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Friday, February 27, 2009

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic






Four months have passed since its announcement in October 2008 and the 5800 XpressMusic has finally landed in Singapore. It is the first touchscreen smartphone that runs on the Series60 (S60) 5th Edition platform and bundled with an unlimited music download service, Comes With Music (CWM).

Meanwhile, Nokia has already announced the N97, its second touchscreen S60 model, in December last year. That is expected to be available worldwide in the first half of 2009. Samsung, too, has shown off its Omnia HD based on the same software at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Editors' note:

As this is the first handset that runs on the S60 5th Edition platform and bundled with CWM, we are taking a different approach for the review of the 5800 XpressMusic. Our evaluation will be split into three main sections looking at the software, service and hardware before ending with our usual performance tests and conclusion.

S60 5th Edition Software

Naturally, the highlight of this device is the touchscreen-enabled S60 interface. This is an extension of the current S60 3rd Edition UI, dubbed the S60 5th Edition. What happened to "4", you might ask. Without elaborating too much, Tuula Rytila-Uotila, vice president for Live, GoToMarket, said the company traditionally doesn't use that number in its products. In the Asian context, the number 4 is considered unlucky.

The 5800 doesn't have a directional pad or an Enter button, but is instead fully controlled using the touchscreen and the three hardware keys below the display. The resistive LCD which allows you to use your fingers or a stylus for input requires a little more pressure to tap compared with capacitive screens.

Going with the music theme, Nokia has even included a plectrum--normally used with a guitar for plucking or strumming--as an alternative pointing device. Making up for the absence of tactility associated with hardware buttons is onboard haptic feedback.

User Interface
A lot of what you expect on an S60 phone has been retained, including the ability to bring up a list of running applications by holding down the menu button. To quit any application, just press and hold the corresponding icon and a context menu will pop up for you to do so. Additional shortcuts have also been added to capitalize on the touch interface. You can set an alarm by tapping on the time or switch from Silent to General by hitting on the profile. The battery indicator, on the other hand, brings up the connection manager.

The key takeaway with the touch interface is the inconsistency with scrolling and tapping gestures in the software. It's not a deal-breaker, at worst marring the initial experience with the device. The irregularity makes it seem like Nokia hasn't put much thought into what it wants to deliver with the 5800.

For instance, you slide your finger down in the menus to scroll down, but you "push" a page up in the Web browser instead. The swiping finger gesture is also implemented only in selected applications. One example is the picture gallery.

Applications need only one tap to activate, while other menu options require you to tap twice. Granted that a possible reason for implementing a second click is to prevent accidental presses, the constant switch between single and double taps is something which takes getting used to.

While we like the overall "stickiness" of the interface, it doesn't beat the iPhone in terms of fluidity. Given an option, we would have preferred the rim that runs around the circumference of the device to be flush with the display instead. That will make it easier to scroll pages using the onscreen bars at the sides.

The Home screen on the 5800 prominently shows pictures or avatars of those contacts you want quick access to. Tapping on their pictures, you can then see your recent activity log with them on the screen and conveniently call or message them. Vital information like your RSS feeds and calendar appointments are also easily accessible via this Home screen.

Alternatively, you can switch back to the standard Shortcuts bar which you can customize with four frequently accessed applications. The icons are noticeably bigger to cater for finger-based inputs.

On the top right corner, a touch-sensitive "button" above the LCD brings up a shortcut dropdown column which allows you to access your music, videos, pictures and the Internet browser quickly.

Text Input
Various text input methods have been implemented including a full QWERTY for landscape mode use, a mini QWERTY if you'd rather thumb type in portrait format, the good old onscreen numeric keypad for one-hand operation, and handwriting recognition.


L to R: Alphanumeric keypad, full QWERTY, mini QWERTY.
(click for larger images)


There is haptic feedback for every action, a useful feature when you don't have the tactility of physical keys. You can adjust the intensity, and we found that keeping it to the minimal, so that the vibration was subtle, gave us the best experience overall.

