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New All-In-One Nokia
blirp writes: "Nokia today anounced the new 9210 Communicator. " Just dual-band support, so it won't work in North America, but great standby and talk time, and just 244 grams in weight. Mmm...
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Additionally, the Nokia 9210 Communicator is the first Nokia product to support the most commonly used PC office applications - such as Windows - and the first with wireless Java support.
Wow, I never realized that Windows was a PC office application.
I guess it runs CE?
Try VoiceStream - they have national GSM coverage in the US, and my 8290 works quite well - I can SMS part of my team in Europe just fine from a ski-lift in Colorado. My company just bought 8890's for those who have to travel overseas a lot (both directions), and those work well too on VoiceStream's US network and in Hong Kong and London (so far).
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo! http://goo.gl/J9bkO
"in the US we don't use GSM"
Wrong - I use GSM every day. Its part of Voicestream's network - and they are upgrading my local area to GPRS next spring.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo! http://goo.gl/J9bkO
We also tend to think of Canada and Mexico as satellite, client or buffer states of the USA. Their presence has protected us from South American and Russian petulance, while at the same time our presence has given them a measure of security and stability. Canada even uses a like-named unit of currency, and the Mexican peso uses the same symbol--the two countries even feel a lot like home when you visit them.
I like Canada. It's clean. People are polite. They have a store called The Beer Store. I don't like their gun laws, their socialism or their metric system, but then I don't live there, so it doesn't affect me. Canada's a neat place, that's for certain.
Canadian Bacon made fun of Americans more than Canadians. IIRC most of the cast were Canadian. I loved it.
Check out the DVD if you want to see Jenna Elfman get off on that fact. Heh.
Word! For real. And nokia is a company BASED IN FINLAND, so naturally it would be in their best interest to LAUNCH ALL OF THEIR PRODUCTS IN THE UNITED STATES. Wake up people!!!
GPS would not only be useful to track your position if you are lost - it also allows for applications that are sensitive to where you are at the moment. For example, when calling up railway timetables, it could allow you to select from a small list of stations nearby, rather than requiring you to type in (and possibly clarify) the place you'd like to be going from.
Another example would be traffic reports automatically filtered down to the road and direction you're currently on.
From a more abstract point, GPS (or similar location technologies) allow an application to be more aware of the meatspace context you're using it in, as opposed to just starting out by knowing you're "somewhere on this planet".
For the paranoid, GPS built into the phone would potentially give you more control over when to allow a remove application access to your geographical location.
I am pissed off that I can't buy one of those cool phones (Nokia 8110) from The Matrix. Why doesn't Nokia sell them?? I would imagine that LOTS of people want them.
I'm going to start an armed insurrection.
Is this such a big deal then to be posted on /.?
It's just an upgraded communicator for crying out loud. Some improvements, but nothin' extraordinary. In fact: if it hadn't all the features it has now, Nokia wouldn't be taken seriously.
KINDER EGGS ROCK poor poor poor Americans can't be trusted with a chocolate covered toy?
The nokia phones i've seen are pretty crappy too. Granted i haven't actually used the 82xx and they do look really cool in pictures and in charlie's angels, based on my real world experience (and perhaps the fact that i'm a motorola stockholder and a fan of iDEN over GSM) i'd choose motorola any day. I've had a motolola i1000plus for the past 6 months and its been incredible. believe it or not, WAP in the USA *IS* useful. I use it every day on my 1000plus to check email, get directions, news, weather and the occasion game (and yes sometimes even to check slashdot :-) ) its also got a builtin speaker phone which works great for handsfree in the. my only complaint is that its a tad larger than i'd like and it isn't dual mode. But if you love nokia, by all means go for it. choice is GOOD.
As I mentioned in another reply, the speakerphone didn't work out for me, plus I tend to do more equipment configuration than email. Part of that config work is web documentation and TFTP serving, so none of the handhelds have been a good fit so far. The HP came closest, but I might as well have been lugging around a laptop.
