April 22, 2005
Nokia 6680 is in the wild
for the first time today, i've started to see Nokia 6680s in our server logs requesting feeds. very cool!
they are requesting with the signature "Nokia6680/3.04.11"
my current everyday phone is a Nokia 6630 (TIM version) but i'm still sick of the out of memory errors. I hope they've taken care of this in the 6680.
i've pretty much become a Series 60 convert these days. between the Symbian apps available and it's J2ME support which gets better and better with every firmware release, it just fits in with the way i work.
April 12, 2005
comparing nokia phones
the nokia website now has a great tool for comparing phone models. here's an example comparing the nokia 6630, 6680, and 3230.
The biggest difference, i didn't realize between the 6630 and the 6680 is the number of colors the screen supports on the 6680.
At any rate, this is a great tool on Nokia's site.
November 29, 2004
V710 turning into PR nightmare for Motorola and Verizon
I don't agree with the politics or sentiment of his last statement, as I don't know if a mobile phone has ever really been manufactured in the US, but this is the type of email/comments i get on a daily basis from people in my other weblog.
"I bought this phone (V710) in July from Radio Shack (RS). The main reason was to pair with my Acura TL. Poor reception, dropped calls, static, poor Bluetooth abilities, does not work on incoming calls in my TL. Communicated with RS, Moto and VZ. all three told me it was Acura. Acura refers me to Handsfree Link, Verizon never gave them the phone for testing before moving this to production. (This is done with all other wireless companies). RS exchanged the phone in Sept. Oct. I find that it is not the car but the phone. VZ bluntly told me it is my problem discuss it with RS. RS said discuss it with Moto. Moto states that they know there is a problem with the Bluetooth but do not know how to distribute the fix. No one will refund me the price of the phone that I bought outright and paid in excess of $400, because it is now over 30 days old. I travel nationwide and have the same reception problems in all parts of the country. My Qualcom from 1997 and My Nokia from 2001 perform better then this phone.
Poor picture abilities, can't transfer files form phone to my laptop using Blutooth as VZ disabled this.
I will write off the phone and have my company switch me to Cingular.
What ever happened to the old American value of making the customer happy, oh yeah, they outsourced that one."
i hate to keep bashing motorola, that's not my MO here. i have a lot of friends and family that work there (and they'll be the first ones to tell you how messed up it is there) but the email and comments just keep coming in. amazing.
Is there anything they can do to fix this PR nightmare?
Russ suggests a partnership to develop phones for Apple.
This is an interesting idea, but it's got to be something bigger than another dead end biz dev deal.
Ericsson's phones used to suck too. Their UIs and form factors were among the ugliest in the business...until they spun out the handset design to Sony and created Sony Ericsson - who now IMO, has the best designs in the business (right up there with Nokia).
Would Motorola give up their weakening brand to Apple? I doubt it, but it might be a winning move.
I know the guy that did the Symbian deal at Motorola (which was subsequently dismantled) - perhaps i'll run it by him ;)
November 24, 2004
Cingular marketing S710 in Chicago
(click for full size)
I got the following ad in a flyer last night from Cingular in my (snail) mailbox. I think this might make me switch away from T-Mobile assuming i can easily move my number over to an existing account.
November 23, 2004
Cingular shipping 7610 to some zip codes
Jon Gales over at MobileTracker is reporting that Cingular has a 7610 soft launch in progress, availble online to some zip codes - proabably the ones that don't need 850 Mhz.
Despite it's screwy keyboard layout, which i think most right-handers can get used to, this is an awesome phone with an awesome camera, and i'm glad to see it make it to the mass market.
next up, the 6630! please please please
November 18, 2004
Motorola A1000 [via pocket-lint]
Pocket-lint.co.uk reviews the Motorola A1000 and really doesn't like it.
they say "Either way, the adoption of a PDA-styled device that doesn’t use PalmOs or the PocketPC OS is a brave move and the reliance on easy-to-use software is even greater than before."
It's interesting, because A100 uses the same Symbian UIQ OS that I think works really well on the Sony Ericsson P900 and P910. Then again, this is Motorola, so I'll reserve judgement until i get to play with one myself.
November 12, 2004
Sony Ericsson S710a
A little while ago i reviewed the Sony Ericsson S710i and it has been the phone that has continued to "stick" in my pocket. The camera is just too awesome, and the games are great too.
Now, SE is announcing that they will be lauching theS710a with Cingular here on their EDGE network, and AT&T will get the Z500a on their EDGE network.
holy cow, the S710a will be an awesome EDGE phone.
