TamsS60 - the S60 Blog

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.

Dear Readers,
all of tamoggemon.com is currently undergoing a DDOS attack by a very intelligent person who hereby tries to express his disagreement with a review.

Please accept our apologies for the outages in the last few hours!

Tam Hanna and the Tamoggemon and brainsware teams

Neither of the two devices can compete with a run-of-the-mill digital camera(except maybe with these horrible Olympus E520 sample images on TamsPalm). This article does not assume highly professional intentions,l but rather considers “for-kicks” photography…

Austrians currently suffer under the strain of the European Soccer Championship. Vienna is one of the host cities and this has a so-called fan zone where fans are herded together to be a$$ed out of 6$/pint of beer.

Yours truly decided to use this unique opportunity(loads of light and folks) for a shootout between two completely different devices. On the left side, we have the Palm Centro(1.3MP camera without autofocus). On the right side, we have Nokia’s now-dethroned camera phone king aka the N95 8GB. Who will get out on top(click images for full versions)?

The first motive was a batch of merry cops. The Centro suffers from blown-out highlights, whereas thje Nokia N95 8GB manages to deliver a superior image after a few seconds(which, ironically, was enough time for a cheeky fan to run into my frame):

Photographing the stage was more fun with the Centro(as it worked faster). The N95 8GB’s long focusing time makes spontaneous photography difficult:

Photographing fans is easy with both devices - the Centro handles better, though:

“Aerial” photography from the press tower is one of the things the N95 8GB does really well. As there is little movement, the long focusing delay is no issue - and the 5MP resolution definitely makes a difference(look at the trees in the second image):

Indoors, the Centro did a better job keeping a somewhat sane color balance(the N95’s image is too light). Noise-wise, neither of the two performed honorable:

Finally, a shot of yours truly after all the carnage. The N95 8GB excels here - look at a big version of the image to see what I mean(look at the shirt):

In the end, the Nokia N95 8GB delivers superior images: they are sharper, less noisy, have more detail and generally look much better. However, its slow “modus vivendi” sometimes made me feel warm about the Centro - its images are usable for small prints, and can be generated “on the fly” without any focusing delays…

A phone retailer called SMSShop could be the source of the latest leak - one of its sales brochures contains the line-up shot shown below:

Amusingly, the device at the bottom right is Nokia’s XpressMedia 5800. It is said to be the first touchscreen-device ever; and has been known by its codename “Tube” until a few days ago:

BTW: anyone want to take a bet that the Tube codename has something to do with YouTube?

via JAMPB

The Nokia E66 and E71 are now official - Nokia has confirmed their existence in an email to journalists a few minutes ago. Both devices are expected to retail at 350€ before taxes and subsidies and will begin shipping in “key markets” in July.

Both devices will be available in white and black casings - here are a few pictures for your enjoyment:
Nokia E71


Nokia E66

As of now, no further specs are available - stay tuned!

Proporta’s Aluminium-Leather cases have become a classic add-on for mobile devices. The latest incarnation aims to protect Nokia’s high-end camera phone…can it survive a camera phone’s workday?

As usual, Proporta’s products ship in cushioned envelopes via regular mail. The envelopes originate in England and can be delivered to post boxes when you’re not at home:

The case itself drops in a special blister for extra protection.

Getting the N82 into the case is easy: just shove it into the clamps from above until it hits the bar at the bottom. Even though they may not look particularly trustworthy, they provide excellent security and manage to hold the device well even when toppled around/shaken:

Proporta did a great job at keeping the device usable even when in the case - the keyboard and screen are not obstructed at all.

The backside of the lid contains a small bit of space for paper or a memory card:

The top is cleverly tailored to allow easy access to the the headphone jack:

A cutout at the back allows you to access the camera slider - camera and flash are not obstructed:

Unfortunately, the clamps obstruct access to some of the peripherals at the side. The memory card slot can not be accessed at all, and the gallery button is severely obstructed, too:

Finally, here are two shots of the N82 in its case. The Proporta logo is cut out of thin steel and glued on as a small optical ‘gimmick’:

In the end, Proporta’s case for the N82 is like almost all other Proporta products: excellent. There’s little not to like here - the price of 35$ is low compared to other manufacturers offerings…

Its Sunday again - time for yet another giveaway! Before we announce this week’s schwag, let’s take a look at last week’s winner. Forum user tomtom1977 posted a totally insane story about Centros, Treos and other stuff - he should check his PM box for instructions on how to claim his price…

Anyways, now it’s time for this week’s offer. Its soccer time(at least in Europe) - and nothinmg beats playing a new game while your significant other watches TV.

Thus, we give you the discount code FIGHTSOCCER. Use it to get 20% off any application in the TamsShop - get an immediate rebate by using it at checkout!

Enjoy!!!

TamsS60 covered the last Symbian Smartphone Show extensively, and also was among the first to announce date and venue of the next conference.

Anyways, Symbian now announced a side project called DevFest - which seems to be a “speakers corner” where developers can tell other developers about interesting stuff.

Further information is available here - stay tuned for our detailed coverage!

Resco Neeews is an excellent news reader for S60 devices - and usually costs a bit of cash:

Since nobody of you wanted the app last Sunday, I’m giving it another pop. Just tell us what we can improve - come on, the TamsForum doesnt bite:

http://forum.tamoggemon.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19