All Gadgets Aside...

So anyone that knows me and knows my technology preferences knows that I am a big fan of two technology companies, Apple and Nokia. Lately I have taken up issues with all this iPhone business. Being that I am a mac admin and everyone knows that I love to use macs and Apple related products there hasn't been a day since the original iPhone release that someone hasn't asked me where my iPhone is. I generally politely reach into my pocket and retrieve my Nokia N85 and say, "It's right here, only this iPhone does more". They usually respond by saying, "but, that's not an iPhone". To which I reply, "you are correct, but this phone still does a whole lot more".

Let's face it, even with the third rendition of the iPhone almost out, Apple is still playing catch up especially in the hardware realm. I would agree that Apple has done a marvelous job marketing the iPhone and I know better than most that if you slap an Apple logo on it you may as well just fire up the money printing press at the mint and drop the money off at Apple. The deal with the iPhone is that Apple has drummed up a pretty insane level of fanaticism. I would agree that I am a fanatic of Nokia and it would be tough to pry the Nokia from my hands even if I were dead but I can safely say that if someone came out with a phone that had:
A. The build quality of a Nokia
B. Software that is as tried and true as Symbian/S60
C. Features that best the feature set of a Nokia
Then I would give said phone the time of day and consider switching to it.

It is nice to see that I will finally be able to send pictures to my iPhone disabled friends, a first for those that have upgraded their handsets or paid the ridiculous amount to upgrade. I am also glad that those that purchase the 3Gs can get lost in the woods and find their way out (as long as their battery doesn't die first) with the incredibly useful compass app.

I get it people. The iPhone is a sexy little piece of hardware, not going to deny that. But really? I mean, before the iPhone came out most of these people couldn't give a crap what phone they had in their hand. Remember the RAZR? Remember how everyone jumped on that one and Motorola road it out until they couldn't even give the things away? The RAZR had a horrible camera, a lack of any extra functionality. But hey, everyone else had a RAZR and it looked good when you had it up to your head. At the time I was rocking a Nokia with a 3 megapixel camera. So fast forward a bit. All those people that had phones that didn't have any functionality beyond a phone that made a decent call all of a sudden care about a quasi smart phone? Is it that or is it that they really like to download an app that lets you pop bubble wrap on the screen of your phone?

A person that sits near me at work was asking another co-worker if he was going to upgrade his iPhone to the 3Gs because she was thinking about doing it. I had to interject and say "hey, if you are going to pay $300 while on contract to upgrade your phone then why not avoid the additional time on your contract and buy a Nokia 5800" I explained how it's been out for a little while, costs a bit over $300, offers up the same functionality as the iPhone and then some, can be used with Ovi for free (as opposed to $99/year for MobileMe), and a whole multitude of other reasons why it would make sense. 10 minutes later she says over the cube wall to me, "but there is no app store" to which I reply, "store.ovi.com, accessible both from the phone and the web". I think that even with all the positive things I laid out that Apple's marketing team did a better job selling their product to this individual even though they can't up with one reason why it would make more sense to buy their product. I tried, I usually do, but people in America are stuck in the "I need to buy what my carrier sells me" mentality.

The interesting thing is that AT&T, as of late, has even seen the light and realized that not everyone wants a subsidized phone. They offer up the ability to walk in and purchase a SIM card and a month to month plan, if you ask. People, listen to me when I tell you this. Cellular carriers are not doing you a favor by selling you a subsidized phone. Instead they are selling you products that they dumb down according to their wants and needs and essentially selling you a broken product. *Cough*iPhone tethering*Cough*

Ok let me sum things up as it seems I have gotten off on a much bigger tangent that I can go into at another time.

The iPhone:
-sexy
-sleek
-marketed very well
-extremely trendy
-behind in terms of technology
-even the 3Gs needs a hardware upgrade
-MobileMe should be free
-Useless free apps are just that, useless
-Compass on an iPhone won't save your life unless you know how to use a compass and the battery doesn't die

Pantech/Curitel have a new phone on the market under their high end name brand, SKY. This new phone, the IM-R200, has a standard feature set for phones these days but has a secret under it's slider hood that is surely going to turn some heads with it's clean look. The standard feature set that this mobile includes are 116mb of built in memory, micro SD slot, multimedia player and 2 megapixel camera with autofocus. What makes this handset stand out is the second LCD display, hidden beneath this sliders main display, that turns out to be a keypad. A very interesting use of a secondary display for sure. As with most good bits of technology, we won't see it outside of Korea, at least not for now.

I have never really been a fan of these things myself. I think people look goofy especially when driving down the road and talking, making it look like they are talking to themselves. Nonetheless it appears that Aliph is releasing the ultimate in in bluetooth headset technology with the Jawbone. The Jawbone features "military grade" noise canceling as well as skin friendly medical grade plastic combine these features with a very sleek and refined design and you have one beatiful headset that just might not look so goofy. For a little demonstration I am including the YouTube video so you can see this thing in action. Enjoy!

