Author Archive: Gareth

Nokia’s Plan Digested and Explained

Long time Symbian analyst Chris McFann and senior editor at Symbian Freak has published an article that does its best to explain the sometimes confusing direction Nokia is heading and why decisions made nearly 3 years ago have now put them in the position to execute what Nokia hopes will be market dominance and to infect every part of your digital world with the services portal, Ovi.

An enlightening read even if your remotely interested in the mobile landscape and ammo for Nokia fans the world over. Just be sure your drink is ready as the incisive read spreads over two pages.

Symbian Freak

Nokia N900 Video Preview

The Nokia N900 gets previewed by the Italian blog kiamanokia.it. It was about time someone uploaded a real video of the N900 on YouTube with a nice run through of the desktop and browser. Expect more videos and pictures of the N900 tomorrow when Nokia World 2009 starts!

You can find the HQ version here

Via Daily Mobile

Got a PS3? You might like this phone!

What are you offering PlayStation3 users in your upcoming range of phones?
Aino is one of the first handsets in Sony Ericsson’s new Communications Entertainment proposition. It offers a unique multimedia experience for all PlayStation3 fans as they can seamlessly access and control their PS3 media content anywhere, anytime using Remote Play.

Remote Play with Aino lets you turn your PS3 on and off, browse and control the XMB and access the internet browser from anywhere in the world. Remote Play also lets you control and access the HD Drive’s media content on PS3 using the built-in WiFi or 3G connections via Aino.

You can also access PlayStation Store via Remote Play or chat with friends via PlayStation Network. It is also possible to buy and download a new game from the Store via Aino so it is ready and waiting for you when you get home.

Android HTC Desire coming to Verizon

Looks like HTC will be releasing a new Android device according to this post from Phonearena. Hopefully this will not just be another Magic/Hero combination and will be something new.

We just received a new screenshot of a Verizon computer and guess what – it looks like there is a new Google-powered HTC device on its way! It is dubbed the HTC Desire 6200 and according to our source, it will be Google-branded, which unfortunately means that we don’t have a chance of seeing the manufacturer’s good-looking Sense interface on top. No other information is currently available about the Desire, but we promise to keep you posted when we know more. Are you excited about new Google-powered devices coming to Verizon? Sound off in the comments!

Windows phones are Coming on October 6th!

In just five weeks, you’ll have a bunch of new Windows phones to choose from. But before we show you some of the cool, new phones that will be coming out, I want to explain how we’re trying to make phones even better with Windows.

When we started work on Windows phones, we met with people all over the world who were likely to buy a smartphone and talked with them about what’s important to them in their phone. Looking at the U.S. market, for example, we found that about 15 million people in the next year will buy a new smartphone.

Samsung app store coming soon

Apple has a huge one, Palm has a little one, Nokia has a decent looking one, and Microsoft, well, we’re still waiting for them to finally reveal theirs to the public. What are we talking about? It’s app stores of course. Aside from those we’ve already mentioned, you can now also add Samsung to that growing list as they’ve just announced their Application Store set to be launched on September 14th. It will initially be available in the UK and France will roll out to Germany, Spain and 30 more countries thereafter. Sadly though, only two devices will be compatible with this new service at launch time, the Samsung Omnia and Omnia HD in particular. Both the upcoming Omnia 2 and Omnia Lite will follow later on. More than 300 apps will be readily available when it goes live next this month, but they are, however, already boasting that it will top 2,000 when 2009 comes to a close. With industry giants like Gameloft, Electronic Arts, and TAITO already on-board Samsung’s latest venture, we’re pretty sure they won’t have a hard time reaching that goal of theirs.

Safe to say, the mobile app market game just got a lot more intense with Samsung now joining the fray.

[unwiredview via PMP Today]

Get Excited! New Palms on the horizon?

Following up on the word of Palm devices appearing in Verizon’s database, we’ve been sent the above screenshot of a Sprint inventory management system, showing not one, not two, but three plot-thickening Palm devices. The first is the 100 we already know – the Palm Pre at $549.99. But after that are two more models we haven’t seen: the 120 and C40. Interestingly, the 120 is quite similar to P121VZW we saw in the Verizon screens (like the P100 for Sprint mirrors the P101VZW for Verizon). Both the 120 and C40 have placeholder prices of $1.

Vodafone mobile broadband to hit top HSDPA speed

 Vodafone has begun upgrading its mobile broadband network to a theoretical maximum download speed of 14.4Mbps, the operator announced on Thursday.

The move makes Vodafone the first British operator to roll out the highest specification for high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA).

HSDPA, a variant of 3G technology, is expected to be superseded by HSPA Evolved (HSPA+), then by the long-term evolution (LTE) of 3G — with each upgrade providing speed boosts.

DJ for iPhone released

Since version 3.0 of iPhone OS it is possible for apps to access music in iTunes in a limited way: an app can play them but cannot see contents of files. DJ app for iPhone has been just released and if you would like to have some other user interface to your iTunes files than built-in “iPod” app, then this may be something for you:

Newsy video of Google vs. Apple throwdown

Newsey has an interesting news video regarding the Apple/Google dispute regarding the rejection of the Google Voice app from the App Store. Apple recently turned down a Google-made application for it’s popular iPhone app store, but they’re not saying why. What’s next for the two companies?

[source Newsey]