim
on Tue 12 Aug 2008 22:34 BST
Tying in with the Olympics, Digia have announced that they have ported the S60 platform to operate with China’s TD-SCDMA 3G network.
In theory this will enable the Symbian Foundation to access China’s rapidly developing mobile market rather than Nokia being tempted to rebrand Benq or others.
Symbian was never going to be a major proposition in low cost markets without first going open source. Now that the cost barrier has been swept aside, there could very well be many major Chinese manufacturers keen to incorporate a well tested mobile OS, and develop a community of developers dedicated to the Chinese market. That could see off Apple, but what of LiMo/Android?
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
Why can’t the iTunes allow ringtone downloads in the UK but they can in the US. If it is copyright related, Apple has had over a year to sort this out. Side loading is easy enough, but should not be necessary.
Monday, August 11
Sony Ericsson – Mobile repetition
by
Tim
on Mon 11 Aug 2008 22:32 BST
The “Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog” had an interesting post from Michell last week wondering where SE is going.
Before its merger with Sony, Ericsson had a strong line of innovative products from the touch screen Symbian R380 in 2000, the sculptural and feature packed GPRS R520m in 2001 to the miniscule colour screen T68 in 2002. In it’s time Sony had its moments with the CMD MZ5 one of the first true music handsets , and the ease of use of the Z7 and Z5 with the jog dial.
Whilst the merger certainly had a rocky start, innovation and success continued with handsets such as the T610 and P900. Yet it was the introduction of the K750, and the W800 that truly established the Sony Ericsson brand in the minds of consumers for fun handsets. This gets to the point of Michell’s argument, that all subsequent handset introductions are based on one evolving platform tweaked for the target market. You want a camera phone, then the Cybershot is for you, you want a music phone then head over to the Walkman range.
This is all fine, yet quality seemed to suffer with endless tales of software problems resulting in high level of product returns. Then a cascade of similar looking handsets were pushed to the market, which just seemed to confuse users as to what it was they were actually buying.
With a couple of exceptions (K850?) , none of these variants offered anything really new (G900/G700 don’t even support HSDPA for fast music download). The guys from Mobile Industry Review (SMS Text News) won’t even talk about SE now because of this.
So it’s understandable that SE is loosing market share and income is now in the red. Will sacking 2000 people really help the cause, perhaps if they refocus on a structured product line and innovation? They may take solace at Motorola’s continued fall from favour, so there is at least a vacuum to expand into if they ever rediscover their mojo.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
The iPhone is all about the music and media, so why does the iPhone not support A2DP so users can use a stereo Bluetooth headset, and not tread on cables. Hearing aid users with stereo Bluetooth loops also suffer.
Thursday, August 7
WiFi/3G Auto switching for S60
by
Tim
on Thu 07 Aug 2008 22:30 BST
The Sony Ericsson P990i and P1i have a nice trick of automatically switching to the fastest and cheapest data bearer, usually WiFi, saving users a tremendous amount of money and improving performance.
Unfortunately Nokia’s S60 platform can’t do this, though both UIQ and S60 are based on the same underlying Symbian OS. So Psiloc has stepped into the breach with their Psiloc Connect (See Psiloc ) software that locks onto a WiFi signal before dropping down to 3G. It costs €10 but could be just what is needed if you regularly download videos or email attachments.
Of course Nokia should be providing this feature free of charge, especially as the iPhone can already auto switch.
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
If Apple is really targeting business users why isn’t there an easy way of transferring documents without having to rely on a third party application?
Tuesday, August 5
iGo iPhone no go
by
Tim
on Tue 05 Aug 2008 22:22 BST
Although no longer sold by iGo, their Stowaway Ultra Slim Bluetooth keyboard is an ideal companion for heavy typing with an OQO or Nokia 7710. Good clicky keys, a prop to hold a device at the correct angle and a reasonable battery life sealed the deal for me.
Whilst Nokia’s 7710 should have been replaced by the iPhone 3G, the one feature amongst my long list of iPhone must have’s, the one I must have, would be standard Bluetooth profiles found on most handsets, especially the HID/keyboard one.
Until then the 7710 will have to make do for my on the hoof editing.
Monday, August 4
Bluetrek Bizz a great “they thought of that” moment
by
Tim
on Mon 04 Aug 2008 17:00 BST
French company, Bluetrek, recently launched their Bizz Bluetooth headset. Yawn I hear… This one is different and answers a problem I have had since micro SD cards hit my mobiles. If I haven’t got a lead how do I transfer my phone’s media to my laptop (Bluetooth is far too slow).
Bluetrek’s headset splits in two revealing a USB plug to allow the headset battery to be charged in a laptop, plus a slot for a microSD card, up to 8GB.
So if you have loads of pictures and videos on your camera phone, simply slip out the microSD card, insert the card into the headset and then into your laptop’s USB socket and you have access at USB 2 speeds to all your lovely data. No messing with cables, or loosing converters.
The kit comes in flashy steel packaging, USB extension cable and an in car charger.
This is such a great idea.
See Bluetrek Bizz
iPhone 3G feature wish for the day –
The E71 has it, the Nokia 6600 had it, so why can’t the iPhone print docs.
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