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Even though Nokia is widely known as a mobile phone manufacturer they do have other products as well. Their plans to incorporate Mozilla into their DVB products (the Mediamaster product line) as the web browser component have been public for a couple of years now.

The new QD does seem to resolve allot of problems.
Namely the hotwasp and the now famous side talking anti-feature.
They'll probably get it right eventually, but it's heavilly dependent on the likes of EA and Activision to develop the "right kind" of games for N-GAGE.

P.S. I don't know how they're going to solve the size issue, maybe a side panel format like the new 6260 is the solution.

you are forgetting that the phone manufacturers also make the cell towers that the telecommunications companies deploy.

If you can get Splinter Cell on your phone, that means there are developers at the phone manufacturer that are working on that, rather than making the whole system better.

oh, and as an aside, why in the blue hell would you want to be in an "immersive" 3D environment on a 1.5 inch screen? That's more worthless than wanting to watch a movie on your phone!

This is my original attempt to post this story, it got rejected, but now that someone else brought it up, I will post my version. Primarily because there are some cool links in it that should be seen:

Yesterday InfoWorld reported a new first for viruses. Believed to be the work of international group 29a, Cabir is the first worm to infect mobile phones! Cabir is a proof of concept worm infecting Symbian mobile phone operating system by Symbian Ltd, used by Nokia. Cabir does not include a malicious payload.

Dude, N-Gage is Nokia not Novell.

Check here. Also you can get the software from nokia as well as the cable , like in this package. I myself have the DAU-9P cable.
Aside from the oficial cable, there's plenty other makers around that make compatible cables as well.

Check here. Also you can get the software from nokia as well as the cable , like in this package. I myself have the DAU-9P cable.
Aside from the oficial cable, there's plenty other makers around that make compatible cables as well.

• I'd like to sit and do my main development / nerding / hardcode gaming at my desktop
• I'd like to sit on my couch and do surfing and lighter gaming / coding / nerding from my laptop. Also a good place to watch movies, since I can plunk the laptop on my belly and lie in bed
• I'd like to be able to check email, have an up-to-date calendar and contact list, and browse them web only if I need to from the phone.

I have a Nokia 9290 Communicator, and I'm drooling over the up-and coming 9500, with a metric shitload of connectivity and usabiliity. I like the screen on it. I like the keyboard. Because of that, I don't mind the size (I keep a smaller, spare GSM phone for when I need it).

If I'm on the move, the small, mobile phone device provides me with the connectivity that I need at the footprint that i need at the time. Since I cannot lug my desktop machine with me everywhere, so times the phone (as a convergence tool) will be easier to use

I recall this quite from the startop of Crosstalk: "Easy to use" is easy to say

Pathetic excuse for a keyboard my left foot. T9 works just fine for most messages (in English at least, can't say about other languages). I wouldn't even mind having T9 for use with a computer. It's 5 taps to get 'hello' with a normal keyboard, and 5 taps on a phone with T9. If you've got the need for a keyboard, get the Nokia 6810....

You might want to check the Symbian models before going to the Dark Side. Even the ones from Nolia (such as this one) should be worth investigating.

Riiiight. Commercial product off of OSS.

May I direct you to a few companies/products that seem to be doing well in this regard:

• MySQL
• Trolltech (Qt)
• Apple's MacOS X
• Nokia's IPSO platform (based on FreeBSD)

I'm sure other slashdot readers can provide further examples. The trick with GPL-based OSS and generating revenue, is to provide value-add (which may be through commercial closed-source tools). Alternatively, the tried and true position is through services, which IBM and HP seem to have figured out.

I was going to suggest something like this. If you are traveling to a GSM region and are planning on bringing a cell phone anyway, you should really check out phones with keyboards. Most have note apps. Other possibilities (check regions! don't all use same freqs) can be found via Phonescoop (some CDMA included).

Many of these have reasonably decent keyboards. I've seen people hit pretty good WPMs with just their thumbs. Not listed are the Nokia Communicators (9xxx series, sample). They tend to have larger keyboards where touch typing may be possible.