During our review, the mini QWERTY input was much too small to be useful. On the flipside, the full QWERTY and numeric keypads both take up the entire screen so you can't see the screen you are on. That may also cause problems in some cases where you have to type in something while referring to text or images on the display at the same time.

While we fully understand the need for these onscreen keypads to be large for accessibility, some size compromise could have been implemented so you can still see part of the original page. That said, we got up to speed typing on the full QWERTY the moment we picked up the phone and it was our preferred mode of text input.

Applications
According to Rytila-Uotila, programs created for current S60 phones will also work on the S60 5th Edition, though many of them have not been formatted for the 5800's 640 x 360 display and may look odd. The software development kit (SDK) for the S60 5th Edition has been released to developers and they will be able to tweak their current applications for this UI and create new ones, too.

Bear in mind that there are still very limited applications that are fully compatible with the 5800. Preinstalled are the Web browser, Maps 2.0, music player, file manager, calculator, converter, voice recorder, FM radio, Podcast, RealPlayer and your usual Calendar, Contacts and Messaging facilities. Missing are Quick Office and a PDF reader which would have been useful for document handling. Mail for Exchange, one of our favorite free apps for syncing with Microsoft Exchange, worked perfectly fine on our review unit though.

The Web browser hasn't seen much improvement, so it's basically still the Webkit version, but with touch capabilities. It's a pity because Nokia could have taken the opportunity to make it more polished than the Safari browser on the iPhone. What's good is that the browser supports Flash and Java.

The 5800 is preinstalled with two games--Bounce and Global Race-Raging Thunder. Interestingly, only the racing game makes use of the onboard accelerometer for steering the vehicle in-game.

Comes With Music

Also a big part of the 5800, other than the new software, is Comes With Music (CWM), Nokia's unlimited music download service. According to the company, Singapore is the first market to get the 5800 bundled with CWM for S$798 (US$534.03). For comparison's sake, a local export set without CWM is priced at S$560 (US$374.76).

Here's the proposition of CWM's unlimited premise. You can download as many songs as you want, within 12 months, from the Nokia Music Store and you get to keep or re-download the tracks after the service period. So far, tunes from EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, Universal Music Group and local labels including Rock Records and Ocean Butterflies are available from the store.

Music downloaded from the store are encoded with a 192kbps bitrate in WMA format and are shackled with Windows Media DRM. This means you cannot copy the tracks to another MP3 player, for example, an iPod. Burning music onto a CD also requires additional rights which you must pay for. You can, however, transfer the songs you've downloaded to a new PC within three years of purchasing the CWM handset.

So is this for you? Depends, but the price-for-feature ratio is rather compelling. In the four days that our CWM service was activated, we downloaded over 700 songs, though we would chalk that number to our initial enthusiasm over downloading whatever that's readily available. That brings us to the next point.

What we find most appealing about CWM is the instant gratification it offers. The only thing to watch out for if you are downloading from the device are the airtime charges incurred, which means you'll need to factor in a data plan with decent bandwidth. What would have been great complements to the service are a music recognition app like Track ID on Sony Ericsson mobiles and a feature that pulls the lyrics of the song you are listening to off the Web.

A few other things to note about CWM are that after the initial phase of downloading all the music available on the storefront, it comes to a point where you either search for a particular album or track that you want, or wait for Nokia to refresh the store's page so you can pick from there again.

The downloading speed is also dependant on the network which can make or break the user experience. Mass downloads are best on a PC (no support for Mac) and single tracks on the handset. Syncing between the PC and device is only via the bundled micro-USB cable connection (no Bluetooth). A nice feature to have is the ability to charge via micro-USB.