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
In the civilised world analog is dead. Defining "dual-mode" as something that can do both analog and digital is bit silly.
actually that's not true. we (the usa) have many *choices* when it comes to what protocol we wish to use for cellular. there's tdma, cdma, gsm, amps, and my favorite, iDEN, to name a few. choice is good, i (and many others) would rather have a free market come up with a standard (or standards) than to have a government (or quasi-government in the case of the EU) dictate which protocol we WILL use. i for one prefer iDEN over GSM having read several hundred pages on the workings of the protocols. different protocols have different strengths and weaknesses, i'd rather make my own decision weighing the factors that are most important to ME than be stuck with a protocol that may not be the best fit for me. it this means making sacrifices when it comes to coverage then so be it, but it doesn't have to.
Finally, after all these years of waiting, we find out what the root department is - Nokia cell phones! Maybe Slashdot is actually funded by a huge, evil conglomeration of cell phone companies? News at 11!
-raph
I can just see it now:
Brandon: "Beamer me up, Mr. Steve."
Steve: "She's runnin' outta gas! She canna hold!"
Brandon: "You'll have to pump some gas. It's our only hope."
Steve: "Damnit Jim, I'm a yuppie, not a mechanic. I canna pump my own gas!"
That is not quite correct.
1) Europe uses both 900 and 1800 MHz, the latter being the "newer" technology.
2) GSM is available in the US (for example from Voicestream) in addition to CDMA and TDMA, but as other people have already stated operates at 1900 MHz. You can buy dual-band (900/1900 MHz) phones in the US for use at "home" and away.
Sorry for probably sounding stupid, but what does Australia use?
I think we just use a single band GSM.
D.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
The entire world except for the USA uses GSM, whilst the USA thumbed its nose and opted for an inferior proprietary system (the excuse being that it needed the Clipper chip to eavesdrop on American citizens whereas GSM phones are secure).
Similarly USA has decided to go its own way with 3rd generation mobile, digital TV, etc. The independant nature a decade ago of USA telecoms and broadcasting compared to the over-regulated European regulations has done a full turn. Now the cohesive nature of EU regulations compared to the divisive in-fighting and lobbying of self-interested American parties has meant the Europeans shooting ahead of America in terms of technology. Unless the US can pull together as a team I can't see them catching up any time soon.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
The next cell phone I will buy will have to be able to run a java KVM, because writing programs for cell phones is just the coolest. Especially if it has an IR port, then it just opens up so many possibilities. Remote controls for various things, games, and unlock your ( or someone else's) BMW if you got one that has inferred remote locks.
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
The "glued together" attitude also results in the fact that once GPRS becomes available (in Europe, this will happen in just a few months), you can throw this 9210 brick into the ocean, as there is no support for it. It's better to have to dedicated devices so everything doesn't become obsolete at once.
The 9210 works on Symbian's EPOC operating system, not WinCE. Nokia doesn't go out of their way to call attention to this, but they do mention EPOC on several pages.
I find it uber cool that they've got Java support with it. Not only does this mean that people can write their own software for it but it also means the phone can be used to do more practical things.
For example, a telnet/ssh client? an IRC client? ICQ perhaps? Now there'll be NO escape from that "Uh Oh!" sound I'm already sick to death of hearing. I just want it to read Slashdot and make postings in case I ever need to go *outside* (not that anyone would do such a thing).
How can such a device currently compete with the existing array of PDAs (both WinCE and PalmOS) and communicator-style phones such as the Accompli?
Another thought - why is the USA GSM network so different? Why didn't they deploy the same standard everywhere? Does something in the USA already run on one of our frequencies? I always find it rather interesting that us Aussies seem to get our hands on newer phone technology than the USA does.
ANd finally, the multi-million dollar question:
How much does the sucker COST? If it's anything like the 9110, I'd rather an 8210 and a decent PDA. Guess it comes down to the fact that anybody can sell me anything that has an IRC client...
Weird all will have a follow up to "It's all abou the Pentiums" It will be called: "I did it all for the Nokia"
A couple of weeks ago the second largest mobile provider in Iceland launched its GPRS service.
