Mobiles Fun

I’ve constantly admired the Nokia Communicator series from afar, waiting for the appropriate time to switch up to the beasts. As I see it, there are two essential requirements for owning 1 of these phones. Firstly, you have some need to have to check your emails on the go – perhaps you travel away from your laptop or computer a lot – and secondly you need to have to wear a suit for work. For some reason these phones just seem ideal to fit into a suit pocket.

Sadly it does not appear as although I will be fitting either of these criteria in the near future. The umbilical link between myself and my laptop shows no sign of becoming severed any time soon and I work in shorts and a tee-shirt. Woo hoo! The joys of working at property.

The most recent installment – the E90 – is 1 of the most advanced, feature-packed mobile phones ever released. Interestingly, the phone uses a Symbian S60 operating method as opposed to the S80 utilised on the 9500 and 9300. This may possibly appear like an unusual step, but S60 offers E90 users access to a considerably wider range of applications. A quick straw poll suggests that S60 is every bit as straightforward to use as the newer program and ultimately far more flexible. Great work Nokia.

This is a company phone. Smart features consist of onboard GPS and a high-resolution screen. The program can handle PDF files and read documents in Microsoft office. Unlike the prior generation of Communicator, the E90 comes fully-loaded with 3G, which can only be excellent news.

Functions which you might be surprised to discover on this phone consist of an FM radio and three.two Megpixel camera. Many businesses do not like to have cameras onboard company phones (nevertheless employees typically enjoy them). I imagine the phone is there for those lengthy, dull train journeys from London Euston to the Midlands to meet clients. Hmm… possibly that’s fair enough.

A Mobile Phone Weblog

With a small assist from Vodafone, my next handset has been decided.

Ladies and gentlemen, the next phone to grace Cellfella’s Levi’s shall be…

The Nokia N95 8G.

No excellent surprises there, then.

To be honest, I was holding out for an N82 but there’s every chance that this small beaut will never make it all the way to Vodafone. I cannot alter network either since Voda is the only 1 to cover both my office and flat.

Still, I didn’t even bother asking for an upgrade, just went straight to the “You actually want to leave Vodafone?” department and said I wanted to alter networks. For some reason they are much more receptive to negotiation that way!

Why would I have preferred an N82? Nicely, look at it:

Some bloggers have been a bit critical of the design. James Burland’s review on Youtube is very positive about the phone’s functions but fairly negative about the style. I, even so, am not a big fan of sliders and would much rather have an old school block in my pocket.

Having not played with 1 yet (O2 has bad reception in this part of the world, hence no N82s to investigate) I can’t confirm or deny what the review says about the fiddly buttons.

Anyway, it’s all water under the bridge now. I’m going slidey for the next twelve months.

Now I’m just waiting for Vodafone to deliver the thing…

A Mobile Phone Blog

There are not numerous gimmicks which haven’t been explored in the world of mobile phones. We have had the drunk-proof handset. We have had an ungodly selection of pink phones, which includes Hello Kitty phones.

We have enterprise phones, designer-branded handsets, low-cost, almost desposible phones for the creating markets and hundreds of mid-market possibilities.

What much more could we possibly need?

What can be carried out that has never been completed prior to.

Fujitsu think answer is a waterproof mobile phone.

Yes, that is correct. The Fujitsu F703i can survive being under 1m of water for up to 30 minutes, if the claims of the manufacturer are to be believed. This raises some (reasonably obvious) questions, 1st and foremost… why?

Now, with only a relatively poor grasp of human biology, as conferred upon me by the English state education system and its fine GSCE double science qualification, I am in no position to comment upon what the human body is capable of, but talking underwater seems like a stretch. I mean really, most issues in life are considerably a lot more tough when attempted underwater, which is most likely why we evolved from sea creatures over numerous millions of years (I learnt that from a Guiness advert).

Interestingly, this handset manages to cling on to stylistic sensibilities. Check out the lovely ‘chequered’ impact, for example, and the futuristic clock facade. This is a departure from previous ‘gimmick’ phones which have constantly placed function over form and have looked rather rough as a result. On the other hand, who is going to see you when you are creating calls underwater?

