Posts tagged smartphone
Nokia X6 to come Down Under sooner rather then later and the N97 mini has been delayed
Feb 2nd
It seems as the trouble Nokia have been having with the N97 in regards to software issues has forced the delay of the “mini” Apparently this delay is to make sure that the issues that have plagued the N97 don’t also plague it’s little brother. While all this is going on Nokia have released another update to the N97 software, increasing the version from 20.0.0.019 to 21.0.0.045, Nokia have noted that this update improved scrolling, and call reliablity. As of yesterday this hadn;’t filtered through to Australian’s N97 variant.
Nokia’s latest XpressMusic range, the X Series, is coming to Australia. At this stage it is currently being tested by networks and is planning for a first half of the year release. Network availability and pricing is yet to be confirmed and also will depend on whether the Comes with Music version is taken or not. As more information comes to hand, I will update with details.
Nokia’s “Booklet” netbook and N900 not coming Down Under
Nov 28th
It has been heard that Nokia’s netbook, the “Booklet” and its Maemo touch handset, the N900 will not be making their way to Australian stores due to lukewarm support from networks. The major factor for the Booklet would have to have been lacklustre sales and poor public reception of the netbooks deals currently offered by carriers now, including Optus’ Samsung NC10 and Vodafone’s Dell Inspiron mini 9. If the networks could get the Booklet down to free, which at the moment is a big ask, considering Optus charge you extra for their premium modem which doubles your accessible speed from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps with 2Mbps HSUPA, I certainly can’t see them providing a netbook at a free price. But this is what the market needs for these things to be viable. They can subsidise a $500 handset and give it away for free on a $30 plan, but can’t get a netbook for less than $20 on top of existing wireless broadband plans that start at $40. Crazy!
The N900 on the other hand, I have no clue as to why Australian networks don’t want it. This just seems absurd, it would run on both Vodafone’s and Optus’ dual band 3G networks without an issue, it’s a full touch handset with sliding keyboard in the same vain as the Motorola Droid, it runs Maemo 5 – Nokia’s platform of the future, 32GB internal memory with support for up to 16GB via MicroSD, 5 mega pixel camera with video. This thing is a beast, a far better handset then the current flagship, the N97. Maybe cost was an issue, maybe it had to be subsidised too heavily to appeal to the masses, either way, I’m still holding out for this to all be a dream and to hopefully wake up and be able to get one of these and the Booklet in Australia, guess we will have to wait and see.
Samsung announces "bada" and gives Symbian the boot
Nov 11th
In a every increasing world of smartphone manufactures and software developers, there is the best and then there is the rest. Nokia’s own Symbian OS (S60), along with RIM’s Blackberry OS and Apple’s iPhone OS hold the top three spots in market share for smartphone OS’s, with everyone thing else making up the rest. The main reason for Symbian’s success has been it’s licensing. More smartphones around the world are sold with symbian due to two things, Nokia making it, it’s number 1 smartphone OS and also other manufactuers also using it in a range of handsets, Samsung being one of these. Samsung, which holds the umber 2 spot for global mobile sales currently uses a mix of Windows Mobile and Symbian for it’s smartphones with about a 80/20 split. This is all about to change.
HTC Dream unboxed in a short quick vid.
Feb 15th
The Dream launched today in Australia, making it’s debut on the Optus network. We were able to get a hold of one and do a short and sweet unboxing video for you all. In a nutshell the Dream ships with the following items:
- Handset
- AC Charger
- Data Cable
- Stereo Handsfree (ExtUSB, and doesn’t include a 3.5mm adapter as per US version)
- 1150 mAh Battery
- Case
- 1GB microSD card plus SD Adapter
Video after the break.
Mobile World Congress – Looks like a CRACKER!
Jan 28th
With only just over a fortnight to go until Mobile World Congress in Barcelona gets underway, the lead up to the event is already starting to turn up the heat. We have had news that Android will have a massive array of handsets on show during the 4 days and Acer has just released their invitations to their new smartphone launch, which will also happen at MWC. Palm will be there with their Pre, possibly for the release of the GSM version, Nokia will have the N97, HTC should have a huge number of handsets on display, maybe we will see the G2 in much better detail, oh and what about Telstra’s HTC “Pre Killer” they have been gloating about? hopefully that will also make it’s debut and we can see whether or now Telstra really do have something up their sleeve. Until then we will just continue to wonder and hope that this years MWC will blow our mind. We will reporting the big news from the event, no live unfortunately but as news comes to hand it will be posted, so stay tuned.
Windows Mobile 6.5 sneaks out for a few pics
Jan 25th
Let’s continue with more mobile news. A build of Windows Mobile believed to be 6.5, has been spotted on the net. The lucky little fella to be running the ALPHA build is a smartphone i have never heard of nor seen, Exeda. In the screenshots it shows the rumoured “honeycomb” app-launcher and the “x” close button is now much bigger, seemingly for better touch control of the device. All in all if Windows can keep this up and filter all those changes through to the backend of the OS it should come out as a much better and consumer friendly product. Heres hoping! Hit up wmpoweruser.com for the low down including pics.
[From Engadget]
Dell looking at launching smartphones, but what's going to run them?
Jan 14th
So Dell wants in on this incredibly interesting touch-based smartphone race that is currently been going on with the likes of Apple, Google, HTC, Microsoft, Nokia with it’s N97 and now Palm with the Pre, but what will this new Dell smartphone run? Google’s Android, Symbian’s S60, MS’s Windows Mobile or will they produce their own?
Well according to Wired it seems as though Windows Mobile is the poison of choice mainly due to their strong relationship with Microsoft due to their existing PC business, but why would you use it when your trying to set your self apart from the competition. It’s very hard to do that in the Windows Mobile market as there are so many players that have done it very very well, HTC for example. This brings me to Android, only one phone has been released to the public and a few more announced but it has massive public awareness, people want to see Android, it’s free, it’s open source and for Dell i think this is the way to go.
AppleInsider have also posted a story saying that Kaufman Brothers’ Shaw Wu believes Dell should consider acquiring a software maker and creating it’s own software, to set it’s self apart from the crowd, which i think is a good idea but highly unlikely.
Engagdet have said that they couldn’t help but notice the amount of Dell people at the Adamo lunch at CES using G1s and they Dell’s director of consumer products was very quick to praise his Nokia E71. So does this mean Android or S60?
It seems as though we will just have to wait and see what eventuates and how well they pull it off if they release anything, and it should be very interesting considering the type of design steps they are taking with there Adamo line.
[From AppleInsider & Wired & Engadget]
