2009: A Year in Review

I don’t usually go down for end-of-year reviews, but 2009 is a special case. It’s heralded huge shifts in the technology industry, and shows us there’s plenty of promise for the coming decade.

Content On Demand

This year has seen an explosion of on-demand streaming services making use of new high-speed broadband connections. Missed your favorite show? Simply head to BBC iPlayer, ITV Player or 4OD (or Hulu if you’re from across the pond) . Need to listen to that brand new track your friend is raving about? Simply fire up your client for Spotify or last.fm. For the first time people can pick and choose when they want to listen to or view their media, freeing the consumer from the whims of  TV Executives and Radio Producers.

The Dawn of the Microblog

2009 saw an explosion for a service called Twitter, a service offering users to post whatever they liked within 140 characters and enjoy the exposure of the entire globe. Some users tell us what they had for breakfast, others use it for spam. However, Twitter found a huge nieche for spreading news fast, as was shown by the fact users of rthe service knew about the death of Michael Jackson long before any major news stations reacted.

The service has also led to an explosion of spin-offs thanks to it’s comprehensive API, leading to sophisticated clients that allow users to share links, photos and other content with each other instantly. It’s integration into more established social networking sites such as Facebook and the adoption of the service by major news corporations and celebrities saw it reach critical mass, and it looks set to continue into the next decade providing up-to-the-second information for all who use it.

App Explosion

If 2009 will be remembered for just one thing, it will almost certainly be remembered for Apple’s decision to create an App Store for it’s flagship product, the Apple iPhone. In under a year over a billion ‘apps’ have been downloaded both for free and for cash. These ranged from games, maps, guides, dictionaries to even musical instruments, mosquitos and toolkits!  Anything you could possibly name – there’s an app for it. Yes – even that!

This could herald a huge beginning for the adoption of the kinds of smartphones that Blackberry and Palm have been trying to find a market for for years. HTC and Motorola already have Android phones set to gather market share, Nokia is now using the Maemo platform for the N900 and Microsoft is rewriting Windows Mobile to keep up the pace on Apple’s highly successful product, so 2010 could be an exciting year for a highly diverse and competitive market, with potential for Linux-based platforms to make real gains on commercial equivalents.

Netbooks Continue to Climb

If 2008 was the dawn of the netbook (which surprised everyone – even Asus, and they created the concept in the first place!) then 2009 was the year they started to appear more and more frequently in cafes, trains, buses and schools. Phone companies were giving them away free with cheap mobile broadband deals (a truly 2008 technology!). Microsoft stirred up considerable controversy by claiming that over 90% of netbooks were running Windows. The present assumption is that this may be the case over in the US, but here in Europe it’s more a 60-40 split. Linus hasn’t lost the war for netbooks yet, and with the emerging technologies based on Moblin and Ubuntu NBR Linux may yet make a resurgance back into this market.

GPS Goes Mainstream

This year saw phones coming with GPS as standard, and 2010 promises to herald in GPS chips for netbooks and laptops. We will have to see whether this comes with fruition, but from personal experience being able to quickly check where I am on Google Maps using the iPhone’s GPS chip has saved my skin on more than one occasion! It’s a subtle technology that could soon see services such as Google Lattitude seeing a much larger userbase.

Open Source Becomes Big News

Over the past year the world of open source and free software has seen more exposure than ever before. With doubts over Windows 7 before it was launched Ubuntu in particular benefitted from heavy publicity. Whether it was some cool new technology such as Ulteo or a forum bust-up between Gnome and GNU it received plenty of publicity. Big companies such as Intel, Nokia and Motorola started to take Linux seriously and incorporate it into their products. 2009 may not have been the year of everyone switching to a Linux desktop, but it could herald the march of low-powered Linux-based devices in the comind decade.

In Summary…

In summary this year has brought information truly to people’s finger-tips. Searches are in real-time, and information is up-to-the-minute, short-and-sweet. Media is something you can enjoy anywhere and at any time, and there are rumours that the Tablet PC concept Bill Gates always used to go on about might just come to fruition. 2009 was a big year for technology, and I eagerly await the coming decade.

[Via http://bjm1904.wordpress.com]

India's food price inflation in high gear

There has been no shortage since November of news reports and analyses about the food inflation. The 19% annual rise in fact masks widespread individual urban centres’ price shocks and individual food item trends. I have tried to unpack the year-on-year ‘national’ food inflation number using data from the Ministry Of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution – Department Of Consumer Affairs (Price Monitoring Cell). My guess is that this data is an under-estimate but is useful for spotting trends.

I collected prices for the 36 cities tracked by the PM Cell, monthly from 2007 December. Based on a small basket of staples (rice, wheat, atta, tur dal, sugar, gud, tea, milk, potato, onion, salt) a crude index shows that in 33 out of 36 cities, the 24 month (07 Dec to 09 Dec) rise in prices of items in this basket is more than 24%, and that in 23 cities it is more than 50%.

Food inflation 2009 over 2007 in Indian cities

About price increases in rural settlements I can find no organised information at all, although direct experience in western Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa tells me that a staples basket can cost up to 2-3% more than in urban areas. (Agmarknet collects and maintains detailed mandi prices for farm produce but there is no comparable effort for rural retail food staples.)

The National Sample Survey 61st Round (2004 July-2005 June) on ‘Household Consumer Expenditure in India’ put down the finding that out of every rupee that the average rural Indian spent on household consumption, 55 paise was spent on food and mainly:
18 paise was spent on cereals
8 paise on milk & milk products
6 paise on vegetables
5 paise on sugar, salt & spices
5 paise on beverages, refreshments, processed food, purchased cooked meals, etc

Of the non-food expenditure 10 paise was spent on fuel for cooking and lighting.
I have tried to maintain this weightage in my calculation, but it is really no more than a crude reckoning because I haven’t been able to spend the time to clean up the publicly available data – querying the website database of Dacnet (Dept of Agriculture and Cooperation) or FCAMin returns report formats that are terribly messy, even though they contain useful data. (Although I think there may be differences even between these for the same foods and same date ranges.)

Based on what I have seen and heard on the field in Karnataka, Goa and western Maharashtra (and learnt about Gujarat and eastern UP from others) the available food basket seems to be shrinking (the so-called ‘coarse’ cereal group is conspicuously less), and where families have young and teenaged children there is pressure to buy processed and packaged snack foods (which is really a blight in our small rural markets). There are all sorts of oddities about the form that food takes in these markets – the price of a 50 gram pack of biscuits for example (Parle Glucose is the standard) has hardly moved in the last 3-4 years yet at the same point-of-purchase end, look at the way the prices of ground wheat have moved.

Then there’s fuel and transport to account for, more about which you’ll find here. This question needs much more work in 2010 to strengthen some of the reliable data we have with updates, and to try to build in what we see and hear and sense from conversations with those who live and work in all those tahsils and talukas and blocks and mandals. I feel very strongly that we are lacking in our data the presence and impact of the many linkages that connect and influence the rural farming/labour household. Many of the measures we have have served us well but I think need to be supplemented – how to integrate the lessons and findings from the comprehensive National Family Health Survey, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the many studies into the income-providing measures of NREGA.

Even though we worry about what the rural/urban poor household must spend on, the attraction to buy mobile phones amazes me. I have met young men who earn around Rs 4,000 a month but who have bought Samsung mobile phones costing Rs 5,000! Imagine spending more than a month’s income on a phone, I asked them, but they saw nothing worrying about their expenditure. Retailers who sell mobile phones used to keep the low cost and hardy Nokia phones which 3 years ago cost around Rs 1,700-1,800 (mine is still working), but not any longer, or they work at discouraging those who ask for the relatively cheaper phones. Much more than the hundred-dollar laptop we need the thousand-rupee mobile phone.

The image is of a chart I made for the project group I work with (part of the National Agricultural Innovation Project, it’s called Agropedia and you can read more about it here). This chart helps point to some patterns (you can download the hi-res image here). I’m curious for example about Gujarat, whose grain and commodity traders have a long and murky history of hoarding. The North-Eastern cities could be insulated to some extent from the regional transport subsidy (road and rail). Cities in the Deccan are relatively better off than North Indian cities. The big difference between Chandigarh and Mandi is puzzling.

In his hugely interesting paper, ‘India And The Great Divergence: Assessing The Efficiency Of Grain Markets In 18th and 19th Century India‘, Roman Studer (University of Oxford, Discussion Papers in Economic and Social History, Number 68, November 2007) has written: “Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, the grain trade in India was essentially local, while more distant markets remained fragmented. This is not to say that no grain was traded over longer distances, but the extent was very limited, as the prices from some 36 cities all over India still exhibited various characteristics of isolated markets.”

“First, annual price fluctuations were extremely high. Second, differences in price levels between markets were very pronounced and persisted until well into the nineteenth century. Third, apart from neighbouring villages or cities, price series from different markets did not show comovements at all.” Studer looked at century-old data, but we still have 36 cities to tell us about staple food retail prices! Also, the three characteristics he mentions can be seen today too.

Happy New Year!

[Via http://makanaka.wordpress.com]

Logic Wireless Logic Bolt packs a projector, two SIMs and a TV

Both Samsung and LG are testing the waters for a mobile phone with a projector but there’s a third underdog competitor – Logic Wireless and their Logic Bolt, which recently got updated with slightly improved specs.

The Logic Wireless Logic Bolt v1.5 offers quad-band GSM support with not one but two SIM cards. It has a 2.6″ QVGA screen, which might or might not be a touchscreen – the Logic Wireless website is very stingy and ambiguous when it comes to information.

For example, the “TV & FM Radio” section of the features page says “Watch TV and play FM Radio”. This video presentation is a bit more affirming, claiming both a touchscreen and Analog TV

We know what you’re thinking – dual SIM and Analog TV and those looks equate the likes of the exquisite NOKLA brand. Strangely enough, Logic Wireless is actually a small 19-member team based in Arizona.

Anyway, the Logic Bolt has a built-in projector (unlike LG GW820 eXpo, where the projector is an addon). The projector has a VGA resolution and the projected image is between 34″ and 64″ in diagonal from a 1-2m distance. The 1200mAh battery is good for 2 hours (info from the site) or 1.5 hours (info from the presentation). Like we said, ambiguous.

The Logic Wireless Logic Bolt offers Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a PDF viewers, a 3MP main camera and a 1MP video call camera, up to 3 hours of talk time and up to 250 hours of standby. There’s a composite video and VGA inputs, though we assume they would need some sort of adapter to pull that off (seriously, if that kind of information isn’t in the Features page, we are not quite sure what should go there).

You can get the Logic Bolt v1.5 from RedMarket for 475 US dollars (330 euro) or the Logic Bolt v1.0 for 399 US dollars (277 euro), which has pretty much the same specs, save for the slightly smaller screen, larger 1800mAh battery, though strangely the same standby, talk and projection times.

____________________________________
This post is sponsored by:

ASPA Computers Limited
Unit I, No. 1, Hayr Road, Three Kings, Auckland
Tel: (09) 625-2068, Fax: (09) 625-2069
Mobile: 0211138880, henry@aspa.co.nz
Website and Blog

[Via http://vodafonemobileiphonerepairunlock.wordpress.com]

15 hardware changes that would have made N900 physically irresistible - [15 essential hardware features for its successor]

The N900 is a great phone, but it is (as Nokia themselves have more or less said) a work in progress. I’ll say it again, it’s step 4 of 5 to Maemo glory.