In an interesting bit of news, Opera has announced today that Opera Mini is now available for download for both the Treo and the Blackberry. All I can say about this is the more devices that can use Opera in any form the better off the world will be. I have been using Opera Mini since it first came around and frankly its one of the greatest bits of portable software around. If you are a Treo or Blackberry user then I highly recommend you rush over and download it. Download Opera Mini Here!

Unfortunately there comes a time in the life of every gadget when you have to set it aside and upgrade to something new. Well for me there were a few reasons for me to upgrade my Mobile to a new device so I searched high and low for the right device for me. I am a rather picky person when it comes to mobile phones mainly because of the fact that I have been spoiled by using a Sony Ericsson S710a for the past year. When it came down to the features and price that I was looking for I ended up going with the Nokia 6270 (Nokia, if you are listening, I will gladly accept an N73 for reviewing purposes). One of the main factors that I look for in a phone these days is whether or not it can run the applications that I use regularily, so basically it needs to run Opera Mini.

Upon Opening the box I was greeted by a sleek looking phone, squared off edges, slider, nice large screen, dark brown aluminum exterior. Starting up the phone was a snap, I started off by inserting the SIM card, the included 128mb memory card(can take up to 2gb MiniSD Card) and battery then pressed the conveniently hidden power button(located on the top of the phone). The phone greets you with some friendly Nokia hand holding intro and then you are off. The Series 40 interface is very visually pleasing and is very easy to navigate. One of the main things I was curious about was the active standby mode so I scurried over to the settings and turned it on. Active Standby is basically a way to display important information on the main screen including the calendar, notes, music currently playing, current radio station and shortcuts to frequenly used applications. The Active Standby made going from application to application and song to song a breeze.

As far as music goes on the 6270, I would say it that this phone qualifies as a great way to listen to your favorite tunes. On the exterior of the phone there are two speakers to give you stereo sound. I was skeptical of the external speakers at first but after taking a listen to a few songs I quickly change my mind. Although the speakers don't offer much in the way of bass(what do you expect?, they are tiny) they do offer some pretty incredible stereo seperation for being so close together. When you plug the headphones into the pop port you get sound that I feel is very comparable or better than the iPod. Plenty of volume is cranked out through the headphones and there is an Equalizer to fine tune the sound to your liking.

The camera was one of the main reasons I decided to pick up this handset and so far it's been great. The camera on the 6270 is a 2 megapixel camera with flash as well as video capabilities. When taking photos with the phone you hold it sideways like a digital camera and the button to take the shot is located on the top, the camera will start up automatically when the button is pressed. Unfortunately I haven't been able to take too many photos with this handset yet. The photos that I have taken have come out very well, great color, nice contrast, decent night shots. As I take a few more photos and videos I will update this section.

Overall I would say this is a great handset and would recommend it to anyone looking for a full featured phone that can't or doesn't want to spend $450USD or more on the next step up. I do have a couple gripes but nothing that would deter from the overall experience. The first complaint is that the sliding feeling is a little less solid than the S710a that I was used to using(like I said, spoiled). The second would be that it seems that the battery runs down pretty fast, I haven't run it down to dead yet but it looks like you wouldn't get more than a few days out of a charge. I tend to plug my phone in every night anyhow.

I do have bad news for those people living in the US, this phone is not currently available in the US but you can always track one down Unlocked.

Nokia 6270 Product Page

I have wanted to highlight Okwap for quite sometime because they are one of those companies that most people have never heard of. The thing is that you have probably seen at least one of their products somewhere online. So who is Okwap? They are a the electronics company behind all those cute cell phone designs. A lot of companies do their best to come up with something unique and different, Okwap licenses cartoon characters instead. Some of the most noteable models that Okwap makes are based on the characters of Japans infamous Sanrio.



The Hello Kitty phones have been the continuous and most popular models in their line attracting all sorts of people to drool over them worldwide. The most recent addition to their line of fun phones includes famous Anime character Astroboy in a design that is quite a bit more fitting for the male persuasion. Okwap does also make the usual goods, standard LOOKING phones(I emphasize looking, they tend to slap touch screens on even the smallest phones). How can you pay attention to their simple phones when they have so much fun in their lineup? Find out more about Okwap by visiting their homepage here: Okwap Home

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's leading mobile service provider, announced that they are introducing a 2 year plan to make all phones that they offer GSM compliant. What does this mean and why is this such big news? Well, it's good a thing you, er me, asked. Most of the world uses GSM for their mobile phone networks and DoCoMo has been known to offer some amazing phones, meaning that soon you too will be able to use these amazing phones. As of the current time, only a few phones offered in Japan are GSM compliant. I am on the edge of my seat to see what comes out first in GSM form, thanks Japan!

So this isn't by any means new news. But I was recently taking a close look at the Moto A1200 and I can't believe how much a full featured "PDA" phone that this thing is, not to mention it's highly attractive. Another thing that is utterly beautiful about this phone is the fact that it comes preloaded with Opera and Real One Player(Genius!). A nice large touch screen, memory slot, and flashy clear flip up piece with speaker make this thing truly a winner especially amongst smart phones. What can possibly be better? This baby runs linux as it's native OS(I am still not sold on Windows based smart phones). Here is a shot of the phone for you drool over: