Archive for 2009

By January 3, 2009 Read More →

Sony Ericsson C905 competition winner

A few weeks ago we offered our readers a chance to win a fabulous Sony Ericsson C905 courtesy of our friends at Orange.

We posed the question: How much does the C905 weigh? The answer of course is 136 grams, impressive for a slider phone with an 8 megapixel camera!

I am pleased to announce that we have a winner. Selected at random from all the correct entries, Simon Gordon is our lucky winner and the Ice Silver Sony Ericsson C905, which is exclusive to Orange, is on it’s way to you.

If you missed out on this competition dont worry, our Blu-ray competition is still open and we have two more great competitions coming in January, with two truly excellent prizes on offer!

 

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Sony Ericsson C905, competition, Tracy & Matt]

Posted in: Competitions
By January 3, 2009 Read More →

Shapewriter 2.0 comes to the iPhone

image ShapeWriter 2.0 is an awesome new input method for touch screen devices. It works by drawing a line from letter to letter to spell out a word. In theory it should be a much faster way to input text. There is a little bit of a learning curve, but it feels a lot more natural than the on-screen keyboard in windows mobile, and I think out will be even better than the iPhone’s soft keyboard with a little refinement.

Posted in: Phones
By January 2, 2009 Read More →

Users wary of mobile banking

bank Around the world mobile devices are becoming integral parts of the banking system. Usage differs from country to country; from sms money transfers in Africa, to full scale mobile banking in Japan and Korea. However a new report suggests that mobile consumers in the USA do not feel comfortable using their handsets to interact with their banks. According to the report consumers are worried about handset security, hackers getting into their account, and what happens if the phone is lost.  While these concerns are legitimate, mobile devices are often a far safer way to remotely access a bank account, than using a PC over wifi.

The report discusses some things that may reassure a nervous public, like offering complete fraud protection, and a guarantee to reimburse you if anything should happen, the same kind of steps that eventually made people comfortable using atm’s and debit cards.

Posted in: Phones
By January 2, 2009 Read More →

Android Market to accept paid applications very soon

image Eric Chu from the Android Market has sent out an email announcing that the Android Market will support priced applications starting early Q1 2009. Given the country-by-country work required to set up payment support for developers in different countries, they will enable priced app support in Q1 for developers operating in these countries in the following order: (1) United States and UK; (2) Germany, Austria and Netherlands; (3) France, Italy and Spain. By the end of Q1 2009, they will announce support for developers operating in additional countries. Developers operating in the above listed countries should begin finalizing their priced applications, including determining the appropriate pricing strategy. This is great news and we should now see some big name applications appearing in the Market for all you Android users.

via Android Community

Posted in: Phones
By January 2, 2009 Read More →

Star Wars light saber application for Windows Mobile

image The iPhone has had this application for a while and now you can also get this fun application for Windows Mobile phones that have an accelerometer. The application is free so if your a fan of Star Wars it is a must have application for a bit of fun. Works on the HTC Touch Diamond/Pro/HD. It uses the accelerometer to make the fighting sounds when you swing the phone around. You can download it here.

Posted in: Phones
By January 2, 2009 Read More →

Nokia N85 review

At first glance the Nokia N85 looks like a smaller brother to the N96. In most of the important areas it is, so should you choose the N85 over the N96?

n85_angled

The Nokia N85

 

The N85 is a superbly made dual slider phone. From the phones packaging Nokia’s main sales pitch is a serious games device – with a phone built in. And it is – with games specially adapted from leading game publisher EA Games. Coupled with a bright OLED screen and dedicated game controls. However it also sports voice assisted A-GPS Satellite Navigation, a state of the art 5Mpix Still camera with Carl Zeiss optics. Video capture at DVD quality 30 frames per second. Supplied in the box are Audio/Video cables to allow game play or picture and video playback through your TV or projector. Email and WWW support via WLAN or 3.5G HSDPA through your mobile phone provider. And if that wasn’t enough a simple to use MP3 / MP4 player. The main difference between the N96 and N85 is simply less onboard memory, but with 8Gb MicroSD as standard, the more pocket-able size of the N85 is certainly going to draw converts.

 

What’s in the box?