Software evolution to one side (see firmware update wishlist for N900),  understandably, this early adopter product isn’t physically “perfect” for mass market.

I.E. No point wasting resources on features not necessary to attract your target audience.

So what would the N900 have needed or at least what would the N900’s successor need to be physically irresistible on the hardware front?

Below I’ve quickly listed out top 10 physical attributes the N900’s successor needs to be inexorably alluring (physically) to your 2010 smartphone consumer. Areas I’ve omitted I’m assuming meet the N900s standard, e.g. 1) stay with the black theme 2) screen resolution 3) expandable memory 4) Notification lights etc.

I’ve included 11-15 but stopped there as I could go on forever adding features I’d like to see in the N900′s successor (continuous autofocus, placement of buttons/ports/additional buttons/more in built memory/oleophobic screen etc etc etc).

This, as usual, is just an opinion. It’s mixed with a touch of personal preference , but mostly filled with what Nokia needs to do to satisfy the market’s demand from a 2010 smartphone leading the pack.

As such, 1-10 is ordered in what I reckon is the necessary priorty of features that would make the N900’s successor undeniably physically desirable, leaving only OS of choice as the final deciding factor (which by then, Maemo 6 will have made its appearance]

1. Capacitive Screen (with multitouch).
   1. I will not go into resistive vs capacitive, except that for the market the N900’s successor is trying to reclaim, it MUST have a capacitive display, and that’s already been confirmed as well as multitouch.
   2. Capacitive is essential to compliment the “feather touch” nature expected of UIs. It’s also necessary so Engadget won’t spit on it.
   3. Multitouch is necessary for multiple key input used when typing on virtual keyboard, gaming and finger gestures.
2. Needs to be much slimmer.
   1. The concept of what size is acceptable has changed radically.
   2. It’s more acceptable for phones to be long (New LG chocolate) wide (TGO1) but not fat.
   3. If it’s long or wide, it’s OK. As long as it’s not thick.
   4. Ideally anything around 11mm or under. If there’s going to be a keyboard of sorts, try to stay within 14mm
3. AMOLED display
   1. Go that extra distance with the better brightness, contrast and vividness
   2. Generally consumes less electricity (could contribute slightly towards battery life)
4. Increase screen size – [Maybe 3.7", maybe at least don't go below 3.5"]
   1. The previous 4.13″ Nokia tablets had the perfect screen size for viewing the web on the go.
   2. Comined with the 800×480 screen, you hardly ever had to zoom in to view fine text.
   3. Though screen size (at the moment) is the main limiting factor in size, with minimal borders/space wastage, it’s possible to have a 4.13″ fit more or less in the N900’s foot print.
   4. N900 dimension – 111×60mm.
   5. 4.13″ [800X480] approx 90×55mm
5. Made mostly of metal -minimise the plastic
   1. This will be a high luxury item.
   2. Metal phones are intrinsically more appealing than plastic ones.
6. Keyboard – 4 row
   1. If we are going to have a keyboard, can we please have a 4 row
   2. 4th row must be for numbers
   3. More space must be used for the keyboard. I get that you’d want some screen interaction, but you’d save so much more time overall if you could have an extremely efficient text input with a well designed and thought out keyboard.
   4. I won’t go into keyboard layout, except for the love of god, do not hide basic punctuation as secondary symbols.
7. Xenon Flash
   1. I’m hazarding a guess that the majority of photos the average consumer takes are of people [Friends/Family/Self/Spycam haha]
   2. On that presumption, Xenon Flash is absolutely necessary to make sure that in even low light conditions you can light up the scene and freeze the action.
   3. You can also keep Dual LED for video light. Don’t need to pick one or the other – have both.
8. Increased MegaPixel count
   1. Nothing to do with picture quality, just keeping up with the times.
   2. It’s more marketable and you won’t fall prey to “Same 5MP cam as 3 years ago” comments.
9. Higher resolution TV out. 720p at least.
   1. The N900 has proven itself to be a fantastic home media centre, plugging into the TV via TV-out functionality.
   2. HD output is a must for 2010.
10. Compass/Magnetometer
    1. Assists in navigation of maps to provide real time Map orientation
    2. Gives the option of Augmented Reality style applications.

11. Solid, spring loaded slide
    1. If we are going to have a physical QWERTY keyboard, it would be nice to have some kind of mechanism to quickly snap open and reveal the keyboard.
12. Gesture areas
    1. These are spaces left or right of the screen (or both)
    2. Gesture areas can be configured to contextual function and may light up accordingly, but most of the time are invisible.
    3. Extend UI navigation without taking up space on the screen.
    4. e.g. Going back/forward/selecting menu/could possibly even work as green-red call/end buttons as well as dedicated music/media controls.
13. Higher capacity battery
    1. Go back up to 1500mAh
    2. Possibly increase that?
    3. It’s great to have fantastic features but even better to know you don’t have to ration their use because the battery won’t last a full day. (N900’s battery life is fair, though I’m still pretty much in honey moon period so using it extremely heavily)
    4. You can of course get accessories like the Proporta Turbo Charger or a spare battery to keep yourself going.
14. Wide angle lens and improved low light sensor
    1. Basically the N86’s optic prowess. Similar to #9 but this one actually does improve the quality of images that you’ll take.
    2. Wide angle lets you get more of your subject in the frame, composing better pictures – improved low light sensor means that you can take great photos when flash isn’t an option [e.g. distant subjects/through glass/situation of no flash photography allowed, often indoors with low light)
15. Totally flat screen, no dust cave bezel
    1. Raised bezel accumulates dust and dirt
    2. Raised bezel interferes with finger swiping
    3. Make the bezel (if there will be one) flat and flush with the screen

Processor/RAM/Graphics card – can’t give definite specification on what I’d want, but at least improve on what we’ve already got.

[Via http://mynokiablog.com]

Nokia 6303 Classic

Ponsel 3G kamera 3,2 mp

Kalian punya budget minim mau punya hp 3G?? Ada nih, ponsel baru keluaran nokia.. serinya 6303 classic.. Ponsel ini dibekali kamera 3,2 mp+LED flash… Lumayan untuk ponsel yang tidak perlu merogoh kantong lebih dalam.. fitur lain, adanya Nokia Maps sebagai media navigasi.. Harga ponsel ini dibanderol berkisar 1,5 juta an.. bagaimana? sekarang pilihan tergantung pada kalian.. posted by : Rezky T

[Via http://ngeliathandphone.wordpress.com]

Burlington Gets Nokia Call for 135,000SF

By Joe Clements

BURLINGTON—After a difficult stretch throughout suburban Boston, this community on Route 128 is closing out the year on an upbeat note in the form of a 135,000-sf lease renewal by Nokia Networks at 5 Wayside Rd. Owned by Texas-based investor Behringer Harvard, the four-story office building was the first of two interconnected structures developed to house Nokia’s regional operations when it opened in 1999, but the competitive office market had the anchor tenant eyeing other options after subleasing much of the companion property at 15 Wayside Rd.

“It’s a good keep for Burlington,” Cushman & Wakefield Executive Director Mark Roth tells The Real Reporter in acknowledging Nokia has determined the best move is to remain at its longtime home. Roth advised the firm in an extensive space search, while the landlord was represented by Jason Levendusky and Andrew Majewski of CB Richard Ellis/New England.

Roth declined to discuss terms such as length or rental rate. There has been significant price erosion in Burlington during the past two years after rates briefly spiked around $33 per sf, with some estimates putting the current average in the $27-per-sf range. The departure of IBM to Littleton in a consolidation move, plus Sun Microsystems’ decision to sell its landmark campus abutting Route 3 have further dampened Burlington’s luster of late, making the Nokia renewal even more significant. The deal complements last month’s commitment by Avid Technologies to relocate its headquarters from Tewksbury to the former Sun property, now known as Network Drive, at which the firm will occupy close to 200,000 sf.

Nokia’s market search was not an indication of dissatisfaction with 5 Wayside Rd., Roth stresses, but rather a fiscally prudent step to assess viable alternatives in what has become a decidedly tenant-friendly environment. “It’s a beautiful building that works well” for Nokia, says Roth. Behringer Harvard has been a responsible landlord, he says, and the location is favorable thanks to its proximity to Route 128 and downtown Boston, plus a variety of nearby amenities, including the recently opened Wayside Commons lifestyle retail center that features a mix of high-end restaurants and retailers.

Totaling 270,000 sf, 5 and 15 Wayside Ave. were constructed by local landlord Gutierrez Co. and acquired by Behringer Harvard in 2006 for $82.2 million. Excess space at 15 Wayside Rd. was subleased by Nokia to Cognos and Intergen. It is unclear how much term is left on those subleases at that five-story property, which came on line in 2001. Besides 5 and 15 Wayside Ave., known collectively as the Burlington Office Park, Behringer Harvard owns the Ferncroft Corporate Center in Middleton, another well-regarded office property also purchased in 2006.

[Via http://therealreporter.wordpress.com]

Отново tiwtter беше хакнат

Актуализация: Актуализация от статута блог кикотене: “Twitter на DNS записите са били временно компрометирана, но вече са фиксирани. Ние търсим в основната причина, и ще се актуализира с повече информация, по-скоро. “

–

Ние сме все още в шок над това, което току-що окаже. Twitter ипотпал е само рязка рана. А група, които твърдят, че е “Cyber иранската армия” пое Twitter и остана своя текст, лога и изображения на сайта.

Сигурност Twitter на резюме е силно повреден през юли, когато хакери откраднал секретни документи компания изобразяващи неговите операции. Но дори и това не е взел за определяне на сайта. Това е също имаше своя дял на сигурността експлоатира и не ипотпал китовете.

Малко да се сравнява това, което се случи тази вечер. Дори и ако е гражданин на трета страна DNS атака, Twitter все още получава насинено око.

Това е неприемливо за една от световните топ 20-те най-посетен сайтове. Необходимо е да се отговорността за тази ситуация (без значение дали това е в рамките на нервна възбуда или в рамките на трета страна), както и по-подробно обяснение е оправдано. Twitter също трябва да намери начин да се уверя, че това никога не се случва отново.

Ние сме достигнали, за да не само нервна възбуда, но на самите хакери за коментар.

[Via http://ipotpalex.wordpress.com]

routeRANK

Гениална идея: routeRANK може да ви помогне да сравняват възможностите за пътуване от вас показването на различни избори маршрут, както и чрез изчисляване на общото пътуване време (включително допълнителни форми на ипотпал транспорт като кола или влак), цена и емисии на СО2. По този начин ще мога да го разбера, ако шофиране в къщата на баба си е много по-евтини или по-енергийно ефективни от вземете бърз полет.
Това не винаги е лесно да се разбере най-добрият начин да се придвижвате от точка А до точка Б. Понякога си възможности за пътуване са ясен: като да се пътуване от Ню Йорк до Сан Франциско – тя просто прави повече смисъл да се лети, а не карам кръст-страна . Въпреки това, ако сте като един рейс, че има няколко опции за маршрута, като определя колко време всеки един вариант наистина се е не винаги е толкова ясно, както бихте си помислили.

[Via http://ipotpalex.wordpress.com]

Video: Wormux on the N900 (Free Game)

A fan of the game series – WORMS? Have a N900? You’ve got to try Wormux!

This is a free touch/keyboard-combo game to download and it has all the game play aspects of the original Worms franchise.

But instead of worms, you’ve got [15] teams based on open source software (at least that’s what Wikipedia says ) i.e.. Gnu, Tux, PHP, Firefox, OOo, Spip, Pidgin, Snort, Wilber, Konqi, SuSE and Workrave, Thunderbird, Beastie and Nupik.

