Archive for the ‘Nokia’ Category
Friday, August 21st, 2009 |
Nokia netbook on the way
It seems we may soon see a netbook being launched by Nokia, according the India Times. Apparently, the Mobile phone giant has been watching the netbook markets with a very keen eye (yet another company that has our ‘best interests’ at heart) with a suggestion that they are going to enter the mobile computing market. “Dates, gimme dates!” - we don’t have any. Nokia are keeping tit lipped on this news and there doesn’t seem to be much info floating around the wonderful world of the internet right now so we’ll just have to wait and see. (more…)
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Thursday, October 16th, 2008 |
It looks like the WiMax enabled Nokia N810 internet tablet has finally been launched. This latest version of the popular, Linux based, internet tablet can be purchased direct from Nokia for $443. For your hard earned cash you’ll get a WiMax N810 that looks pretty much the same as the original, except the casing is black and it has WiMax. This version of the N810 has been delayed by quite some time although this may well have something to do with the rollout of the WiMax network which only really came to life in the past few weeks.
Reports seem to suggest that the intial WiMax deployment is going well in the US - good news for Nokia. By being first to market with a WiMax device, Nokia should be in a good position to capture a significant chunk of early adopters who’ll be keen to test the waters.
One point to note here - Nokia have played a smart move by launching the WiMax N810 at the same price as the last version - no lengthy discussions with yourself when you come to your next purchase decision!
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Friday, October 10th, 2008 |
Mozilla Labs is offering a “Milestone 8″ Linux release of and it’s primarily aimed at the Nokia N800. The final release of the mobile browser, named “Fennec”, should in the next few weeks.
Let’s take a look at some of the goodies on offer:
- iPhone-like “kinetic” scrolling
- Mac-like “expose” tabs feature
- optional geolocation (geode)
The Fennec browser, in developmnet since last, has been designed to bring “bringing a true web experience to mobile phones and other non-PC devices,” - with the inclusion of up to date security and asthetics. According to Mozilla, Fennec utilises the core Gecko engine that is currently used in Firefox which means there will be full compatability when it comes to migrating all your settings from your desktop to your mobile device. This also means that, in theory, FireFox extensions should work on Fennec without any problems. Like I said, in theory.
More interestinlgy, the work on Fennec seems to be in response to Microsoft’s work on Windows Mobile - Mozilla developer Mark Finkle wrot on in his blog, “Work on Windows Mobile has heated up quite a bit. We should be getting some Fennec builds for Windows Mobile soon.” Usually, it’s a case of Microsoft following the lead.
Geode, the geolocation API, has been included in Fennec allowing a website to request a user’s location. A popup bar will ask how much information you want to give away to site you’re visiting i.e. your location, neighborhood, city or nothing at all. In addition, Geode can use WiFi geolocation to give your position to within 10 - 20 metres. I’ve yet to see this working. My own experiences with WiFi geolocation have shown it to be pretty crappy - in one instance I was given my location “…to within 1800m”!! But, with accuracy claims like those above, I’ll be keeping my eye on this.
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Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 |
A bit of interesting news for Nokia tablet fans; it looks like the next generation devices will have OMAP and 3G although no device has been announced as yet. The news was confirmed by Dan who’s just started bloggin over at Thoughtfix.
It also looks like the Nokia tablets will be getting higher definition cameras which will be ideal for content creation (you have to admit the current offering is pretty crappy).
The announcement (link at bottom of this page) simply gives details of the platform enhancements.
To be honest, it’s about time Nokia looked at their tablets. So far, they’ve been underpowered in the processor department and they’ve also been left trailing in connectivity capability. The most important question now is ‘how long before we see one of these new tablets?’
Link: TabletBlog - maemo
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Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 |
It’s not often I get excited by a mobile phone but this is one of those occassions; I’ve got some details on the Nokia N96.
The much hyped and long overdue is heading for the United Kingdom before it starts its world tour! spreading its magic elsewhere in the world. The latest model is available for preorder on Nokia’s site for £535 (yes, it’s expensive but check the specs!).
