I don’t care what anyone says, I will wait for a Google Android-powered mobile phone. As much as I’m drawn to Apple’s iPhone it’s too expensive, closed and there’s too much carrier lock-in. An Android-based device will give me the device I want, the way I want it, on the carrier I want. Now, that’s worth waiting for.
Well, I finally got me a Nokia N95 and it hasn’t disappointed. It does everything I could want and it has effectively replaced my iPod which I now view now as such a closed, dumb device (unless the next generation has built in wi-fi).
As a phone it’s predictably excellent but it really comes into it’s own when the wi-fi is activated. I download and play audio and video podcasts effortlessly. With the 2GB microSD card in place I have room for hundreds of tunes. I can upload photos and videos to the web using third-party app’ Shozu. The still/ video camera is superb. The 5 mega-pixel Carl Zeiss lens shoots wonderful stills and captures astounding 4 mega-pixel video.
I’ve installed Opera Mini to browse the web, the Gmail app for email and Jajah for Voip, Fring for free Skype voice calls and messaging and Jaiku just for fun.
Really, some day all mobiles devices will be made this way.
Could the new Nokia N95 be the answer to my audio/ video podcast needs? It would appear so. Now, I’ve just got to get me one.
I’ve been hankering after a video iPod for many months now as a way of watching much of the video content I subscribe to in iTunes. The thinking goes like this: I don’t have time to watch things like Rocketboom, Ze Frank or The Scoble Show at work or at home so the ideal time would be during my train commute to and from work. It is during this period that I consume most, if not all, the audio podcasts I download.
Yesterday I did a little experiment. I transferred a few videos on to my Nokia N70 to see how I enjoyed the videos in anticipation of a video iPod. Funny thing was I didn’t enjoy them at all. And not because of the relative quality of the screen but because it just didn’t feel right. The screen captured all my attention and this felt uncomfortable. I can’t really explain why but audio is in many ways more powerful than video. The only places I can comfortably dedicate all my attention to a screen is in a cinema or at home in front of the TV. But not out in the world where there are so many distractions. It’s interesting how audio lets you comfortably split your attention between the sounds coming in and whatever else might be going on around you. When I’m out in the world I like to interact with it and not ignore it which mobile video, alas, has a tendency to make me do.
For some reason, I still want a video iPod though. Damn you Steve Jobs.
I love my iPod but it’s an ageing 4th generation version with no video capabilities. I need a video iPod to watch my videos on the go but I don’t want to buy the current version as it will probably be obsolete when the new version appears. I’m also on a budget.
Now this had made things very interesting. Seagate has just announced a new product called DAVE, which stands for “Digital Audio Video Experience.” Here’sthe lowdown from Robert Scoble who filmed the announcement.
What is it?
It’s a small black box. Costs less than $200. It’s thin, fits into a shirt pocket.
It has a small USB port on one side. And an on/off switch.
But, other than that, there’s no other interface on it.
This is no Apple iPhone.
But, here’s the rub. Inside is a small hard drive. 10GB or 20GB. That’s the “Seagate” part of this.
There’s also a Bluetooth and Wifi antenna.
That’s it.
“So, Scoble, that sounds really lame.”
I don’t think so — this is a new kind of wireless device that enables a whole bunch of new scenarios, particularly around cell phones, which is why I wanted Steve Jobs to see this — it’d be an awesome way to add on more music to the new Apple iPhone which I’m planning to buy in June (this comes out in May). Oh, I forgot something. There’s also a software API. They’ve already used that API to build an interface for Symbian and Windows Mobile cell phones. So, you get a new cell phone that only has 4GB of internal flash storage but you want to drag around more media? You’ll want D.A.V.E.
I can see a whole number of scenarios. Particularly for digital photographers, or people who want to carry a lot of stuff around with them in their pockets (this is far more useful to me than one of those USB memory drives, because I can keep a couple of these in my backpack and get to them via Wifi or BlueTooth (Bluetooth works up to about 30 feet from your cell phone or computer, Wifi goes even further).
As well as my iPod I also carry around a Bluetooth enabled Nokia N70 phone which could act as the visual interface to DAVE. Or I could use my Bluetooth and Wifi enabled Orange SPV500 Windows Smartphone as well.
The separation of the storage media from the interface seems so obvious it hurts. The next best thing to storing the date in the Cloud which is prohibitive because of mobile carrier date costs.
I’ll be watching this very closely.
I have my doubts about the potential success of Apple’s new iPhone which Steve Jobs launched to great fanfare this week.
I think the problem is that it has more in common with existing Apple Mac computers (it runs OSX) than the iPod. Paradoxically it does too much. The iPod does one thing. Brilliantly. I fear the iPhone will do three things adequately. Not good enough if you’re looking to ‘revolutionise’ a market.
Apple Mac computers have single digit market share whereas the iPod has something close to 70% market share. Given that the company has now changed it’s name from Apple Computers to Apple Inc. and alongside the iPhone Jobs announced AppleTV (a direct link between computers and the lounge), it’s pretty safe to say Apple is attempting to transform itself from a computer/ technology company into a mainstream consumer media company.
