Nokia E72

Just got the E72 and with Bolt, Funambol and Skyfire it rocks.

Why? Because it is not complete.

You need Funambol to sync.
You need Bolt to copy paste and write.
You need Skyfire to browse rich sites.
You need Fring or Nimbuzz for social networking.

Physically it has the best keyboard, with the most important functions directly accessible. There are a lot of solid buttons to customize. The camera to flickr journey is easy. The battery is amazing.

And then, all the world of S60 goodies from Getjar at your disposal.

Is there a bad side. Yes, you need to tweek it as I said. You need to get used to the squeezy back metal flap. In fact I had to send one back because the chrome trim was a bit unstuck like the Bold 9700. So it can feel a little flimsy, even though it is a little heavy for its thinness. But these are minor points.

When it comes to the software and connectivity features, the modest looking Nokia E72 beats toys like the iphone hands down if you load it with the stuff I have mentioned.

Google Chrome OS

It is easy to see how one day we will all have portables like the Nokia N900, and will be connected to our own portal without the need to have any software in our devices.

in reference to:

"Google has announced details of its new operating system, Google Chrome OS on Wednesday outlining what the new OS will offer."
- Google Chrome OS detailed - Pocket-lint (view on Google Sidewiki)

Nokia N900

I have decided that this new device from Nokia really represents a new approach to mobiles, laptops and everything imbetween.

For so long we have all struggled with Blackberrys and Windows based phones to get info on the web without being stuck behind a desk. I have bad eye-sight, and it is so much easier to bring keyboards closer to your face. Coupled with the fact that I have a bad right hand, typing is tiresome.

So thumb typing devices are great. And it looks like Nokia N900 with all its glorious specs on the browser and so much more could just be the ticket. I am waiting for its release sometime in the first week of Dec if Expansys is to be believed.

in reference to: Nokia N900 - Full phone specifications (view on Google Sidewiki)

Blackberry Bold 9700 Onyx wins

The Bold 2 is so much smaller in every way, but still tough.

It is a mere coincidence, that my annual upgrade for my mobile contract on Vodafone Business (an impeccable service), happens when there are usually quite a bunch of phones, positioning themselves ahead of the Christmas celebrations.

This time I intended to find the best phone that could take over my Blackberry Bold. I was really bored with it. I have three browsers running on it and a plethora of other business and comminication apps. I do a lot with this device. It does post to the web all the news on my so many twitter, blogger, and all those forums, not to mention the comments on the various news sites.

Something I posted a lot about last year, namely cut and paste, has finally been attempted with the touch phones such as iphone and storm, but it really does not compare in tactile accuracy of the likes of Bold. Their new versions still lack all the editing functions a word processor plus traditional keyboard system have. Can you remember the days when there was no touch no mouse and we used to scroll the cursor to find a position to start the copy and then put your finger on the shift key and shade exactly the sentence you wanted. Then we had the ctrl function put in and the whole sentence was selected. You know from a mobile phone's perspective that would be so cool. So I think that the touch phones are all barking up the wrong trees.

So I was really disappointed with the new storm 2 and I even tried the Tattoo which failed from not handling multiple email editing and the LG GM 750 with its optical pointer. Their petty integration with Twitter and Facebook do not really give you the editing functions required for writing.

Here I am writing with the smaller lighter brighter faster bold 2. Well done to the Canadians. This phone is the King of communications. It is not a toy. Want a toy buy an iphone. As a person who sells all these gadgets every day I know the pain with PCs to laptops to netbook, you name it I have used.

Ask me to type something and I will whip out my new Blackberry Bold 9700 Onyx, and I can write anything with my poor eye sight and useless finger coordination. I am watching TV, and I can pull it out and it is done. It wins hands down again.

And finally before I forget, there are two musts. One the browser which is better, but I still prefer using Bolt, secondly use Google Sync on it to update your contacts and calendar. There is this very cool search by voice that works with your GPS. So the apps are growing.

Nokia N97 - a useless blogging tool, Blackberry Bold 9000 still wins.

Above is a link to Nokia's forum where there is a thread, with many screaming about the useless cut and paste functionality in web pages. As a Blogger, you challenge. It makes life a lot easier if a machine like N97, went just a little bit extra by allowing the touch screen to select blocks of text or words, so that we can drop them into our blogs. That way we can clearly point out when an article is wrong. Unlike my Blackberry Bold 9000, the N97 cannot drop texts into text of sites like Blogger, to write a Blog. To produce this article I had to send the link via email in the N97. So it allows you to capture the url and puts it in a text message or email, but that's it. Its clipboard then is limited to email and text messaging. What a shame, in what is otherwise a really beautiful piece of kit. Below is my unique experience as a Blogger. If you are not a mobile "on the go" Blogger, then ignore it.

