Smartphones and Cell Phones

Nokia World 2008 is taking place this week in Barcelona, Spain and the event kicked off with the keynote announcing the Nokia N97 multimedia computer. The Nokia N97 brings a QWERTY keyboard and touch screen to the Nseries or you could say it brings a phone and S60 to the Nokia Internet Tablet. The Nokia promotional materials state, "Desktop.Laptop.Pocket" as they bring you a device with a 3.5 inch touch screen display (640x360 pixels resolution) that slides up and at an angle (similar to the AT&T Tilt) to reveal a full 3-row QWERTY keyboard and directional pad. I was expecting to see S60 touch launch on a Nseries rather than the Nokia 5800 we saw last month.

December 1, 2008 by Matthew Miller

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I've now given you a Holiday Guide for smartphones and free cellphones so this Guide presents the best of the devices that are commonly called feature phones. With the power of today's feature phones, the line between a feature phone and smartphone is getting blurred so most people won't see much of a difference between the two categories of devices and I imagine there will soon be no distinction at all.

December 1, 2008 by Matthew Miller

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James had a chance to try the BlackBerry Storm and started off MobileTechRoundup show #155 with a few thoughts. Kevin is still enjoying his iPhone and told us about a new application he is using via WiFi on his device. I had a chance to chat with Ross Lamont, from Nokia, about the Nokia Legends campaign in one of our rare podcast interviews. Nokia just took a big step towards supporting all enterprise solutions with their announcement supporting Lotus Notes. Our freeware of the show requires two Macs on one network and after the show Kevin ended up buying another Mac too.

November 30, 2008 by Matthew Miller

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The TechCrunch post on Joost for the iPhone came across my Twitter feed so I quickly launched iTunes and found the free Joost application. The application started up and looked promising on my WiFi connection, but I found the same issues that TechCrunch did with the application unable to play movies.

November 28, 2008 by Matthew Miller

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It is not that often that I agree whole heartedly with David Pogue's reviews since he is a little too pro-Apple for me, but this time I can honestly say his review of the BlackBerry Storm is right on. The power of a BlackBerry is their QWERTY keyboard and RIM needs to forget about future Storm devices and stick with their niche of the market.

November 26, 2008 by Matthew Miller

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Today, Nokia launched its new viNe service for selected Nseries devices. I logged in (you need a Nokia.com account) and see that the Nokia E71 is also supported and since that is the device I have 3G on here in the U.S. I am going to try it out with that device. Nokia viNe is a way to capture and geotag your music, photos, and videos as you are out and about. You can control when this geotagging and capturing is taking place, but it appears that everything you capture and then upload is available for public viewing so take care when you are using the service.

November 25, 2008 by Matthew Miller

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There has been a few rants posted over the last week or so about the statement that was made on a Microsoft Windows Mobile blog pertaining to the apparent lack of support for existing devices to support the upcoming Internet Explorer Mobile 6 web browser. What can Microsoft do with Windows Mobile moving forward to compete with the new devices hitting the market?

November 25, 2008 by Matthew Miller

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I purchased and then reviewed the Samsung OMNIA after a trip to Singapore in September. Today, Verizon Wireless announced the OMNIA will be available starting tomorrow for US$249.99 after a US$70 mail-in rebate and 2-year contract. I paid over US$700 for my OMNIA just a couple months ago and can't believe this subsidized price. Phonescoop already has a video tour of this impressive Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device.Verizon Wireless also now has their version of the HTC Touch Pro available, but take a look at the specs before you pull the trigger on this model.

November 24, 2008 by Matthew Miller

4 Comments Vote

While browsing the Android Market yesterday I found Opera Mini 4.2 beta ready for download. Last night I put together a video showing the browser in action and browsing along with the default G1 browser. You can also check out my image gallery for screenshots of the Opera Mini 4.2 beta browser.

November 24, 2008 by Matthew Miller

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I mentioned finding Opera Mini 4.2 beta on my T-Mobile G1 yesterday and it seems the application appeared a bit early in the Android Market. Today, Opera officially announced Opera Mini 4.2 beta for the Google Android device that was actually a subpart to the announcement that Opera Mini 4.2 is now available for other devices as a full release product and comes out of beta.

November 24, 2008 by Matthew Miller

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