It's going to be really hard to decide between that and the Nokia 6630 with UTMS, assuming they can get the prices in the same ballpark.
November 05, 2004
mobileburn's excellent cameraphone shootout
michael oryl has an excellent megapixel cameraphone shootout over at mobileburn, so i would be remiss in not pointing it out.
The SE S700i and the Siemens S65 shine, and the Motorola V710, as usual, sucks.
October 21, 2004
motorola to recall V710
Just when you thought things were looking up for Motorola, another Motorola misstep. At least they are doing the right thing and recalling the v710 because the camera shoots out of alignment pictures. (the same thing was wrong with the Nokia 7650, but they never did this).
but really, Moto - strap on a pair with some of these carriers. Improve your UI and get some of those good phone designs through QA a little faster!
The carriers do not like Motorola, so Moto does whatever they can to get carriers to use their devices, such as:
1. preventing 3's subs from installing external applications on the A920
2. Not allowing signed third party J2ME apps that access the network to be installed on their J2ME devices. yes that's right, if you write a J2ME application that accesses the network - all the other manufacturers allow you as the developer to get verified by Verisign and "sign" the application allow you to access the network. The carriers strongarmed Moto into locking their phones down so that either Motorola or the carrier has to sign the application. This is like buying a Dell, and having them approve everything you install on it (thanks to dick for the analogy). I have email responses from Moto customer support that verifies this if anyone wants to see them. Nokia and SE told the carriers "yeah, right". Seriously, a customer support email came back to me that said "the carriers made us do it."
3. Locking down Bluetooth on the V710 for Verizon so that the file transfer APIs are disabled.
Business is tight, they gotta do what they gotta do to get these carrier deals in place- but a very rough road to hoe for Moto here on out...probably the last straw for Verizon - they are already pissed at Moto's BREW implementations.
SonyEricsson P910 online update service now available
Sony Ericsson has made their P910 Firmware update service available. This is one of the best features about the P900/P910 that SE has been really smart about and Nokia needs to duplicate for the benefit of both consumers and software developers. It will help alleviate a lot of problems when they release have to release phones with shoddy firmware because of contractual obligations. Witness the Nokia 6600 - what a trainwreck that phone is, most of the buggy firmware versions still out there in the wild with no easy way to update...
October 18, 2004
my single biggest annoyance with Nokia phones
After carrying around a Sony Ericsson S700i for a couple weeks now, i've decided perhaps the most useful feature along with the killer killer 1.3 megapixel camera is the ability to pop the external memory card in and out, while the phone is running, and have no adverse affects happen. i really hate the fact that with Nokia phones you have to take the back off the phone, remove the battery (which kills the phone session), remove the memory card, etc. now that Nokia has hotswappable memory cards on the N-Gage QD, you think they could propogate this design to the rest of their handsets.
oh, i spoke too soon - it looks like they've included hot swapping in the impending 6630. 1.3 megapixels and series 60 and EDGE. this phone will be hot.
September 29, 2004
give people a good cameraphone...
one of the most popular tags at flickr is 7610 which of course is the tag associated with the phone shown above, the Nokia 7610, which has a really good megapixel camera.
but it goes to show you, when you give people a decent camera on their phone, it's hard not to use it all the time.
August 05, 2004
initial thoughts on the Motorola V710
this isn't a full review, but just some initial thougts on the Motorola V710. These phones have been highly anticpated as the first bluetooth capable phones available from verizon, and have been leaking out to a radio shack near you.
we needed one to test a BREW application we are launching soon, and i was lucky enough to find one at my radio shack down the street. these phones are pretty much coming in and out the door, as any friendly radio shack salesman will tell you, that is, after for some reason needing to collect your address for purchasing a $2 phono plug adaptor.
so, is this the latest and greatest? or just another crappy phone from motorola?
i guess it depends on your perspective. to the belt-clip-wearing-clamshell-toting masses, this will be seen as a great phone. it will become the new standard road warrior phone for those who love verizon clamshells, replacing the LG 6000.
to me, this phone is no big deal. yes it has a 1.2 megapixel camera which can shoot up to 1280x960 (see how that math works) and can also shoot video and play MP3s on an external memory card (not supplied) but aside from the camera, most middle of the road nokia and sony ericssons also have this stuff and more. motorola's UI has always been a bit lacking to me, and i don't think they improved it on the V710.
Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like here. The screen is really nice and big enough to do some serious viewing/browsing - but because VzW doesn't provision WAP 2 by default with their data plans, i haven't been able to check this out yet.
