In a return to an original theme from earlier this year, and with the onset of our summer vacations, I've been musing on the best hardware to take with me in order to make sure of getting the best snaps. It's really not an easy decision.... But is there a workaround? Read on...
Nokia has bought up the Seattle-based Twango, a media-sharing company (photos, video, audio). Nokia's existing media sharing deals with Flickr and Vox will continue, to give users more choice. The full press release follows and Carlo from MobHappy comments here.
The Nokia E61i just scored a victory by being PDA Essentials magazine's Group Test Winner in its seven page 'Email smartphones' feature, in issue 64, out now in the UK and selected world destinations. PDA Essentials concluded that 'the excellent voice quality and immense battery life helped tip it that one step higher to take the top spot in a field of mobile messaging monsters'.
AAS's Steve Litchfield has long been very sceptical about touchscreen-based phones, but the iPhone's new technology touchscreen and User Interface have wholeheartedly converted him to the concept. However, he's not impressed by the iPhone's lack of features and immature Operating System, and thinks this is where Symbian has the upper hand. Click on the link to read Steve's vision of a future where smartphones combine the best of both worlds, with iPhone-style interfaces and Symbian-style cutting edge features.
SMS Text News reports that UK mobile operators T-Mobile, 3 and Vodafone have confirmed plans to begin rolling out High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technology in the UK by the end of the year. HSUPA is up to four times faster than HSDPA.
Well, that's the theory anyway. See here for details. Apparently, v1.05(4) is a customised version of Google Maps for Mobile that takes your position from Vodafone's cell network. Except that it did nothing for me. Comments welcome if you manage to get it working on your Vodafone SIM-ed smartphone....
LocatioNet has launched amAze, 'the UK's first free mobile mapping, navigation and local search solution', with voice guidance, maps and satellite imagery. As with Google Maps for Mobile, it's Java-based with heavy reliance on a data connection, but it's reported to work with both Bluetooth GPS and built-in receivers. The press release and link follow....
T-Mobiles flat-rate data plans, under the moniker of "Web and Walk" have reached 500,000 subscribers (reports Ewan MacLeod of SMSTextNews). At £7.50 per month on top of any regular plan, it's proven good value to many people, but I'm more interested in the problems that MacLeod and other urban dwellers are finding with the speeds achieved. Mobile data is growing, and if the networks are creaking at the moment...
According to The Register, phone giant Motorola has now slipped into third place behind Nokia and Samsung, after a loss-making Q2 2007. El Reg thinks Moto should make more high end handsets, so would that mean more Z8-style Symbian UIQ3 models?
In a not-too-surprising statment, Nokia has announced the intention to equip all of its future devices that have built-in GPS with 'Assisted GPS' (using satellite ephemeris info, loaded over a data connection to give the GPS locking procedure a big head start - see also my feature on Assisted GPS technology). This includes the N95 now, of course, through the v12 firmware update, though watch out for the keypress bug.
OK, so I got my hands on an Apple iPhone for a while (it's had to go back now... sob). Lovely piece of kit, but what I really wanted to know was how it would stack up against the Nokia E61i (effectively one of the smartphones ridiculed by Steve Jobs as 'having too much plastic'). Smartphones Show 38 is the result. Oh, and I threw in the W950i as well, to add some music focus... Links: YouTube, MP4 format, RSS. Enjoy...
The weekly touring round-up of mobile news and views, Carnival of the Mobilists, winds its way to ...About Mobility for issue #82. There's lots of discussion on mobile websites this week, including the top five sites, the loss of i-Mode in the UK's O2 network, and a look at the US Congress hearings on Wireless Innovation.
UK phone regulator Ofcom is taking a long look at issues around number portability in the UK, and has presented a document for discussion. There's a call for comments as well - although in light of previous VoIP discussions it goes into some nice background of the current state of play for the British market.
In a return to an original theme from earlier this year, and with the onset of our summer vacations, I've been musing on the best hardware to take with me in order to make sure of getting the best snaps. It's really not an easy decision.... But is there a workaround? Read on...
AAS's Steve Litchfield has long been very sceptical about touchscreen-based phones, but the iPhone's new technology touchscreen and User Interface have wholeheartedly converted him to the concept. However, he's not impressed by the iPhone's lack of features and immature Operating System, and thinks this is where Symbian has the upper hand. Click on the link to read Steve's vision of a future where smartphones combine the best of both worlds, with iPhone-style interfaces and Symbian-style cutting edge features.
