Nokia N900 Maemo Ad Makes Me Not Want To Buy It.

By Benedict Wee

Nokia's decision to ditch Symbian and create a Lunix-based smartphone might be a gamble that decides if the mobile company survives the upcoming year dominated by Android mobiles and iphones, but their latest viral ad for the Maemo might tilt the balance against their favor as the two and a half minute video is a pretty disturbing introduction to the phone.

Anyone who wants a schizophrenic, transforming mobile raise your hands.

Source:

Gizmodo - The Nokia N900 Isn't A Phone, It's A Psychotic Shapeshifter.

The Sinking Ship That Is Nokia.

By Benedict Wee

With the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones being readily adopted worldwide it's not surprising when Nokia announced a major loss for the third quarter of this year.

Their smartphone market share has dropped to 35% compared to 41% last year and 50% in the previous years.

One could attribute their insistence on using Symbain for their phones and the refusal to adopt Android as one of the factors the once-popular Finnish mobile maker is experiencing such a major disinterest by consumers.

Motorola -who is in a similar situation- will be releasing two Android phones to the market by the holidays to try and save whatever is left of their company, maybe it's time Nokia bit the bullet and do the same thing.

Nokia Press Release - Q3 2009 Net Sales

Source:

Engadget - Nokia Posts $834 Million Quarterly Loss, Smartphone Share Down To 35%.

Got Family/Friends In The US Right Now? Nokia 5800 Only NZ$341.59

By Benedict Wee

Dell.com is now selling the Nokia 5800 (the mobile you saw in the recent Star Trek movie) for only US$240/NZ$341.59, unlocked. That's NZ$557.41 cheaper than what Vodafone is selling over here. The sale lasts till 6am (US Central Time) tomorrow however so if you got mates/families in the States and want to get into the smartphone era for cheap then you best get moving.

Source:

Dell.com

Nokia N900 Maemo Cheaper In the US

By Benedict Wee

Looks like its "import-your-mobiles" day today. The Nokia N900 -which runs the gorgeous Maemo OS- we featured late last month goes for lesser in the United States at US$649/NZ$957.86 compared to the EU's 500Euros/NZ$1043 without contract.

If you've got mates in the US you can preorder the phone from Nokia and get a free Bluetooh headset which sweetens the deal.

Source:

Gizmodo - Nokia N900 Preorders Are Go: $650 No Contract.

Nokia N900 Maemo Makes That N97 Purchase Look Stupid

By Benedict Wee

It was only 6-8 weeks ago that Nokia announced its N97 phone in New Zealand at a whopping day-light robbery price of NZ$1799 and I gave a negative Buying Guide review that predicted the downfall of the Finnish mobile maker.

Seems like I've might have jumped the gun though as their recent announcement of the N900 looks like a very promising device that might save Nokia's sinking ship.

The N900 Maemo boasts some serious hardware specs -a 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen, 32GB storage, an ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz processor, a 3.5mm jack, WiFi, HSDPA (3.5G)- and comes with the Maemo 5 Linux OS. Android it is not, but looking at the demo it performs much better than the Symbian OS Nokia has been flogging the dead horse with. It makes one wonder why they bothered with launching the N97 in the first place.

We might be up to our necks in multiple mobile OSs right now but I'd gladly make room for Nokia's new smartphone and its price tag -500Euros/NZ$1043- seems like a reasonable amount to pay for a decent iPhone competitor.

Source:

Gizmodo - Nokia N900 Maemo Is A Phone, Makes The N97 Look Silly

Fake Gadget Tuesdays: The Nokia Swivel Phone That Never Was

By Benedict Wee

Gadget: NOKLA E81-1

Place of Origin: China

"Inspired" by: Unknown

I've never heard of Nokia giving a sub-number in their 'E' or 'N' line of mobiles before. But if they did this phone is so cool that it would deserve its own letter instead of being put in a sub-category of the E series.

The Nokla E81-1 is the first 108 degrees swivel mobile phone I've ever seen. It comes with pretty decent specs like a FM radio, multi-format video player, camera with video recording functions and an mp3 player but what makes this phone an eye turner is the its swivel design which reveals a full QWERTY keyboard similar to BlackBerry smartphones.

