As if to confirm that this really is the year of the music phone, Samsung jumps on the bandwagon, announcing its own Nokia-rivalling 3GB hard-disked mobile phone. Not quite as good as the Nokia N91, though - 1 GB less storage, only 1.3 megapixel camera against the N91's 2Megapixel. Also, no Wi-Fi capability, so it doesn't offer as much potential for
MobSharing as the N91. It's based on Microsoft's Mobile OS, so should have a nice variety of apps to play with (ToDo lists, email syncing, etc.), and Samsung are promoting it as a usedful tool for transferring files between PCs, which, with 3GB to play with, is a fair point.
Virtually all new mobile phones now have a camera within them of some description, from the basic VGA 0.3 megapixel variety, through the current generation of 2 megapixellers, to the top-of-the-line, only-in-Japan 7 megapixel behemoths. Despite a recent survey by StrategyAnalytics Inc. showing that only 28.5% of people actually use their phone’s camera features (and an even more alarming 2.9% use picture messaging to send the photo), the manufacturers are insistent on the mobile phone being the gadget of choice for the masses; as such, it simply must have a camera!
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But does this mean that you can throw away your camera and rely solely on your phone? Well, no – just try taking a photo on your phone in poor light and you’ll see why! However, by making use of some of the features within a mobile phone’s camera, you can overcome these limitations, and get the most out of your phone’s camera.
Read more >>
Have any tips of your own, or comments on how well your phone’s camera performs? Feel free to add them here.
At last, after much feverish speculation, way too much coverage, and not a little hype, Motorola and Apple finally announce the Motorola ROKR E1 iTunes phone. Before I carry on, we've had so much guessing, what's the actual spec? Here it is, straight from
Motorola themselves:
"The Motorola ROKR is the world’s first ever music phone featuring the Apple iTunes® mobile music player allowing you to take your favorite playlists - featuring full length tracks - wherever you go in one convergence product at the touch of a single dedicated iTunes button. Advanced stereo and lighting technology offer amazing sound and delivers reactions you can see and feel. The Motorola ROKR will have you seamlessly grooving to a new beat!
- Intuitive iTunes® interface : even displays album art
- Integrated Digital VGA Camera with 4 x Digital Zoom
- Side lights sync with games, ringtones, music and ambient sounds
- Removable Memory : Optional, removable TransFlashâ„¢ memory cards store photos, music and video clips
- Make and transfer playlists from your PC to your phone : note approx. transfer time is 30 seconds for 4MB music (transfer times will vary)"
Want this in English?
- o.3 megapixel camera
- 128MB memory (The New York Times puts this at about 100 tunes - but the 128MB is for the whole phone, not just the music. And most of my tunes are about 4Meg or so for decent quality, which works out at only 25 tunes)
- No OverTheAir music downloading - you must download all tunes from your PC or Mac
I knew this phone would be underwhelming, but this is just too much! I feel a major rant coming on!
Today, finally, we hear the latest release of the Motorola ROKR, aka "the iTunes phone" - and here I am banging on about the Siemens SXG75! But don't worry, the ROKR will be discussed shortly. For now, though, I want to go on about a seriously interesting phone!
Although it doesn't sound special (no flashy brand, and 'SXG75' is hardly memorable), you've probably never heard of it, it looks...well, I'm sure it's mother loves it, and Siemens have
sold their mobile phone business to BenQ (that's B
enQ, not B
andQ!), this phone has an amazing set of features. Not content with wireless calls, video streaming (it's a 3G phone), taking pictures (2 megapixel) and playing sounds (MP3 player - oooh, there's a surprise!), this phone has one more trick up its sleeve - SatNav! Yes, thanks to Siemens, you can now add GPS to the loooooong list of acronyms being squeezed into these tiny boxes.
I'll talk more about this phone, and about the implications of adding GPS to mobile phones, shortly. For now, though, read all about the
Siemens SXG75 from the horse's mouth (i.e. Siemens's press release!)