Another silly decision to form a closed market. 900/1800 in Europe came first, and the US decided to go for 1900. You get what you ask for. Go figure...
You miss an important point. The USofA has 6 different standards for cellular/PCS systems (not to mention SMS and other land mobile standards). This means that our market is very fragmented and not the best target for high volume connectivity. Also, when you change your service you usually have to change your phone, so a big investment in a really fancy phone is not nearly as practical.
I have a Dual-band Qualcomm phone that I used with Sprint. It is technically compatible with those used by Quest, but I had to buy a new phone when I switched to Quest because Sprint refused to release the security codes!
This sort of behavior by US cellular vendors, in addition to the wide standards variance, is why the US way behind in wireless compared to Europe which has a unified (if inferior - TDMA) standard.
The US standards are:
800 MHZ Analog Cellular
900 MHZ TDMA
900 MHZ CDMA
1900 MHZ TDMA
1900 MHZ CDMA
GSM (Global standard used in Europe)
The only good weather is bad weather.
From the Full Spec page it says it uses EPOC, not WinCE
Hi! Sure - the 9210 seems to have a lot of stuff that has so far been lacking from similar devices. But after having read most of the documentation on the device that Nokia has provided, and I'm pretty disappointed about two things: 1. It apparently doesn't support GPRS!! Ericsson (and other manufacturers) are planning to ship GPRS-devices by Q1 2001. Packet data has been mentioned as one of the MAIN contributors to the success of Imode in Japan, and GPRS (packet-based) network technology is expected to become widespread accross Europe at the beginning of next year. The mobile Internet community is displeased that Nokia has yet to announce a GPRS enabled device. 2. It is clinging to WAP version 1.1!!! As the apparent market leader we would expect Nokia to be in the forefront with respect to introducing products with WAP 1.2 functionality. The development community has been waiting for the possibilities associated with User Agent Profiling (UAProf), Wireless Telephony Applications Interface (WTAI) etc. Apparently we will have to wait some more :-(
The first Communicator, the 9000i, did not have many features, but did not crash as often as the 9110i which replaced it. My colleagues 9110i needed rebooting more often than a Windows machine (yes, it is possible), so I used the 9000i more.
The 9210 with EPOC should hopefully be a more stable OS; certainly my Psion 5 hasn't crashed, but then I haven't really used it a great deal...
There are companies developing GPS-less solutions for positioning too. The idea is that GSM cells are fairly small, especially in cities, so by determining what cell (and possibly what cells has recently been used) a user is in you can also fairly well pin-point where that user is.
The applications mentioned for this kind of stuff is emergency call support, taxi finding out where a caller really is, or keeping track of employees in the field.
There are interesting privacy/security issues here though!
Lars
__
Reality or nothing.
I've never tried this phone, but all Sagems I've seen to date really really suck. I've owned a Sagem, and it was so unintuitive it was disgusting. Various options and settings that I needed were hidden away in hard to find places and a lot of things that my current Nokia 3210 has it just didn't have. A friend of mine has one too, and it's regularly giving up on him. Besides, it's French.
If you want to get a Real(tm) phone, get a Nokia. They have clean, simple interfaces and lots of neat features.
Cheers...
The Official Steve Ballmer Webpage
I love it. If only it would play widescreen dvds or mpegs!
"America, I smoke marijuana every chance I get."
I what to be able to programme it so I can change TV channels and prgramme my VCR
Here's a clue: everything has to appear somewhere first. Whether by milliseconds depending on which customer gets the smoothest credit card swipe, or years because the infrastructure works that way, it doesn't show up everywhere simultaneously.
Let's suppose that the USofA has 90% of the manufacturing capacity in the world. Would that not mean that 10% is elsewhere? And -- guess what -- 10% of the products will show up somewhere other than in the USofA first!
Why do you bitch and moan about "consumer devices" appearing elsewhere first? Did you bitch and moan that the first iOpener didn't appear in Europe first? Did you bitch and moan that Tivo and Replay(sp?) appeared in the USofA first? Are you going to bitch and moan when the first M$ X-box appears in the USofA first?