Also included is a mirror on the back for the ladies to check on their makeup (and for guys to check for vampires or something) and it comes with a big enough hole to easily thread a lanyard through (or to hang from a necklace).

The only flaws of the Nokla E81-1 are that it uses only GSM 900/1800 MHz networks and it doesn't have Wifi so don't expect to do anything except calling and texting on this mobile. It's retail price: 630RMB/NZ$137.90, cheaper than most dumbphones out there in the market right now.

I can't put an arbitrary score for almost-the-real-thing-ness since this phone isn't a copy of any model out in the market, but I would give it an A for sheer ingenuity and technical know-how. It's pretty amazing what these copycat makers can create sometimes.

Nokia News Roundup - New Alphabet Series Despite Bad 2nd Quarter

By Benedict Wee

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer has announced a 66% net-profit drop in their second quarter in comparison to last year's figures. Nokia's net profit was EUR 380 million for the 3 months leading to the end of June, drastically lower than the previous year's 1.10 billion.

Of course a major factor contributing to the huge drop is because of the crap economy but you can't help but to think that the age of the feature-filled and easy-to-use smartphones like the iPhone, Palm Pre and Android running mobiles do play a big part in the taking away consumers from the Finnish phone maker.

But that's not stopping them however as two trademarks have been spotted by different sources on Gizmodo. The two trademarked names are called "C-Series" and "X-Series" but there is no indication on what these phones will look like or feature as they're only trademark filings made without any hardware patents.

Would be nice if one of the new series named ran Android because the UI they're currently using right now (Symbian) is pretty archaic and all-round awful to use.

Source -

Wall Street Journal - Nokia 2Q Net Profit Dn 66%; Sees Demand Bottoming Out

Gizmodo - Nokia Trademarks C-Series Of Devices

Gizmodo - Nokia Trademarks "XSeries" Smartphone Line

Nokia announces its rugged phone: the 3720 Classic

By Benedict Wee

Being a pretty outdoorsy kind of nation that we are, a handful of us have jobs/hobbies that require us to brave mother nature's elements like water, dirt and sand. This of course doesn't allow one to bring one's mobile around with them but Nokia has announced their first rugged phone which might provide a solution to the problem.

The 3720 Classic features a sealed and leak-proof design to protect against dust, sand, water and mud from entering and is made of durable materials which makes it a long-lasting and reliable mobile for those people working in harsh environments. It can even survive a golf swing and being kicked by a rugby boot in the rain!

The other cool thing is that its standard mobile features aren't compromised. It has a long lasting battery, 2MP camera with flash, LED flashlight, 2.2" display and comes with Nokia Maps installed in a 1GB micro SD card.

All in all, it beats Vodafone's XP1 rugged phone with its extra features and it is considerably cheaper at 125 Euros (approx NZ$278.19) compared to the XP1's NZ$599 price tag.

Sources:

Nokia - Handle without care: Nokia introduces the Nokia 3720 classic, its most rugged mobile handset to date.

Gizmodo - Upcoming Nokia versus a Golf Club.

Nokia news roundup - Buying Guide: N97 and Android.

By Benedict Wee

Judging from Twitter reports of local tech celebrities, Finnish mobile giant Nokia held a press conference in Auckland today to debut their latest smartphone, the N97. I don't have the phone physically but I'll give it a buying guide based on the information I can gleam from impressions/reviews by other tech blogs.

Why I might like it

Sturdy:

Nokia has been making phones for a long time and they've been known to make them to last. Expect the N97 to posses the same sturdy-ness.

Size:

Measuring 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm, the N97's dimensions are ideal for any pocket from bermudas to tight-fitting jeans. It's pretty amazing that it's only slightly bigger than the Nokia 5800 and it comes with a full QWERTY keyboard. It's like a mini netbook!

Features:

32GB should be an internal hard drive standard for all smartphones released after July. The N97 does just that and with an upgradable microSD slot you'll get a potential 48GB worth of storage space. What to do with that much space? Listening to your music would be appropriate as the mobile has a standard headphone jack.

