Mod In The USA - PUSHN900 Goes West

The PUSH N900 campaign from Nokia has moved across the Atlantic to the USA. With their Mod In The USA campaign running to see what the US can musture up in hacking the Nokia N900. 3 Teams have been chosen as finalists who will be showcasing their mod designs to a panel of judges, with a chance of winning up to $10,000 in prizes.

The 3 finalists and their ideas can be found below:

Niko the Robot – Niko the Robot pairs the Nokia N900 with Lego NXT building kit to create a robot that utilizes the Nokia N900 as its ‘brain.’ It will understand commands sent via Twitter to a specific handle, send feedback about the area around it as well as post pictures from the Nokia N900’s camera. 

Pit Crew – This mod sets up the Nokia N900 to be the brains behind a slot car in order to compete against human competitors. Using Python code and algorithms, the Pit Crew thinks they can have a Nokia N900-controlled car beat a man-controlled car.

Bike Dashboard– This set up utilizes several different features of the Nokia N900. From the GPS to the camera, the team behind Bike Dashboard, BrettSarahTops, think they can turn the Nokia N900 into a car-like dashboard. Showing a speedometer, odometer, mapping your route with GPS and even providing a car horn – this app might have it all!

To follow the teams and their progress and to find out the winners and more about their hacks, visit the Mod In The USA blog.

Read More

3G Speed Tests

Out of curiosity I wanted to test how good my network was able to give me the best speed I could get. All these great ideas come to me late nights / early mornings, hence why I stay awake - NOT!

But as I was awake at 4am and this thought did come into my head at that particular time, I decided to Google sites which could test my 3G speeds, I'll be honest, there isn't much out there for anything that isn't iPhone and Android - there are apps for those two platforms and websites, but the lack of sites and apps available for Symbian devices is few and far between.

I did manage to find 2 sites that would allow me to do a test and give me results, before my browser's memory was full and everything closed down! I did two tests on each site, first at 4am and the 2nd at 5pm, in between I was either asleep or busy.

My3GSpeed.com results: (left) 4am (right) 5pm


MobileSpeedTest.com results: (left) 4am (right) 5pm

The results show pretty decent speeds from 3UK's 3G network. They are pretty much up there with what users can expect from their 3G networks.

MobileSpeedTest.com also gives a nice graph showing which sorts of speeds one could expect depending on the method used.

I should note I am in a decent coverage region where 3UK have recently upgraded their network, so I would expect good service, which I do. I'd be interested in seeing results from users on other networks who are in London, just to compare.

It would be nice if there was an app for this available in the OVI Store.

Read More

Recognizr - Recognises Your Face

As AR (Augmented Reality) starts to take off, we will be seeing lots of pps created to utilise this new wave of genius. Whilst most seem to concentrate on places and attractions, TAT (The Astonishing Tribe), a Swedish based mobile software company have created an AR app which recognises faces. Yes, things have just become that more personal and in your face, literally!

Recognizr can recognise any face and match them to their online social profiles, although users must be registered with the service first. But that shouldn't stop random people taking snaps of your face (especially if you have an attractive one). Whilst some may say this is creepy, which no doubt it will be, but is it more than just stalking (as some would have you claim)?

A TAT Cascades powered prototype of the Augmented ID concept. Accurate mobile face detection and recognition using Polar Rose's FaceLib. Recognizr shows how powerful computer vision and 3D graphics...

Looking at the bigger picture, I can see stuff like this being used to exchange contact information easily and quickly, this is a step on from swapping business cards, scanning QR codes and sending vCards to one another. Why not just get all that information using your camera almost instantly? Providing you have the person in questions permission of course. Otherwise it's the same as theft, you wouldn't just reach into someone else's wallet/purse and take their business card or take their number from their mobile would you?

Moving these ethical & moral questions aside, it's potentially a great application. A step towards a practical solution of an age old problem which probably didn't exist, until global warming, recession and everything else that has occurred recently. Think about it.