The N96 has a well laid out, eye catching 2.8-inch, HSDPA support, WiFi, aGPS, 16GB of internal memory (including a microSD slot), a 5-megapixel camera from Carl Zeiss. Oh, mustn’t forget the DVB-H receiver for TV on the move.
See, told you it’s not bad.
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Thursday, June 26th, 2008 |
Nokia and Maemo have formally announced the official release of the latest update to their Internet Tablet OS. The Linux-based OS, codenamed Diablo, Feature Pack update includes several internal enhancements to performance, wireless capabilities, and stability.
Rumours abound that this update release likely heralds the next Nokia Internet Tablet - N810 WiMax Edition as many of the new OS updates seem to pave the way for this upcoming device to be utilized fully.
Updates include:
- SSU (seamless software updating) - allows updated of specific OS components without the need to flash/rewrite the entire OS
- Over-the-air (OTA) updates - sent via Wi-Fi and WiMax connections
- email client (Modest) updates - improved UI and mobile-friendly email features.
- Miscellaneous bug fixes to OpenSSL
- Browser panning fixes
- A-GPS support for the N810 and N810WE
- Wayfinder GPS application updates
It is anticipated that most apps will continue to work when updated (don’t blame me if they don’t!)
Updates links below:
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Friday, May 23rd, 2008 |
The latest addition to Nokias lineup is no lightweight. The N810 includes new features but also drops some of the functionality seen in the 800. OS2008, a Linux distribution, comes pre-installed and, to add a nice touch, is now supported on the 800. This latest release from Nokia comes with a higher price tag which, at a first glance, seems hard to justify.
Design.
The overall size of the N810 is significantly smaller than its predecessor. The addition of a drop-down thumb keyboard helps to reduce the N810 to a size that fits nicely in your pocket. The bezel has been improved and a number of buttons have been moved off the screen surround which gives the N810 a far sleeker layout than the 800. Ease of navigation has been improved by moving the directional pad down to the left of the keypad.
The webcam is embedded into the face of the N810 and, unlike the 800, cannot be adjusted. Above the webcam is an ambient light sensor which automatically adjusts the screen and keyboard lighting - very nice touch.
The shift away from the touchscreen keyboard is something that many users were crying out for. Gone is the frustation of stabbing at the screen as you try to type an email. The hardware keyboard is not quite fully featured - QWERTY layout minus a number row. Unfortunately, if you have sausage fingers like me, typing can result in multiple keys being pressed at the same time. But with a little practice you should be fine.
OS2008 brings an eyecandy-like improved UI to the the N810. There are still icons for battery, WiFi, Bluetooth, volume, brightness, and instant messaging status but the N810 adds a new icon that shows the GPS receiver status. Application scroll bars have been made wider to add thumb scrolling and applets can be moved to custom positions, unlike the previous software version.
The following software is installed by default:
- File manager
- calculator
- Simple text editor
- PDF reader
- Sketch pad
- RSS reader
- Image viewer
- e-mail client and media player
- Web browser (supports Flash but can be a bit jumpy)
Many more third party applications are available from the maemo website.
The GPS and software are a welcome edition but unfortunately the N810 comes with the free variant of Wayfarer which shows your position but does not provide route planning. To add you feature you’ll need to cough up some extra cash.
Conclusion
A very nice edition to the Nokia range. The N810 could do with a little more third party support but how much do you really want to pay for additional applications? That said, this is easily one of the best devices on the market for mobile web browsing and reasonable priced at around £269.
Specifications
TI OMAP 2420 processor 400Mhz
128Mb DDR memory
256Mb flash memory
Screen 4.13″ 800×400
USB port
Microphone/headphone sockets
Downside
Having to pay extra for the GPS navigation features, internal memory cannot be replaced, 1.5Gb out of 2Gb internal storage capacity is taken up by GPS maps, the stand blocks the USB port and memory card slot when closed, lack of PIM (calendaring/task management) software.
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