Well, not quite, but it's a fair indication. According to the eagle-eyed Jay (who has thankfully scanned the appropriate table), the Europe-wide Carphone Warehouse has listed its top selling pay-monthly phones - the Nokia 5800 is number 1, with the Apple iPhone at 2 and the Tocco Ultra feature phone at 3. As Jay notes, it's really not surprising, given that the 5800 started free on £15 a month contracts, undercutting the iPhone by a factor of around two, while out-speccing it in many departments (the exceptions being screen tech and size of app store).
What's in a box? Quite a lot if you are a collector. And that's why the move to digital distribution is robbing the gaming world of one of its prize assets. The collectiblity of the box that the game comes in. Ewan explains why the Magpie in him needs something more from Nokia. He also (in a timely fashion) refers to the problems of not being able to take purchases onto a new phone, or even back onto the same phone after a hard reset. Read on...
There's something outrageously different about the Nokia N97 (or is it outrageously the same?) that utterly polarises opinion, on both sides of the world. The Really Mobile Project's Ben Smith and James Whatley seem completely divided here on video (and embedded below), while Engadget Mobile's Chris Ziegler and Thomas Ricker seem equally polarised in print, right here. Sigh. Whatever happened to peace and love? Or maybe the N97 is a 'Marmite' smartphone that you either love or hate?
It's a hardware spectacular for The Phones Show 83, now out, with news of new Symbian OS smartphones, a long video review of the HTC Touch Pro, with head-to-head section against the Nokia N97, plus a demo-focussed tour around case makers Proporta, down in Brighton. If you want to pick the show up via RSS, here are the QVGA (for phones) and VGA (for desktops) feeds.
I'm not sure if The Gadget Show's Jon Bentley has been watching my Phones Show, but in his own video review (embedded below in HQ) of the Nokia N97, he seems to have picked up on many of the same complaints, including the diminutive keyboard and the still immature S60 5th Edition interface. Yet, overall, he concludes it's still "one of the best phones you can buy". I'd concur, with the rider that Nokia need to get cracking on firmware updates and that the 'b' in 'Buy' is in capitals - £500 is still a sizeable sum!
Nokia's Point and Find portal, where you can point your smartphone's camera at contents (such as movie posters or adverts, bar-codes, or any custom artwork) in the real world and be taken to a relevant URL in your browser, is now allowing you to upload your own media and tag it, so you can “Create your Own Experience,” in the words of the blog post.
Nokia Beta Labs has a graduate! Gizmo for S60 an application that allowed you to access the Gizmo5 service for IM and VOIP functionality on your handset is no longer in beta test – it's all grown up, left the program and is now available as a regular application in the Nokia Download! Store, although interestingly it is not yet in the Ovi Store.
Should anyone be in a hurry for this (as if...), the YouTube version of The Phones Show 82 is now up and embedded below, with my video review of the N97. There's also a news section with shots of the iPhone 3GS in action, plus a no-doubt-controversial June 2009 'Top 5 phones'...
Fring, the IM and Social Network client for smartphones has been updated to version 3.4, and the big new feature is consolidation. If you have a friend on Skype, AOL and and Gtalk, you can add those separate accounts into one single “mega profile” of your friend. This unification approach also extends to your Contacts data on the handset, with Fring able to suggest “I think person A in your phone is person B on MSN Messenger.”
Developers might like to subscribe to the new series of podcasts from Forum Nokia. The first episode is now available and Bill Volpe talks with RikuSalminen about the new tools and components available for S60 and S40 Flash Lite developers.
There has been some interesting discussion online about the upcoming Palm Pre and the announced Media Sync capabilities that has raised some eyebrows in tech circles, specifically the ability of the Pre to sync itself to iTunes. Researchers (including 'DVD John') are theorising that the Pre is pretending to be an iPod when connected, which raises a lot of potentially tricky questions. But the fact is that connectivity to a multitude of media sources is vital for a modern smartphone.
One for the developers now, as Aleksi Uotila confirms, via the Developing on S60 blog, that Nokia will not be insisting that Java applications in the Ovi Store will require to have a Java Verified testing certificate. While it is still recommended, it is not an essential requirement - unlike signing the Java app via Verisign or Thwaite, which is required.
Over on ZDnet, Matthew Millar has taken a look at the four main Smartphone application stores, specifically the issue of what the stores will allow in terms of re-downloading previously purchased content, installing on multiple devices and the returns policy of the store. Alongside the newly launched Ovi Store, he considers the Apple App Store, the Android Market Place and Blackberry's App World.
Nokia today announced the BH-905, a high end stereo Bluetooth headset with active noise cancellation. The headset has a 'band-over-the head' with ear-muffs' form factor with music, volume and calling controls on the two ear pieces. The headset has ten microphones; two for capturing speech and eight for capturing sound for the active noise cancellation functionality. The headset can be connected via Bluetooth or a wired 3.5mm connection with adaptors for 2.5mm, 6.5mm and airplane connectors included in the box.
