May 25th, 2009

Is the Nokia N900 Internet Tablet really coming to T-Mobile USA

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 9:33 am

Categories: Gadgets, Nokia, Nseries, Rumors

Tags: Nokia Corp., T-Mobile, Tablets, Notebooks, Keyboards, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Peripherals, Matthew Miller

I enjoy using the Nokia N810 device from time to time to surf, use some old Palm apps with GarnetVM, and watch movies. I do find it to be a bit laggy at times though so it isn’t always with me. MobileCrunch posted some rumored news on the next Nokia Internet Tablet referred to as the N900, Rover, and Maemo Flagship. It is very similar to the Nokia N97, but with a higher resolution display and Maemo OS rather than S60.

Some of the rumored hardware specs are:

• Maemo 5 OS
• 3.5 inch 800×480 touchscreen (capacitive or not?)
• OMAP3430 500/600 MHZ processor
• 5 megaxpixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• WiFi (it should have Bluetooth as well)
• HSPA wireless 3.5G capability
• 32GB internal storage with expandable memory (microSD?)

One other aspect of the rumor that particularly interests me is the possible T-Mobile USA availability in August/September 2009. If this is true then I will definitely be picking one up to run on my T-Mobile account.

March 19th, 2009

Mobile Firefox (aka Fennec) beta 1 now available for testing

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 2:30 am

Categories: Gadgets, Linux, Mobile software, Nokia, Nseries

Tags: Mozilla Firefox, Nokia Corp., Mobile, Beta, Mozilla Corp., Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, Web Browsers, Advertising & Promotion, Microsoft Windows, Internet

The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet is a fun device to tinker with and is a slick piece of hardware. I tried running the alpha version of the Mozilla Fennec browser on it a couple of months ago and it was extremely slow and virtually useless. I just read over on Brighthand that the Beta 1 version of Fennec was released for the N810 running OS2008 so I headed on over and immediately downloaded it. This is the first beta release of a mobile version of Firefox and looks much more promising than the earlier alpha version I tried. You can see it running in the video below.

The list of features in this new beta include:

• TraceMonkey, Mozilla’s new JavaScript engine
• Faster application start-up time
• Faster panning
• Faster zooming
• Initial implementation of bookmark folders and bookmark editing
• Support for plug-ins

Fennec Beta 1 walkthrough from Madhava Enros on Vimeo.

There are also lots of other improvements from the alpha feature list. I used Fennec to check out some of my favorite sites (including my ZDNet blogs) and found that it still seemed to be a bit sluggish loading some heavy ad-laden pages, but it did load the full version of them too. It was actually quite fast with Google Reader, which is where I live most of the time. I just may be using my N810 more and more for browsing on the go now.

It took me a while to figure out how to get into full screen mode since the upper menu (and associated button) doesn’t seem to do anything. From their tips & tricks section, to use the full screen for browsing, click the button on the left hand side on top of the device (to the left of the -/+ buttons).

If you don’t have a Nokia N810 to try it out on and want to see how it may eventually work on your S60 or Windows Mobile device you can install it on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer and try it for yourself.

December 8th, 2008

Google Android OS ported and running on the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 11:20 am

Categories: Linux, Nokia, Nseries, Open Handset Alliance

Tags: Google Inc., Google Android, Device, Nokia Corp., Operating System, Linux, Tablets, Notebooks, Operating Systems, UNIX

The T-Mobile G1 is an impressive device that has been performing rock solidly for me these past few weeks. The idea of running the Google Android device was to have it move from phones to other devices in the future and according to Linux Devices an enterprising developer has ported Android to the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet. I enjoy using the N810 and would love to try out the Android OS on this Linux-based device. With its WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, the device is more than capable of staying connected for Google syncing.

You can find out more details about this project by reading McDermott’s white paper. The intent is to eventually get this out so that other N810 owners can try out Android on the N810 too.

