Archive for the ‘gadget’ Category

Buying a new mobile phone

Monday, February 12th, 2007

This is tougher than trying to buy a house I tell you. My trusty Nokia packed up a few days ago and since then I have been scouring the interwebs looking for the perfect replacement.

Up till now I have bought mobile phones that did two things and only two things; voice calls and SMS. Up till now that is all I wanted out of a mobile phone. Phones that included a camera, MP3 support, PIM features and such were off my list.

Things change though as the project I am working on has taken a mobile focus. I have begrudgingly realised I had better get with the new century and get an advanced mobile phone.

So far every device I have looked at is compromised in some way. The nearly perfect looking Blackberry 7130g doesn’t have WiFi. The well featured Nokia E61 looks a bit bulky to slip into the back pocket of my jeans. The Sony Ericsson M600i has no WiFi. The Nokia N91 has everything but it is bulky and is more a multimedia phone than a work machine. With sluggish performance the Nokia N73 is out.

There is one phone though that is ticking the right boxes, that is a decent size and it passes my aesthetic test; The Nokia E60.

It has two problems though. Not terribly important but it takes RS-MMC memory cards, why Nokia why? More importantly is that no Irish network operator has one. I can only get it from one of the “SIM free” mobile shops and it will cost me near to €400, which is a bit out of my budget. I am on O2 at the moment but if one of the other networks provides this phone I would swap without hesitation.

So, what phone do you recommend? Here are my thoughts on the ideal phone:

  • Fast. The software has to be fast, anything that looks swishy but takes 5 seconds to get to the SMS screen is out.
  • Fits in my back pocket.
  • Looks and feels good. So many phones feel like they were made from cheap plastic, especially the slider-phones. I like clean, simple lines with a solid, well built feel.
  • WiFi, 3G and GSM.
  • Email (POP3 preferably) and IM (Jabber/GTalk mainly).
  • Memory from 64mb and preferably expandable.
  • Good screen.
  • QWERTY keyboard like the Blackberry 7130g does it, sharing one key for two letters.
  • 3rd party app. support with Java and Flash Lite
  • USB.

Features that don’t interest me are:

  • Camera.
  • FM radio.
  • Music support.
  • Video support.
  • Kitchen sink.

Posted in Post, blackberry, blackberry 7130g, cellphone, device, gadget, mobile phone, motorola, nokia, nokia e60 | Comments

Zune reviews

Friday, November 10th, 2006

Just been reading two reviews of Microsoft’s Zune player and while it isn’t terrible it isn’t going to convert any iPod users or be an iPod killer in the stores.

The NYT review[^] is a bit biased IMO (I own an iPod too but jeez author, get a life) but it brings up some frankly weird points about the Zune:

  1. The Zune has WiFi, fantastic. Except you can only use it to send songs to other Zunes. You can’t connect to a PC, network or any other WiFi device. WTF?
  2. You can’t use it as an external HD. Sorry folks, no USB drive in Explorer for the Zune. WTF?
  3. The screen is bigger. Except it has the same resolution as an iPod.
  4. Real world testing shows poorer battery life than an equivalent iPod (two hours less.) And yet the Zune is bigger and heavier.
  5. No podcast support from what I can tell. Crikey.
  6. Songs are $0.99 but you have to buy credit bundles of $5 or more.
  7. Songs are listed as costing 79 “points” which sounds cool except 79 points will cost you $0.99. Now that is marketing.
  8. The software media player is seemingly a stripped down Windows Media Player. You can’t use WMP with your Zune.
  9. Getting all your existing music onto a Zune is a long conversion process if it works at all.

The other review[^].

It seems OK but nothing to rush out for.

Posted in AAA, Apple, Microsoft, audio, device, gadget, iPod, media player, mp3, reviews, video, zune | Comments