August 14th, 2008

MobileTechRoundup show #143, Acer Aspire One, iPhone 3G, REDFLY price drop

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 9:55 pm

Categories: Apple, BlackBerry, Eseries, MoTR podcast, Ultra portable PC, Windows Mobile, iPhone

Tags: MobileTechRoundup, Apple iPhone, Apple iPhone 3G, Acer Inc., James, Podcasts, 3G, Internet, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics

Listen here (MP3, 31 MB, 33:45 minutes)

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Kevin started off talking about a netbook, the Acer Aspire One, on MobileTechRoundup show #143 that my daughters are thinking about picking up with their hard earned money. James and I then join in to discuss the topic of SSDs and if the benefits are worth the price. James and Kevin also learned that my iPhone 3G is back with Apple as I explore other mobile phones. The Celio REDFLY dropped down to US$399 and we talk a bit about the device that I purchased a couple months ago. James is very happy with the Richard Solo external battery and I talk a bit about why I find it to be a compelling charging solution.

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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 »

August 7th, 2008

Last.fm is rocking on various mobile operating systems

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 10:00 am

Categories: Apple, Eseries, HTC, Mobile software, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Windows Mobile, iPhone, mobile services

Tags: apple iphone, microsoft windows mobile, nokia corp., mobile, operating system, music, last.fm, advertising & promotion, tablets, marketing

While I enjoy listening to music, I actually have a very small personal collection and primarily listen to the FM radio or stream my music over the internet. The recent iPhone 2.0 update opened my eyes to Pandora, AOL Radio, and Last.fm on mobile devices. I enjoy listening to Last.fm on the iPhone, but the fact that I cannot do anything else with the iPhone while I listen to music makes it quite limited for listening on the go. I then started looking around and found Last.fm clients for the Nokia N810, Windows Mobile devices, and now S60 devices so I am now able to rock out and get things done on the go.

The most recent Last.fm client comes to S60 devices as the Mobbler application that is available now for free. I just installed it this morning on a Nokia E71 and it works like a champ, except that you cannot yet love or ban tracks on the mobile client.

On the Nokia Internet Tablet, I have the excellent Canola application loaded up with the Last.fm add-in. This client looks great on the large display of the N810 and is my preferred listening setup at home with the N810 propped on its stand and connected via WiFi. I also just went to log into my Yahoo! Music subscription and was presented with the option to transition to Rhapsody where my remaining year of subscription service was transferred over seamlessly. There is a native Rhapsody client for the Nokia Internet Tablets so I have a couple of ways to stream music on this device.

There is also a Last.fm client for Windows Mobile that I am now going to install on the HTC Touch Diamond and give it a try.

The capability on S60, Windows Mobile, and the Nokia Internet Tablets that will have me using these more than the iPhone is the ability to surf, check and respond to email, and run other applications while listening to music.