Remember, it may not matter if you can get data connectivity or not. In reality all you seem to care about is text storage. The ability to mail yourself (or a blog) notes is nice though in case something happens to the device.

BTW, EPOC isn't exactly dead.

BTW, EPOC isn't exactly dead.

The Nokia Digital Pen could be the answer to your prayers.

It can store up 100 A5 pages...

I haven't tried it myself, but I would love to.

It's pretty nice to take pictures of stuff and then add comments. The phone I'm using is Nokia 7610, which I guess is not yet on the market, but it is pretty much same as 6600 Symbian based phone.

These guys have still ways to go, but it might become a pretty nice product if they keep at it.

Happy Trails!

Erick

Yes, corporations probably have little less control over individual politicians due to tighter limits for electoral funding. However, companies still have powerful lobbyists; Here in Finland, for example, most politicians still seem to be for SW patents, mostly due to heavy lobbying of two largest IT corps, Nokia and TeliaSonera. (Actually, according to Electronic Frontier Finland Nokia is perhaps most powerful SW-patent proposer in the whole EU.)

I'm quite a fan of the Series 60 devices. Series 60 is a Symbian platform, and a couple of manufacturers produce phones based on it.

I've had a Nokia 3650 for about a year, and just got myself a Nokia 6600.

They're both pretty stable (occasional need to reboot due to memory leaks, but not too bad), loads of apps available for them (though quality does vary), and easy to write for yourself. Oh, and they're pretty damn good for voice calls too (nice speaker phone mode etc). Cheap too, I got both mine free when signing up for 12 months with my provider (Vodafone).

About the only downside is that input is only via the text pad. That said, you can buy a bluetooth keyboard + bluetooth keyboard software (3rd party) and you're away, so that's always an option

There you go. GPRS/EDGE when you're out and about, and Wi-Fi at your favorite hotspot.

Well, see I'm not so sure you can draw that parallel.. ICQ was (and I suppose is..haven't used it since the 'Bloat') a messaging client. And there's not much it can do to get out of that box (being a 2d piece of code). But what used to be a cellphone is already so much more. I don't think they should be called cellphones anymore anyway - 'Personal Communicator' or some such marketing poop would be more appropriate...like what Nokia calls its 9000 series. Once you've put a TV Tuner into a cellphone (complete with obligatory "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these...") you've pretty much got something else there (Let's not forget the 3300 by the same company - MP3 Player or N-GAGE - gaming device). A better parallel is Yahoo I think.. It also got bloated, and then along came Google. I can't wait for the launch of 'GooglePhone'.... I wonder what happens when u press the "I'm feeling lucky" button...

I can sympathize. I own a Nokia 3300, Nokia 3595, and Motorola V400. After a signifant trial period with each, I now use the 3595, which though it has less features, is the best performing, most durable, and easiest to operate.

However, I do want a Nokia 6820 if they are ever available for Cingular GSM service.

Thats exactly what i thought at first. When i switched cell companies i wanted a nokia phone because i like their UI, and i wanted a color screen too. Unfortunatly i couldn't find any with out wacky buttons. Ended up getting a nice LG flip phone. But yeah, i prefer my cal buttons as roughly rectangles and arranged at roughly 90 degree angles. Could be worse though, at least the thing doesn't look like a football or a taco.

It looks like they're trying to market these to niche businesses: security companies, disabled assistance companies, meter reading companies, etc. I don't think there will be much general call for them. Many of the user scenarios they describe are already pretty silly: "Distress Assistance: Touch a tag on your clothing such as a belt, and the phone initiates an emergency call." Like that's going to catch on.

Perhaps if retail RFID catches on the way WalM*rt hopes, some consumers will be interested enough to want a personally owned device to read their tags. How many WalM*rt shoppers are even literate enough to read their laundry tags, let alone RFID tags, is a different debate. :-)

Because it doesn't come as standard with the phone, but as an add on kit to be released later this year as pointed out in the article.