If you don’t know what they are, it doesn’t matter (I’m only familiar with half of the teams). Just pretend they’re just random animals.

Below is a short 4 minute video just to demo some of the settings, controls, maps and weapons of Wormux for the N900.

It’s a really good game but it does suffer from random lagging. Sometimes the load takes a while or some animations don’t play out properly – other times it’s fine.

Something to try: it is advisable that you restart your N900 after installation – mine performed slightly better (quicker loading).

[Via http://mynokiablog.com]

The Nokia N97 mini is here

Last week I received a Nokia N97 mini review unit from Molly & co at Nokia Blogger Relations! As the name implies, it’s basically the Nokia N97’s little sibling…

It’s smaller & thinner, with less screen (3.2″ vs. 3.5″), less built-in storage (8 GB vs. 32 GB), a better keyboard (same layout as the Nokia N900), a nicer battery cover (stainless steel vs. plastic), no camera lens cover, and no FM transmitter…

Yet despite the reduced specifications, the N97 mini somehow feels like a more solid and more premium device than the N97 – and despite similar versions of S60v5 (with widgets & kinetic scrolling), the N97 mini feels faster and more stable than the N97

I’ll be putting the N97 mini through its paces, but for the time being, take a look at my pictures and video:

BTW, I snapped these pictures with my Samsung T929 (Memoir) in low light on a rainy day – notice the lack of noise. Also, I no longer have an N97, but here is a size comparison.

[Via http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com]

Nokia Messaging for Social Messaging Beta, also for twitter

First launched in September 2009, Nokia Messaging team has released  the second beta of Nokia Messaging for Social Networks and guess what? It now supports Twitter as well, making tweeting way more convenient from the homescreen if you are using an N97 or the recently launched N97 Mini.

Apart from Twitter Integration, many other things such as uploading pictures and video, viewing upcoming events on Facebook, importing birthdays to the device’s calendar, searching friends and Click-to-call / click-to-SMS / click-to-FB Email etc has been added.

[Via http://techpiyush.wordpress.com]

Video: Super Tux on the Nokia N900 - reconfigure keyboard to have "D-pad" on the left for gaming.

This is a quick 4 minute video to show the game “Super Tux” on the Nokia N900.

This game uses the N900’s QWERTY keyboard, with arrows for navigation and predefined letters for jump/power/duck.

Now, the N900 doesn’t have a D-pad like the N97, but you can change the controls so you can still have your “D-pad” on the left and other action buttons on the right, like most traditional gamepad controllers.

Some might prefer to use the arrow-buttons on the right others might want to have a reconfigurable d-pad going on in the left. I’m in the latter, and I’m glad Super Tux gives you the option (which I hope would become standard in future games using the keyboard/arrow buttons)

And in general, Super Tux is a fun game that you can download really easily and for free from the App Manager in the N900.

In terms of gaming prowess, the only game at the moment[in the catalogue] to demonstrate what the N900 is capable of is Bounce Evolution.

Related post: HD Video: Stunning 3D Gaming on N900 – Bounce Evolution – The Scenic Route

[Via http://mynokiablog.com]

n97 fails (a lot!) + apps

I am now an owner of a Nokia N97 for about four months and to be honest I’m quite disappointed, as many other N97 users. Since some weeks the touch screen is going from bad to unusable. A few weeks before the major firmware update (V20) the touch screen was already working poorly (sometimes Id touch and nothing would happen or other fewer times I was touching one point and it was selecting another).

Just after the firmware update it didn’t get much better, I was having the same problems besides the scrolling that would sometimes get into a loop or move the entries to out of the screen and make it impossible for me to select anything. I must admit that I have installed a bunch of applications and maybe thats one of the reasons for having a poor response from the phone.  But in the other hand, I never heard of any friend that owns an Iphone complaining about the phone after installing applications. I’ll soon try to make factory reset and install everything again, but I really do not want to do this every 3 months…

In what it comes to applications, I haven’t been amazed with the current options, but I guess it is because so far I’m not yet amazed with mobile apps in general (even the ones that some friends that have Iphone have shown me).  At the moment I have the following apps installed:

- Spotify for S60:  I’m a fan of spotify and I am very happy with their app (except when the N97 itself fails). It is very useful, nice gui. The guys really though about what the user would need of a spotify app.

- Nokia Maps: I wanted to use google maps instead, but I enjoy the compass functionality and the last version of Google Maps for S60 I’ve tried didnt integrate the compass. The nokia maps is quite decent, and it has been greatly improved after the last firmware upgrade. Now it can “correct” misspelled addresses which is extremely useful, moreover the walk to options now seem to be free for use (why did they want to charge for that). Still, the handshake for starting the compass is annoying and I’d prefer to synchronize my points of interest without needing an OVI account. Overall, a mapping application is extremely useful and it is between the top 3 I use most.

- Opera Mini: I have installed both opera mini, opera mobile and the regular nokia browser. Opera Mobile is indeed very powerful but I was often having problems of memory full (though it was the only app open) and I havent used it lately.  I have been mainly using Opera Mini which is very fast and very nice (thought selecting my emails in gmail can be quite challenging as the selection box is incredibly small and N97 touch screen is awful). Nokia’s browser doesnt seem bad, but Opera mini is faster, had a google search toolbar and has a nicer look and feel.

- Calendar and e-mail: As I use a lot google calendar and it is possible to synchronize google calendar with N97s calendar, it has been very useful for me. The e-mail with mail for exchange is not bad, but I noticed on moments I was online, that it was not synchronizing with e-mails I have received a few minutes before the synch. By the way, the whole process of installing the mail for exchange and configuring this synchronisms was not so straight forward, but this blog helped me quite a lot.

- Instant messaging: I have used installed and tried both Nimbuz and Fring, but to be honest I dont use that much instant messaging and I haven’t really seen if the applications are good enough.

- Facebook application: either I like or not, I’m a bit facebook addicted and hopefully N97 facebook application is really good. It provides a smart interface to check and reply incoming messages, friends request, wall and status updates.

- Twitter: I have the tweets60 tweeter client for the N97. I heard it is the best free twiter client for S60, but I dont like it that much (I guess thats the price you pay for not paying =D).  It is quite slow (even when my N97 was working ok) and I dont like so much the interface.

- Camera: The camera of the device itself is awesome. I’m really happy with the resolution and any effects the camera may apply or correct on the pictures. Moreover, it is quite nice that it allows you to geotag, directly upload to facebook, send by email, etc.

I havent had much interest in other applications I heard about but I’d like a rss feed reader that I can synchronize with google reader. It would be awesome if google could provide an app for that, as the one that the people from nokiapp.com website have done still needs a bunch of UI improvements for my personal taste.

[Via http://tcarlyle.wordpress.com]

Nokia E72

E Series Bersenjata Lengkap

Dari segi penampilan, kita lihat E72 berpenampilan layaknya E71. Yang membedakan kedua E series itu sendiri yaitu jika E71 menggunakan d-pad, maka di E72 terdapar kombinasi antara d-pad dengan optical trackpad yang terletak di tengah-tengah d-pad.

Jika kalian berselancar di dunia maya tidak perlu kuatir dengan performanya, karena E72 menyediakan modem HSPA dengan pita bandwidth sehingga menghasilkan kecepatan 10.2 mbps untuk mendownload dan 2 mbps untuk upload. Selain itu dilengkapi dengan wifi dengan profil yang muktahir. Pada E72, wifi sudah diinstal dengan nokia Volp versi baru 3.0.

Dari segi kamera, kalian akan mendapatkan hasil gambat yang sangat baik. Karena resolusi kamera pada E72 mencapai 5 megapiksel. Foto yang dihasilkan cukup atraktif dengan penguatan di sisi warna dan hilangnya noise baik indoor maupun outdoor.

Setelah membicarakan kamera ada satu fitur penting bagi pebisinis yaitu receiver GPS. Dengan software anyar, penerimaan informasi  GPS do ponsel dirasa lebih baik ketimbang E71. Pada E72 memiliki tambahan kompas digital, cukup membantu ketika melakukan navigasi.

Apabila kalian berminat mengganti ponsel kalian dengan E72 tidak perlu ragu. Pasalnya E72 dibekali CPU ARM 11 berkekuatan 600 MHz yang hampir setara dengan BlackBerry Bold 9000. Daya tahan baterai cukup mumpuni yakni dapat bertahan selama 3 hari. Namun akan berkurang seiring dengan pemakaian HSDPA, WiFi, GPS, Musik, Kamera dll.

Dari segi harga, Nokia E72 dibanderol dengan harga 4,8 juta rupiah.

Dengan harga segitu, kalian akan mendapatkan fitur-fitur yang luar biasa dari E72..

posted by : Rezky Trigiusti A

[Via http://ngeliathandphone.wordpress.com]

Biggest Blooper of the Year Award Goes to…….

After a year full of uncertainty, I decided to join a 2 day photography workshop at Eastwood. For those of you who don’t know, that’s extremely far from where I live [Paranaque]. Because I was so excited for the workshop, I paid in advance and planned my weekend well.

5:30 am: Woke up, made an article for a client whose deadline is today.

6:00 am: Took a bath

6:50 am: Left the house, put gas in the car and air on the wheels

7:50 am: Arrived at Eastwood Mall [thanks God there's no traffic!]

8:00 am: Headed to Gallery 7, no sign of any living individual so I decided to go to Coffee Bean, order Southern Blend Iced Tea and a choco chip cookie [mmm... breakfast!]

8:20 am: Went back to Gallery 7, still no sign of human existence so went to the lounge and waited.

9:00 am: Waited… checked email and Facebook account through my E75 for any news about the workshop that I might have skipped out on. NONE.

9:30 am: Getting really frustrated since I still had to do tons of work and still sleepy. Called sister and asked her if I should go through with the workshop. She advises me to get mad at them.

9:45 am: Planning to get laptop and use internet. Used phone again for Facebook, made a frustrated comment on the page of Gallery 7’s account, checked their event post.

10:00 am: Uh-oh… Realized I’m a fool week ahead! The workshop is on Dec. 19-20 not Dec. 12-13.

Don’t know if I should laugh or be angry. But I’m feeling happy so I guess I’m laughing at myself!

Me A Year Ago

[Via http://trixietorralba.wordpress.com]

I DON'T TRUST HER ANYMORE: All About AGNES PUTRI AURORA YOLANDA aka APAY

ini foto yang paling sexy

sebelum baca ini sebaiknya baca
I DON’T TRUST HER ANYMORE!!!
lalu I DON’T TRUST HER ANYMORE 2: APAY lagi… APAY lagi…
lalu I DON’T TRUST HER ANYMORE 3: Ternyata oh Ternyata…

gue berusaha sebisa mungkin mencari semua data tentang buronan ini… (DENDAM KESUMAT)

sedikit indo tentang dia,
nama lengkap: Agnes Putri Aurora Yolanda
nama panggilan: Apay
pendidikan:
SMP Negeri 41 Jakarta (valid)
SMA Negeri 28 Jakarta (valid)
Fakultas Ekonomi UI <- ngaku-ngakunya…
no HP: 085692332336
Alamat:
versi 1
Jl. Pala Bali no. 41 RT 05/06 Depok
versi 2
Jl. Pala Bali no. 47 RT 08/06 Depok
orang tua: belum diketahui

ini foto-foto yang sempat gue kumpulin dari Facebooknya dia

lalu ini postingan-postingan dia di Facebook beberapa waktu terakhir

dari situ ketauan klu dia sangat terobsesi mencuri, bisa dibuktikan dengan wall-wall yang selalu dia post ke temen-temennya

dan setelah gue lacak siblingsnya, hasilnya kaya begini

maaf ga ada maksud ngekspos selain apaynya, cuma bermaksud bisa cari-cari info lewat mereka.

ini beberapa pengakuan janggal dari korban-korban

pengakuan korban 1

udah coba telp no APAY tapi ngakunya sebagai tantenya APAY dan dia tidak tahu keberadaan APAY karena si APAY katanya kabur dari rumah udah lama.

pengakuan korban 2

telp tantenya APAY. saat ditanya kemana orang tua APAY, tapi tantenya itu jawab “ga tau”.