November 12th, 2008

Nokia working to reduce traffic congestion

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 7:08 am

Categories: BlackBerry, Mobile software, Nokia, Nseries, On the road, S60, mobile services

Tags: Nokia Corp., Nokia Research Center, Podcasts, Advertising & Promotion, Internet, Marketing, Matthew Miller, Mobile

I had a nice chat with Ross Lamont from Nokia this morning regarding the Nokia Legends campaign (my interview should be in the next MobileTechRoundup podcast) and he mentioned that their Mobile Millenium project highlighted on the Nokia Telegraph “virtual paper” was moving forward with a larger scale testing program. Nokia issued a press release announcing the launch of the pilot program that will collect and study traffic data received from GPS-enable mobile phones, particularly the N95, E71, and N96. Nokia Research Center is working with UC Berkeley and NAVTEQ on this project.

I mentioned before that the Dash Express personal navigation device collects user data and uses that to help provide you with localized traffic conditions. Most of the time you only see traffic status for major highways, like on Google Maps, but for many of us the other minor roads can be just as congested. This new Nokia program appears to work like the two-way communication on the Dash as Nokia will be gathering real-time information from those with the handsets in the testing program.

And for those of you who are worried that your personal location is now being tracked and monitored, the team has built safeguards into the system to keep individual device identifiers out of the transmitted traffic data.

Participation is open to anyone with a GPS-enabled mobile phone who live in this Northern California area. The pilot program is scheduled to run for four to six months with up to 10,000 participants. You can visit the Mobile Millenium project page to see what devices are supported and sign up for the program. The currently tested devices include the Nokia E71, E61i, N96, and N95 with the BlackBerry Curve and Pearl working as well.

September 30th, 2008

First Intel MID now available for $699

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 10:20 am

Categories: Gadgets, Linux, Microsoft, Nokia, Nseries, On the road, Ultra portable PC, iPhone

Tags: Device, Intel Corp., Linux, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Wireless LANs, Microsoft Windows XP, UNIX, Notebooks, Open Source

There was a lot of Intel MID (Mobile Internet Device) news and demos at CES back in January, but we are just now starting to see them become available. Jenn from Pocketables posted that the Aigo P8860D/Gigabyte M528 MID is now shipping from Japan for US$699 with free worldwide shipping. The device has been on ebay, but this is the first official reseller carrying the device. I haven’t read anywhere that other MID devices are coming soon with most speculation showing 2009 availability. With devices like the iPhone/iPod Touch and Nokia N810 I am not sure there is a real need for a device like these, but then again with Linux or Windows XP your browser experience should not be limited like it is on all of these existing handheld devices.

The specifications for the Aigo P8860D include:

• Atom Z500 Intel® Menlow platform with 800MHz Frequency
• 512 MB (DDR2) RAM
• 4GB SSD Storage +2GB TF card
• 4.8″ WVGA High resolution Touch Screen (800*480 pixels)
• 2700mAH 3.5 to 5.5 hrs
• WLAN: 802.11 b/g + Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP)
• 0.3 megapixel webcam
• 2 USB ports, audio port
• Size: 152×80x21.9mm
• Weight: 300 gr
• (OS): Linux OS MIDinux (Full english)

I understand that Windows XP drivers may be available in October as well.

Netbooks have full browser and cost less than or equal to what we see here with this first MID, however they are really not as pocketable as the MID devices look to be and are more of a laptop replacement. These MIDs take a form factor like the Nokia Internet Tablets and put a more powerful processor inside with a more powerful OS powering the experience.

Is there a market for the MIDs?