The media interface is nice, even though there is no accelerometer. You have to open the keyboard for the landscape layout to work. There is no option for column layout of web pages. All this means is that you have to tap around on the screen a lot. Imagine me with a sandwich. Half the sandwich would end up on the phone. As it is, I have to use my Blackberry Bold with the left hand, and eat the sandwich with the right hand, and there is little mess. The N97 has a normal phone alphanumeric screen in portrait mode that allows cut and paste. But it is a serious waste of space. You have to use the normal phone key pad, and then once you get the print showing in the box above, you can run your fingers over it, and they will highlight for cut and paste. You can't do it any other way, by using a cursor as there isn't one. So it's jam and marmalade all over the screen. So then you open the keyboard where it is easier to type, but you are so limited in what you can do. All that space, and that is wasted too. Why, because some clever dingdong decided to not have that touch screen shading you had in portrait mode, in landscape mode. Nightmare! Why can't they make that into an iphone inputting system, which then becomes a virtual screen in any language you want, that uses an accelerometer in landscape. Now that would sway me. That way you have a bold and iphone in it as well, and it would then replace a laptop.

The N97 has the potential of being a thumber scroller blogger phone like the Bold, but it fails badly at the moment. It seems to be targeted at passive browsers only, that are not web editors. I actually wrote this with great difficulty, with two hands, using that silly space key and a dumb shift key, as I am used to the more intelligent Blackberry Bold keys. Ok the multimedia side of things are brilliant and we can't blame Nokia for not having enough widgets yet, which will eventually surpass the iphone, as the operating system is open. But I seriously wonder what type of brains are at work at Nokia, if they slip up so easily.

So I hope that some clever Blogger will create a cut and paste system for blocks of text. I hope that the new Skyfire will allow it, and all will be fine. So yeah, for £500, it leaves a little to be desired outside the world of entertainment. It is then not a replacement for the good old Blackberry Bold 9000 fitted with a Mini Opera. Maybe Opera will come up with the cut and paste solution for N97? In the mean time give that guy in charge of this machine a serious chatting. He obviously does not know a thing about Blogging. All we need is a function that captures the block of text and then asks if we want to Blog it. A bit like the BlogThis! function. Is it really that hard to do?

Human Eye vs Telecine, Judder and Anti-judder, Motion Flow

The human eyes persistence of vision takes care of smoothing this anomaly apart from some situations like slow panning or spinning objects.

This is exactly the situation we TV salesmen have to explain to customers. I usually line up the customers in front of a 50, 100, 200 Hz machines, and ask them to weigh their differences. The price differences are immense. We have a pretty bad feed going through them, to see how good they are in making it better, in what is known as "upscaling".

What I find difficult to appreciate, is how some companies really try to validate their technology, when the primary difficulty, as the article clearly states, is source related. This problem is called Telecine, and all the manufacturers pretend they have sorted the problem out, when it is really being done by the eye itself. That causes more stress on the eyes in the long run. But what really annoys me is how Sony's PR pays sites to make it look as if the problem is solved, when it is not. Some sites at least have told the world that a lot of this is not to be taken too seriously.

Sony TV - big WOW ! - NOT

A 50Hz and 100Hz Television had noticeable frame buffering problems during panning and flying sequences in the demo footage, while the 200Hz model was sharper and had richer colours.

You read comments like that, and you think "wow" that must be so important, and that I will notice it. I work with these TVs (I sell them at Currys), and I see them all day, with lousy feeds and excellent feeds. Customers come and go, and most struggle to tell the difference between 50 and 100 Hz, let alone 200 hz. Gimmicks, well not, because, gamers will see it. If you are looking at the same type of text constantly moving along, you will eventually see it. So if you are a news junkie, or a stock market trader, looking at the ticker tape, ok you will see the little shuddery moves. Sony are a little late in the game, with Samsung 6 and 7 series out in the shops already, with these faster screens. But to top it off, you have LG producing some excellent 200hz ones already for very good prices. But I suppose this is just the sort of PR game Sony have been playing for so long, that have gotten them where they are. I had this couple who came in recently, and it was "Sony, Sony Sony" all the way. They were looking at a outdated technology, but "oh, it's a Sony". lol.