The phone, a generous 8gb MicroSD card. Mains charger, USB data / charging cable. Ear phones, wired remote controller for the MP3 player. A 3.5mm to Phono cable for TV out. Manuals, software DVD, and an Activation code to enable one Trial game to the full game. Check out Matt’s Nokia N85 unboxing video for more information.

 

Nokia N85 Specification:

  • Form: Two-way slider
  • Dimensions: 103x50x16.0mm
  • Weight: 128 g
  • Volume: 76 cc
  • Display Size: 2.6"
  • Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)
  • Up to 16.7 million colors
  • Active Matrix OLED technology
  • Numeric keypad Cover keys (S60 keys, Multimedia key, Send/end keys) Short slide keys (media control/zoom/gaming) Navi™wheel
  • Dedicated media/zoom/game keys
  • Dedicated camera and volume keysCover keys
  • Multimedia key
  • Navi™Wheel
  • Voice commands
  • Intelligent key illumination
  • Micro-USB connector with mass storage class support, High-Speed USB 2.0
  • 3.5 mm AV connector
  • BL-5K 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
  • Talk time (maximum):
    – GSM 6.9 h
    – WCDMA 4.5 h
    -VoiP 9 h
  • Standby time (maximum):
    – GSM 363 h
    – WCDMA 363 h
    – WLAN 172 h
  • Browsing time with packet data (maximum): 5 h 42 min
  • Video playback time (maximum): 7 h
  • Video recording time (maximum): 2 h 54 min
  • Video call time (maximum): 2 h 42 min
  • Music playback time (maximum): 30 h
  • Gaming time (maximum): 7 h
  • microSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 8 GB
  • 74 MB internal dynamic memory
  • 78 MB internal NAND flash memory

For the full spec see http://europe.nokia.com/support/products/n85/specifications

 

General:

On the face of the phone are 8 buttons and the Nokia NaviWheel.

n85_main

Nokia N85 front view

 

On the top the power button a 3.5mm socket that doubles as a standard 3 pin headphone socket (very welcome) and the 4 pin TV out socket. Next to that the Micro USB charger / data connector. Its encouraging to see Nokia standardising on the Micro USB charging plug as this will soon mean most mobile phones chargers will be interchangeable. Eventually they would not even need to be shipped with new phones.

n85_top

Nokia N85 top view

 

On the left side is a lanyard loop and the MicroSd card slot.

n85_left

Nokia N85 left side

 

On the right side stereo speaker grills, volume control, a slide button to lock/unlock the keys and the camera button.

n85_right

Nokia N85 right side

 

On the back the slide cover for the 5Mpixel lens and twin LED lights for flash or video lighting. The back cover unclips to access the battery and Sim card.

n85_back

Nokia N85 back view

 

Review

This phone is known as a dual slider, that’s to say the top half of the phone slides up, and down to reveal various controls. Sliding either way automatically unlocks the keypads. Sliding the face up reveals a conventional 12 key phone pad, which was quite adequate and pleasant enough to use. By default sliding answers and ends voice calls. Sliding down reveals 4 keys that double as media player controls or dedicated gaming controls, depending upon the program running.

The top face and key pads are gloss black with a flush screen giving a very smart look. While the sides and back are finished in chocolate bronze.

If enabled the Orientation Sensor will auto rotate the screen to landscape mode and back simply when it senses the phone turned in ones palm. This feature works well enough to be kept turned on.

Nokia NaviWheel was disabled by default, when we turned it on we found out why, it was too temperamental to be of any use plus it has limited functionality compared to the standard 4 way control. Interestingly the NaviWheel on the N79 we are reviewing works much more responsively.

nGage gaming:

If playing games is your thing you are going to love this phone. It’s not a PlayStation or an Xbox, but it is far advanced from most mobiles phone games. Very playable with bright clear 3D graphics. FIFA 08, Asphalt3 Street Rules, and Brain Challenge are just some of the games pre-installed for you to try. More are available for download. One activation code is supplied in the box which allows you to fully licence any one of the games.

The supplied TV out cable simply plugs in to the Video and Audio sockets commonly found on many TVs or projectors and allows the play back on both the phone screen and the TV at the same time. Sound is also piped through the TV sound system.

