From iPhone to Nokia N97 mini? Not quite so fast!
Collaring our very own Matt Radford, I pressed him to try the Nokia N97 mini, the latest touchscreen offering from the Finns, albeit with a QWERTY keyboard as well. Below are his video impressions after two weeks with the N97 mini. Happy watching and happy Christmas!
Review: Proporta TurboCharger 3400
I’ve had the Proporta USB TurboCharger 3400 for a quite few months now so I’m in a good position to be able to give a accurate account of how the TurboCharger 3400 might fit in to your daily smartphone usage. If there’s one item that has remained underpowered on all smartphones throughout 2009 it’s the battery. For those impatient types, or for those of you who are actively looking for a portable battery backup solution, let me cut to the chase. You need a Porporta TurboCharger 3400. With is 3400 mAh capacity and swappable charging heads, it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t want one.
I’ll give you three common scenarios – all real life examples – that should resonate with many readers.
The BBC on the future of iPlayer on the iPhone
Yesterday, there was a Twitter chat with Jason DaPonte, managing editor of BBC Mobile. Macworld and Electric Pig have reported on this, including responses to a couple of my tweets. But they missed out a few details, and didn’t mention some questions that went unanswered about the future of BBC iPlayer on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
All about anything *but* the iPhone
Evidence of absence is not absence of evidence. Despite Apple’s non-attendance at last week’s Mobile World Congress, the event made clear that the introduction of the iPhone has had a wide-ranging effect on the industry. There’s no way that I’d say that the iPhone “dominated MWC09“, but the difference this year is that there seem to be some considered responses. Thinking 5 years from now, will Apple be considered a company that kick-started a new wave of smartphones and user experience, but ultimately got left behind?
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Nokia’s take on the iPhone’s innovation
No, no, not another post referencing the iPhone’s AppStore – and in any case, Nokia for one can’t be accused of going all me too on that front, since every Nokia smartphone since 2005 has had a ‘Download!’ on-device store (just not a very successful one) – what I’d like to focus on here are the innovations in the iPhone’s form factor and how Nokia and others are responding.
Cast your mind back, if you will, to the momentus MacWorld keynote at the start of 2007 in which Steve Jobs announced the iPhone to the world. The three main points which stuck in my mind about Apple’s new creation were:
- The way in which the ‘too much plastic’ problem was overcome. Now, full-screen PDAs had been with us for years, and some Windows Mobile smartphones were just that – full-screen PDAs with a phone tacked on. But Apple brought us a full-screen, purpose-built phone that aimed to compete with the ‘plastic-ridden’ qwerty-keyboarded smartphones at their own game, but without a physical keyboard.
- Finger touch was now OK. After years of everyone saying ‘Don’t touch your screen, you’ll get it dirty/greasy’, it’s now not only OK, but indeed the only way to interact with your device. Radical.
- The iPhone interface, seamless from top to bottom, doing away with menus and finger-friendly throughout. Purpose-built, you might say, even though in reality it sits on top of a version of Mac OS X.
Raise a glass to the iPod Touch… and its dinner partner, the Nokia N82
You may remember this post, in which I looked at areas of functionality in which Apple are very strong with the iPhone and areas in which they really should have stepped up to the plate, evening out the gaps. Recognising that there is something of an inbalance between the functionalities of different phones on the market though, I wanted to point out that there’s another option for fans of the iPhone OS, of the superb hardware and of the App Store.
Regular readers here will know that, although having access to iPhones, I (personally) use an iPod Touch. Not crazy at all, this feature will hopefully explain one of the reasons why I’m happy with the ‘lesser’ device. The other reason is ongoing network/contract costs, but that’s another rant for another day.
Raise your glasses to the iPod Touch
You see, for Apple fans who eye up the telephony, connectivity and photography advantages of the best of the Symbian/Nokia world, it really is possible to have your cake and eat it. Read on…
iPhone in stasis – Nokia breathes a huge sigh of relief
So Apple’s last ever keynote at MacWorld has come and gone. And, contrary to the tease mentions by some case sites, there was no iPhone Nano announced. Nor indeed any significant iPhone announcements, rather strangely.
As I can illustrate from a chart I drew up for an AAS feature (reproduced below the break), the Apple iPhone is supremely functional in many areas but is let down in others (all well known). In the areas of photo/video and navigation, Apple could have knocked the ball out of the park and really, really rattled the cages of the likes of Nokia.
BBC iPlayer for iPhone now supports streaming radio
BBC iPlayer goes from strength to strength. The iPhone has become the best way of accessing the quality content of the BBC. Recent changes included an iPhone formatted front end, availability of an entire series, and now streaming radio via wifi.
The radio shows are provided in MP3 format at 128kbps. I listened to Radio One’s ‘Fearne and Reggie’s Request Show’ this morning, I was able to find the show within seconds and the quality was superb, certainly way better than FM.
The lure of the iPhone explained
Apologies for not posting this at the time (two weeks ago) but I’ve been a little distracted, as has Matt, with family matters! In this feature, hosted at All About Symbian, I’ve written about my experiences showing off the iPhone/iPod Touch platform to some ‘normobs’. What did they make of Apple’s interface and hardware and, perhaps more importantly, why did they react as they did? Find out in the full article (written from the point of view of an experienced, hard-nosed Nokia/Symbian viewpoint, note!)
iPhone 3G vs Touch Diamond – The Smartphones Show reckons it’s not even close…
Over in Smartphones Show 63, embedded below, I look at all the reasons why the theoretically outgunned Apple iPhone 3G manages to completely trounce the also-new HTC Touch Diamond. It’s not all about the interface, you know, but when one of said interfaces is a horrible kludge then picking a winning device really isn’t that hard.
You may want to fast forward over the first review of a budget S60 phone, although do note its amazing specs and price point – it’s not going for the same market as the iPhone, but it sets interesting precedents.