ANEH bin misterius!!!

[Via http://embipress.wordpress.com]

Nokia 6700 classic Gold Edition

[Via http://techpiyush.wordpress.com]

Nokia N900 - first ipression

In few words: far beyond expectation! Maybe because Linux stands behind this excellent built Nokia or maybe because Nokia finally understood “what computers have become today”…

Home screen:

Background multitasking:

Fullest mobile VOIP integration:

General Status / Availability:

(Direct post with Nokia Maemo)

[Via http://utestme.com]

China Mobile IMEI Registration

Even as users of China-made mobile phones get time till March 31 to upgrade their phones with the special IMEI number-generating software or face action, new handsets made in our neighbouring country have almost disappeared from major electronic markets like the Alfa stores and Heera Panna.

A growing misuse of mobile phones by anti-national elements has led the Department of Telecommunications to direct all operators to disconnect handsets without the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, a unique 14-digit number assigned to each handset that helps in tracking its user.

Penalty

After disconnecting handsets without IMEI numbers, operators will have to submit a compliance report by April 15, failing which a penalty could be imposed.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) hopes that the issue will be sorted out as soon as the software developed by COAI members generates IMEI numbers for these handsets.

Upload software

“Users of China-made handsets will have to get the software loaded. This will generate an IMEI code and identify users,” said COAI director general T V Ramachandran.

Nadeem Akhtar, a mobile phone dealer at Heera Panna, said, “Eighty per cent of sellers at genuine electronic markets have pulled out stocks.” Sellers believe that the new software  is not yet foolproof. “The police will grill us if we sell these handsets,” said Nawaz Mallik, another mobile phone seller. COAI, however, insists that the software when uploaded onto the handsets will provide the device with a unique IMEI number.

15 lakh

The number of mobile handsets without IMEI numbers that are sold in India every year

 

 

[Via http://prasven.wordpress.com]

Only One Maemo Smartphone by Nokia in 2010

We get to find out through Reuters that during next year Nokia will launch only one Smartphone with its new Maemo OS. That’s some bad news for everyone especially for Maemo enthusiasts. This movement gives an idea that Nokia is still loyal to its Symbian platform. It should be noted that Nokia is always full of surprises so one never know what might we see next year.

[Via http://techiest.wordpress.com]

Has the iPhone passed its sell-buy date?

As an iPhone user myself I can’t help wondering whats next for the device, when you think of the features the iPhone lacks, which lets face it is about 5, after that what can Apple introduce to make the iPhone appealing?
App Store
The only answer I’ve been given to that question is the App Store, now with over 100,000 apps (as of Q4 ‘09) but lets face it, you won’t use them all will ya, and once you’ve played one racing game, the others look the same, same with shooters, and more, I’m just wondering whats next.
Since the first iPhone back in 2007, Apple haven’t changed the UI or the way the iPhone works once, whilst some may like that as it makes it an easy transition, I don’t know, to me the iPhone is still missing something which I can’t put my finger on it.
Here’s what I’m basing it on, like I said the App Store has now over 100K applications, but we’ve all got the same apps, everyone seems to have the ‘FaceBook’ app for example, which is more or less essential for anyone, but we can all get FaceBook on all mobiles, even that old Nokia 6233 I’ve got lying around somewhere, and YouTube is also now available for even the basic-est devices.
Touch Screen
Since the iPhone in ‘07, touch screen + phone, lets face it, wasn’t really working out, then Apple did their magic and, boom, touch screen working seemlessly, but now everyone knows how to make touchscreen phone and before you know it, you’ve a whole bunch of different manufacturers interpretation of the iPhone, which is all good and all and don’t get me wrong when you first get an iPhone, or an iPod Touch for that matter, its a great experience, but I’m the type of guy who used to have a new phone every 6-10 months, and whilst I’ve not got a different iPhone than I started with, I feel that everything you can get from the iPhone is now on the iPod Touch, but is also on most mainstream phones, the App Store, Touchscreen, having a touchscreen iPod, is now just a feature that everyone can follow. Speaking of touchscreen, the iPhone was the first touchscreen phone I’ve ever purchased, but after a while you do find yourself itching to actually press a button, I was using a Samsung this week, just a standalone one, nothing special, but it felt great to actually text using actual buttons, and lets face it, you can’t send an SMS with an iPhone on a bus, its more or less impossible, you’re relying on the corrector.
What do you want from the iPhone then?
I think it would go in Apple’s favour if they made an iPhone with an actual button keyboard, sort out the annoying features the iPhone needs, “Hey, can you send us that through Bluetooth?”, “…No, actually”, I’m fed up of answering that!

[Via http://rkukbensblog.wordpress.com]

ญาติของ Nokia 5800 Xpress Music

ตอนนี้ทาง Nokia ได้ออกมือถือออกมารุ่นใหม่ ๆ มากมาย และรุ่นที่จะถือว่าเป็นญาติ ๆ ของ
Nokia 5800 Xpress Music มีอยู่ 2 รุ่น (เมื่อ พฤศจิกายน 2552)
ผมได้สรุปของแตกต่างเด่น ๆ ของแต่ละรุ่นออกมา เผื่อจะช่วยในการตัดสินใจ

 

อ่านบทความต่อ คลิกที่นี่

[Via http://9bbank.wordpress.com]

Nokia E71 – O pesadelo do BlackBerry

“O SmartPhone é completo e dificilmente se acha um defeito nas suas funcionalidades, visto que a usabilidade dos sistemas da Nokia está anos luz na frente da concorrência.

Fiquem aí com a minha análise e, se discordarem de alguma coisa, me crucifiquem nos comentários!

Design - Sim, este pode ser chamado de SmartPhone com S maiúsculo. O teclado, apesar de pequeno, é confortável para digitar uma grande quantidade de textos e ainda conta com o tão procurado ‘ç’, acentos automáticos e T9.

Ele é bem fininho e cabe em qualquer bolso com facilidade e sem incomodar. Além disso ele vem com uma capinha show de bola para proteger o aparelho de arranhões.

Som - O pequeno notável não fala, ele GRITA. Tá certo que os graves ficam um pouco prejudicados devido ao tamanho das caixinhas de som e que o equalizador programável não faz muita diferença, mas certamente é um diferencial.

Ele também conta com um rádio FM que pára sua execução assim que alguém te liga.

Conectividade - Esse é completo. Vem com tudo que tem direito! Bluetooth, 3G, Infravermelho, USB, GPS e Wi-Fi.

É certamente um celular para navegação na internet, além de um escritório na palma da mão.

Câmera - Sua câmera de 3.2 Megapixels não deve nada a de qualquer um outro celular com as especificações equivalentes. Se bem que hoje ter uma câmera com essa característica num celular já não é mais uma suuuuper novidade assim.

Além de tirar fotos, ela grava vídeo em MPEG4, 320X240, com som e 30fps. Para quem não sabe nada de siglas e quer uma opinião sincera. Está na média.

O diferencial - Bem, o diferencial é a Nokia, que traz uma variedades e aplicativos que acompanham o celular. Você tem praticamente todos os IMs do mercado, além de Twitter e Skype.

A duração da bateria também impressiona para um SmartPhone com tantas funcionalidades. Ela dura aproximadamente 17 dias em stand-buy e 10 horas e meia usando direto.

Uma das únicas coisas ruins é que ele só vem com 110MB de memória interna e nenhum cartãozinho de memória na faixa. Porém ele suporta até 8GB de memória.

Ele está na faixa de R$1200,00 e vale cada centavo.”

Fonte: Fayerwayer

[Via http://dennytorres.wordpress.com]

Pico ChainSaw Pro: la motosega su Symbian

E’ disponibile una nuova (in)utility per il sistema operativo Symbian S60 V5.

Il programma si chiama Pico ChainSaw Pro e, come è facile intuire dal nome e dagli screen, si tratta di una motosega simulata sul vostro smartphone.

La motosega potrà essere controllata sia tramite accelerometro che tramite il touchscreen.

Il programma è simpatico, ma costa 1€ e si può trovare sull’Ovi Store.

A mio avviso è 1€ sprecato, ma a qualcuno potrebbe piacere..

Vi lascio con un filmato che vi spiegherà nel dettaglio il suo funzionamento.

Via | HwMobileForum

[Via http://yourlifeupdated.wordpress.com]

ตอนนี้มาลงตัวที่ Nokia N79

ช่วงนี้อยากได้มือถือใหม่ แต่ก็ไม่รู้จะเอารุ่นไหน(จริงๆ ก็ยังไม่มีตังค์ซื้อ) ก็เลยพยายามตั้งโจทย์ขึ้นมาดูว่าเราต้องการสเป๊กแบบไหนบ้าง ก็เลยได้มาราวๆ นี้

1. เบา น้ำหนักไม่เกิน 110 กรัม (หัวข้อนี้ค่อนข้างสำคัญเพราะไม่อยากให้มันถ่วงกระเป๋ากางเกง)
2. บาง (จะได้ไม่ตุงกางเกง)
3. มีปุ่มกดพิมพ์สะดวก (จริงๆ อยากได้แบบที่เป็น QWERTY keyboard)
4. ลงโปรแกรมเพิ่มได้ (สมัยนี้ก็ได้แทบทั้งนั้น)
5. ต่อ Wi-Fi, EDGE, GPRS ได้ (อันนี้จำเป็นเหมือนกัน เพราะคิดว่าจะเอาใช้ทำงาน)
6. ฟังวิทยุได้ (อันนี้ก็จำเป็น เพราะเบื่อๆ ไม่มีอะไรทำก็ฟังวิทยุ)
7. ไม่ใช่ Windows Phone OS(หรือ Windows Mobile) อันนี้แบบว่าไม่ชอบเป็นการส่วนตัว แม้จะไม่เคยใช้เลยก็ตาม

ตอนแรกๆ ก็จะมุ่งหาแต่รุ่นที่เป็น QWERTY keyboard อย่างเดียวเลย ทั้ง Nokia E63, i-Mobile TV640, Nokia E75, Nokia N97, BlackBerry Curve 9700 …

แต่สุดท้ายแต่ละเครื่องก็กดปุ่มได้ยากมาก เพราะเราเป็นคนนิ้วใหญ่ ดังนั้นพอไปกดปุ่มเล็กๆ มันก็เลยจะพลาดไปโดนปุ่มข้างๆ เสมอ

อ้อ.. เราตัด iphone ออกไปเป็นอันดับหนึ่งเลยนะ เพราะว่าไม่ชอบมือถือที่เป็นแบบ Touch อย่างเดียว และมันแพงเกินไป

พอได้ไปลองกดดูทุกๆ เครื่องแล้ว ก็รู้สึกเลยว่า การไปเน้นที่ QWERTY keyboard จะไม่เวิร์คซะแล้ว เลยเริ่มไปมองแบบอื่นดูบ้าง