The application will be available for iPhone and Android soon, for now head on over to their website to find out more about TAT and the cool stuff their producing.

via [ColinMercer]

Read More

Google Earth For Android - Finally!

Google Earth has finally been made available for Google's own Android platform. The funny thing is, it's been available for the iPhone months and months ago.

So why has it taken Google so long to make it available for Android? The easy answer may well be the hardware that was available on the platform just couldn't cope. But with the Nexus One sporting some pretty powerful features (1Ghz Processor to name one) it's now become feasible to put it into the market. HTC's Desire should also cope with this easily, as it also sports similar features to the Nexus One.

The interesting point to look at here is, it will be available on Android 2.1 and future revisions, so whilst some handsets will be getting the update and should be compatible with Google Earth, will they able to handle the 3D stress put on them? What about their respective processors, will they be able to handle the app? Or will users be stuck with an app that will run, but very slowly?

If you have an Android handset running on 2.1 you can find the Google Earth by searching for it in the Marketplace. Otherwise you can head on over to m.google.com/earth on your handset's browser to download the app and find more information about it

Read More

3UK Will Probably, Most Definitely, Sell The iPhone

image credit: thereallymobileproject

It's pretty inevitable, every operator bar 3 in the UK have the iPhone, some having done this more openly than others (I'm looking at you T-Mobile), whilst others (like Orange) have been shouting from the rooftops about it. The fact is this; sell the iPhone and you will make money and build up your customer base, whilst keeping disgruntled ones looking to move away.

Reading this post on the 3UK Blog, it seems pretty likely 3 will be getting the iPhone very shortly, read the quote below by Nigel Field, Director of Devices at 3UK.

While we’re on the subject of Apple, we’re asked a lot about our position with regards to the iPhone. We don’t currently have a commercial relationship with Apple but are working to change this during 2010 and add Apple to our portfolio.

This clearly indicates they will be getting the iPhone on board to accompany their growing portfolio of handsets. Interestingly, thing to note, very likely it will be the 3GS model of the handset, but with Apple announcing the 4th generation of the iPhone very shortly, whether that will make it into their portfolio will be interesting to see.

There obviously is more information regarding the wider area of interest in that post, most notably the emergence of many new handsets to the smartphone market. But still no confirmation whether 3UK will be taking the HTC Legend into their portfolio in addition to the HTC Desire, nor the actual release date when we can expect them. Hopefully we will get more information in the coming days/weeks.

Read More

Sony Ericsson Vivaz Goes Pro, So Does Sony Ericsson

Not like Sony Ericsson were amateurs in this field, they're pretty experienced, but that hasn't stopped them going all "Pro" at Mobile World Congress this year. They've announced a slew of handsets, which are pro versions of already announced handsets that haven't been released yet. If this hasn't confused you already, it gets worse trust me.



I'm not going to go into the whole "pro" circus in detail, but basically according to Sony Ericsson, Pro = QWERTY keyboard. Yep nothing more, nothing less. Don't bother looking at anything in the specs sheet or hidden clues. If you buy a Sony Ericsson handset this year and want a physical QWERTY keyboard, just look for the Pro badge!

So they have now announced the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro and the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro. Very catchy names I have to admit! The Vivaz in my opinion looks gorgeous, as I've previously said in my post, but adding that physical keyboard makes it look pretty horrendous. But if it's an option for those that wanted a physical QWERTY keyboard then you should be happy. Catering to the markets is what Sony Ericsson are doing it seems, albeit confusing at the same time.



What does that leave for the virtual keyboard on the Vivaz itself, will it be good enough to use, or will everyone that buys a Vivaz have to move on to the Pro version because it's that bad? These questions need to be answered, we shall hopefully find out in the very near future.

Read More

Object Of Desire

If the HTC Legend is being touted as the successor to the Hero, then the HTC Desire is just that - an object of Desire. The Desire is very much an elegant device with some awesome specs to boot. The Desire doesn't (on paper) seem to hold anything back. Anyone would think it's a rip off of the Nexus One, well it might as well be. The features and specs and even the design are pretty much similar. The only difference being the Desire comes with an LED flash to accompany the 5 Megapixel camera, an optical trackpad and HTC custom built SenseUI layer on top.