Details here

how come nokia's web site for this phone mentions absolutely nothing about RFID?

is here

If you want a phone you can type with (and the Communicator is too big for you), then the 6820 is for you. A friend of mine has one, and though the keyboard might look kludgy it's actually very good for a portable keyboard. Within minutes I was comfortably typing away. And the phone does Java, too.

Until recently it has taken me no time to get up and running with a new phone-- this has all changed. The samsung SCH-a310, for example, has a normal key layout but the tactile response is poor and its hard to feel the difference between keys when scanning with your fingers.

Nokia has been making some terrible design choices with their key layouts lately.. the first one I remember trying was the 3600 and the 3650. Recently they've been marketing the 3200's like crazy, which look like 1993 pager technology, albeit with a camera. I tried this one out thinking it might be easy to use, but its neigh on impossible to know what key you're hitting, then you have to make sure you hit the right SIDE of the key to get the correct number.

Now I know, after awhile you get used to it, and then when you get a new phone you need to unlearn what you have learned. But shouldn't the interface technology we use strive for ease of use and ergonomics instead of visual acceptance and clever button placement? I mean we could all be using Datahand ergonomic keyboards in the future, but somehow I doubt these new cell key layouts are for anything other than aesthetics.

Until recently it has taken me no time to get up and running with a new phone-- this has all changed. The samsung SCH-a310, for example, has a normal key layout but the tactile response is poor and its hard to feel the difference between keys when scanning with your fingers.

Nokia has been making some terrible design choices with their key layouts lately.. the first one I remember trying was the 3600 and the 3650. Recently they've been marketing the 3200's like crazy, which look like 1993 pager technology, albeit with a camera. I tried this one out thinking it might be easy to use, but its neigh on impossible to know what key you're hitting, then you have to make sure you hit the right SIDE of the key to get the correct number.

Now I know, after awhile you get used to it, and then when you get a new phone you need to unlearn what you have learned. But shouldn't the interface technology we use strive for ease of use and ergonomics instead of visual acceptance and clever button placement? I mean we could all be using Datahand ergonomic keyboards in the future, but somehow I doubt these new cell key layouts are for anything other than aesthetics.

Why have we let America get so far behind?

It's only a few time zones. What's the big deal?

You do realize Nokia is based in Finland, right?

Tyler

Check out push to talk.

Buy a Nokia 810 car phone
and use your bluetooth phone with it

Here full specification Comparing with Nokia 6600 8mb instead of 6mb and packged with 64mb card instead of 32mb. In fact some user alredy using 512mb card with Nokia 6600. The same OS version, so I guess the same RAM and CPU. Actually, if prices drop it may be a good time to pick up Nokia 6600. The only significant difference seems a camera.

The full spec is here http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,54665,00.html. Not a bad bit of kit at all.

The rest of the Nokia kit from ceBIT is visible at http://www.nokia.com/cebit2004/new_releases.html

The full spec is here http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,54665,00.html. Not a bad bit of kit at all.

The rest of the Nokia kit from ceBIT is visible at http://www.nokia.com/cebit2004/new_releases.html

Phone size - if I want blue tooth then I must have a larger phone (very undesirable) but that it would have a camera in it (no use at all thanks - maybe even a hindrance as I might not be permitted to take it with me everywhere I go) and a snazzy colour screen (Why!?! I just want to make and receive calls!) and a dramatically reduced battery life to boot. As for wireless connectivity - the vendors advise it is normally turned off, and activated only for the duration I'm using a particular blue tooth service...( What's the point then!?!!! ) and that using blue tooth would dramatically reduce battery life again!

Admittedly I don't actually use the bluetooth on my phone at all, but it sounds like what you're looking for is something akin to the Nokia 6310i. I find that the call quality on it is great, the battery lasts for days on end without recharges and it doesn't have a 'snazzy colour screen.' That being said, it's been documented that the bluetooth implementation that Nokia put on these has some security flaws so it's probably a good idea to have it turned off when you don't need it. However, if you're just going to be using bluetooth in your car then it shouldn't be such a big problem. Incidentally, you can also set up the bluetooth to be voice activated - so turning it on when you get in your car shouldn't be a problem either especially if you get a power adapter for your car (in which case battery life doesn't matter).