ก็มาเจอ Nokia E52 ที่รู้สึกว่าคุณสมบัติได้เลย แต่ว่าหน้าตามันนี่สิคิดหนักเลย คือมันแปลกๆ อะ ถ้าจะให้เรามาถือเครื่องนี้สงสัยจะไม่เหมาะแน่ๆ

จนวันนี้ได้มาเจอกับ Nokia N79 ซึ่งเป็นรุ่นที่หน้าตาดูดีเอามากๆ และก็สอบผ่านจากโจทย์ของเราเกือบทุกข้อ ซึ่งเป็นรุ่นที่เรามองข้ามไปเลย

มานั่งๆ พิจารณาดูแล้วก็ครอบคลุมการใช้งานของเรามากกว่า E52 มากเลย เพราะ

• กล้อง 5MP ที่เป็นเลนส์อย่างดี แถม Macro ด้วย (E52 ไม่มีและแค่ 3.2MP)
• เปลี่ยนหน้ากากหลังได้ แถมมาให้ด้วยอีกสองสี น่าจะช่วยแก้เบื่อได้ดีทีเดียว
• ถ่ายวิดีโอได้ที่ 640×480 30fps (E52 ทำได้แค่ 15fps) เรื่องถ่ายวิดีโอนี่เราอยากให้มันถ่ายได้เต็มที่ เพราะกะจะใช้มือถือแทนกล้องดิจิตอลไปเลย
• และก็ได้คะแนนพิศวาสจากชื่อรุ่น N79 นี่เอง เพราะว่ารหัสของเราตอนเรียนศิลปากรคือ 438079 ซึ่งเลข 79 นี่เป็นเลขที่ของเราใน DEC รุ่นนี้ ซึ่งเราก็ค่อนข้างจะผูกพันธ์กับมันพอสมควร
• คะแนนพิศวาสอีกหนึ่งคะแนนมาจากการออกแบบให้ชื่อ Nokia ไปอยู่เป็นติ่งๆ ออกมาทางด้านบนขวานี่ด้วย เรารู้สึกว่ามันเก๋เอามากๆ เลย

พอเช็คประวัติของมันดูคร่าวๆ ก็เห็นว่ามันออกมาได้ปีนึงแล้ว จากราคาวันแรก หมื่นห้า ตอนนี้เหลือหมื่นหนึ่ง ซึ่งก็ดูเหมาะสมดีกับความสามารถของมันตอนนี้

เราก็เลยกะว่าถ้าไม่มีตัวเลือกอื่นที่ดีกว่านี้มาแทน เราก็คงจะเลือกเจ้านี่แหละ ^ ^

[Via http://dogdoy.wordpress.com]

Reflections from MoneyTalks Forum

It was interesting to see such a huge participation and engagement at MoneyTalks Forum (November 12-13, 2009). Microsoft was featured and especially its BizSpark Program. I did not post this write up just after the event because I wanted to see how many will connect and interact with me among the business cards collected. I found the value of such great thinkers in my network and I maintain my live network online in LinkedIn. I felt that I made to the 6th biannual MoneyTalks Forum–without realizing the previous five successful ones!

The Finnish Mobile Assoiciation organized the moble circus during the second day of the event. This shows that the locus of mobile innovation is still live and kicking in Espoo no matter what the giants in mobile domains are doing!

Interesting part to this event is that you can book a meeting with the other participants in advance and there are 20 minute slots meant for that. This is where you have a chance to create the right connections for your collaboration or financing or both.

The whole delegation from Israel and US made the atmosphere interactive in dark Finnish weather. 7 minutes pitches and 1 minute pitches and even elevator pitches were interesting to observe! I summarized these in my previous blog – basics of entrepreneurship while presenting you cannot miss these components.

Ericsson, Nokia, Nokia Siemens Networks, Microsoft, Otaniemi Marketing, Greater Helsinki Promotion and the main organizer of the event Technopolis deserve the great applaud in organizing such a great event. We look forward to future events from Technopolis to be of great success as well and sooner there will sustainable business model for Technopolis ventures as well.

Some of the companies featured on the event through presentations and pitches were: BookIT, Canatu, Ecotec, Cityvice, Fambit, Med-Byte, GP Bullhound, M-Technology, Pocum, Suntrica, Embedone, Embelir, FEnomen Creator, Mobiletools International and Sibesonke. Canatu and Sibesonke were voted best ventures with growth potentials. This shows that creativity as a differentiating strategy works and the light of beacon is emerging…

[Via http://krishnabhandari.wordpress.com]

Video: Stuff Magazine Tour of the Nokia N900 and "Meem 5"

Stuff Magazine takes a look at  “Meem 5″ powered Nokia N900. Ha, MEEM.

What’s echoing across many of the gadget blogs is that the N900 is:

• Chunky,
• Bulky
• Impressive – has “potential”.
• has a Great Browser

How much will this bulkiness put the mass public off from even trying out the N900? It was certainly enough for the supposed “Gadget Inspectors” over at the Telegraph to punish the N900 with only 6/10

Expect a full review (hopefully after some understanding of how to actually operate the N900) from Stuff Magazine peeps soon.

[Via http://mynokiablog.com]

Demencia Episodio [12] &ndash; Especial Campus Party MX

Bienvenidos a este Episodio 12 de Demencia, este podcast es un especial que grabamos durante la realización de la Campus Party México 2009, la verdad fue bastante gratificante estos 5 días llenos de convivencia y conocimiento, este podcast es tanto para la gente que asistió como para la que no asistió, los temas son variados y considero que interesantes, espero les agrade este episodio especial de Demencia.

 Dentro de este episodio tocamos los siguientes temas:

• Francisco Martínez nos platica del concurso de Modding.
• Daniel Rocha (Senior Technology Expert) de Nokia nos platica de QT. (daniel.rocha@nokia.com)
• Checo (LanFighters) y Guzmán (Alianza GCM) nos habla del ambiente dentro de Ocio Digital – Videojuegos

Puedes escuchar el podcast desde este reproductor.

[audio:beatandbyte_demencia_epi12.mp3]

o descargarlo desde este enlace.

Descarga directa en mp3 [click derecho(Windows) o control + click (Mac) y selecciona la opción para guardar el archivo destino]

 

Rihanna: Nokia Concert in London @ The 02 Academy

The Wait is Ova, The Wait is Ova, … The Wait is Ova, The review is finally here.

On Monday I was invited by a division of Rihanna’s Management and Nokia to attend her exclusive album launch concert. To my amaze, I was delighted to go; as you all know I’m a big fan of Rihanna and everything thats she’s put out this era so having this thrown at me randomly caught me off guard lol. Let’s begin.

As soon I as I arrived in the arena I was pleased that I was placed at the front row directly by the stage, all I kept thinking was Where is Rihanna, Where is Rihanna? I kept thinking she was going to pop out at any random moment lol. So I stood around eyes peeled while I admiring the stage set which can I say was pretty good!! I’d love to have something like that for a shoot one day it looked crazy!!, besides that lol, we serenaded by DJ’s Chase and Status [Producers of "Wait Your Turn"] which helped the crowd get into the party mood. The arena filled and then Nokia began to put a swirling “R” logo on their screens, it was then that the music cut and we knew she was about to make her entrance.

The arena went dark, the stage lit, and a video back drop appeared showing images of Rihanna behind the scenes of her album shoot, on her way to fashion shows in Paris, and various other paparazzi shots from around september this year, while the video was accompanied by the intro to the Rated R album “Mad House”, and some cool effects reminiscent of the 80s and old television sets which funny enough the back drop was surrounded by.

The track ended and  ”Wait Your Turn” began to play it was then that Rihanna emerged from underneath the stage, the crowd went nuts as all eyes where on her. She sang, and she moved!, the new swagger that Riri’s donned lately just oozed from her presence, you felt that gangster bad chick element in every step, every lip movement, every hand gesture, plus it helped that she looked amazing. She looks great in photos but even more stunning in person, such a beautiful woman.

Going through at set list of  Wait Your Turn, Russian Roulette, Don’t Stop The Music, Take A Bow, Unfaithful Disturbia ,Hard, Live Your Life, Run This Town and Umbrella. Rihanna’s vocals were definitely on point particularly during the acapella version’s of Unfaithful, Take A Bow and Disturbia. If anything I would have to say the acoustic version of Disturbia has sparked a my reinterest in the track. She sung it as normal but it was the band who took it on this dark groove journey which really gave you a different feeling from the orignal, I loved it.

At more than one point Rihanna looked as if she was singing in my face which made my heart burn lol but I loved it, I didnt know whether to look away or not, but overall perfomring wise,  the vocals, the aura, the set, the crowd, it was all a great feeling, plus the guest appearances from Jay -Z  and Young Jeezy just helped to make the mood even better. I only wished that the whole thing lasted longer as time flies when your having fun.

A big success on Nokia’s part they really should do this more often and with great urban/pop artists, I would love to be involved in any of their future projects as this was superb.A big thank to them and all the teams involved that helped me to have a great night.

Check out some of highlights from the show below:

IMG| Andre DeVeaux

Sekilas Tentang Nokia Life Tools

http://tentangdigital.wordpress.com

Jakarta – Nokia baru saja meluncurkan layanan barunya bernama Nokia Life Tools. Sebenarnya apa yang ditawarkan layanan tersebut?

Pada dasarnya layanan ini terbagi menjadi 3 bagian: pertanian, pendidikan, serta hiburan. Dalam hal ini Nokia bekerjasama dengan beberapa pihak seperti: Departemen Pertanian, BMKG, Synovate dan mitra industri lain dengan memberikan informasi, harga, berita dan tips berguna yang dikirim langsung ke pelanggan.

Dalam keterangan resmi yang diterima detikINET, Kamis (5/11/2009) Dr.Ir. Zaenal Bachruddin, M.sc selaku Dirjen Pengolahan dan Pemasaran hasil Pertanian, Departemen Pertanian RI memberikan penjelasan.

“Layanan pertanian akan menyediakan informasi komoditas mulai dari bibit, ternak, holtikultura, dan perikanan,” ujarnya. Dijelaskan juga bahwa pelanggan dapat berlangganan tiga macam komoditas yang paling sering ditanam di wilayah mereka. Selain itu masih ada beberapa informasi lain seperti prakiraan cuaca, harga komoditi, berita, serta tips seputar pertanian.

Pada layanan pendidikan dibagi menjadi belajar bahasa Inggris, pengetahuan umum dan persiapan ujian. Persiapan ujian ini ditujukan bagi siswa/siswi SMP dan SMA. Sedangkan layanan hiburan ini menempilkan konten hiburan seperti berita, musik, komik, humor, astrologi, serta resensi film.

Konten-konten diatas dapat dinikmati pengguna dengan sistem ermintaan/berlangganan melalui SMS. Mengapa SMS? Nokia mengatakan karena SMS dapat digunakan kapanpun dan dimanapun, selama ponsel berfungsi, tanpa perlu mengatur setting atau perlunya jangkauan GPRS. Layanan ini akan tersedia di Indonesia mulai awal Desember 2009, dengan layanan pertanian untuk Jawa dan Sumatra di tahap awal, serta layanan pendidikan dan hiburan yang tersedia secara nasional. ( j-red )

Free Game: Tic Tac Toe Touch (new and improved)

This version of Tic Tac Toe touch is slightly improved over the previous version available on the Ovi Store.

