Monthly ArchiveMay 2009
Uncategorized 19 May 2009 06:06 am
Palm Pre announced with Sprint debutes on June 6th, Pricing
Computerworld.com and CNET relayed today the announcement that the Palm Pre touchscreen smartphone will commence on June 6th
The Pre will be available nationwide on June 6 for $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract on Sprint’s Everything Data plan or Business Essentials with Messaging and Data plan. In addition to Sprint stores, the Pre will be sold at Best Buy, Radio Shack, and select Walmart stores as well as online.
The QWERTY smartphone, which is based on Palm’s new operating system webOS, comes with a touch interface and a 3.1-inch display. It has support for EV-DO Rev A, 802.11 b and g, GPS (Global Positioning System), Bluetooth with stereo support, a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash and 8GB of built-in storage, but no memory card slot.
The phone software can combine personal and professional calendar, contacts and e-mail into one centralized view, according to the operator. Users can, for example, group together Outlook, Google and Facebook calendars or collect e-mail from multiple accounts in one inbox. All conversations with the same person over instant messaging or text messaging are grouped together in one chat-style view.
The phone organizes multiple active applications using “activity cards,” large icons that line up on the display. Using the touch interface, users can flip through them, move them around, or throw them off screen by dragging a finger from the bottom to the top of the screen.
The phone can be picked up in Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, select Wal-Mart stores and online at Sprint.com, Sprint said.
Uncategorized 18 May 2009 07:16 am
HTC S740 on Orange
This is a well-featured Windows Mobile smartphone with a good mini-QWERTY keyboard and impressive battery life. Shame about the backplate though.
Nokia 11 May 2009 08:43 am
Roundup of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Reviews
As nokia released its first true touch-screen Smart Phone in a bid to counter Apple’s iPhone,
Samsung’s Omnia and LG’s Cookie, and ran a massive ad campaign for it in EMEA, what’s really this phone worth ? Is it a hit or a miss ?
Let’s checkout the main input from the reviewers :
Brighthand.com noted that
The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is slated as the first in a series of touchscreen devices from Nokia. As a first effort it’s both encouraging and a disappointment. Encouraging because the hardware and some of the software just fit very well. The Contacts Bar homescreen, excellent battery life, and multimedia facilities put just about every other smartphone on its heels.
Nevertheless, inconsistencies in the interface, too many input options, and not enough optimized software set the 5800XM back where it really should be ahead. It needs just a little more polish all around.
That all being said, it goes into and out of my pocket a lot. I really like it, despite the issues noted. And at less than $400 for an unlocked version (Cincinnati Bell is the only U.S. carrier offering it; at $150 with a 2 year contract), it’s really hard to find a better value that’s not Apple’s iPhone.
For those looking for a device that has a bit more punch than pretty much any other mid-range touchscreen offering, and aren’t opposed to purchasing unlocked devices, the 5800XM is hard to beat.
Pros:
- Good battery life
- Loud speakers
- Reading text from the screen
Cons:
- Inconsistent UI
- Default software not completely optimized
- So-so video performance
CNET.com said:
The good: The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers a sharp touch screen and compact design, it also features a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 3G support.
The bad: The user interface needs some work including the input and navigation methods. The Nokia Music Store is not yet available in the United States.
The bottom line: The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers an attractive design and feature set, but the touch-screen phone has some shortcomings compared with the competition
SymbianBlog.com said:
My device came pre loaded with the version 11 firmware and I have got to say that it makes the 5800 one of the most stable devices at launch, ever. The UI is quick and snappy and even with transitions enabled the phone is fairly fast. This along with its web browsing capabilities, good battery, loudspeakers and large screen makes the 5800 a very likeable phone indeed. The one thing that is weak on the 5800 is email, there is Mail for Exchange support but apart from that you will need to rely on the inbuilt S60 email application. I personally am happy with that because I’ve never loved push email much. Having set the phone to ping my mailbox every 30 minutes, it retrieves the headers for me, infact that’s the exact setup I use on my other devices too.
There are still a few gaps that need to be filled in, but I personally love the device and that quotient increases almost everyday, it is the only device that has let me move away from my trusty E71 without heartburn.
The 5800 Xpress Music is a recommended BUY.
What’s your take on it ?
Comment below
LG 04 May 2009 08:17 am
LG Cookie KP500 review
So LG has renamed its KP500 Cookie ! Funny name, you’d say but is it a serious challenger ?
Aimed at giving the masses an affordable touchscreen phone, the KP500 is nevertheless an attractive handset that doesn’t feel at all cheap. The first thing that strikes you about the Cookie (after you’ve stopped laughing at the name) is how similar it looks to the LG renoir- but its features are a different story.
On the back of the KP500 there’s a 3-megapixel camera, but that’s about it when it comes to features — there’s no 3G or Wi-Fi, for example, but what you do get is a cute touchscreen interface that’s similar to and, in some respects, even better than the Renoir’s.
A series of widgets are on offer, such as an on-screen clock or memo pad, which you can drag on to the KP500’s homepage. Brush the screen to the side and you can access shortcuts to contacts and other apps, similar to HTC’s TouchFLo interface on the Touch, and something the Renoir doesn’t have.
We were told that the KP500 is due to launch in Europe and the UK at the end of this month and that it should cost around 200$ — a very competitive price when you consider how prohibitively expensive most touchscreen phones are.
The bottom line is that the KP500 is certainly no iPhone, but if a touchscreen is top of your feature list, it offers a relatively competent experience. There’s an on-screen Qwerty keypad, handwriting recognition and an automatically rotating screen — nothing revolutionary, but more than you get on most pay as you go phones.