We did encounter a few errors during downloading where the songs couldn't be found and albums couldn't be downloaded fully. A Nokia representative said that could be due to our network connection as she didn't encounter the problems we noticed on her end. There were instances where we resume the download though that doesn't work all the time.

he 5800 XpressMusic

The 640 x 360-pixel display on the 5800 may seem strange at first because it's not the VGA (640 x 480) screens we are more used to seeing. The reason for this becomes clear when you think about its 16:9 aspect ratio. 640 x 360 is exactly one-quarter of 1,280 x 720, the minimum resolution for something to be classified as high definition (HD).

If you visit video-sharing sites like Vimeo which allows you to upload HD clips, you will notice that the streaming clips are displayed at 640 x 360 within the browser. For a media-centric mobile phone like the 5800, this is ideal for watching movies and television clips originally formatted for HD displays. You may also want to know that the 5800 has 50 percent more pixels than the iPhone 3G, but has a smaller display which measures 3.2 inches diagonally.

The choice of a plastic chassis may irk users who are used to the metallic accents on premium handsets, but we found the build quality impressionable overall. The SIM card, once inserted, is difficult to remove without a prodding stick (stylus), but that's not an issue unless you swap SIM cards often. A keylock switch is found on the right edge of the 5800 and it was indispensable for quick locking of the touchscreen.

Internally, there's little to gripe about. This handset comes with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and a touchscreen display. An 8GB card is included as standard and the microSD card slot supports up to 16GB and even 32GB cards when the latter becomes commercially available.

Having lots of storage is, of course, important to a music-focused mobile phone, and that's further complemented by its built-in speakers and a 3.5mm audio jack so you can plug in your favorite headphones. This same jack also lets you to output the sound and screen onto an external display using a TV-out cable that's included by default.

Performance

Overall, we found the 5800's performance to be snappy and there weren't any issues with call quality. Audio playback via the onboard speakers was also surprisingly good. If you own a pair of decent earphones, the 5800 is a very good alternative to standalone MP3 players.

The 3.2-megapixel camera wasn't fantastic, although it would suffice for occasional snapshot moments.

On average, the 5800 lasted two days with combined Web browsing, music playback, calls and text messages. Your experience with the device may vary depending on your usage pattern.

Nokia rates the 5800 for up to 9 hours of talktime and 35 hours for music playback.

Conclusion

Though we expected Nokia's first touchscreen UI to appear on a high-end device like one of its Nseries or Eseries products, the birth of the S60 5th Edition on a mass market phone like the 5800 has its advantages, too. For one, it has an amazing price of 279 euros (about US$386). That's phenomenal considering the features you get--a comparable Windows Mobile phone is easily 50 percent more expensive than that. With Comes With Music, the additional premium puts the device in the midrange portfolio.

The positioning of the phone also makes sense if you take into account the competition the 5800 faces. Most manufacturers are already into their second- or third-generation touchscreen handsets. For Nokia to come in at this price point and with a laundry list of features, it will force other makers to revisit their lineup.

That's not all. The Finnish outfit is also going all out with Ovi, its online portal for a range of services. In the case of the 5800, the Comes With Music is key. Building a tightly integrated ecosystem is pertinent to a successful product. The Apple iPhone clearly showed the way with iTunes. BlackBerry is catching up and Nokia is obviously not far behind.

The 5800 isn't without misses, too. There aren't that many third-party apps right now, though that will change down the road. Plus the touch user interface isn't consistent, which is what the company should urgently address. We were close to giving the 5800 our Editors' Choice award but felt that this aspect caused it to miss the mark slightly.

Overall, it's hard to find a touchscreen smartphone that matches the 5800 in terms of price and features.

According to Nokia, the red and blue versions of the 5800 XpressMusic bundled with a grey plectrum will be available on February 28 in Singapore. A silver-black model will come in mid-March. Nokia added that a standalone 5800 XpressMusic without CWM won't be available at launch, but didn't comment on whether its decision will change in the future.