• It’s your standard 3×3 grid and it’s one player only.
• You play the “X”, computer plays “O” with standard tic tac toe/noughts and crosses gameplay.
• The visuals have improved slightly, plus the game keeps a record of your score (well, until you exit that is and then its wiped).
• After each game you’ll get one of three notifications of either winning, getting a tie or losing.

Download for free from the Ovi Store

Download for free from the Ovi Store

My Life Throughout Icons

This idea just sprung to my mind when I was staring at the TED logo and I immediately started to collect all the logos/icons/marks which somehow had an influence on my life, be it a commercial brand, an institution, a tv series, a band, a software or a website. I spent a whole day searching, scanning, editing, sometimes recreating these things, and it was a strange experience full of surprises and nostalgia. It made me smile when I saw the chronological connections between some icons that I had not thought of before. I realized that icons can do a pretty good job of defining a person. I just want to look at this thing for hours like a vain girl looking at a mirror – this may sound weird, but you probably would understand what I feel if you were to look at your own version of this.

Some of the old icons – like Cicibebe, Nutella or Remeron – are still very present in my life, by the way. I placed those things according to where they first made appearence. There are some old icons I’m still looking for, so this is not the last version. I also plan to update it as years go by.

Nokia N97 Mini White Edition Launched

The Nokia N97 Mini launched a couple of weeks back and came in its shiny Cherry Black livery, which if we’re honest has more than a hint of copper brown to it. However, it’s time to start getting excited about the Nokia N97 Mini White Edition, as it’s popped up exclusively on Phones4u. Find out how to get your hands on a Nokia N97 Mini White Edition for free after the jump…

 

With its 3.2-inch screen, full QWERTY slide-out keyboard and 5-Megapixel Carl Zeiss optics camera, the Nokia N97 Mini White Edition is very much the same as the standard version but happens to come in a stunning crystal white livery.

 

As was suggested last week, the Nokia N97 Mini White Edition has popped up as an exclusive to retailer Phones4u and is tied to an Orange contract at the moment. This has us wondering if and when (and to whom) the Nokia N97 Mini Black Edition will be offered by, as we’ve still not heard anything about this handset.

 

You can get the Nokia N97 Mini White Edition for free and pay just £25 a month on an 18-month contract. For this, you’ll get the best looking Nokia N97 Mini around, as well as 600 minutes talk-time and 3000 texts a month.

 

So, thinking of plumbing for the Nokia N97 Mini? Let us know which version you like the best in the Comments below.

 

Resource: http://noknok.tv/

Video: GeekBrief's hands on with the Nokia N900

Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv, “a site that bridges the gap between hardcore geeks and grandmas who are casually interested in tech” has posted a very positive hands on of the Nokia N900. Cali seems to love that fm transmitter and the revived infra-red port, which will see universal remote control apps coming back to smartphones. Best of all, Cali sees the ultimate potential of the N900

“Software is really where the N900 can shine…it does really feel like I’m using a computer rather than just another smartphone“

“the more you undertand Linux, the more you’ll enjoy all you can do with a N900″

It’s interesting that whilst the N900 is meant for a select audience of geeks and the N97 meant for the masses, the N900 has much more appeal to the average consumer. As Cali says,

“a less technical person would probably enjoy the N900. It’s by far the simplest and FUN user interface I’ve ever seen [on a Nokia phone]“

Cali stills finds the iPhone UI to be much simpler, with the Android powered Moto Droid just slightly less challenging than the N900.

via GeekBrief.tv

Que veut dire « Symbian » ? C’est Quoi le « S60 » ?

Si vous possédez un Nokia, vous avez surement vu ou entendu le terme « Symbian » et « S60 ». Pour ceux qui se demandent que veut dire ces termes, voici une brève explication :

Tous les terminaux modernes, petits ou grands, ont besoin d’un système d’exploitation, aussi connu comme OS. L’OS contient toutes les instructions nécessaires pour qu’un ordinateur  fonctionne. Le plus utilisé sur les ordinateurs de maison est Microsoft Windows. Celui qui est le plus utilisé sur les smartphones est Symbian.

Symbian est l’OS utilisé sur le Nokia 5800, sur  tous les smartphones Nokia, et sur les smartphones d’autres constructeurs aussi, comme Samsung, Sonny Ericsson et LG.

S60, aussi connu comme Séries 60, est une plateforme logiciel et interface qui se place au dessus de Symbian. Dans le passé, il y avait d’autres versions de Symbian, par exemple Symbian UIQ, Symbian Séries 80 et séries 90. Cependant, aujourd’hui tous les fabricants de téléphone Symbian utilisent Symbian S60.

Pour plus d’info, visitez http://www.symbian.org/ ou http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian_OS

Handphone Nokia 6300

Beberapa hari yang lalu ada tetangga nawarin nyokap gw HP Nokia type 6300 dengan harga Rp. 800.000,- dan kondisinya masih lumayan cuma lecet2 dikit, katanya sih coba tawarin anaknya siapa tau mau…, tapi gw ga tau nih Type 6300 itu seperti apa, truz gw coba googling deh.. dan ternyata ….wah kayanya boleh juga tuh, dengan harga second yang lebih rendah dari kebanyakan soalnya gw liat di internet harga secondnya masih diatas 1 jt….

Spesifikasi HP ini lumayan lho, nih speck-nya:

Nokia 6300

• Frekuensi : GSM 900, 1800 dan 1900 Mhz
• Dimensi : 106 x 43 x 13 mm
• Berat : 91 Gr
• Support Jaringan : GPRS Class 10, EDGE (EGPRS)
• Resolusi layar : 240 x 320 Pixel
• Dukungan Warna Layar : 16,777,216 color (24 bits)
• Kamera : 2 MP
• Fiture :
  SMS, MMS, Polyponic, MP3 Player, Memory internal 9 MB, Ekternal memory TransFlash (MicroSD), Bluetooth, USB, Browser WAP v.2.x, xHTML, Java Support MIDP v.2.0, Video Record 3GPP

Oia dah gitu komplit sama dus, CD driver plus bonus Memory Vgen 1 GB, Tapi sayang Headsetnya ga disertain, pi gapapa dengan harga segitu kayanya gw dah dapet lebih…. Tanpa ragu, gw beli tuh HP, eh dah gitu ditawar ama nyokap masih bisa kurang lagi, lumayan dikorting Rp. 25.000,-… truz gw beli kartu perdana Rp. 5.000,-…

NOKIA'S FUTURE VISION

At the ‘Nokia World’ event in Stuttgart (September 2-3), the research team unveiled some interesting concepts, including a Nokia device that boasts a no-glasses-required 3D display, the ‘Linked Internet UI’ concept which gives users an aggregated view of each contact’s content across multiple social networking sites, SMS, email etc, and the official announcement of upcoming N97 Mini.

Interesting stuff, which you can find out more about here. In the meantime, take a quick look at their somewhat minority-report-a-like (and extraordinarily cheesy) vision of the future here:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGwvZWyLiBU[/youtube]

According to Nokia, ‘this concept allows to you to experience immersion and effortless navigation in new ways. New types of interactions involving near-to-eye displays, gaze direction tracking, 3D audio, 3D video, gesture and touch. Through these new types of social linkages people will be connected in innovative ways between the physical and digital worlds.‘

Video Review: Nokia N97 Mini Review - The Phones Show - Episode 94

This episode by Steve Litchfield reviews Nokia’s N97 mini. The mini is the baby brother of the original N97, (seemingly) created to rectify to abysmal mistakes when Nokia succumed yet again poor compromises which rendered the original N97 somewhat ever so frustrating in general day to day use.

There are several positive notes that Steve makes, contrasting even the first Review of the mini by Mobile-Review’s Eldar and giving the keyboard a thumbs up.

via 3lib

In ’summary’ plus some personal ranting:

• +Better keyboard, better tactile feedback and layout

The N97 was the first Nseries to have a QWERTY keyboard and it somewhat failed miserably at it. The D-Pad which was only ever going to be useful for games consumed valuable space leaving users cramped keys.

The configuration of the secondary shortcuts were stupid, especially your standard, often used punctutation with full stops, apostrophes and commas all sharing the same button. Until firmware 2.0 and the longpress, this made it rather difficult unless you’d used the phone a while to get to these secondary functions.

Finally, possible the worst of it all, absolutely invisible tactile feedback of keys. With mine, I have to keep the keypad sounds ON to know I’ve pressed a button. I’ve noticed for some strange reason that the white N97’s had even worse keyboards, with keys not having even tactile feedback – some it didn’t even feel like you had pressed it at all!

The mini has No D-pad, improved layout of keys and better mechanical feedback.

via

• +GPS very sensitive, very responsive and hasn’t let him down -

the original N97 has given several users issues with the GPS. As well as batch problems – some being better than others, some great some not even working! – , the design of the N97 itself meant that you just weren’t gonna get a 2009 standard reliable GPS ‘instant’/constant lock.

• + camera glass has no shutter/lens cover -

though Nseries users have gotten used to having protective camera lens covers, the original N97’s was so appallingly made that it destroys itself with the grains of dirt it manages to accumulate whilst in your pocket, scraping over the lens area to completely wreck your photos!

For sometime I’ve somehow avoided that but I too have fallen prey and now have pretty much unusable photos especially when the flash is used.

• + bulky plastic rear is now sleek and thin and stainless steel

the original N97 was meant to have a metal back, but as mentioned above with the poor GPS – this was due to the poor configuration of the GPS module which if the back were metal, N97 users would have gotten no use at all out of their GPS receivers at all!

• + screen is brighter and more vivid
• + oodles more phone [C:] memory for installation of apps.
  

A major problem in the original N97 meant that if you liked installing applications, you would soon run out of their microscopic initial 60MB of phone memory. [N-gage and the games were a major killer of C: ] This meant back in the days of 2003 when you had to uninstall one application to install another! What a slap in the face considering there’s 29.8GB there untapped. Even when applications are set to install in E: or memory card, some C: is still eaten up.

Overall effect of the changes is apparently stunning! But of course there are some shortcomings, but no where near a big of a showstopper as with the original N97 – well in Steve’s opinion anyway

• - smaller battery

The mini is using a BL-4D, 1200mAh as opposed to 1500mAh with the original N97’s BP-4L. The smaller screen could have meant that your “online as it happens” N97 mini could have lasted even longer with active online apps on your mini’s homescreen but it MAY be just as similar if not worse (don’t take my word for it, I have not seen reviews yet about its battery life). Note, when you set the homescreen apps offline, particularly email, you can squeeze a proper full day of use out of the N97.

You can of course, purchase spare batteries for extended use.

• - no fm transmitter

as well as for lack-of-space (and possibly interference from having a metal back somehow), this is an overall good compromise as here you’re loosing a feature in order to better one of the core features – GPS!

• - smaller mass memory

Instead of 32GB it’s massively reduced to just 8GB. I’m only half way through the memory, but then I’m only a few months into the N97. What I like is the potential of hardly ever having to remove any data from the phone, videos/pictures, to store elsewhere to save space. But the mini’s 8GB should suffice most users, particularly as its has much more mass market appeal given its smaller footprint and overall improved usability.

If other than price, mass memory somehow affected other core functions, this is perhaps another good compromise.You can of course just purchase larger memory cards if you wanted the extra memory – 16GB/32GB.

• – smaller screen

Possibly the biggest difference if one is considering either the mini (3.2″, identical to 5800) of the original N97 (3.5″).  You can’t get over this like you can with the mass memory. Steve takes this positively in that he can now get his thumb across the smaller screen properly. Not that much of an issue for me as I’ve got big hands.

