Tag Archive for 'Wi-Fi'

Vodafone’s 2008 Symbian roadmap leaked with ugly-sounding handsets shocker!

Published by Chris Leonard on January 8, 2008 in Handsets. 1 Comment

vsymbianroadmapsmall.jpgVodafone’s 2007-2008 Symbian roadmap has been leaked and while we already know about the 2007 releases, more interesting is the two new Nokia handsets in Vodafone’s plans.

has show two new Nokia devices – the Liam and the Dora, scheduled for launch in Q2 this year. Both have built-in Wi-Fi, GPS and HSDPA and 3.2-megapixel cameras. But they do have differences…

The Liam is a QWERTY device with a 2.4-inch screen and is smaller and slimmer than the Nokia E61, which it’s going to replace. Meanwhile the slider Dora succeeds the Nokia E65, with a 2.4-inch screen and quad-band connectivity.

The devices sound (and look) pretty interesting but really, the names! Please Vodafone or Nokia, sort them out before you release these handsets – who’d want a handset called a ‘Dora’?



Nokia N82 gets exclusive ‘adventure pack’ from its online store

Published by Chris Leonard on December 20, 2007 in Handsets. 0 Comments

n82-shop-copy.jpgNokia’s released an exclusive ‘adventure pack’ for its brand spanking new N82, just in time for Christmas.

Available only from Nokia’s online store, the ‘adventure pack’ includes a Sim-free N82 (naturally), but also a pre-installed copy of Nokia’s Sports Tracker app and a Salomon backpack, as well as the 2GB microSD card and music headset which come as standard. And all this for only £399.

The phone itself is quite a nifty piece of kit with a five-megapixel camera, built-in GPS and Nokia Maps (in case you get lost while jogging), mobile internet (on 3G and Wi-Fi), plus a music player and FM radio.

The handset, currently available on O2 with a range of mobile retailers is already a pretty hot device, and presumably the ‘adventure pack’ is going to prove pretty attractive for sports enthusiasts.



Pic leaked of first Sony Ericsson P5i in someone’s hand

Published by Chris Leonard on December 17, 2007 in Handsets. 0 Comments

p5i.jpgOne of Sony Ericsson’s beta testers has leaked a picture of the delayed Sony Ericsson P5i smartphone. Admittedly it’s not a great shot but these days we have to take what we can get until Sony Ericsson officially unveils it.

The picture was leaked onto an Esato forum and shows a phone looking very heavily influenced by Apple’s iPhone.

According to the posting, the P5i is a slider handset running Symbian 9.1 on a UIQ 3.2 or UIQ 4 platform. The hi-res screen’s 2.8-inches, there’s GPS and of course, Wi-Fi built-in.

The phone also has a quite powerful 360Mhz processor and 160MB of internal memory, which can be expanded with both Memory Stick Micro (M2) and MicroSD cards.

It sounds and (we think) looks better and better every time details are leaked about this device, but we’ll have to wait until mid-2008 to see it.

[Via Symbian Freak]



W960i reviewed - it’s great… but also not great?

Published by Chris Leonard on December 13, 2007 in Hands on and Handsets. 1 Comment

sonyericsson-w960-00.jpgIntoMobile’s reviewed the SE W960i and it’s verdict? Well it’s both good and bad apparently.

Sony Ericsson’s ‘iPhone killer’ sounds like it almost lives up to the billing but doesn’t quite surpass Nokia’s latest NSeries handsets like the N95 8GB, according to Intomobile.

This follows Mobile Review’s recent report on their experience with it, concluding that ‘it doesn’t have much going for it’.

Intomobile says the 3.2-megapixel camera does the job and the phone has a whole wealth of pre-installed applications as well as 3G/Wi-Fi but unfortunately no HSDPA, and the Media Manager software is nice and quick when transferring files.

But despite being ‘the most beautiful UIQ 3 smartphone ever made’ and offering the ‘best out-of-the-box music experience on any UIQ 3 smartphone’ it still has some flaws.

There’s no 3.5mm jack despite being a high-end music handset and only a single speaker built in (although it does have stereo Bluetooth).

However the biggest problem seemed to be the UIQ 3 OS. Like Marmite, UIQ seems to split people in a way Symbian never does - you either love UIQ or hate it. Intomobile were of the opinion that UIQ 3 still isn’t perfect and while current UIQ users will love the device, those coming from a Windows Mobile or Symbian device might struggle to get to grips with the W960i’s menu system.

So that settles it then. The W960i is a great handset… and yet not a great handset. You can read the review for yourself here.



Nokia Music Store now available free on The Cloud wi-fi

Published by Chris Leonard on December 11, 2007 in Biz & Tech, Mobile internet and Music. 0 Comments

02_music_store_lowres.jpgNokia Music Store customers can get free access to it over wi-fi after it signed a deal with The Cloud. The deal gives free access through The Cloud’s 7,500 wi-fi hotspots.

The deal means that Music Store customers with wi-fi handsets and laptops can connect to The Cloud and browse the millions of tracks on Music Store without having to pay their operators’ browsing rates.

Aside from the obvious financial benefits, customers will also get faster, more reliable connections than on operators’ 3G networks, meaning quick and easy downloads.

