The Sony Ericsson BeiBei has been claimed dead a few days ago – nevertheless, new spy shots are leaked on an almost daily basis.
The latest leak involves the infamous HowardForums – a user posted the following shot of two newly-acquired BeiBei devices:
As of now, it’s really difficult to decide whether these devices will ship or not. The hardware seems to be ready to go – the question is SE’s willingness to risk a deployment…
So far, Nokia’s N76 has been critically acclaimed for its horrible product quality – the paint job chips off literally days after unpacking the phone. Nokia nevertheless seems to believe in the product – JAMPB managed to gather up a gallery of shots showing an all-black version of the flip phone.
Here are a few – visit JAMPB for the full gallery:
P.S. In case anyone of you wonders: yes – a “black” version of the N76 has been released a few months ago. However, it isn’t all black, but has a few silver elements on the front…
So far, Opera for S60 has been an excellent browser – I really enjoyed using it on my Nokia N71.
However, the Opera team recently fired up a blog post announcing a beta of Opera 9.5 for Windows Mobile (available on July the 15th) – Symbian was not mentioned anywhere.
We have sent an inquiry to Opera yesterday – and while the company usually responds very fast, the silence that followed can be considered a very bad sign…
Do you think that Opera 9.5 will ever hit S60 and/or UIQ?
The Nokia E71 has been reviewed before – now, its smaller sibling aka E66 has hit an analyst’s desk. Alfredo Padilla from wirelessinfo managed to get his heads onto one of these boxen and put its through its paces.
The phone fared pretty well except for minor eekers – get the full scoop here:
http://www.wirelessinfo.com/content/Nokia-E66-Cell-Phone-Review.htm
Even though the world doesn’t look too good for UIQ at the moment(UIQ itself laying off employees); the following shot of the Sony Ericsson Paris has popped up on the internet:
I myself am not sure about what this means for end users as a recent rumor has stated that the device pictured above may never come to Europe and the USA.
On the other hand, developers have received white papers covering the devices; and FCC certification has been achieved – the device IMHO is in a more-less ready-to-drop state and doesn’t look too unattractive for average customers.
In the end, however, the release of the Paris is of little significance for UIQ developers. The ship has begun to sink – get off it asap!
via JAMPB
Many S60 developers blame the lack of sales on Nokia’s bad presence in the USA. Even though I am not 100% sure about this, I am nevertheless sure that they will be pleased to hear that symbian-freak has reported rapidly growing numbers of American forum members a few hours ago.
At TamsS60’s, the recent US situation is rather stable – our valued American readers make up for approximately 30% of our readership ever since April 2008. The March/April time frame brought a significant jump in attention and traffic from the USA – before that, US readers made up for just 20%.
Should anyone of you be interested, a weekly “poll” of reader nationalities can be conducted – if you feel like looking at these stats, please let us know via a free comment!
The Nokia N82 has a rather small QVGA screen. Traditionally, Nokia’s Nseries phones have had excellent screens…how well does the N82 fare?
Here is a series of comparison shots next to a Treo 680:
The next victim is hp’s baby ipaq. Its high-quality TFT is hard to beat:
Finally, we pitted the N82 against its distant predecessor(the N71). For me, the winner is clear(the N71):
Unfortunately, the N82 continues the negative trend that started with the Centro and the N81. Everything shown on the screen has an annoying reddish cast – people who are used to cold, blueish images will not be too happy with the N82.
Nokia has just announced that its Nokia N78 is now available to US customers.
Nokia’s press service claims that the N78 is:
Now available through select consumer electronics and wireless retailers, online retailers and at the Nokia Flagship Stores in Chicago and New York. The Nokia N78 retails for approximately USD 560. Specific information on retailers offering the Nokia N78 and other Nseries devices can be found at www.nseries.com.
In case anyone of you spots such a box, please send us a photo!
AllAboutSymbian’s Steve Litchfield has been a very reasonable and generally good analyst so far(I really enjoyed talking to him in London) – but he just shot the ball way out of the court.
While talking about the E71, he posted the following statement:
Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, there are still big cost penalties in using VGA. The physical displays cost a lot more, are more fragile, then there’s the cost of rejigging the rest of the device’s electronics to match, the extra cost of providing extra chips to support the display, the cost of having to rewrite large parts of the operating system to cope with all the pixel doubling/scaling and font reworking needed, and so on. At the end of the day, these costs will be passed on to you and you’ll pay a lot more for your phones.
Unfortunately, Steve has his facts totally wrong here. Nowadays, the prices for VGA displays are more-less on par with the prices for QVGA screens(according to a manager at Symbol’s). Furthermore, at least one Asus device contains a VGA screen, but runs it in QVGA “compatibility mode”.
In case you feel like chiming into a discussion(Steve it notably absent), use the link below:
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/features/item/The_argument_for_QVGA-more_is_not_necessarily_better.php
People using an N8xx tablet should head over to Nokia’s for a small software update.
The latest version of OS 2008 seems to be a maintenance release and fixed the following:
* SSU (seamless software updating) which enables components of the operating system to be updated without having to flash/rewrite the entire operating system.
* Over-the-air (OTA) updates via Wi-Fi and WiMax connections
* Update of the email client to Modest with several enhancements to the user interface and additional support of several mobile-friendly email features.