September 15th, 2008

MobileTechRoundup show #147, New MP3 players, new HTC devices and more

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 12:39 pm

Categories: Apple, HTC, MP3 players, MoTR podcast, Netbook, Nokia, Nseries, Ultra portable PC, Windows Mobile, Wireless carriers, Zune, iPhone

Tags: MobileTechRoundup, High Tech Computer Corp., MP3 Player, MP3, Podcasts, Internet, Matthew Miller

Listen here (MP3, 31 MB, 33:40 minutes)

Subscribe to the show with this link (RSS)

We wished our local podcast co-host James the best of luck as he was just about to get hit by Hurricane Ike as we recorded MobileTechRoundup show #147 and he had all of his gear powered up and ready to go. There were lots of announcements made in the last week, including new Zune hardware and software, new iPods, new iTunes, and a new iPhone update. Sprint also announced the long rumored HTC Touch Diamond and Touch Pro. I talked about how I am dropping one device for another one I enjoy using. We talked about an HTC rumor that turned into reality today with the new HTC announcements. Dell netbooks are arriving, but Lenovo’s seem to be delayed. Nokia is also offering a sync solution for S60 owners that you may want to check out.

If you enjoy listening to the MobileTechRoundup podcast, please vote for us at Podcast Alley. Also, please let me know if you have anything you would like us to cover and discuss on the show and I’ll try to work it into a future podcast.

September 9th, 2008

MAXroam V2 adds data roaming, US roaming and auto top off for the world traveler

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 4:46 am

Categories: Nokia, Nseries, On the road, Windows Mobile, mobile services

Tags: Phone, Data, Singapore, MAXroam V2, MAXroam Site, 3G, Telecom & Utilities, Cellular Phones, Productivity, Wireless

I recently took a trip to Singapore and I figured the easiest way to accept and make calls from my mobile phone was to use a MAXroam SIM card because I could forward my mobile phone directly to my MAXroam number before leaving the States. You can also buy a pre-paid SIM, but you have no idea what that number is going to be and you can’t control/determine/bill the rates easily like you can with the MAXroam SIM. I will most likely be heading back to Singapore again in the next month or two and was very pleased to hear about the latest MAXroam version 2 launch made at TechCrunch 50 yesterday.

The cool details for this latest service update are contained in the press release and blog post made by Pat Phelan. As you can see you can now get data on the road, USA roaming, and auto top up functionality. I personally am very excited about the data roaming since I went a full week in Singapore with no wireless data. It looks like the data fees will start at Euro 0.005/kb (just over Euro 5 per MB). You can easily see the rates for calls by selecting the countries calling to and from on the Rates calculator page, but I don’t see the data rates available yet. I am also not sure if this is 3G data or what speed data this is, but I imagine I will just use it for email and not for web surfing anyways.

I went on my hotel computer connection and topped off a couple of times on my last trip and also am pleased to see the new auto topup functionality. I was on the phone for about 15 minutes to get my flight changed last time and though for sure I was going to run out of minutes so now I won’t have to worry about this on my next trip.

The MAXroam site has also been updated to be more user-friendly and looks great.

BTW, over 100,000 people have signed up to use MAXroam and the savings has now topped US$1 million.

September 1st, 2008

MobileTechRoundup show #145, Traveling in Singapore, Nokia announcements, WiMAX features

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 1:21 am

Categories: MoTR podcast, Nokia, Nseries, On the road, Open Handset Alliance, S60, Ultra portable PC

Tags: MobileTechRoundup, Nokia Corp., Podcasts, WiMAX, Internet, Wireless, Matthew Miller

Listen here (MP3, 31.2 MB, 34:30 minutes)

Subscribe to the show with this link (RSS)

It turns out that the air conditioning unit in my hotel in Singapore was cranking and I didn’t realize it as we recorded MobileTechRoundup show #145 a couple of days ago so I am sorry for the background hum that still remains a bit in the audio file. We did talk about a few new devices that were announced, including the N79 and N85. Kevin ordered a MSI Wind that should be coming soon and I also just ordered a Kindle at a great price. James, Kevin, and I talked a bit about WiMAX and our hopes that it launches soon since it will supposedly allow multiple devices on the same account. Android is getting an application market store, similar to the Apple iPhone.