More news on the new Motorola iTunes phones, which is
meant to be released today...but don't expect to be overwhelmed. According to
Forbes, "A person who has seen a version of the phone says it was designed to accommodate just 25 songs, which would be 'sideloaded' from a user's computer using iTunes. The phone was equipped with a 128-megabyte Sandisk TransFlash memory card--just one-quarter the capacity of Apple's smallest iPod, the 512-megabyte shuffle, which holds about 120 songs. While it should be possible to swap out the memory card on the new iTunes phone for one with more capacity, the person who has seen the handset says the phone's software appears to artificially cap song storage at 25 songs, regardless of how much memory the phone has. "
This isn't the full story, as
The Register notes, which reckons that the iTunes phone will be available in two different models. But frankly, I don't care! The full release may be made today - or it may not. Whatever, my
hopes aren't exactly high.
Mobiledia discusses a report by Berg Insight that reckons that the mobile content market in Europe (i.e. the content the operators will be desperate for you to subscribe to) will be worth over $40 billion by 2012 - that's one expensive Crazy Frog!
According to Mobiledia, although TV content will cross over to the mobile market, "the leading mobile content and entertainment services over the next 5 - 7 years will be games, sport, music and multi-media downloads and content messaging. Adult content will also provide an important revenue stream in many Western European markets, although mobile operators will often prefer to keep a distance from racier content and stick to softer branded "lads mag" type content - e.g. GQ, Loaded and FHM."
Read more at
mobiledia.com
InfoSyncWorld have a review of the Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman phone, which they like...a lot! Despite their reservations over the camera (great camera for a phone...but still a phone camera, and no replacement for a camera camera!), it scored well in most other areas, receiving 93%. They conclude that:
"Despite an advanced feature set which includes a high quality camera and similarly high-performance audio player, the Sony Ericsson W800i manages to maintain strong battery life. Its lack of EDGE for high-speed data aside, the handset also delivers an excellent overall experience in the communications and messaging departments. The Walkman branded Sony Ericsson W800i comes highly recommended not only for youth, but for everyone in need of a brilliant combination of mobile phone, digital camera and portable music player."
Can't say fairer than that!
You can buy it now at The MobileOutlet, or else read more about the Sony Ericsson W800i
And if you're still not convinced, read our Sony Ericsson W800i Review.
[Source: InfoSyncWorld]
Why is it that when a new product carries a fabulous brand, chances are the product itself will be poor, or the run up to the big launch will be farcically fumbled? Take Sony's new Walkman phone, the W800i. Slated for release mid-August, the big launch is on-track, but you look at the product and you think 'oooh - a 512MB MP3 player - how marvellous!' Its sonic ability may sound great, but 512MB doesn't exactly set the world on fire does it? It smacks of a missed opportunity.
But legendary though the
Walkman brand undoubtedly is, it's not really what you call cutting edge any more. That honour goes to Apple, with its iPod and iTunes brands, and so it is to Apple that Motorola turned to when developing its latest music-focused mobile phone. You can see how Motorola's thought process went: "iPod is cool, Apple is hip, people actually use iTunes, an iPod Motorola phone will sell shed-loads - we'll be rich!"
And of course, it will sell by the bucket-load - if they can actually get the thing out the door!
Motorola have released another version of their hugely stylish phone, the Razr. The Razr was the most stylish of last year's crop of phones, and certainly the slimmest, but was let down with only a VGA (0.3 Megapixel) camera, when the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson were pushing 1 Megapixel plus cameras. Unfortunately, this new version, the Razr V3 BLK, does nothing to address this - in fact, it's simply the same phone, but black!
Still, it looks fantastic, and it's got all the usual stuff, such as QuadBand, email, MMS, Java etc. It's just that, with the new generation of phones coming out offering a quantum leap over these features, it doesn't quite offer the goods in the features department So this phone is for those who purely want their phone to look good, without caring about what it actually does, so long as it makes phone calls and allows you to text...which is probably all most people want from a phone, really! If this sounds like you, you can buy it now from
The MobileOutlet.
2004 was clearly the year of the mobile phone camera, with resolutions reaching the useable 1 megapixel limit, and SonyEricsson and Nokia releasing phones with cameras that actually took decent pictures. Now, though, fashion has moved on. The mobile phones still have their digital cameras, which of course have improved with 2 megapixel being the norm now, but the big handset manufacturers have clearly decided that this year is the year of the mobile music player.
SonyEricsson fired the first salvos with the W800i, to be released at the end of August 2005. Motorola have been teasing the faithful with an official iPod phone. Now, Nokia fires back with the very tasty looking N91, a new phone with 2 megapixel camera and storage space for up to 3,000 tunes via an in-built hard disk.