The success of the iPod is the bar Apple have set themselves as they move into the mainstream consumer market and, alas, the mobile/ telco market is a minefield. That said, Jobs took on the might of the record industry and has successfully transformed the way we buy and listen to music and I’m sure will subsequently do the same with television and movies with AppleTV. The big question is can he do the same with the mobile phone industry? I believe he can but not with today’s iPhone. The iPod is simplicity personified. The iPhone, though beautiful, elegant and seductive is simply too many devices-in-one. What we need is the iPod of the mobile market and the iPhone isn’t it.
This post says it far more coherently than I can but it appears the hands of the major mobile networks may be forced by UK’s ‘3′ network announcement of a flat-rate broadband offering called X-Series that opens the way for mobile VoIP with services like Skype or GTalk and finally true mobile web browsing without the ridiculous data charges.
Full details of the service have yet to emerge but even though I’m not a ‘3′ customer, I’m hoping Orange, O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone will all be forced to compete in the mobile web market and that means lower prices and finally services that we can all afford.
I heard about Goosync on Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code and initially was very excited. It appeared that Goosync would syncronise your mobile phone calendar with your Google Calendar - just what Gcalsync does (except that Gcalsync doesn’t work on my Nokia N70 for some reason) so I was pleased to hear about an alternative.
However, unlike Gcalsync which connects directly with Google’s servers, Goosync takes your Google account login details and uses them to access Google’s servers on your behalf and passes all your data through their servers. Oh dear. Sorry guys, but if you want me to use Goosync it would need to talk directly to Google and not go through your servers. I wouldn’t recommend Goosync to anyone.
In the meantime can anyone tell my why none of the versions of Gcalsync work on my Nokia N70?
goosync, mobile, sync, googlecalendar, gcalsync, nokia, n70, nokian70
All the mobile version needs now is for the Subscriptions page to only show updated feeds and not the entire list, which is completely pointless.
The new mobile Gmail application for Symbian Series 60 mobile phones is a definite winner. I have up until now been happy to access Gmail’s mobile web version but it just got a whole lot easier. You can download the application direct to your mobile here.
Two of the simplest and best web services I’ve come across lately. Jajah let’s you make VOIP phone calls at Skype Out prices (or free calls between Jajah users) using just your landline or mobile phone. Twitter provides a public messaging system that’s lies somewhere between SMS and blogging - blogging lite. They remove the technology from the user experience and that’s crucial for any web service to achieve mainstream usage.
Technorati tags: jajah, twitter, voip, skype, sms, blogging
I read a live newspaper which is updated every minute. The content comes from hundreds sources all over the world including established media outlets as well as my friends and myself. It features news, photographs and video. I can enjoy it on my computer, my mobile and my iPod. The times they are a changing.
Technorati tags: newspaper, aggregation, rss
The mobile internet seems destined to be forever hindered by the carriers stranglehold on data costs. Add to this an entrenched expectation that access to the mobile internet simply cannot be like accessing the traditional net and inertia seems a certainty.
At the Web 2.0 conference this year, ex-FCC chairman Michael Powell described how his teenage son thought paying for music via iTunes was unacceptable because "music should be free" and yet the same boy was happily running a $40 ring-tone bill. Once an expectation has been set it's very hard to change it.
So long as the mobile carriers are charging per megabite for access to the internet then there is simply no incentive for innovation and thus little of real value or interest emerging for mobile usage.
You know the entire fabric of publishing and media is undergoing a revolution when you look at the phenomenon of Roger Smalls.
This lone (and by his own admission lonely) soul hooks into the network via nothing more than a lowly dial-up modem from his home in Guildford, Surrey. He blogs and records audio clips on his mobile phone. Many of these clips have been played by Adam Curry on the highly successful podcast The Daily Source Code. Roger's audio clips have proved so popular that they get their own jingle whenever Adam Curry plays them on the show. It has even been reported that some media executives have the Roger Smalls theme tune as rings tones on their phones.
This has not gone unnoticed by Nokia who have given Roger a free phone to review and record podcasts with. And it's on this very phone that Roger now contributes a one minute spot to BBC Radio One's oneclick/ future show.
'The Roger Smalls Show' is only a matter of time. Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated while the incumbents make their way to the exits.
Today my three year old son discovered how to use the mouse on our computer. It came so naturally and he was oblivious to my sense of the moment. The computer, mobile phones and no doubt video games (although I'm not a gamer) will be normal and unexceptional to him. I wonder what future inventions will occur during his lifetime that he will find as life-changing as personal computing and mobile communication were to me.
Oh boy. I had to wait a while before it came back into stock (and now I notice it's out of stock yet again - thanks to that old popular demand) but it was definitely worth the wait.
The SPV M500 is the mobile device I've been dreaming of all these years. Yes, the Nokia 6680 is a great phone (the camera is superb, better in fact than the M500) but the combination of a small phone-form handheld device incorporating the Windows Mobile Pocket PC OS is simply too good. Touch screen usability changes everything. I don't just have a phone/PDA. I truly have a handheld computer.
[Technorati tags: spv m500 spvm500 windowsmobile pocketpc orange nokia 6680 nokia6680]
A couple of months ago I switched from my old SPV E200 to the Nokia 6680. To cut a long and tedious story very short the otherwise excellent Nokia 6680 wouldn’t display caller ID despite two replacement handsets. The only way Orange thinks it can solve the problem is to switch me to a completely different device. And guess what I found to switch to? The new super-sexy SPV M500. Basically a full featured Windows PocketPC PDA but the same size as a phone. But it’s out of stock so I’m just going to have to wait.
[Technorati tags: orange nokia6680 spvm500]
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