If you enjoy listening to the MobileTechRoundup podcast, please vote for us at Podcast Alley. Also, please let me know if you have anything you would like us to cover and discuss on the show and I’ll try to work it into a future podcast.

August 27th, 2008

Nokia N79 and N85 announced for October 08 release

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 3:00 pm

Categories: Nokia, Nseries, S60, Smartphone, Symbian

Tags: Device, Nokia Corp., Nokia N79, Engineering, Wireless, Matthew Miller

My trip to Singapore threw me off of my schedule a bit and I missed the official announcements for the new Nokia N79 and Nokia N85 that were made yesterday, along with the announcement that the N96 would be coming to the U.S. to support our 3G networks (actually AT&T only at the moment) in the 4th quarter of 2008. The N79 looks like the successor to the N73 or even N78 while the N85 updates the N82 and blurs the lines with the very successful N95. Both new devices run S60 Feature Pack 2.

The Nokia N79 has a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash along with Xpress-on smart covers in five colors (Light Sea Blue, Espresso Brown, Olive Green, White and Coral Red) that change the screen theme to match the back cover. Three colors come in the box with each N79. A 4GB microSD card is also included in the box (nice touch here Nokia). The device has all the other wireless features you expect on high end devices today, including HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM transmitter and GPS. Retail price is EUR350 with an October 2008 release.

The Nokia N85 also has a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and all the wireless features of a high end device. The major new feature of the N85 is the OLED display that should give you a bright display with battery savings. It has a dual slider form factor like the N95. Gaming is a focus of this device with at least 10 N-Gage title loaded on the device to try out and a voucher for one full game license. An 8GB microSD card is included in the box too. Like the N78 and new N79, the N85 has an integrated FM transmitter so you can play your music through a home or car stereo. Retail price is EUR450 and an October 2008 release is also planned.

I also recommend checking out some of the links and information on the Nokia Conversations site regarding these two new devices.

August 7th, 2008

Nokia Email service drastically improves the email experience on S60 devices

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 11:55 am

Categories: Eseries, Mobile software, Nokia, Nseries, On the road, S60, Symbian, mobile services

Tags: device, nokia corp., mobile, client, service, nokia email service, e-mail, online communications, matthew miller

The Nokia S60 Nseries and Eseries devices are incredible mobile devices, but the email client is very basic and has a rather plain look and feel to it (aka BlackBerry look). The default Messaging client does a poor job with hyperlinks, doesn’t display my messages forwarded from other services, and IMHO is just barely acceptable for usage. Nokia has been beta testing a new service, Nokia Email, and I had the opportunity to check it out on the N95 and E71 for a few weeks. It was in a limited beta before, but starting tomorrow anyone who wants to try it will be able download the client from the Nokia Beta Labs site and signup for the service at the Nokia Email service site. During this beta period, the service is free so give it a try and provide feedback to make it better. You may remember that Nokia purchased Intellisync a couple of years ago and this new Nokia Email service is powered by Intellisync and brings another new service to Nokia.

The Nokia Email service is significantly different than the default S60 Messaging client and brings your email back into the 21st century. Right from the initial sign-up process you will find how easy it is to setup Nokia Email on your S60 device. You simply select your mobile phone from the supported list (E51, E61, E61i, E65, E66, E71, E90, N73, N80, N81 8GB, and N95) then enter your email address and password from the internet service provider/email service provider that you want to use with the service. Nokia doesn’t specifically list all of the IMAP and POP service providers they currently support, but I have been using the service with Gmail and it works very well for the most part, as I will discuss below, so if you have Gmail you can rest assured it is a supported service. You then enter a few more details to ensure security of your email along with a phone number. A SMS is sent to your phone with the download link and you simply open it in your mobile browser to install the S60 client.

After installing the client on your mobile device you will see the status appear with “Setup in progress” as the client is configured on your device. You will then see Read the rest of this entry »