The user interface looks pretty. With widgets like Qik, facebook, RealPlayer, YouTube, Accuweather and Spore already installed in the phone you'll be able to streamline your accounts and play videos from the get go.

These features combined with a 5 MP Carl Zeiss optics lens, digital compass, WMV/RealVideo video player, 2-way transmitter (able to receive signals for radio or to broadcast music to your fm receiver), removable battery and voice command/dial makes the mobile almost comparable to the iPhone 3GS and HTC Magic. Almost.

Meh

Ovi Store:

It's not the Android Market and it's definitely not the Apple App Store. Nokia's own online application store for their phones is still in its early stages so don't expect to download heaps of useful apps for the N97 and they've still got a long ways to go before developers create any that are worth mentioning. Why? Because those who want a bigger consumer base and money develop iPhone apps and those who want the freedom go to Android. After that they'll have other popular platforms to develop for like Palm and BlackBerry so you're looking at pretty tough competition out there. Also I heard the store is pretty hard to navigate.

Why I won't like it

It runs Symbian:

Or to be more specific; Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel 5. The Symbian OS has been around for awhile now, going through various upgrades the past few years to its current iteration today. Symbian is also the oldest mobile OS when compared to the iPhone OS or Android so one would think that they've perfected the art of creating a easy to use operating system. They didn't. It's clunky and not very user friendly interface can be frustrating to use.

Looks like a million things happening at once

This is a major mistake to make. With us spoilt on the smooth UIs of the iPhone and Android one would think that the N97 had the strong, capable body of a 18 year old with the personality of an 81 year old. Looking at the video reviews of the phone I kept telling myself that the phone would be perfect to run Android. And speaking of Android..

I'm inserting the Nokia news about the Android here. They've flat out denied the rumors that they will release a smartphone running the Android platform. To quote:

"There is no truth to this story whatsoever. It is a well known fact that Symbian is our platform of choice for smartphones."

Why Nokia? Android could be the saving grace you need to get back that market share you've lost when other smartphones like the iPhone and HTC Android mobiles were released. You've got awesome looking phones which last really long and all you need is to have an OS that runs perfectly and you'll get an uber-phone that people will want to buy. I know, I know, you own Symbian now but flogging a dead horse is not an option when there are better platforms out there that many are using. Android is free for pete's sake!

Back to the review, I don't think anyone should bother to learn how to use an interface that might (or might not) get phased out in a couple of years because there are easier and better looking OSs out there where you'll only need to learn only once.

Price and Processor:

So apparently Finland is encased in a magical bubble where recession is a word that goes with spring to signify a weeks break for university students in March and there are no other smartphone makers out there that could possibly compete with their mobiles. Either that or Vodafone NZ is trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for most expensive phone sold commercially ever.

The cost of the phone is NZ$1799 without a contract.

Now compare that to the other (better) options in the market; a 32GB iPhone 3GS for NZ$1379 or the HTC Magic for NZ$1099 and you'll wonder how Nokia (or Vodafone) came to that really, really, really far out price. The N97 might be like a mini netbook, but its pricing is in the notebooks range.

Also why does the N97 only have a 424 MHz processor when the iPhone 3GS has 600 MHz and the HTC Magic 528 MHz? That's only a tiny step up from the iPhone 3G's 412 MHz. Does the 18 year old have the mind of a 81 year old as well?

Conclusion

The N97 gets so many things right but the stuff it gets wrong are so glaringly bad that you've got no choice to but to keep on staring at it like a vehicle accident. Bad OS, slow processor and an incredibly high price makes me give the phone a major fail. I would not recommend buying it at all.

It's a real pity though, and I can't help but feel sad for the Finnish mobile giant. I remember the time when I was 16 and I fell in love with the 3210 which began a very long love affair with Nokia till the 6280, but its refusal to get with the times, their ridiculous pricing and its unwillingness to be open about their OS might end up being the source of its own destruction.

Look for the N97 to appear on Vodafone's (and maybe 2degrees') shelves soon.