Anyway, the point is pretty much moot since you got one of their other phones, but for the 'give me substance over style' crowd around here, this phone seems to fit the bill in almost every respect.

Here's an another (non-slashdotted) picture of the phone.

AAC support on Nokia mobiles is nothing new--the Nokia 3300 and the already discontinued Nokia 5510 have supported AAC for quite some time already.

AAC support on Nokia mobiles is nothing new--the Nokia 3300 and the already discontinued Nokia 5510 have supported AAC for quite some time already.

Perhaps... if you can figure out those wierdly placed buttons...

according to the specs music is played back using RealOne Player, so no thank you!

http://nokia.com/nokia/0,,54665,00.html

What some wealthy company should do is make a cellphone based on an A500+/600 in such a way that it would run standard Amiga titles, include a decent LCD screen or LCD headgear capability - instant enormous collection of games (and apps for that matter) ready made for your cellphone (and of about the same quality as the high end custom made cellphone games today).

I doubt it's possible (yet) in such a small form factor due to the problems inherit in recreating/emulating the architecture (particularly the custom chips), but would be cool.

Some machines might be good enough to compete with Check Point running on a typical PC or low end appliance, but the throughput and performance of Check Point completely depends on the platform you choose to run it on, and there are many options out there other then just standard PC hardware. An example would be the Nokia platforms or, for really high end, the Bivio platform which does 80% line rate of even 64 byte packets. I'd like to see a PC (Sun or other) pull this one off.

Nokia recently announced the next version of the nokia communicator.
Triple band, edge, GPRS, bluetooth, infrared, wifi, qwerty keyboard,
browser, organiser, telnet, ssh, plays mp3s, 80MB memory, camera, 640x200 colour screen.

A highly desirably toy, though judging by previous communicators there will be a dozen firmware updates and you will need the extended warranty
because they often break.

Disclaimer: Yes, I am involved with the company. OTOH I'm not paid to pitch this ;)

I find it funny that slashdot linked to an article bashing ATTWS for not offering only 850 phones, when 1900(1800/900I) was the WORLD phone standard.

Now here's someone who wants a World phone, but most carriers have American phones with 1900/850 (1800 International) standard.

So, why isn't anyone blaming the vendors for no 1900/850(1800/900) phones? Motorola finally stepped up and did. ATTWS is releasing the Motorola V600 which is quad band this month, Cingular released the V400.

I tell ya, After ATTWS and Cingular merges, pick up a Quad phone, and have the best coverage everywhere. Tack on ATTWS's full nationwide EDGE/GPRS network and Worldwide roaming partners with EDGE/GPRS, life is starting to look good. Hell, now that SMS works between all major carriers worldwide, you can be truly global.

I'm really excited to see when ATTWS and Cingular starts working together merging base stations, coverage will be perfect everywhere. Cingular has the best customer suppport and plans, ATTWS has the best data network and data phones (Blackberry, Treo/etc).

Myself, I'm looking at the Nokia 6820, I just want the full keypad and nationwide EDGE speed.

Carriers like Verizon and Sprint do their best to limit what you can do with your phone. They think that earning pennies by selling crappy applications and ringtones is of greater value than keeping their customers happy.

Nokia also provides enormous support to software developers. You can download free IDE's and SDK's from their website. Pick your favorite language - C++, Java, OPL, VisualBasic, and soon Python. Nokia puts no restrictions on what you can do with YOUR phone. WHY? Because they know that they're in the business of selling phones, not software.

I also have a "GPS Capable" phone (the Nokie 3586i), and have not yet found a way to use the GPS.. even after sinking ~$50 on a straight-through cable (USB on one end, Nokia connector on the other)..

Sad..

S