* Addition of Chinese fonts to the system font list
* Miscellaneous bug fixes to OpenSSL
* Browser panning fixes
* A-GPS support for the N810 and N810WE
* Updates to the Wayfinder GPS application
* and more
The updates are available from the following URL’s after providing your serial number:
N800 N810
via BrightHand
The rumor mill has been spinning in the UIQ department; here are the latest leaks. As always, these are not confirmed by officials of the relevant companies – take them with a grain of salt:
Motorola plans last-stand UIQ phone
The Boy Genius Report claims that Motorola will debut a “last stand” cell phone powered by UIQ in Q4 2008. As of now, little more is known about the machine – except that Motorola will sell off its cellphone division if this device tanks…
Sony Ericsson may not bring BeiBei/Paris to Europe/USA
The Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog claims that the Paris and BeiBei UIQ boxen(sister devices to the Gx00 boxen handled at the CeBit) will not hit America and Europe. However, it is possible that they may drop in Asia.
Should the scenario outlined above become true, it IMHO is time to abandon the UIQ ship ASAP. Sony did something similar when killing off its Clie organizers(the last Clie was Asia-only); and there is no UIQ licensee left once SE has jumped ship…
Nokia has bought Symbian a few hours ago(via Reuters), and plans to release a “Symbian mashup” as open source in the next two years(via AllAboutSymbian).
As the two links above contain all that there is to say about the topic, I will rather look into the consequences and motivations surrounding this affair – bear with me…
TamsS60 has identified Linux as a threat to Symbian-based phones a few months ago. Unlike most other platforms, most Symbian phone purchases don’t happen because the user wants an S60 phone. Instead, he just buys what’s hip – and this may incidentally run S60.
This has huge implications: while a Palm OS or Windows Mobile user will be reluctant to accept a Linux phone (due to his HUGE library of applications that can easily be worth 500$ or more), the average S60 user (who definitely won’t be reading this) couldn’t care less.
Manufacturers know this, and will enjoy the opportunity to save a few dollars per shipped device…which could be bad for Symbian. Opensourcing the platform will definitely help here…even though it likely is a fatal blow for UIQ(which has just begun to lay off employees).
The real issue IMHO is something else: Symbian is now fully owned by Nokia. Palm originally spun off its OS division(PalmSource) in order to make the platform more interesting for third parties – after buying it up again, all remaining licensees jumped ship quickly(even GSPDA gave up a few weeks ago).
As of now, the folks that should really be concerned are UIQ users – for them, starting the porting process is an absolute must. Seeing that S60 licensees have never been too important, S60 developers can expect at least two more years of peace(if things go like they did at Palm’s)…
What do you think?
So far, Nokia hasn’t proven itself prone to making idiotic moves. However, this seems to have changed today – a critter called Charlie posted a long rant to the official Nokia Conversations blog. His problem: leaks.
Indeed, Nokia’s IP security has come to resemble Swiss cheese recently(loads of holes) – but I feel that the damages caused are minuscule compared to what would have happened without the leaks seen lately.
IMHO, our friend charlie doesn’t quite grasp that the game has changed for big N. They are no longer the number one manufacturer that everyone thinks about first: this is now Apple. Nokia can now announce a device and nobody cares: Apple is the new headline poster boy.
And this is where leaks come in. As the Cupertino inhabitants announced their latest brickphone, someone with a few brain cells leaked a few snapshots of a few upcoming devices. The effect of this was simple: Nokia got front line space along with Apple, and didn’t get pushed out of the “mind” of the market.
BenQ Siemens did something similar a few years ago, and didn’t fare too bad with this stunt.
Of course, grasping all of this requires deep understanding of the market – something that is easier to attain while watching the market from the outside…
What do you think?
After not having anything to give away last Sunday(sorry), I am proud to present you this week’s giveaway!
Paragon Group has provided us with free licenses for HandyWeather, an excellent weather program for mobile devices(TamsS60 review here)! We can give away licenses for Palm OS, Windows Mobile and S60 devices, and hope to do so next Saturday.
In case you feel like claiming one of the licenses for yourself, please visit the forum thread linked below and tell us which device you have!
http://forum.tamoggemon.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25
After having looked at the size of the N82, it’s now time to look at what Nokia managed to pack into the box.
When looking at the front of the box, one immediately notes that the keys are extremely thin. However, this turns out to be a minor nuissance: after having used the phone for a for a few seconds, typing becomes easy. The small key on the right side of the 5way is used to open the “quicklaunch” menu:
The back of the device contains the camera. Its lens is protected with a mechanical slider that works surprisingly well and feels sturdily built(although it’s always possible that a recommended breaking point is inside). Opening the slider automatically activates the camera software. Unfortunately, restarting it requires you to open and close the slider…
A BP-6MT battery provides the power:
Unsurprisingly, the top of the device contains the power button and a 3.5″ headphone jack:
The left side of the device contains a MicroUSB port, Nokia’s classic charger port and the MicroSD slot:
Unfortunately, the slot doesn’t handle well – its mechanics(the lid) don’t look trust-invoking:
The right side contains the camera buttons(pressing the camera button does NOT start the camera application) and the volume controls:
In the end, the Nokia N82 is a well-built device with few, small kinks tha could IMHO be ironed out with a firmware update(however, it could contain loads of recommended breaking points). People willing to take a gamble will definitely be happy with the device(unless it comes to swapping memory cards).