Taking a look at some of the features and specs on the HTC Desire:

• 3.7 inch WVGA (480 X 800) AMOLED capacitive screen, with pinch to zoom capability
• 576MB of RAM
• 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
• 5 Megapixel camera with LED flash, face detection, autofocus and widescreen capture
• 1400 mAh battery
• WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 (with A2DP), Micro-USB, 3.5mm jack. GPS and FM Radio

These are but a few features of the Desire. Clearly the main differences between the Nexus One and this is the SenseUI and LED flash. If you found those two features missing on the Nexus One, then the Desire should be able to fill those slots without compromising anything.



The great news and the indication that this could be one of the hottest handsets of 2010 is the fact all 5 of the UK's networks have confirmed they will be carrying it! That also includes 3UK ofcourse - where it should fit in perfectly with some of the other HTC handsets they've said they will release this year.

It will be interesting to see which network can put out the best deals on this handset, which will surely be Desired by many!

To find out more about the HTC Desire visit the product page.

Read More

The Legend Succeeds The Hero

HTC has announced a few new handsets during Mobile World Congress. As the event is now a wrap I can finally get down to putting some thoughts into what has occurred.

HTC announced the Legend, which is basically the successor to the popular Hero. Many have been eager to see whether HTC can actually improve on the success of the Hero, no mean feat as it stands. The Hero has won many awards during it's tenure as THE must have HTC Android handset in 2009.

From the look of things the Legend is a more clean cut and minimalist handset than the Hero was. There are less buttons for instance on the front, actually there seem to be none at first glance, with the exception of the optical trackpad. Those buttons seem to be replaced with software buttons which when looked at closely are there, just not physically. There are little updates and upgrades from the Hero which sets the Legend apart, but other than these few changes there really isn't much difference in these two handsets.



Taking a closer look at the differences;

• The processor on the Legend has been bumped up to 600Mhz in comparison to the Hero's 528Mhz.
• There is more RAM on the Legend, 384MB in comparison to the Hero's 288MB.
• Although the screens are the same size physically and with the same resolution (HVGA 3.2inch 320x480) the Legend sports an AMOLED screen instead of the TFT LCD screen found on the Hero.
• The Legend will come with Android 2.1 pre-installed. HTC have confirmed the Hero will get the 2.1 update also. So there isn't anything to shout about there.
• The Legend comes with a 5 Megapixel camera but also with an LED flash, how this performs will have to be investigated.
• The Legend loses the ExtUSB port that is found on the Hero and goes for the more conventional (and cost effective) standard Micro-USB.
• Gone is the chin (not entirely) the Hero had, and is replaced with a unibody design handset with curves and sleekness which looks very Apple Macbook-esque.

Perhaps they should have called this the Desire? (That's another post) check out the video below to see what I mean:



So it looks like the Legend is promising to be a pretty decent handset, probably a very good successor to the Hero. But will it live up to the hype?

More information can be found on the HTC Legend product page with mote in-depth features and specs.

Read More

Mobbler Gets Signed By Symbian - Finally!

I was notified of an update yesterday when using Mobbler. I installed it and carried on using it as I was on the go without thinking too much about it. Not was it after I came home did I find 2 icons for Mobbler in my Applications folder. Wondering what caused this I investigated a bit more. As it happens; Mobbler is now available as an official Symbian Signed Application (thanks to @Mobbler's tweet).

This new version (1.09) brings a few new features on top of some updates already in (0.9) of the Mobbler app as described in the changelog:

1.09(265) - We are now Symbian Signed!

• This is the same build as 0.09(265), but with a couple of extra signed only features
• Set the album art of the current song as your phone's wallpaper
• Opening the browser is no longer embedded

Note Symbian-Signed versions have major version 1 and a solid red logo. Self-signed versions have major version 0 and the crazy paving version of the logo. We hope to only release Symbian-Signed versions from now on and use self-signed versions for beta testing.