Physical design

Phone type

Candy bar

Dimensions (W x D x H)

111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm

Weight

109g

Secondary display resolution

x pixels

Input method(s)

Touch screen

Available colours

Silver--Black, Red, Blue

Phone

Network

Quadband

Network type(s)

GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900

Connectivity options

3G, GPRS, GPS, HSDPA, Bluetooth, A2DP, USB, WLAN

Calling Features

Video calls

General

LCD display size

3.2-inch 640 x 360-pixel, up to 16 million colors

Color LCD?

Yes

Performance

Operating system

Symbian OS

Max. talktime (in hours)

9 hours

Max. standby time (in hours)

408 hours

Internal memory

81 MB

Expansion slot(s)

TransFlash / microSD

Included accessories

Handset with stylus, extra pen stylus, stylus plectrum, headset, 8GB microSD card, carrying case, portable stand, video-out cable

Multimedia

Built-in digital camera?

Yes

Maximum camera resolution

3.2 megapixels



Cnet Video:-http://asia.cnet.com/tv/tech/mobile-tech/0,39067331,44099571p,00.htm

MOTOSURF A3100




Motorola has been a longtime licensee of Microsoft's Windows Mobile (WM) but it hasn't been too prolific when it comes to making touchscreen phones based on that operating system. On Tuesday, the company announced the Motorola MOTOSURF A3100, a touchscreen handheld with no keypad, putting it in direct competition with products like the ASUS P552w and HTC Touch 3G. Let's have a quick look at what the MOTOSURF offers.

Upside

While some may balk at the liberal use of curves on the A3100, it's actually a refreshing departure from all the predominantly black or silver devices with straight edges. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but will be a good option for those bored with the more serious-looking phones.

Connectivity options on the A3100 are comprehensive and include HSDPA/HSUPA for high-speed cellular data transfer. There's also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well as GPS for satellite navigation.

Like almost every other WM PDA-phone these days, the A3100 comes with a custom Home screen to replace the default one. The stock images show a finger-friendly interface with large icons and essential informa

tion clearly presented in one screen. That said, we do need to get a unit in our hands to determine if it's as useful as HTC or Sony Ericsson's implementations.

Downside

Even though they cover most bases, the specifications of the A3100 are boring. They are the same as any midrange WM device, so nothing really stands out. The screen has a pedestrian 320 x 240-pixel resolution--VGA or above would have been better appreciated.

Outlook

Motorola will make the MOTOSURF available in Asia in Q1 but no price has been announced. With strong competition from the likes of HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, the A3100 will have to be priced very competitively if it is to stand a chance. That's unless it has one or two compelling features that make it stand out. As of now, it's hard to tell if this Moto has anything special aside from the design. So we are looking forward to getting our mitts on a unit for a proper assessment.

Physical design

Form factor:Pad

Dimensions:110 x 59.7 x 13.7 mm

Weight w/battery:119 g

Primary display resolution:320 x 240 pixels

Phone

Phone type:Quadband

Networks:GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900

Connectivity:3G, HSDPA, HSUPA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPRS/GSM, USB

Messaging features:SMS, MMS, Email

Multimedia

Built-in digital camera?:Yes

Maximum camera resolution:3 megapixels

Additional multimedia features:Bluetooth stereo A2DP; secondary VGA camera; Assisted-GPS

PDA

Operating system:Windows Mobile 6

Main processor type:Qualcomm MSM 7201A

RAM:128 MB

ROM:256 MB

Rated battery life:6.8 hours

Display

Monochrome or color:Color

Touch screen:Yes

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Living Green: LG unveils solar-powered cell phone



Not to be outdone by Samsung's new Blue Earth handset, LG Electronics has announced its own new solar powered cell phone. The surprisingly attractive handset features an array of tiny solar panels built into the cover of the phone.

According to LG, exposing the solar panel to the sun for a mere ten minutes will charge the phone with enough juice to make a three-minute call. No pricing or release date have been announced, but if these recent moves by Samsung and LG are true indicators of energy trends, our gadget future will indeed be a lot more eco-friendly.