Sources:

Gizmodo's review of the N97

The National Business Review's review of the N97

TechRadar's report on Nokia and Android

Vodafone giving away Nokia N85 everyday in June

By Benedict Wee

To continue their efforts in retaining customers who are tempted to move to Telecom's XT network (which launches this Friday), Vodafone has announced that they're giving away a Nokia N85 everyday in June to Prepay customers who top-up $20 to their accounts online (via My Vodafone). 

The winner will be chosen from the days top-ups so the more you top-up on that day the more chances you have to win the mobile. This reminds me of those online auction sites where you have to purchase bids in order to bid for low priced items which you might not win should someone else bid more than you. But at least you get to use the mobile credits you purchased. 

The N85 is a pretty old phone (released in October 2008) but it is decent with great features like 3G, WiFi, 3.5mm audio jack with stereo speakers, a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Optics and LED Flash and it comes with an 8GB micro SD card. 

It is a good deal overall for Prepay Vodafone customers. I'd recommend it and will be participating in the draw myself. 

Source: 

Vodafone top-up promotion

TVNZ reviews mobile phones

By Benedict Wee

TV One’s morning current affairs shows-Breakfast and Good Morning- dedicated their tech segments to mobiles today. Breakfast previewed 4 phones; the Nokia E71, the Samsung F480, the Telecom R6 and the Sony Ericsson C510a from Telecom’s XT network while Good Morning did the Nokia Xpress Music 5800, the BlackBerry Storm and the 3G iphone. 

First up, we’ll talk about the Breakfast review, done by Ben Gracewood; Breakfast Gadget Guru and tech blogger. The first phone he talked about was the Telecom R6 -an entry level phone at $149- for those who just want a phone to call and text. It also speaks and has predictive text input in Maori which is a nice feature. Can’t say much about the phone except it falls under my ‘quick replacement phone’ category.

The next phone is the ancient and expensive F480 ($599). It was released in May 2008 and was the official phone of the China Olympics. Ben mentioned the widget interface (which is present in all current Samsung smart phones except the i7500 which runs Android) as an iphone knockoff but I’m more inclined to believe it copies the Android OS. Whatever the case, this phone is old and its interface is archaic so my recommendation is the same as Ben’s, do not buy.

Next up is the Sony Ericsson C510a, priced at $399. Ben mentioned it has facebook integration which is pretty neat but other than that it’s your run of the mill Sony candybar phone with adequate features that will suit non-smartphone users. I do not recommend this either as it is about 2 years late into the mobile party and the world is pretty much moving on to phones with better designs and features.

Finally it’s the $900 Nokia E71. Ben calls the phone “manly” in comparison to the Sony one though I do not agree. It’s black and has a qwerty keyboard, giving it the “blackberry” look which executives –of both sexes- are fond of using. Ben didn’t say much about this phone (cause there’s nothing much to say) but it would have been nice to inform the viewers that it had wifi capabilities. I personally would have reviewed the Blackberry Bold 9000 instead of this one cause it’s newer and has a better OS.

Ben also mentioned on his Twitter account that he wanted to talk about the HTC Magic but there wasn’t any time. On the bright side, Vodafone will be coming into the studio at 7.40am tomorrow on channel one with a big surprise so it’ll be cool to see what they have in store for us.

The mobiles reviewed on Good Morning were done by Adam Brown, the first being the Nokia Xpress Music 5800.  He got the price wrong (it’s more closer to $900 than $800 without a plan) but the description he gave was pretty accurate; wifi, maps and the standard Nokia interface (it’s called Symbian btw) though Adam should’ve also mention that it’s compatible with the Ovi store which went live yesterday. I agree that the phone is worth the purchase but only if you do not want to fork out the extra $230 for a 3G iphone and are a Nokia fan. Look out for offers by Vodafone this Queen’s birthday weekend to see if they’ll offer a discount. (Fun fact: This is the phone James T Kirk was using when he drove his step dad’s car over the cliff in the movie Star Trek and you can download themes from the film made specially for the 5800 online)

The next phone featured was the 3G iphone. Nothing much to say that hasn’t already been said. Adam was accurate on his information, though why he’d choose to review the iphone when a new one is being announced very soon is beyond me. If you’re thinking about getting it wait till the WWDC on June 8^th for news on the 3^rd gen iphone before making a purchase. Am sure the newer model will come with better features.