0.09(265) - Local tracks, lyrics, love, tagging, and touring

• If you're listening to the radio, but you have a track on your device, Mobbler will now play the track on your device instead of streaming it to save you some bandwidth and battery. You will get a little hard disk icon in the bottom left of the album art if this happens.
• We can now fetch and show lyrics of the current track from Lyricsfly.com
• You can now add and remove track, album, and artist tags on the current track and also from the list views
• We now show if you have loved a track before
• We now show if the artist you are listening to is touring. You will get a red banner on the top right of the album art. On 5th Edition you'll be able to click the banner to view the events.
• Remember the last searched for track, album, artist, tag

That's a pretty decent changelog with nice features added to the already great app that is Mobbler. Great work from the team at Mobbler.

Read More

3UK Announce "The Eye Catching" 5230 - Try To Pull The Wool Over Our Eyes

This morning I woke up to the tweets of 3UK releasing a new Nokia touch orientated handset. As disclosed in my meeting with 3UK reps previously, they've kept their word. The Nokia 5230 has been announced on their Press Releases page. This looks like a decent deal for a low end handset:

The Nokia 5230 is available on 3 for £18 a month on an 18 month contract with unlimited text and internet and 200 any network, anytime minutes.  Alternatively get the phone for £149.99 on Pay as You Go, where every top-up comes with a bundle of free texts and internet allowance which will last for up to 90 days, even if you run out of credit.

The only trouble here is, as many bloggers on Twitter have picked up on; Carphone Warehouse are doing the same handset on Pay As You Go and on 3 for £98.95 (at time of writing). So what gives? Did the 3UK marketing team miss out on something here? Or are they trying to pull the wool over our eyes? I'm not sure about the who, what and where of this ludicrous mishap, but I can't see what consumers will get extra for dishing out more than 50% more on the handset price by going via the 3UK route.

The Nokia 5230 is a S60 5th Edition device sporting most of the features found on similar devices, with the exception of Wi-Fi and a meagre 2MP camera.

EDIT:
Just been on the phone from the 3mobilebuzz team regarding the difference in prices between the Nokia 5230. The main reason and one which can be concluded is economic viability. Carphone Warehouse in simple terms can negotiate a better deal with Nokia to buy the handsets cheaper mainly because they are European wide and can sell more handsets. 3UK on the other hand are only UK based and therefore may not be able to sell as many handsets. So it seems it's all strictly a game of economics and there is no wool involved.

Read More

Spotify For Symbian Updated v0.3.23 (64201)

There has been an update to the Spotify client for Symbian handsets. The update brings in some new features, improvements and support for some new handsets:

• 4 new devices are now supported: Nokia X6, Nokia 6760 slide, Nokia 6700 slide, and Nokia E55.
• Text input on touchscreen devices has been rewritten. Supports special/unusual characters and hardware qwerty keyboards.
• Text input optimizations.
• Seeking on non-touchscreen devices is now much faster

You can download the latest client from m.spotify.com on your handset's browser. Remember, you will require a premium subscription to use Spotify on your mobile handset.

Read More

Nokia Messaging Updates Announced

The Nokia Messaging team have announced they will be carrying out a whole host of updates to their Nokia Messaging Application throughout 2010 starting with the first which should be available now for S60 5th Edition devices. This is labelled as Nokia Messaging 10.2. You should find it using the software update function on your handset.

S60 3rd Edition devices can expect this update for their devices in the coming weeks also. You should stay tuned to their blog for updates on that situation.

The latest update includes the following features and improvements:

• Localized in 38 languages
• Support for Destinations on S60 5th edition devices
• Improvements to on-device-setup wizard
• Deleted items folder now automatically empties itself, faster client deletions
• Various bug fixes

These updates have been provided from the various user feedback the team have taken into account. My personal experiences with Nokia Messaging haven't been smooth (putting it lightly) but hopefully I'll give it ago once the S60 3rd Edition update gets released.