The mind boggles…

A Mobile Phone Blog

Kicking back, cup of tea in hand, around December time in 2005, a feature on Channel 5′s rather great ‘Gadget Show’ caught my attention. The presenters were at a technologies convention (can’t don’t forget which, by means of the foggy haze of time) and had a representative of Philips keen to show off a brand new development. The Dutch tinkermeisters had a working model of an virtually paper-thin screen which could be utilised with mobile phones. It operated making use of ‘electronic ink’ and could fold in on itself, generating it quite space-efficient. The disadvantage, if I keep in mind rightly, was that the screen was not backlit and couldn’t deal with significantly in the way of detail.

Quickly forward a year (and a bit) and the mobile phone market is dominated by Apple’s vision of a touchscreen handset. To my mind, the fuss about the iPhone and similar Prada Phone overshadows the most influential portable electronic device released this year, which is the Polymer Vision Readius. Don’t get me wrong, the Apple will sell thousands of times as many units as the Polymer Vision device, but this small beauty represents the future.

The device is not a phone (though it is EDGE and UMTS compatible) but this technology is bound to transfer into the mobile marketplace in coming years. The screen is also not up to the demands of the modern mobile consumer, but this really new technology cannot be expected to match the image quality of its clunkier bretheren just but. The screen is slow to update and can’t handle moving images. But.

The prospect of folding screens is a fascinating 1. In years to come, how would you feel about reading an electronic newspaper that folded out from your mobile phone, or perhaps watching the football on a decent sized-screen which weighed much less than a pair of shinpads?

Fascinating developments indeed…

A Mobile Phone Blog

In the early years of mobile telephony, handset manufacturers had been clambering over each and every other to load on as much technologies as probable. Handset design was normally ‘functional’ to say the least, which lead to phones like my old favourite, the Motorola Graphite. Mmmm… retro.

Nokia had been the initial to really crack the concept that a cute-searching mobile with features such as snake and an genuinely intuitive menu method – pictures, any person?

These days, ugly handsets are the exception rather than the rule. True beauty, on the other hand, is rare. I have recently highlighted the Apple and Prada phones: two shining (and shiny) examples of handsome handsets.

Here are a couple of other lookers at present performing the rounds.

So stylish it can only be carried in £1000+ handbags by supermodels, the LG Chocolate Black Label is half 2001 A Space Oddessy and half the way Silk Cut adverts used to look just before those meanies banned fun ads from telly. LG’s populist Chocolate is a big seller and a especially handsome handset. The Black Label editions are something a small special to look at. The pictured handset is a Black Label Platinum, which glows with sexy red buttons when it gets the signal or you touch it proper. Phwoar.

Nokia have come up with this small beauty. Although the original 8800 was a handsome, high end handset, it was rather limited by its terrible battery life. It was comparable to a Lambourghini Diablo if you like – much more status symbol than practical tool. The Sirocco edition, on the other hand, is far more Audi S6 – stylish and potent. The steel slider is a beauty when closed up, which wouldn’t look at all out of place on the passenger seat of a supercar as it whipped along the Monte Carlo coastline to the casino.

A Mobile Phone Blog

Picture yourself as the posessor of amazing wealth. Come on… we’ve all completed it at some point. Personally, I walk along the seafront in Brighton and decide on which of the mansion houses I would purchase. I would then acquire a load of property all over the world and grow to be a benevolent 21st century Rackman figure.

An individual, somewhere, would rather invest their wealth on owning a golden phone. Yes, that’s right, a golden phone. Or at least this should be the case since the usually astute bods at Nokia have released the wonder that is the 8800 Sirocco Gold.

Following detailing the greatest searching handsets, it appears only correct that Nokia need to deliver some thing so gloriously heinous as this.