The bluetooth seems to work well with headsets and bluetooth car kits but i haven't tried to use the phone as a bluetooth modem yet - this would be really cool if i could use the verizon network with my mac on the train. currently i use GPRS from either TMO/AWS and although it works okay, it could be faster.
more tests to come, again these are just some initial thoughts. i was hoping to be amazed at the new motorola - but i think this phone is just okay. not the soviet technology in this decade we're used to seeing from motorola, but still not up to par with nokia and sony ericsson's latest and greatest.
but hey, if you love verizon, and you want to upgrade, get one if you can!
August 02, 2004
latest Motorola V710 User Manual
sorry for the crosspost, but i've gotten more inquiries about the Motorola V710 from those that don't have a bluetooth enabled car, so here's what i know:
This is a BREW enabled Motorola phone that will launch on Verizon and U.S. Cellular - and is one of the first CDMA bluetooth phones. I has a 1.2 Megapixel camera, and should be out soon. It was supposed to be out a while ago, but it looks like motorola has been tweaking the radio, as they've resubmitted their FCC approval tests at the end of June.
July 15, 2004
sony ericsson makes P910 official
the full press release is here.
there's much skepticism surrounding the usability of the keyboard pictured above - all i can offer here is that the people i know who have tried it love it and say it works really well. can't wait to concur firsthand.
July 14, 2004
cameraphone examples now integrated into my feed
we have a cool new feature at FeedBurner that allows you to "splice" photos into your feed via our RSS feeds provided by our partner, Flickr.
i have a ton of cameraphone example photos i've been meaning to share and comment on, and this is the easiest way to do it, so as i get good or bad examples from the phones, they'll show up here in this feed with comments!
July 03, 2004
video phones to have now (updated)
i've been fortunate these last few weeks to have been working on a few projects requiring me to test most of the camera phones in the market, and a number of these phones can also shoot video of various degrees. this is short and sweet, but here's the top four video camera phones to have. caveat: i haven't tested those that don't work in north america.
sony ericsson K700i
the K700i is the next evolution of SE's most popular cameraphone, the T610 - this time they did it right with an amazing screen you can see in the sun, much more memory, and a really good, but still VGA camera. the K700i can shoot 10 second (limited) or what it calls "unlimited" video clips, which are limited by the 32MB of internal memoery. there is a night mode and even a light that be used while taking video. the
sony ericsson P900
the SE P900 has a great video camera, and the time and length of the video you can take is only dependent on the memory available. since you can record on the external memory stick duo (but NOT the duo pro) you can record up to 128 MB of video. there are also various modes available for quality and lighting. see my review here. the P900 is a pen based smartphone, with good PDA functions and email capabilities as well. this phone is not available from any operators in north america, you need to get a GSM account with T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless, or Cingular wireless and purchase the phone from an importer such as expansys or romeo hifi.
toshiba VM4050
if you are into the clamshell profile, and don't plan to leave the U.S., this might be the phone for you. the screen of the VM4050 is one of the best i've seen, and works amazingly well in camera viewfinder mode. Sprint makes it really easy to upload your videos (and pictures) to your online album on their website, or send them as emails to your friends. the "upload all" makes things really easy, and is a feature i haven't seen anywhere else. this camera also has a light that can be turned on to increase the lighting, and although i've seen this feature before, this one actually works. the downside is that you are limited to 14 seconds of video and there is no external storage, which is not so critical given how easy it is to upload your videos to the server on Sprint's fast 1X network. Available from Sprint PCS (review coming soon)
nokia 6600
this nokia phone also limits you to 14 seconds of video, but does allow for external storage on an MMC card up to 128 MB, if you can find them. the modes for quality and lighting are good enough, and the T-Mobile version has some decent capabilities for being able to send and share easily. the nokia 3650/3660 is a cheaper version of this phone that has pretty similar video capabilities. available from T-Mobile, but can also be used on AT&T Wireless and Cingular if purchased the phone from an importer such as expansys or romeo hifi. see my review here.
nokia 6230
if you prefer a small phone that fits easily in your pocket or purse - i think this is the best phone with video capabilities around. nokia packs a lot into this little package. it can record up to 4 minutes of video and again uses an MMC external memory card, and this phone can also play Mp3s and AAC files. the videos are well above average, but not the best you are going to find. this camera's size is what really makes it attractive. (full review coming soon) this phone is not available from any operators in north america, you need to get a GSM account with T-Mobile, AT&T Wireless, or Cingular wireless and purchase the phone from an importer such as expansys or romeo hifi.