The quality looks a bit fragmented at large resolution, especially on a 42” LCD, but it’s still quite playable. Likewise videos and photos can be shared on the large screen.

See www.ngage.com for specific games information.

The games are cheaper than major console games but seem to be locked to the phone – not a user account. So loosing or upgrading your phone means you will need to buy them all over again. This is similar to buying a DVD and only being allowed to play it on one player, ever. It seems Nokia have shot themselves in the foot with this one, as people actually like to collect things, DVDs, games etc. but if they know the game will expire along with their annual phone contract, they may think twice before buying. My guess is Nokia have realised but are unable to change the licensing at this stage. A better solution would be Apples model where music and films are licensed to a user account.

FM Transmitter – Pre set one of your radio stations to match the N85 and playing your favourite tunes in the car is a breeze.
I like this feature. Because while I know I can burn my music to CDs for the car or put them on USB sticks etc etc In reality I only ever get around to syncing music with my phone, and only because I plug it into the PC for various other reasons. So it was great, with just a few buttons clicks, to switch the Media player on the phone to transmit my sounds straight to the car stereo via the FM radio. It also means if I’m travelling in a friend’s car, (who may not have my great taste in music) in seconds I can simply tune their radio to 107.9FM (or whatever I have set the N85 to) and we can cruise in the groove. Sound quality was very good with my car setup, better than standard radio quality. But I did have to find a place on the dash where the reception was crackle free – I have found this with all FM transmitters I have used (on iPods and MP3 players), I think it’s because the transmitter is so close to the car aerial.

It also works just as well with home HiFi’s.

 

Camera:

Forget the Megapixels, Nokia cameras were notoriously poor a few years back. Any camera expert will tell you that it’s all in the lens, hence to up their reputation they invested in branded Carl Zeiss optics and Tessar™ lenses, this model performed as well as any Sony Ericson I have tried before.

I also think N85’s 5Megapixel CMOS is plenty – until larger lenses are fitted to phones there doesn’t seem much point in 8Mp other than larger files sizes.

It has 2 very bright LEDs which act as flash for the camera and light for the video. Overall it works very well. Easy to switch on/off and between still and video mode. The video is not going to give you the same results you get from a dedicated video camera but it is good enough to capture memories to treasure. As with many phone cameras it was a little slow in low light, resulting in quite a few blurred images, still you can always take more with 8Gb memory to play with.

 

aGPS

The built in A-GPS (Assisted – Global Positioning Satellite receiver) receiver works well with the supplied Nokia Maps. A 3 month trial of the voice assistance is included. There are also options to purchase traffic congestion and speed camera alerts. Many of you will also download and install Google Maps which also works well with it.

 

Email support:

As standard the N85 supports POP3 email. It will also support Microsoft Exchange Push Email by downloading the Mail for Exchange client from Nokia.com. Although personally, I feel any phone bought for serious email support should have a qwerty keyboard of some description, I also know many people who find Exchange support really useful as it gives them the ability to monitor their business emails real time, plus a live copy of their office Contact list and Calendar. So adding a new contact or appointment in their phone instantaneously updates their business Outlook and vice versa. The data is synchronised over the air (OTA) via the mobile phone network. This is very useful but requires a data charge from the mobile provider. Data charges are also incurred with A-GPS, so this type of phone really needs a prepaid data tariff of some kind.

 

OLED Screen:

The N85’s screen is 320×240 pixel resolution which is fine for a screen size of 2.6inch. It is also extremely bright and clear due to the high contrast Active Matrix OLED (Organic LED) display. OLED is the latest screen technology providing excellent picture quality with lower power consumption, in a few years all TV screens will use this technology, currently though it’s far too expensive to produce in larger sizes.

 

Highlights

  • Full featured phone
  • Excellent display and graphics
  • Small size
  • Well made

 

Lowlights

  • Questionable licensing of games
  • No qwerty keyboard
  • Slow camera in low light

 

Conclusion

This little power packed Nokia has a lot going for it. Even though I struggle without a qwerty keyboard I have warmed to it in the last few weeks. Its small size has got me hooked. It’s a well made and satisfying to use device.