Read More

Sony Ericsson Vivaz Officially Unboxed

The guys at the Sony Ericsson Product Blog have put up a video unboxing of the Vivaz, which itself is filmed on a Vivaz, just to show off the quality of the videos it can capture. The Vivaz will be coming in 4 different flavours with unique colour coded boxes.

Region variations will vary on what is included in the boxes themselves, but it's your usual standard accessories which can be found accompanying other handsets. No surprises there. It would be nice if they bundled some decent earphones with it, perhaps those that come with their Walkman series handsets. I have a few of those and they're much better than the bog standard stuff we're used to getting.

Read More

Blogger Meetup Q&A With Robin Jewsbury

I was invited a few weeks ago to 1000heads office to put forward questions and have a chat with Robin Jewsbury, who is a Forum Nokia Champion. Robin Jewsbury was behind Mippin and is now putting efforts into getting Eyemags out there to the masses.

Eymags has the ability to create magazines which can be shared and saved for later viewing on more or less any handset out there. It's multi-platform and the ease of use for any user to create content should be favourable with a lot of people, but with major magazines also, who could essentially utilise this with the upcoming Apple iPad. A new age of magazine orientated content creation could be upon us.

I spent the evening having a general chat with Robin and many of the other bloggers, we also took turns to ask him questions on his plans for making Eyemags a success and some of the pitfalls that will be ahead of him and the team. Check out the video below and the OviDailyApp blog for more info and future Q&A sessions with other developers.

Read More

Google Maps 4.0 Released

Google today announced Buzz which seems to be some sort of social crossover between Twitter, E-mail and any other sharing service you can imagine. It utilises your e-mail inbox to integrate everything together. I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but I prefer not to be stuck in my inbox all day, I actually prefer getting away from it all.

This post isn't about Google Buzz, it's about Google Maps, which to support Buzz for Symbian S60 handsets and other platforms has been upgraded to 4.0. There is nothing special about this update other than the additional support of Buzz, which so far for Symbian devices only adds a Buzz layer on top of the maps. For Android (software running 2.0) and iPhone, there are some more features integrated such as Voice and Icon shortcuts, and support buzz.google.com on your handsets browser. S60 support is in the works. I haven't had the chance to play around with it just yet, as it's so new but will do so in the coming days. For now if you want to try out Buzz or Google Maps 4.0 just head on over to their respective websites or links below on your handset's browser:

buzz.google.com

m.google.com/maps

Read More

AdonisMobile - Faster, Sharper, Less RSI Prone

I have been working on this design for a few days now and can gladly say it's live! Well if you're reading this, then you've already seen it. Apart from the usual look I thought a refresh was due, but other than that I hoped to make it less scroll-prone and more compact in order to make navigating a bit more easier.

Comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome. Just leave a comment below.

Read More

3UKNYmeetup Humble, Honest And Er, Free Drinks

That above was the invitation to attend the first meetup of the New Year with the people from 3UK, which I must say always seems to be an honest and humble experience. The guys are very friendly, approachable and actually make the effort to try and answer the question rather than the usual dodging and generic answers we find from some others. Head on to Twitter and check out the #3UKNYmeetup tag to see the rest of the reactions from those that attended.

The guys at 3Mobilebuzz are doing a great job in getting these get togethers sorted and I for one as a blogger am glad, as it gives me a chance to find out what my operator of choice is up to and what I can expect from them not only as a customer, but also a blogger.

The night was organised so we could get access to some of the senior guys and people from many different sectors of the company, Customer Service, PR, Engineers the lot. This was pretty much a no holds barred affair. Whilst many of us were eager to get David Kerrigan into a corner and get as much gossip out of him before one of the Sarahs from PR could stop us (he's the guy with all the handsets, we ALL love handset gossip), it would be a shame not to get information regarding the recent network improvements have gone and what we could expect from them. Whilst the customer service guys would be quizzed on how they were dealing with some of the negative feedback being received from customers.