Searching rather like something that may drop out of King Midas’ rear end, this handset is arguably the most bling factor you could possibly have in your handbag. Prior to you can say ‘footballers wives’, it is worth noting that the handset is basically just a normal 8800, with all of the inherrent troubles that have often plagued Nokia’s top-end poseur package, such as a little memory (for the price) and a poor talk time, even though this has been improved because the initial 8800 was released.

The downside to having a golden phone is that it is heavier than equivalent handsets and would most likely be really attractive to a criminal, really should he see it sitting on the table at the nearby Rat &amp Parrot.

A Mobile Phone Blog

Apple´s iPhone has caused the greatest fuss of any new mobile for as long as any person can remember. In the wake of iPodmania, it should be unsurprising that the world is waiting with bated breath to see what the computer manufacturer can add to the already massive range of phones offered. Right after all, the iPod revolutionised the world of mobile music players more than any single item considering that the original Sony Walkman. It was all a matter of usability, much as it will be with the new phone.

A phenomenal quantity of no cost publicity has been given to the phone, from such unlikely sources as the BBC, which ran repeated capabilities on the phone on tv news bulletins and on the web. Similarly, newspapers around the world have been gripped by the progress of the device, once more supplying incalculable free of charge coverage for the multinational. Clever stuff, no?

In the States, the iPod starts shipping next month and has already recieved, wait for it… 1 million enquiries from buyers who wish to obtain details when it is released. On AT&T alone.

Apple hope to sell 10 million iPhones and it appears their canny approach to marketing is performing the job nicely. Essentially, they are saying absolutely nothing extremely much and letting the buzz create to phemonenal pre-release levels. No other mobile phone manufacter has the power to reach the mainstream media in this way, which most likely sticks in the throat of Nokia and Sony Ericsson, who have been producing genuinely innovative handsets for years.

Now, all we can do is wait and see if it lives up to the hype.

My guess is yes.

A Mobile Phone Blog

It is sooooo wonderfully understated and Scandinavian to incorporate an accelerometer in the flagship N95 and not make a fuss about it. Apple included specifically the very same feature in the iPhone and produced it one of the central parts of their advertising strategy:

“WOW… LOOK… A phone that knows when you are moving AND has net browsing”

The Finns, in their understated way, just put it in there and didn’t truly do anything with it. Third Party developers (you don’t get them with the iPhone) have gone wild with the device and you can now use the N95 for such varied tasks as… err… playing starwars, playing bouncy ball and…. umm… playing Space Invaders. Nokia’s own Activity Monitor app is quite cool, though it won’t do your battery life any favours.

Anyway, this is just another reason that I love the N95. Thanks Nokia!

(Sorry if this blog has got a bit boring of late… you know how men and women get when they are in love. Normal enterprise will resume once a younger model comes along =)

A Mobile Phone Weblog

I spent last week at the Le Mans 24 Hour race in France.

This was the view from the top of the well-known ferris wheel at 4am:

This was a snap from Tertre Rouge:

And this was the back of the Peugot Pit late at night:

Soon after a week of camping sans airbed, I am now going back to bed.

A Mobile Phone Weblog

Whilst the photo makes it look like the new Nokia N97 has fallen off the back of a lorry, this is arguably the most stylish N Series handset the Finns have ever produced.

Supposedly a step down from the two way sliders, the N79 is a fine slab of technologies With out the sharp edges that numerous people discover offensive about the a lot more angular N Series phones.

It is also as feature laden as any of the bulkier N Series handsets, such as the N95 8gb. The onboard camera is of the very same normal as the chunkier handsets and has the added advantage of a lens cover (which is sadly missing from the N95 8gb). The megapixel count is high (five) but, as ever with these Nokia cameras, what is genuinely impressive is the top quality of the images produced.

I guess the only location where this handset falls down a little is in the size of the display, which is considerably smaller than the top end N Series phones. But then did anybody in fact watch Spiderman 3 on their handsets anyway? I doubt it.

All in all, a fantastic new addition to the Nokia range and well worth contemplating if you are looking for a practical compromise between form and function.

A Mobile Phone Weblog