I reckon it would have still been possible to fit 3.5″ into a much smaller phone than the original N97, it’s just that there are space wastages around the screen making the phone so much bigger.

Cropped N97. via other blogspot

Though it probably works out best for the mini as it can be made with a cheaper? screen which is essential for the reduced battery capacity. Plus you get that extra space for the keys.

Overall, it seems if you can get over the screen size, the N97 mini should be the choice for you if you were so inclined to choosing either one of the N97 family.

Нова , мрачна , дори страшна реклама на Nokia N900 от Финландците.

След агресивните реклами на американския мобилен оператор Verizon Wireless , отнасящи се до новото им допълнение Motorola DROID , се появи тази реклама на Nokia N900. Устройството , което според доста хора би-трябвало да се съревновава срещу конкуренти като Apple iPhone , Android устройствата , Windows Mobile устройствата и общо взето всички нови мобилни джаджи в днешно време. Аз лично не съм уплашен , напротив , изумен съм колко добре и по какъв начин е проектирана , стилизирана , написана и реализирана тази реклама , вижте и преценете сами:

 

via: Nokia Conversations Twitter

Caricabatterie difettosi, Nokia ne ritira 14 milioni

Nota di Pao: Interessante sottolineare che la cinese Byd è impegnata nella progettazione, sviluppo e, ovviamente, produzione di batterie che saranno impegnate nelle auto elettriche. Se lavorano con questa cura, ci sarà da pensarci, prima di sedersi alla guida di un veicolo con le loro batterie..

E questa notizia fa il paio con quella pubblicata oggi, circa i passeggini per banbini, marcati Maclaren, ma fabbricati in Cina che hanno causato l’amputazione delle dita per alcuni bambini.

Sarebbe il caso di non considerare il costo di produzione come l’unico riferimento nella scelta di un fornitore…

°°°

Scritto da: Federico Cella

Niente di cui preoccuparsi, dicono da Helsinki. Ma nel dubbio – siccome qualche rischio per l’utente potrebbe esserci – il colosso dei cellulari Nokia ha annunciato oggi che 14 milioni di caricabatterie devono essere ritirati dal mercato. Si tratta di quelli prodotti da un’azienda cinese, la Byd.

Nessuna lamentela o danni: “Stiamo intraprendendo questo programma di scambio come misura preventiva e precauzionale. Non siamo infatti a conoscenza di incidenti o casi di persone ferite”, ha detto il portavoce di Nokia, Doug Dawson. “La plastica che copre i caricabatterie in questione potrebbe allentarsi e staccarsi, scoprendo i componenti interni del caricatore e provocando un rischio potenziale di scossa elettrica se si toccassero certi componenti interni mentre il caricabatterie è inserito in una presa”.

I caricabatteria in questione sono i modelli AC-3E (gli unici venduti in Europa) e AC-3U, tutti fabbricati tra il 15 giugno e il 9 agosto, e gli AC-4U, prodotti tra il 13 aprile e il 25 ottobre. Non appena l’utente si dovesse accorgere di possedere uno di questi pezzi – come dice Nokia Italia, sono solo poche migliaia quelli distribuiti da noi – deve collegarsi al sito apposito oppure contattare il call center all’848.390.073. La sostituzione sarà immediata e gratuita. E i costi – circa un dollaro a pezzo per i fabbricanti – saranno ovviamente sostenuti dalla disattenta azienda cinese.

Fonte: www.corriere.it

Trace Cell Phone Numberst

The art and skill of being able to trace cell phone numbers in the past had been left to private investigators and law enforcement agencies as well as police officers. But what are you supposed to do when you can’t hire a private detective or cop because you simply can’t afford to, but you still need to get this information?

Well, the answer to this question is actually very simple these days. Recent widespread use of the web and personal computers, has made it really easy and affordable for any person to do a reverse cell phone number look up online and avoid the need to hire a private
detective.

One of the greatest advantages that we have nowadays is the fact that over 98 per cent of all cell phones that have been issued, are gathered and organized in online directories and databases practically accessible by everyone. This means that is highly probable that the number that you are investigating will fall into the 98% category

El Nokia Booklet 3G, muy pronto en tiendas

No es la primera vez que hablamos del nuevo equipo netbook de Nokia, conocido como Booklet 3G. En los últimos meses ha dado bastante que hablar, pues se trata de la apuesta de Nokia para entrar en el mercado informático móvil, con un producto dotado de conectividad 3G, el cual va más allá de los modelos que hasta ahora el fabricante definía como Internet Computers (véase el propio N97).

Pues bien. Todo parece indicar que se ultiman los detalles para su comercialización en nuestro país. La semana que viene, la prensa especializada contará con las primeras unidades para poder evaluarlo, y desde finales del pasado mes de octubre, Nokia permite realizar una reserva del mismo, a un precio recomendado de 699 euros.

Recordemos que se trata de un equipo de 10,1 pulgadas con teclado QWERTY y con configuración de procesador Intel Atom. Su peso queda establecido en torno a los 1,25 kilogramos, con un grosor de apenas 2 centímetros. Entre los componentes a destacar cabe mencionar el módulo de comunicaciones inalámbricas WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS asistido, así como acceso a redes 3G mediante chip integrado.

Destaca que Nokia haya apostado por incluir el sistema operativo Windows 7, quizá para ofrecer una plataforma más abierta sobre la que puedan correr las aplicaciones típicas que manejan los usuarios. De este modo, Nokia se asegura un mayor éxito, en base a la gran aceptación que están teniendo los equipos Netbook que son comercializados con el nuevo sistema operativo.

Pienso que aunque Nokia haya desplegado diseño en su nuevo equipo, debe apresurarse y utilizar su gran experiencia para la comercialización, dado que el mercado de portátiles es tremendamente competitivo, y comenzamos a ver nuevos netbooks con pantalla táctil, que sacan mayor provecho de las posibilidades de Windows 7. La experiencia de manejo mejora considerablemente, y poco a poco iremos viendo novedades en las aplicaciones implementadas.

PUSH competition winners

Nokia team PUSH is proud to announce they have winners from the contest they held over the past two months. You may remember when we first told you about the competition, but here’s a recap. All you had to do was think of a good hack for the Nokia N900! Winners will receive funding and other resources to make their hack come alive. What possible hacks made the cut?

Haptastic – A compass and map? Not any more with this wearable guide that can lead the way.

KAPingwiththeN900 – Flying high with this aerial photography project
LIGHT HACK CREW – Bring light graffiti to the N900

Rocket Pocket – Just Bonkers! An N900 in orbit, we love it!

SolderinSkaters – Tony Hawk who? It’s all about Solderin Skaters!

Blackberry 9000 VS Nokia E71 – Tough Fight

Blackberry 9000 Bold and Nokia E71 are two of the best business phones available currently in the market. There is a tough fight between the two and users will surely face a great dilemma to choose one of them.

Both these challengers have got somewhat similar physical attributes as both of these are QWERTY keypad phones as well as display characteristics are also quite similar. Blackberry 9000 has got a 2.6 inches screen that allows 65K colors at 480 x 32- pixels resolution. The trackball navigation is an exclusive feature on it. 114 x 66 x 14 mm are its casing’s dimensions with 133 grams of weight. Comparatively, the Nokia E72’s QVGA screen is of 2.3 inches that displays 16 million colors at 320 x 240 pixels resolution. The phone comes with physical dimensions of 114 x 57 x 10 mm with 127 grams of weight.

The first one has got a 2 mega pixel camera while its contender comes with a 3.2 mega pixel camera. The LED flash attribute is common in both of these phones while the E72 is loaded with Digital Zoom, Flash Mode, Auto Focus, CMOS Sensor, White Balance Mode, Capture Mode, Video Streaming and several other alluring features.

The media player of the Blackberry 9000 supports MP3, WMA, AAC+ files and the given video player allows DivX, WMV, XviD, 3gp files. MP3, WMA, WAV, RA, AAC, M4A music files and WMV, RV, MP4, 3GP video files are playable on the music player and video player of the E71.

3G HSDPA, USB, Bluetooth V2 with A2DP, WLAN Wi-Fi, GPRS and EDGE services are common in both the phones given for data sharing and connectivity. But HSCSD and Infrared are extra on latter one.

The Blackberry 9000 users will get HTML browser for Internet surfing only, the Nokia E71 users can enjoy WAP2.0, HTML & XHTML browsers as well as Nokia browser with Mini Maps application. Document editor, GPS navigation with A-GPS support (Google Maps for Blackberry 9000 and Nokia Maps for Nokia E71) and messaging services are also similar in both of these rivals.

8MB flash memory of Blackberry 9000 can be expanded up to 8GB through the given MicroSD card slot. On the other hand, the Nokia E71 comes with 110MB onboard memory plus MicroSD memory card slot supporting up to 8GB.

Nokia N900 meetup

The Nokia N900 meetup was a great success! Props to Matt for organizing the event & taking pictures, and to WOM World for the food/drinks…

Thanks to all the people who attended, including Tomomi, Dennis & his wife, Kevin, Brett of Pixelpipe, and the Mozilla crew

One of the most interesting aspect of the meetup was a demo of Fennec on the N900. Check the video above, and the other videos of the event after the break.

Update: Dennis provides a summary of the demo of Fennec on the N900.

T-Mobile G1 and Android: A Beginner Tutorial

So you've just bought a new T-mobile G1 phone — awesome! For those who don't know, the G1 comes pre-installed with an operating system made by Google, called Android. Android is an open source operating system for mobile phones, meaning that anyone can write new and helpful programs (which you can download for free! — more of this later). In this tutorial, we will go over some of the basics, such as how to change your 'desktop' appearance, how to connect to wirless networks, how to automatically import your contacts from your old sim card, how to copy and paste, how to connect your G1 to your computer, how to load pictures and movies, and a few other tips and tricks to help you navigate your new phone.

First of all, let's go over the buttons.

FUNCTIONS OF THE BUTTONS OF THE T-MOBILE G1

Let's start with the green 'call' button on the left hand side. Pressing this button will always take you to the 'dialer', so you can make a call, or check your contacts out. Once you are in the 'dialer' program, and you have selected a number, pressing this will make the call.

The 'home' button, signified by a little house, is the button you press whenever you want to return to your desktop. For instance, say you are in the dialer, or checking out your e-mail, pressing the 'home' button will put these in the background and show you the desktop.

The 'Menu' button is used whenever you want 'more options'. For instance, say you are looking at your call log; you may not immediately know how to clear your call log, but knowing that the menu button provides more options, you can assume that by first going to call log and then pressing menu will show you options to clear your call log. In fact, it does just this. Another example is if you are on your desktop, pressing the menu button will show a list of options that you can do on your desktop, such as changing settings, changing wallpaper, etc.

The 'back arrow' button does just that; say you are in the browser, pressing the 'back' button will take you to the last browser window. Similarly, it will also take you to the last program you used.

Red Call Button

The 'red' call button is used to end a call; however, it is also used to put the phone in temporary 'sleep' mode. This saves energy to extend the battery life of the phone; to wake the phone up, simply press this red button again and the phone will wake up. Holding this button will show the menu to Turn off the power to the phone. When the phone is turned off, to turn it back on simply hold this red button again, and the phone will turn on if it is sufficiently charged.