As a entertainment phone its definitely a serious contender. Coupled with the reasonable camera, Satellite Navigation and Exchange Push Email support it can easily satisfy today’s most demanding user.

If you need the features but don’t want to lug around a house brick, this could be the phone for you.

 

Review by: Daniel

[ Post Tags: Nokia, N85, Symbian, smartphone news, reviews, unboxing video, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]

Posted in: Reviews
By January 2, 2009 Read More →

Customize G1 photos with PicSay

picsay

There is one thing that the camera is severely lacking on the G1 phone and that is: customization. This camera is no joke! Basically, what you see is what you get.  Unfortunately, users are not given the option to add anything neat to their pictures – until now. If you’re into customizing and adding extra things to your photos, then the PicSay application is perfect for you.  

Posted in: Phones
By January 1, 2009 Read More →

iPhone 3G sim unlock yellowsn0w now available

photo We told you earlier today that the iPhone 3G sim unlock was imminent well it is now live and has to be installed via an already jail broken iPhone 3G Cydia or Installer application. The great news is it works with the latest 2.2 firmware and actually only works with the latest version so make sure you update via iTunes before following the procedure we have below. Enjoy your now sim lock free iPhone 3G. Full details after the break.

Posted in: Phones
By January 1, 2009 Read More →

LG Renoir unboxed

It’s been about 3 months since we first saw the LG KC910 Renoir at its launch event and since then we have been waiting to get our hands on a review unit. Finally got one just before Christmas so have been putting it too the test over the festive period.

renoir_main

The LG Renoir (KC910)

The KC910 Renoir is one of about 4 or 5 handsets available at the moment with an 8 megapixel camera built in. We’ve already looked at many of the others and you can find their reviews here on site too. The Renoir is quite similar to the Samsung Pixon in form and appearance, and both have the 8mp camera. One of the cool things about the Renoir is that it has a proper Xenon flash as well as Dolby Audio and Divx support. Take a look at the specification below and see what you get in a package that weighs just 114 grams – impressive!

So while we finish writing up the review, here’s the unboxing video to give you a taster of what the Renoir has to offer:

 

LG Renoir unboxed

 

You can also watch the video in HD by heading over to the unboxing video page on YouTube and clicking on ‘Watch in HD’ link under the video player. Don’t forget you can also check out all of our videos (we have 135 now!) by visiting our YouTube channel.

 

LG Renoir Specification:

  • 8 mp Camera with Xenon flash and Schneider-Kreuznach optics
  • 30 FPS video recording at 640×480, 60 FPS at 320×240
  • Internal GPS w/ Geotagging
  • Dolby Audio
  • Divx/Xvid support
  • Manual Focus
  • Smile, focus, face detection, Image stabilization
  • Quad-band GSM, HSDPA 7.2 mbps
  • Bluetooth Yes.v2.0 with A2DP
  • Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML,HTML
  • Built-in GPS receiver
  • Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots),32- 48 kbps
  • EDGE Yes
  • 3G HSDPA,7.2 Mbps
  • WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
  • USB Yes,v2.0
  • Document viewer- DOC,XLS,PDF
  • MicroSD up to 8GB
  • 3″ touchscreen, 240×400  with Haptic feedback
  • TV out support
  • Dimensions 107.8 x 55.9 x 14 mm
  • Weight 114 g

 

Posted by: Matt

[ Post Tags: LG, Renoir, LG KC910, fashion phone, mobile phone, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]

Posted in: Videos/Unboxings
By January 1, 2009 Read More →

yellowsn0w iPhone 3G unlock will work on firmware 2.2

imageThe Dev Team has made yellowsn0w compatible with the newer baseband.You can upgrade to a jailbroken firmware 2.2 on your iPhone 3G using PwnageTool (MAC) or QuickPWN (Windows/MAC) regardless of the baseband. Now Windows users will no longer need to get a custom firmware to prepare their iPhone 3G for the unlock. Stay tuned for the yellowsn0w package which will be available in Cydia by 12 PM PST at the latest. Just checked and it is still not there so stay tuned and we will let you know when it is available.

via yellowsn0w

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Posted in: Phones
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