Let's get down to it.

Handsets

I did manage to get some time with David in order to discuss what handsets 3UK would/could be carrying this year, and the information provided was pretty exciting. Not only did I get some hands-on time with some of the devices which will be coming to 3UK shortly but also some of the interesting future releases, most notably from HTC running Android.

Sony Ericsson X10 - I mentioned seeing this on the previous meeting and hinted that it could make it to 3UK, and the conversations and signs show that yet it will be coming to 3UK. Most of the employees were actually carrying it with them.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz - This little beauty I have been keeping an eye out for, it's a very exciting device. I was actually pretty shocked to see it being actively revealed by David. Upon playing around with it, I can say physically it's very impressive. it's easily one of the most ergonomic devices I've held, ever! The device is actually very very light. When playing around with it, I couldn't actually fathom something that light and small could be able to record 720p video. But that's not the only great thing, as it runs on Symbian S60 5th Edition it will have access to all the great apps in the OVI store and an already established platform, but without the ugliness of the S60 UI. Sony Ericsson have built their own custom UI over it to make it a lot more appealing. Although my time was brief with it, it was very nice. I'm glad to say 3UK will be releasing this device, and as early as March possibly.

HTC, Android & More - From what I gathered with my conversation with David, 3UK will be bringing at least quite a few devices from HTC this year. The successor to the hugely popular and successful Hero will be a part of that. I for one cannot wait. As we all know, I loved the HTC Hero. I would also think we may be seeing one more device from INQ this year, whether this will be running Android or BREW is yet to be seen, but fingers cross it will be the former. There will also be a Nokia touch handset, which I would think could be an XpressMusic or similar variant.

Network

It's no secret 3UK have been busy improving and expanding their network an although they now boast the most masts in the UK from any of the networks, coverage isn't perfect and nor is the work going into it. They are still actively upgrading and adding masts. This is a longer term plan to improve 3UK's network more stable, more accessible and faster. Speaking with the network guys, it's evident that although work is going smoothly, there is still a lot of work still being carried out. Some of the planned outages didn't go to plan, but that is to be expected, on the whole the upgrading of the network has been a success and with minimal inconveniences caused.

Customer Service

This is something I haven't experience, mainly due to the fact I usually solve my own issues and perhaps live in an area of service which is both reliable and fast. But I did manage to ask how they were handling some of the negative complaints about their Customer Service Centres. The reply mostly was, it's an issue being worked on, but one that has been acknowledged. The key point here is, how to actually resolve the issue. Will moving the call centres to the UK solve the issue if the system and practices are the same? That would be the most common answer in my opinion, but although I expect the customers would be happier and feel more at ease dealing with UK based call centres, that might not quite be the perfect solution. Getting the service guys trained up to scratch and better troubleshooting equipment, might in the longer term be a better choice. This is something echoed from 3UK itself. In real life, there isn't a quick fix.

Wrap Up

It's always great to have a direct chat with the people that provide the service we use, it helps if that conversation is direct, unfiltered and more than anything intimate and honest. 3UK are still far and away the best at engaging with the community and coupled with the 3mobilebuzz guys are doing a great job in building bridges for the future. More than anything in my eyes, they seem to understand what their customers want, and although might not always be able to provide it as quick as we want, they are trying to achieve that. I think with the influence of the internet ever more present, we expect technical issues to be resolved overnight, but sometimes it's not always as simple as that nor possible. Sometimes we might not see the bigger picture and don't appreciate there might actually be an honest employee somewhere trying their best to provide that service or solution. Trying to engage with their customers and community 3UK are showing signs that at least they are trying, and they are trying now. Head on over to read the view of Justin Bull -  Head of Planning & Implementation at 3UK - Check out who got front row?

Read More

PUSHN900 - Showcasing The Hackers

I was sent out an invite to go and see some pole dancing robots, which I eagerly accepted! How many times does one get an invitation to attend something that sounds crazy as that? What it turns out to be is a night organised to showcase the #PUSHN900 finalists, which gave the chance for the hackers and bloggers to have a chat face to face and demonstrate the hacks that took advantage of the N900's abilities.