The last phone introduced was the BlackBerry Storm. At $1199 it is really not worth it. Adam highlighted the biggest flaw -no wifi- which makes BlackBerry’s first foray into the touch screen market a major disappointment. Reviews of the phone (which includes US politicians) have been pretty negative and its successor has already been hinted at. So this phone gets a no-go from me too.  

Incidentally, all the phones reviewed by Adam are only available from Vodafone. Perhaps they’re trying to get rid of the old stock before the big announcement tomorrow. In the meantime, I want to repeat my caution to those thinking about jumping to any network; just wait for all three to launch before making a decision because prices are going to be competitive and we’ll be the ones benefiting from it.

You can watch the Breakfast review here

and the Good Morning review here.

Check out Ben's blog and Twitter account too.

Nokia Ovi store available from Vodafone Australia

By Benedict Wee

Nokia’s application store (similar to that of Apple’s for the iphone and ipod touch) has gone live on Vodafone Australia and in other countries such as Ireland and Singapore. 

The Ovi store, which allows you to download applications, themes, and games as well as syncing your calendar and contact lists and accessing your files from your PC via your mobile is available for Nokia S40 and S60 models with the N97 being the first phone to have the store pre-installed in is system. The store is said to be able to learn your tastes over time and anticipate what you want as well as offering recommendations based on your geographical location.

The launch has begun pretty slowly though. With its window closing soon (May) Nokia would be pressed to make available their online store to the rest of the world which means that it should hit us pretty soon.

(Update: Ovi is now up. Go to http://www.ovi.com/services/signin to register and sync your Nokia phone) 

Sources: 

Engadget Nokia's Ovi store makes soft landing in a few markets, might be headed to your neck of the woods soon

Nokia Ovi Store

Telecom promises better, simpler price plans

Telecom: So behind the times their ad was filmed in black and white

By Benedict Wee

The seemingly infinite archaic price plans offered by Telecom have been whittled down to 14 choices from the current 60.  In addition, changes have been made to call charges; you don’t have to pay extra when calling non-Telecom lines and charges are per second rather than per minute after the first minute.

These changes are made in conjunction with the launch of their new 3G network Telecom XT. They’ve also hinted at their data charges, stating that they will be similar to Vodafone’s $1 a day causal rate with a cap of 10 megabytes.

In addition, Telecom featured new (and I use that term loosely) mobile handsets that would be available with their new network. They include smartphones like the Samsung 8300 (ugh), Blackberry Bold (old you mean) and the Palm Treo Pro (why not Pre?) with 3G phones like the Nokia 3120 and N85 joining the Samsung F480 (all of em’ ancient). What hasn’t changed are the prices of the mobiles which are still high; the 3120 costing $299 (Vodafone’s giving it for free plus a 4 GB card with a 24 month plan) and the N85 at $1499 (the iphone 16GB is $1129 without a plan). 

The Nokia 3120 Classic. Can't argue with that!

It would be nice to see the 3 (4, sorry Telstra) mobile providers using a new smartphone each to represent their company. Since Vodafone has the iphone 2degrees and Telecom could fight over the Palm Pre and a phone running the Android OS (HTC Magic please!). That way, consumers would be persuaded to stick with their current provider and at the same time be comforted with the fact that their current telco is in the forefront of the price wars and that they are actually interested in keeping their customers.

Also, 14 different price plans is still a long list to read through when you’re looking for a telco. UK’s Orange network has 4 prepaid and 8 monthly plans while O2 has 5 prepaid plans and 6 monthly plans, all of which are relatively easy to understand though I wouldn’t mind going through a draconian selection process if the mobiles they were offering were heavily subsidized which they’re not.

This being said, Telecom and Vodafone still have around 2 months to get their act together and change their price plans and handset subsidizations before 2degress comes out with its claws unsheathed. Till then I’ll be waiting for the new iphone announcement in June, which incidentally coincides, with the Palm Pre US launch date. 

Sources - NZ Herald Telecom pledges simpler price plans on XT