Maybe not so much a battle as a minor skirmish, but the Sony Ericsson W950, the Nokia N91 and the iPod Shuffle all come out of Ewan's blind listening tests with decent scores. Read the article for details and comments.
Rounding out our CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2007 coverage in style, we (well, mainly Rafe) present AAS video podcast number 6, 11 minutes long and featuring plenty of video of the new Nokia N76 and N93i, plus extensive photo sets for general CES, the N76 and the N93i. Full text reviews of both devices will be along in due course.
A new accessory has appeared on the Nokia site. The CA-100 allows you to charge your Nokia phone from a USB port. This will be a boon for frequent travellers who carry a laptop or have access to a computer and want to leave their main charger behind. Similar accessories are available on eBay, but are not always reliable.
OK, so you're all going to laugh at my expense, but necessity is the mother of invention and I needed a tripod mount for my Nokia N93 video filming work. With the prototype DT-22 having been reclaimed by Nokia, it was back to cardboard skills and duct tape....
Now that the Apple [cough] device is out of the way, it's time for a little Nokia N93i buzz. Darla's been posting her first hands-on impressions, Symbian Freak have their own opinionated first 36 hours with the N93i and - hey - apparently I'll have a loan N93i for review on Tuesday. Watch this space for a detailed review and video coverage.
It's AAS audio podcast no. 10, in which Rafe sat down for an in-depth interview with Antti Vasara, Nokia's Eseries enterprise manager, for a wide ranging discussion on the marketplace, Nokia's viewpoint and some of the specific areas in business that these devices can address.
There are dozens of video snippets of the two new Nokia Nseries smartphones across the net, but this WTF one on WOM World is of pretty high quality, despite the background noise. Worth watching - at least until Rafe (currently mid-air?) gets back from the USA with his own footage.
Interesting to see the promo videos for these three new Nokia Nseries devices now online. Go to Nokia's CES page and click on 'Blog' and then 'Videos'. (Note that the N800 is Linux-based and doesn't include telephony).
Continuing the CES 2007 announcements, Nokia has launched the N76 - a stylish S60 3rd Edition clamshell. The N76 is 13.7mm thin, and highlights include a 2.0 megapixel camera, WCDMA/EDGE/GPRS/GSM connectivity, FM Radio, standard 3.5mm audio jack and Bluetooth and USB connectivity. Read on for more.
The first of the big announcements at CES 2007, Nokia has announced the followup to the N93. Dubbed the N93i, it has identical specifications to its predecessor but is slimmer and sleeker, with an integral cover display, side joystick and metallic keypad. There are also changes are in the software package which adds more multimedia features including support for the Vox blogging platform. Read on for more.
AAS chief Rafe Blandford weighs in with his official predictions and challenges for 2007, along with an assessment of what he got right and wrong from last year's predictions piece. Essential reading for anyone in the industry or who is interested in where the Symbian OS world is going. Plus, a bonus preview of the front cover of Symbian magazine, Dec 2007...
Interesting to see the other famous(!) video-obsessed Nokia N93 nut, Steve Garfield, posting his long term thoughts on the device. Interesting too to see that he's hit some of the same lock-ups that lose precious footage as me. Summary: great device, but Nokia must fix the camera bugs in the v20 firmware.
Having now had a day or so to mull over the iPhone launch and the media frenzy surrounding it, I've been pondering the fact that in one important way, the iPhone definitely IS a 'break through' device, while Ewan refutes Jobs' 'Five years' boast by casting a satirical eye back five years instead and then describing what we have today.