Courtesy: device.com

HTC Magic brings Google's Android to another phone



Until now, Google's Android mobile OS has only been found on the G1. Now, the second "Google Phone" has been announced: the HTC Magic. A slick-looking touchscreen phone, this model takes aim squarely at the iPhone.

Featuring a 3.2-inch touch screen and a trackball, it shares a good deal in common with the iPhone's form factor while retaining its own look and personality. It's a touch wider than the iPhone, but weighs less and is a little shorter. There's a 3.2-megapixel camera with video capabilities, and it has full 3G connectivity. Unfortunately, it's due to hit European shores first, with no word on a US release date.

Courtesy: device.com


Wheego Whip electric car coming to America in May for $19K



This tiny, all-electric Wheego Whip minicar is destined for U.S. shores this May, beating out a gaggle of other electric cars that might not even make it here by the end of 2010. The $19K plug-in Whip goes 50 miles per charge with a 60 mph top speed, and judging from the performance of its prototype in the video after the jump, its acceleration and speed appear to be sufficiently sprightly for American roads.

The catch? It'll be limited to a poky 35 mph until the U.S. government checks its crashworthiness, and will be designated a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) until it gets its U.S. mommy's approval. That might not happen until, alas, the seemingly magic date for electro-cars: 2010.

Built by Shuanghuan Automobile in China, the Whip's body will be familiar to Chinese drivers — it's known as an E-Noble in its native land. It's hard to believe this car will be available for sale in 50 dealers three months from now. Given the sorry shape of the U.S. auto industry, this microcar might whip a few car companies into shape.

View the Video here

KDDI minimalist concept phone captures solar rays, doubles as dark matter




We've uncovered more ecologically friendly goodies from KDDI's Design Project. The latest is a concept device is aptly named the GEM and looks as though it was carved out of a single slab of obsidian with an oddly organic form factor.

The creator, Japanese designer Takumi Ota, doesn't offer much in the way of details in terms of how the handset would work other than to detail its ability to charge itself via a set of rather sexy solar panels. It's a sure bet that if Blackberry's looked like this, there would be less debate among the iPhone refuseniks about what smartphone to get.



Courtesy: device.com

LG-GD900 transparent cellphone: Why would you want it?



The LG-GD900 cellphone, which was unveiled a couple of days ago, has one of the most striking designs we've seen. Its head-turning innovation: The softly illuminated keypad is transparent. The phone is slated for a spring 2009 release. We can't wait until someone designs a phone that's entirely clear.

However, we have to ask, how practical is this? Do you really want to see a hairy cheek pressed up against the glass? It reminds me of the old Jelly shoes. Cute, until you see someone's butt-ugly toes smooshed up against the plastic.

Really, why would you want a see-through phone? Tell us in the comments.

Courtesy: device.com

SHIFT: Is Obama a tech friend or foe?


While President Barack Obama's honeymoon rages on, those of us who like to see technological progress are keeping a close eye on the horizon, looking for either dark clouds or silver linings.

So far we're seeing a mixed bag. During the 2008 presidential election campaign, Obama sang the praises of technological progress, but some of his appointees aren't singing from the same hymnal.

At stake is the unfettered Internet, unlimited bandwidth, file sharing without government snoops breathing down our necks, and freedom to record what we want on our own DVRs. All of it could be at risk as some of the new officials move into their high offices in the Obama administration.


Questionable Appointees

The president has the final say in whatever decisions are made, but he could be influenced by his appointees, some of whom have repeatedly proven that they're no friends of technological progress. That's stoking our techno-fears.

First on the list is Vice President Joe Biden. Obama's VP has a long history of aligning himself with the recording industry. At one point he wanted to make it a felony to create a device capable of circumventing copy-protecting DRM (digital rights management).

Then there's the Department of Justice. Industry watchdogs say associate deputy Donald Verrilli and associate attorney general Tom Perrelli are "the RIAA's favorite lawyers." Add to them Neil MacBride, who before he was appointed associate deputy attorney general, was vice president of anti-piracy and general counsel at the Business Software Alliance (BSA). He headed up the practice of paying off people who report suspected software piracy to that organization. This is not looking good.