Hmmmm.... didn't the first cell phones appear here anyway? Oh, you mean the *latest* cell phones! Ah, so does that mean you will bitch and moan when Europe is stuck with their 3G phones and we skip from 2G to 4G? No, I bet not.
--
Infuriate left and right
90210 Communicator. The TV show meets Netscape Communicator. My eyes are tricking me again! :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
To be able to programme its IR to change channel on the TV programme the VCR and maybe open my electric gate
...
What else
9210... the number sounds familiar... Beverly hills 90210 maybe? :)
Anyway, I would like to mention that a new feature has been 'discovered' on some Nokia phone models. The feature is a Police radar detector, (used to catch speeding vehicles) and it can be activated by following these steps:
1. Enter your menu
2. Select settings
3. Select security settings
4. Select closed user group
5. Select on
6. Enter 00000
7. Press ok
Clear back to normal, within a few seconds your phone will display a radar sign with five zero's next to it. It is now activated.
Note: Cell info display needs to be de-activated.
Settings -> Phone Settings -> Cell Info display
Here is an article from a newspaper with a bit more background information:
http://www.theage.c om. au/news/20001116/A52971-2000Nov15.html
What about the Sagem WA 3050? This thing runs WinCE, and is a GSRM phone (3rd gen wireless).
This thing is sleeker, though. But, for raw tech, I think the Sagem at least gives it a run for its money.
--Be human.
1. Try looking something up on it while making a telephone call -- "uhm, yeah, uh, can I call you back, I have to look it up in my phone..." 2. Too small to type, too small to read, too big to hold up to ear for extended length of time.
I have been using the predecessor of the 9210, the 9110 for almost two years. If I want to make notes during a phone conversation, I open the device and it switches automatically to the (excellent) speakerphone.
It's true that the Comunicators are quite large, but they're also very powerful. For me the size is worth it (YMMV). I'll buy the new one as soon as it's available.
Regards,
Xenna
It doesn't count. =D
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Think about that 244 grams.. what a magical number. *Grin*
------------
CitizenC
My name is not 'nospam,' but 'citizenc'.
So I can use my Natalie Portman cover, and my GF her "Hello Kitty" one ;) .. I'm using my Simens S35 and I'm pretty satisfied with the mobile phone .. but not with the Service Provider tho :p
J/K
Before you email me, remember: "There is no god!"
I wonder if it works well? I have owned two Nokia's and didn't realize that they sucked until I got my Motorola Startac, it doesn't have the games, but gee it's sure alot easier to use.
I want small and easy to use, not a the big and hard to use.
Damn it, where's the MP3 support?
The FAQ says it doesn't support MP3s, but does kindly point out WAV files as an alternative [snort]
Anyone know why this is missing? I assume lack of RAM or CPU.
it uses WinCE. it looks pretty cool, otherwise - view digicam pix and forward them via email, has built in sound, etc.
sheesh, these things just keep getting smaller and cooler.
Leading the partnership for a Slashdot-Free Slashdot, Son of Dog
Dual band works in the US. It switches from digital to analog on a slew of phones i've seen in operation in the US.
---
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
Try Canada. 'Nuff said. The States gets the cool stuff before it ever gets to us. Except maybe Kinder Eggs. Those are banned in the US.
Dual-band just means it operates on two different bands. In this case, neither band (GSM 800, GSM 1800) is available in the US, nor do I expect either of those to ever be available here. You should hope that they release this phone in a US-supported protocol (e.g. GSM 1900).
Too bad it doesn't have a feature to detect if it is being used by the driver of a moving car, and disable itself.
now do we get 244 annoying fucking songs to play as the ringer? i wish nokia would start making phones instead of goddamn toys.
Canada's just our 51st state, right?
I notice there are not many people here who have actual experience in using a Nokia Communicator in this forum, so I'll add some info of my own experience.
.DOC and spreadsheet support. The color display looks very cool.
I own the 9110 Communicator, which is the predecessor of this new device and I'm absolutely addicted to it. I have owned a HP 100LX (DOS), HP 200LX (DOS), HP 320LX (WinCE), Palm V and several Motorola phones, and I am very satisfied with my 9110.