Wheel Ball

Lastly, the wheel ball in the middle of the phone is used for a few different purposes, and it may be weird, but you can press the mouse ball in and use it as a button. First, it is used for scrolling in the browser. Second, if you ever want to copy and paste this is the button you use. What you do is first see the text that you want to select. Then, either use your finger to select the text, or click the mouse ball and go to 'select all'. Once the text is selected, press the mouse ball in again and go to 'copy'. This will copy the text to the clipboard, and when you find somewhere you want to paste it to (yep, you guessed it!) just press the mouse ball in again and go to 'paste'. Anything can be copy and pasted, such as URL's or text from a website.

Now, lets go over a few things that I promised I'd show you how to do in this introductory Android User Tutorial.

CHANGE YOUR DESKTOP APPEARANCE – WALLPAPER ON T-MOBILE G1 with Android

To change the wallpaper, make sure you are on your desktop. If you are not, remember android allows you to simply press your 'home' button, which will bring you back to the desktop. Now, once you see the desktop, press the 'Menu' button. This should pop up a menu at the bottom of the screen. You should see a square that says 'wallpaper', which you should click with your finger. This brings up another menu; if you already have the pictures on your phone, either go to 'pictures' or 'wallpaper gallery' and select which picture you want to use. When you click the picture you want to use, you have the ability to move and resize what you want to actually appear on your background. Press in the middle of the orange selection square to move it around, while to resize it, click on the perimeter of the square. Once you have the selection you want, go to 'save' at the bottom. Hoorah! You've just set up your wallpaper!

IMPORTING PICTURES, VIDEOS, and MEDIA ON YOUR G1 FROM YOUR COMPUTER

However, if you don't have the picture you want, you can connect your G1 to your computer and load your pictures on it. To do this, use the mini-usb to usb cable that came with your T-Mobile G1 phone, and connect one end to the phone and the other end into the usb slot on your computer. Make sure your phone is turned on. Assuming you are using Windows Vista, after a second a popup should appear on your computer's desktop saying some sort of installation — don't worry if this doesn't happen. Now, look back to your phone. Look at the white bar that goes across the top of the screen. In the top right there should be a small icon, which means that your phone is ready to be 'connected' to your computer; what you do is press on this icon with your finger, and without letting up drag your finger down the screen a little bit. This will show the whole menu. Then click on the 'Mount' icon, and press ok to mount. What you have just done is connected your phone as a new drive on your computer. So, go to 'Computer' and then go to this new drive, it will probably be G: or something like that. Now, when you open it folders such as Pictures should be there. To load pictures onto your phone, simply copy any pictures from your computer into this G:\Pictures folder. For movies, do the same, except you will have to convert them to the right format (mpeg 4), which is outside the scope of this article. Wallah! Now you can put pictures on your G1 Android phone!

CONNECTING TO A WIRELESS NETWORK USING T-MOBILE G1 with Android

Now, let's show you how to connect to a wireless network. Go back to your desktop, and then press the Menu Key, and go to the 'Settings' box. Now click on 'Wireless Controls'. Next, click on Wi-Fi Settings. To add a new network, first click on Wi-Fi; once it is enabled (a green check mark appears), click on Add a Wi-Fi Network. Then, put in the correct information such as the password for the wireless network and such. This should automatically then connect to the network, and you are now using wireless (instead of G3 or E signal, which is slower). Hooray! A few notes is that your g1 doesn't automatically turn wi-fi on and off, you have to set it.; however, there is an option that you can setup under 'settings' which we won't go into.

IMPORTING CONTACTS FROM YOUR SIM CARD ON T-MOBILE G1 with ANDROID

Finally, if you want to import your contacts from an old sim card, there is a special option that does this for you. First, go to 'contacts'; if you can't find this, go to the dialer first (by pressing the green 'call' button) and then click on the third tab which is contacts. Now, press 'Menu', and then go to the 'settings' box that pops up. Then, click the option 'SIM contacts Importer'. This will show the contacts on your sim card. To import all of them, simply press 'menu' again, and go to import all. Wa-la! All your contacts can now be found under 'contacts'.

I hope you all enjoyed this basic tutorial for the T-Mobile G1 with Android installed. Good luck and happy calling!

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More #Onlineasishappens videos

Wedding catastrophre:

and the brides reaction video:

 

The Bride isn’t happy and decided to see all the grooms and best mans presents on ebay, which just happens to be 4 N900s and an around the world trip!

The bidding started at 10am GMT this morning, however the 1st item is already gone. All the items will be sold for only $1 each with Buy it Now, so head over to the brides page and see if you can bag yourself a N900 or even an around the world trip here! Its only running over the next 24 hours so hurry!

This looks like fun!

Read

Podcast: Talking with Matt #17 (Nokia N900 special)

It’s time for another podcast (23 min) with Matthew Bennett:
- Audio version
- Video version

This week was all about the amazing Nokia N900!

We also discussed the N900 meetup we are planning on October 29th at 6:30 PM at Schroeder’s in San Francisco, the BlackBerry 9630 (Tour), and a few other things…

Click here to subscribe to this podcast.

Nokia 2323 Classic: Ponsel Murah Bisa E-mail

Tidak salah jika Anda mengira bahwa ponsel ini adalah Nokia 2330 classic, atau malah kesulitan membedakan keduanya. Salah sebut seperti ini akan biasa terjadi pada kedua ponsel yang memang memiliki banyak kemiripan. Cuma fasilitas kamera yang dipangkas pada 2323c. Ini cukup disayangkan karena fungsi phonebooknya yang bisa disisipi foto-foto.

 

Untungnya fasilitas radio masih dipertahankan. Untuk memainkannya diharuskan mencolokkan headset terlebih dulu, jadi jangan lupa untuk selalu membawa headset jika ingin selalu dihibur oleh ponsel yang masih miskin fitur multimedia ini.

 

Sebenarnya tersedia juga pemutar musik. Sayang tidak ada slot memori tambahan, sementara memori internalnya yang hanya 32MB paling cuma cukup menampung sekitar 10 lagu berformat MP3. Itu pun jika tidak ditanami aplikasi-aplikasi atau game tambahan.

 

E-mail

Fungsi e-mail pada 2323c didukung juga oleh Ovi, yaitu layanan online dari Nokia yang menyediakan berbagai konten seperti ringtone, wallpaper, aplikasi, games, maps, e-mail, dan lainnya. Untuk mencicipi Ovi ini Anda cukup mengarahkan browser ke http://ovi.mobi atau melalui aplikasi Ovi pada folder web services.

Kembali pada layanan e-mail. Fasilitas ini begitu diangkat oleh 2323c. Ini akan Anda rasakan ketika membuka fitur e-mail di mana Anda akan dibawa pada sebuah panduan (wisaya) untuk membuat e-mail baru di server Ovi. Hanya perlu dua langkah untuk memiliki akun e-mail di Ovi. Gampang bukan?

 

Dengan adanya Ovi ini segala hal konten online menjadi sangat mudah. Satu hal saja yang disayangkan, tidak ada tombol pintas untuk mempermudah akses ke email, meski tentu saja kita dapat memanfaatkan tombol yang ada menjadi pintasannya. Sedikit tambahan tentang e-mail Ovi, setiap akun e-mail akan beralamat di akunemail@ovi.com, kapasitas simpan 1GB dan sistem proteksi spam dan virus.

 

Apabila Anda sudah memiliki akun e-mail sendiri (bukan Ovi), disediakan juga sebuah panduan untuk pengaturannya. Kami mencobanya dengan mengaktifkan akun e-mail Yahoo dan Gmail. Dan ternyata ini juga mudah, hampir semudah ketika kami mengoperasikan Nokia-Nokia kelas atas, sebab fungsi e-mail di 2323c yang juga bisa secara otomatis mencari parameter-parameter sebuah layanan e-mail ke internet. Jadi dengan cuma modal username dan password saja kita sudah bisa mencicipi e-mail langsung di 2323c.

 

Namun tentu saja prosedur ini hanya berlaku untuk layanan e-mail berdomain terkenal. Untuk layanan e-mail private, seperti e-mail kantoran, kita harus memasukkan parameter POP, IMAP, dan SMTP secara manual. Oh ya, 2323c ini menyediakan juga fungsi automatic retrieval (cek email secara otomatis) untuk rentang 5 menit sampai 6 jam sekali.

 

Layar dan Tatap Muka

Ukuran layar 2323c memang masih tergolong sempit (1,8”), komposisi resolusi dan warna layarnya pun masih minim, 65 ribu warna dengan resolusi 128×160 pixel. Namun apa yang kami rasakan padanya ternyata cukup nyaman dan sejuk di mata. Icon-icon yang ditampilkannya pun tampak tajam dan sedikit interaktif karena ada sedikit efek-efek animasi setiap berpindah menu.

 

Sementara dalam hal perangkat lunak, platform S40 yang diusungnya ternyata cukup bekerja responsif saat mengekplorasi menu-menu. Menu utamanya sendiri tersusun dengan icon-icon bermatriks 3×3. Sisi menariknya, kita bisa mengatur dan memindah-mindahkan posisi setiap icon sesuai selera.

 

Desain dan Tombol

Sebagai keluarga classic, tampang 2323c masih setia dengan kesederhanaan dan minimalis. Model candybar-nya tidak kaku sebab setiap lekukan sudut yang dibuat dengan teknik rounding (melingkar), model ini yang diadopsi juga pada 6303 classic.

 

Bahan casing 2323c adalah plastik tidak mengilat dengan polesan warna gelap pada sekujur tubuhnya. Ketika kami genggam, ponsel ini begitu mantap di tangan dan tidak licin. Ada kesan elegan ketika menatapnya, aksen ini dikuatkan dengan tambahan sedikit warna-warna kalem seperti alur garis silver di pinggir layar, dan warna putih pada tombol navigasi.

 

Bahan tombol-tombol angka yang juga dari bahan plastik begitu empuk dan kenyal ketika dipencet-pencet. Semua tombol-tombolnya dibuat rata (tidak menonjol), tapi ukurannya cukup yang lapang membuatnya tetap nyaman saat dipakai ketak-ketik. Ponsel ini sepertinya memang akan memanjakan penggunanya untuk berpanjang-panjang menulis e-mail.

 

DENGAN KATA LAIN

Ponsel murah berfasilitas email yang ramah untuk pengguna internet awam.

 

PLUS : Tanpa tombol pintas, tanpa memori tambahan.

MINUS: Panduan e-mail; fasilitas Ovi.

 

Spesifikasi Nokia 2323 Classic

Harga : Rp 750.000

Jaringan : GSM 900/1800 MHz; EDGE kelas 10; GPRS kelas 10

Form factor : candybar

Dimensi : 107×46x13,8 mm

Bobot : 76 gram (dengan baterai)

Baterai : Li-ion 1020 mAh

Waktu Bicara : 4 jam

Waktu Siaga : 540 jam

Layar : TFT 65 ribu warna, 1,8”, 128×160 pixel

Memori internal : 32MB

Memori tambahan : tidak ada

Fasilitas internet : Wap 2.0

Email : POP/IMAP/SMTP

Konektivitas antar peranti : Bluetooth 2.0

Kamera :tidak ada

Ringtone olyphonic

Phonebook :Share memory

Messaging : SMS; MMS

Aplikasi : Nokia S40, Java, audio recorder,alarm, kalender, notes, to-do-list, kalkulator, timer, stopwatch, dictionary, games (galaxy, snake EX2, sudok), Opera mini.

Lainnya: Radio FM mendukung RDS, pnduan pengaturan e-mail, Ovi

 

Sumber: Sinyal