April 27, 2004
more details on the Nokia 6600 4.09.1 Firmware
i found more information on the new firmware for the Nokia 6600. the intro is in italian, but the meat is in english.
it looks like there are some improvements, but also some new DRM features that have been implemented...so you can no longer "beam" applications around.
April 07, 2004
quick cameraphone shootout #3
another cameraphone shootout!
this is really just to test three new phones, not my whole battery of cameraphones.
this time, the subject is some "driveway anime" i drew in full bright sunlight.
click on each image for a full size image. they've been compressed on this page to save space.
nokia 6600 640 x 480 full size
audiovox cdm 8900 640 x 480 full size
sony ericsson P900 640 x 480 full size
handspring treo 600 640 x 480 full size
motorola v400 (same as v300/v500) 640 x 480 full size
February 13, 2004
quick cameraphone shootout #2
in quick cameraphone shootout #1 we took a bunch of outdoor pictures. this time around, i did a series of indoor pictures, in full incandescent light. you might use this to take pictures destined for your ebay auction for instance.
click on each image for a full size image. they've been compressed on this page to save space. i didn't rotate any of the pics to maintain the original quality that came out of the camera, but i had to rotate some of the cameras to fit this wonderful lego table in the shot. every camera was set on the max quality i could figure out, and all these pictures were taken in the exact same lighting within seconds of each other.
no, no plans to sell my son's lego table.
nokia 3650 640 x 480 full size
nokia 6600 640 x 480 full size
nokia 7250 352 x 288 full size
Sony Ericsson P800 640 x 480 full size
Sony Ericsson P900 640 x 480 full size
Samsung V200 352 x 288 full size
Sony Ericsson T610 288 x 352 full size
LG VX6000 640 x 480 full size
Panasonic X11 (same as Panasonic X70) 132 x 176 full size
i'll let you readers declare a winner...please comment. use "user@host.com" for your email address if you don't want to enter one.
December 29, 2003
finally a video recorder for the P800
in case you missed it, there is now a supported product for what was once the loch ness monster of the mobile device app scene: a video recorder that would run on the Sony Ericsson P800.
the 3GPP Philips Camcoder(sic) for UIQ is available from Handango and it's cobrands such as all about symbian (link to app here).
the app does require firmware CXC162001 R2A14 or later, which my P800 didn't have. it did run flawlessly however on my P900. it does have a cool feature of being able to dub audio over your existing video footage, just in case you aren't quick witted enough to do the play-by-play en vivo, as they say on telemundo.
this should start to open things up a little for video moblogging beyond the nokia 36XX and 66XX series of phones, as well as the pricey P900 that already support video out of the box.
December 01, 2003
cameraphone galleries a-plenty
just in time for american thanksgiving a cornocopia of cameraphone upload galleries are springing up, to fill out the card of mobile operators in north america who didn't offer such services before. typically from the web side of these services, you can share and even print your photos, although at this stage i wouldn't recommend printing anything bigger than a wallet size ( to see how some cameraphones fared, see my cameraphone shootout).
today, yahoo and sprint announced PCS Vision subs to upload photos and access stored photo albums and last week att wireless re-launched mMode with these services as well. the going price now seems to be around $2.99 /month for the service, which is a little cheaper than existing $4.99/month offerings from t-mobile and verizon wireless.
Att wireless' mMode actually offers a few different providers with different price points:
Kodak: $24.99/year or $2.99/month
Fuji: $0.49/day or $2.99/month
Snapfish: $0.49/day or $1.99/30 days
of course, if you don't want to use these services, you can always send them to your moblog from the likes of textamerica in which case you'll probably get charged somehow to send your mms.
November 19, 2003
AT&T Wireless delays the Treo 600
i've seen a few posts about how at&t wireless and t-mobile have delayed the GSM version of the Treo 600.
i'm just guessing, but it looks like cingular struck a deal with handspring to get a 2 week exclusive on selling the device before att and t-mobile could sell it. i'm sure it cost them something.
likewise, i was told by an inside source that cingular would be the first to get the sony ericsson p900 in north america. cingular must be striking some pretty aggressive deals to get the cutting edge devices - which imo cingular has been lacking.
October 17, 2003
sony image station
sony has launched a print-from-your-phone service called ImageStation. they say they can do wallet size or 4x6, and they show this with a T610 along-side a stack of prints. i'm signing up as we speak and will report back with the results. i'm skeptical but would love to be pleasantly surprised! wallets might work. i've discouraged people from trying to print camera phone pics in the past, because i've tried it and the quality just has not been there.
i saw there was an ofoto press release with att wireless to do the same thing as sony is doing here, but i haven't seen the results.