The Cloud’s wi-fi hotspots are in all sorts of places such as McDonalds, Coffee Republic, airports and the Square Mile in London. It’s already done deals to offer free wi-fi access to iPhone users and O2 and Orange customers. If it keeps growing at this rate, soon no-one will ever need pay for wireless broadband internet again…



Sony Ericsson’s P1i reviewed and it ‘doesn’t make the grade’

Published by Chris Leonard on December 6, 2007 in Hands on. 3 Comments

Channel Five’s The Gadget Show has reviewed Sony Ericsson’s latest smartphone on its WebTV site and the conclusion? It’s not as good as Apple’s iPhone or Nokia’s N95.

The reviewer, John Bentley, said he had hoped the P1i would be a good alternative to the other two now ubiquitous handsets but he was sadly disappointed.

He liked the camera and music player and that was about it. They keypad, web browser, Wi-Fi (Which he couldn’t get to work), design and the fact that SMS messages are set up for only 70 characters (You have to manually select 160 characters) all came in for criticism.

It’s a shame for Sony Ericsson but then I’m sure sales of its K800-series cameraphones and W-Series walkmans more than make up for it.



iPhone Web Apps No. 2: BBC Podcasts

Published by Stuart Dredge on November 26, 2007 in Hands on. 0 Comments

BBC Podcasts iPhone

The Beeb has been quick to experiment with the iPhone’s capability for web applications, with the first fruits being its BBC Podcasts site. It lets you browse the broadcaster’s radio podcasts by station, genre or title (an A-Z list). I wrote about it earlier this month, but have been having a play with it to see how it shapes up.

It’s well designed, with a clean and easily navigable interface mirroring the way the iPod feature works on the iPhone. Clicking through (that should be thumbing through, really) to the podcast gives you a paragraph of textual description of the overall podcast, as well as a description of each individual podcast, along with their duration.

But what’s good is the Play button, which lets you stream these podcasts directly to your iPhone over Wi-Fi using Quicktime streaming - which again, means the controls for pausing and controlling the volume work in exactly the same way as the iPod feature.

Continue reading ‘iPhone Web Apps No. 2: BBC Podcasts’



O2’s proxy server is bad news for iPhone music websites

Published by Stuart Dredge on November 21, 2007 in Mobile internet and Music. 0 Comments

bbc-iphone-podcasts.jpgWith the iPhone’s music capabilities and Safari browser, you’d think there’d be lots of music sites launching iPhone-friendly versions letting you stream tunes to your iPhone. However, it seems there may be a problem here in the UK preventing such services.

It’s been exposed by the BBC’s Radio Labs blog, in a post about the Beeb’s iPhone podcast site (which we’ve covered before). After complaints that some UK users couldn’t play the streaming podcasts, the BBC investigated, and discovered that the problem was related to users trying to stream over O2’s EDGE network:

“After a lot of emails and rooting around for info, it seems O2 have a proxy server that replaces content on the fly to speed up web-over-EDGE performance. This includes downgrading images, and removing any references to Mp3’s - hence the lack of a play button. In the States, there’s no such proxy, so although its slower, US users get the full playback experience.”

Ouch. It works fine over Wi-Fi, but the news isn’t good for Music 2.0 sites looking to target UK iPhone users when they’re not within range of a hotspot.

(via BBC Radio Labs)



Every Cloud has an Orange lining: Orange teams up with The Cloud to offer broader wi-fi coverage

Published by Fraser MacInnes on November 20, 2007 in Mobile internet. 0 Comments

Crepuscular2.jpgOrange has just signed a deal with wi-fi provider, The Cloud to make the companies 7,500 UK hotspots available to Orange users. The deal is aimed at satisfying the needs of business customers who will be able to access the points via their existing Orange Business Everywhere data cards.

Orange has already snuggled up to BT OpenZone, France Telecom and WeRoam to provide broader wi-fi access to its customers so this move is pretty much in keeping with its existing strategy. Combined, Orange customers now have access to more than 10,000 wi-fi hotspots.

The Cloud is no stranger to mobile network providers either having already brokered a deal with O2 to offer wi-fi access to iPhone users. Let’s hope those hotspots don’t get too crowded.

(Via Orange)



Nokia’s N82 cameraphone to beat all cameraphones finally unveiled

Published by Chris Leonard on November 15, 2007 in Handsets. 1 Comment

n82front.jpgAfter lots of hype and feverish anticipation, Nokia’s N82 has finally had its official unveiling.

It’s being heralded as one of the best ‘if not the best’ cameraphones around, boasting a five-megapixel camera, and the now standard NSeries Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics.

It features pretty much the same features as the N95 and others, being a ‘multimedia computer’, but also a ‘navigation device’ courtesy of built-in A-GPS and Nokia Maps.

The N82’s big selling point is the camera. As well as the features above, it has fast camera activation (around two seconds), autofocus (with an assist lamp), quick reloads between shots and ‘DVD-like’ video capture. Hi-res pics and video can then be saved on the 2GB microSD card that’ll come as standard.

If you want to share content, Nokia’s included wi-fi connectivity and one-click uploads to file sharing sites, and the ability to connect the N82 to hi-res TVs.

And this isn’t all - the N82 also has Nokia’s new content-driven 3D multimedia menu, plus Nokia’s Ovi mobile internet services (Nokia Music Store, N-Gage games (well, from December anyway) and Nokia Maps).

It might not look as sexy as the iPhone or even the N95 8GB, but one thing’s for sure, the N82 certainly looks like it’s going to live up to all the hype.



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