I covered the 5 finalists and the video diaries they put up previously, and the guys were in attendance to show off their hacks to many keen bloggers. What ensued on the night was a friendly chat with the hackers, fellow bloggers, Nokia employees and various food and drinks which were greatly appreciated. As a surprise (other than the pole dancing robots) we had another very famous robot getting the evening under way with a formal introduction in the shape of Robert Llewellyn, Red Dwarf fans should recognise him as Kryten, although he wasn't in his usual guise and in more human form.

My highlights from the night have to be the strangely erotic pole dancing robots (see picture above) and the aerial photography hack: Kaping with the N900. Although the Solderin' Skaters did put on a decent show with the skateboards. There was one pole dancing robot which could be sent a text message with some pre-configured commands, which would send it into a frenzy of hip gyrating movements and flashing strobe lights, something worryingly which not just my attention, but many others.

The aerial photography hack was impressive in my eyes, the camera was hung above the venue and could be controlled via the N900 and it's accelerometer to capture a 360 degree view, which I would think could come handy in many situations. I'm not sure if the live feed would/could be shown on the screen of the N900, as it didn't seem to be working at the time, but the ability to control the camera just by moving the N900 around was very impressive.

I didn't quite get around to checking out all the team's hacks as there was a crowd forming around the demo areas, but did have a chance to catch up with a few Nokia people, which is always a nice welcome as well as some of the guys behind Symbian, which itself brought on a few more interesting conversations about the future of Symbian and it's integration with Maemo. The night overall was pretty good, with good food and drinks as can be expected from Nokia. Whilst the debate may be whether Nokia can deliver more great devices, their ability to throw a pretty decent party can't be questioned.

Read More

Thoughts on Sony Ericsson Vivaz

Sony Ericsson's foray into many different OS supporting their handsets is reaching quite a bit of momentum. They've more or less ventured into every platform they can get their hands on, which to me shows the company doesn't quite know which will be the true successor, but much like HTC perhaps isn't relying on any one OS. Their previous Symbian powered handset didn't quite live up to expectation, (Satio) although it did raise a lot of eyebrows and attention. What let it down mostly was buggy software and poor battery life, after which it was pretty quickly removed from shelves by many of the big retail stores.

I'm hoping they've learnt from those mistakes and have put that knowledge into their 2nd Symbian device. With experience with UIQ devices previously I find it unacceptable they would be making such poor mistakes. They've announced the Vivaz, which on paper looks to be one pretty slick and impressive device. It's been touted as a multimedia device and as expected has some very impressive features; 8.1 Megapixel camera, 16:9nHD 640x360 screen, 720p video capture and various software enhanced features for taking stills too. I've sat back and watched the various videos and information being posted on the Sony Ericsson Product Launch blog which has covered many of the functions of the handset, ironically the videos captured actually look better than the videos captured to show off the devices other features. Check out the example video below:

Whether or not it will be on par with the quality of other handsets (Samsung's OmniaHD) and other point and shoot 720p cameras we will have to wait and see.

On the design front it looks very sleek with a curvy back, it will most definitely be slippery and smooth which could in turn become hazardous for the handset. Being predominantly made from plastic I would wonder about the build quality also. These points I would have to see for myself, but for now it's one handset that has peaked my interest and the fact it's running on Symbian S60 5th edition makes it even more intriguing as I haven't been interested in anything Symbian for a long while.

Some highlighted features of the Vivaz:

• HD video – produce and broadcast your best experiences with the latest video capture and sharing features
• Social networking – easy access to social networks such as Facebook™ and Twitter
• 8.1 megapixel camera – capture life’s moments in high quality
• Face and smile detection – a perfect picture every time
• Sony Ericsson Media Player
• DLNA Certified (photos and audio)
• 16.9 nHD wide touch screen (640 x 360 pixels nHD)
• A-GPS

Read More