If Obama appointed these recording and movie industry advocates, who might he choose as head of the Federal Communications Commission? Former FCC chair Kevin Martin rejected the Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) scheme to put recording blocks onto every DVR in the country. Now that Martin's gone, the MPAA is back knocking on the FCC's door, trying to put the squeeze on temporary FCC chairman Michael Copps. Will the FCC cave, letting the MPAA decide what we can record on our own TiVos? Will Obama appoint an FCC chairman who fights for the rights of Internet service providers, or for the users of those services?


Friends of Progress

Despite those questionable appointments, all is not lost, tech lovers. There's some good news, too. For instance, when California Senator Dianne Feinstein tried to slip in a provision for "network management," allowing Internet service providers to filter broadband streams looking for copyrighted materials under the guise of protecting us from child porn, the idea was shot down before it could slither into the stimulus bill.

More good news: The economic stimulus bill's $9 billion to fund wireless broadband networks in under-served areas was on its way toward oblivion, but after all the haggling was done, the cash ended up staying in, albeit at a diminished $7.2 billion. Someone must have agreed with Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, who said a $10 billion broadband stimulus would create 498,000 new jobs. Good call.


The President's Say

There have been boatloads of alarm spread all over the Internet this past week about the diminishing role of tech in the economic stimulus bill, and most of that alarm turned out to be overwrought. The tech-smart and BlackBerry-carrying President Obama craves consensus, so he's not going to make it easy for file-sharing pirates to swipe movies and software, nor is he going to allow broadband providers to suck the life out of our crucial information conduits.

Let's hope the new president keeps a close eye on some of these record-industry and movie-business appointees of his, making sure that his fondness for Net neutrality and tech freedom isn't stomped down by greedy industry insiders who suddenly find themselves drunk on power.



Courtesy: device.com

Advanced robot assisted therapy gives serious stroke sufferers a helping hand



The University of California at Irvine is leading a study on how robots can help long-term stroke victims regain their mobility. 15 patients, who averaged around 61 years of age and suffered a stroke at least 10 years before undergoing the robot assisted therapy, were taught to grip and gesture thanks to a robotic arm that cradled their hands.

The robotic cradle helps shape the hand into the positions it needs to be in to perform various tasks, helping work the appropriate muscles and reform the connections the brain needs to make to tell the hand to operate.

After a few months undergoing the therapy, the patients all improved — though those who had more mobility to begin with showed rapid gains. Understandably, the patients with more disability would take longer to improve, but it does show that robotic assistance is a viable way to help people regain mobility through therapy.

A video of the robotic therapy can be found by Clicking here

Courtesy: device.com


Pantech Matrix Pro: Dual-slider smartphone for touchscreen haters


Remember the Helio Ocean? That landmark phone was world's first dual slider — one with both a slide-out keypad and a separate, slide-out QWERTY keyboard. A little-reported fact about the Ocean was that it was actually made by Pantech, which used the dual-sliding design for its Matrix, released last fall. Following up quickly, Pantech just announced the Matrix Pro.



Besides boasting the dual-sliding form factor, the Matrix Pro is a full-fledged smartphone, running Windows Mobile 6.1 and supporting Outlook/Office. The expandable memory supports microSD cards up to 32GB, the LCD screen measures a could-be-bigger 2.4 inches, and there's 3G (HSDPA) connectivity, too.



Checking out the Matrix Pro in Vegas last month, I thought it was a little thick for my taste (its 0.9 inches deep, compared with the iPhone's 0.48 inches), though the dual-sliding design is addicting. The gun-metal color is pretty sleek, too. There's plenty here to satisfy Windows Mobile fans (whoever they may be) who don't like touchscreens. The Matrix Pro should be available at AT&T stores in the next few days for $180.

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