I'm special, because:
- I have a strong preference for a keyboard
- I always carry around my PDA & GSM phone
- I really need mobile E-mail, WWW & SMS
The 9110 has (AFAIK) the following disadvantages:
- It is quite large & heavy (I find it acceptable)
- It uses a not well supported OS (Geos)
- It is rather expensive
- It has no color
- It is rather buggy (it crashes about once a week for me, no data loss tho...)
- It does not support the US 1900 GSM band
- It has no spreadsheet (there's a bad 3rd party attempt)
- There are few 3rd party apps.
I am very happy to see that Nokia has switched to Epoc (This OS has been agreed upon by many GSM phone makers such as Ericsson, I believe it was based on the Psion PDA's). I hope that this will mean more and better 3rd party apps. I am also very pleased with the Word
Maybe the new OS will also mean better stability.
I also saw some misconceptions about the communicator, which I will address (based on my 9110).
- You cannot take notes and phone at the same time: This is not true, because the 9110 has a speakerphone which activates automatically when you open the shell.
- It cannot use encryption: The 9110's WWW browser supports SSL encryption (I think it's 80 bits, tho). I use it regularly to access my company's database over the web.
I hope the Epoc OS means we will have an SSH client (there's a telnet client for the 9110 which works well). And I really hope someone will find a way to run Linux on it!
I am always puzzled why Nokia supports the US GSM frequencies so badly on the Communicators. Th US is the only country I don't have mobile Internet when I travel.
Regards,
Xenna
It supports also Java bytocode. The current version provides PersonalJava 1.1 and Java Phone API. This gives a nice open software architecture for third-parties. It also enables a safe execution environment for where you can dynamically download new Java applications from web as needed. EPOC OS is done by Symbian which is company owned by biggest mobile terminal manufacturers: Nokia, Ericson, Motorola and Matshushita. EPOC is Microsofts threat number one on wireless world.
I've got an SSH module called Top Gun SSH installed on my Palm IIIxe. There's also a Top Gun Telnet. Works OK, if you don't mind 40x25. I even have a VT100 emulator. Using Emacs is painful, though. :)
Rev. Dr. Xenophon Fenderson, the Carbon(d)ated, KSC, DEATH, SubGenius, mhm21x16
I'm proud of my Northern Tibetian Heritage
THERE IS...
another Finnish company building GSM phones with GPS positioning build in.
That company is called Benefon and they do make very cool phones. (Check out the ESC! and Tarck models.)
Yes, used 9110 communicator for couple of years and have to say, that it's OS GEOS sucks big time. (as well as Linux connectivity, all are win software.)
Not sure what to choose as next PDA+phone, 9210 or Track+some PDA....
PS: Benefon was founded by buch of EX-Nokia engineers....
Black holes are where God divided by zero.
Some of their libraries are hard to get used to, especially the string stuff. Exceptions are implemented with setjmp/longjmp, you have a CleanupStack on which you have to put everything to make sure it is deleted if you "throw" (No stack objects allowed if the destructor does anything, no throwing from constructors...). Porting existing C++ might be quite a lot of work. There are C libraries, but I think they are built _on top of_ the C++ libraries, and I am not sure that they are complete. You can also code for it in OPL, a kind of interpreted BASIC-like thing.
Whore!
I've made cellular calls in the US from an area where I'm sure the tower will never see 1,000 people within range at a time, which doesn't sound like much until you realise that this tower is streched to the limits of the possibal range, I'm sure I was more then 10 miles away from it! Thats a lot of area, and not a lot of people in it. Sure the call clarity was bad, but it was analog so at least I could understand it. While I don't claim to know the UK well, I'm confidant that there is no area in the UK that sparesly populated. Your towers that never see more then 1000 people in range (and that is people not cell phones!) cover less then a mile.
Sprint has a license to build a tower anywhere in the US they want to, they don't because there aren't enough potential customers to make it worthwhile. Remember too that they would be the only digital tower in most areas so they would be by default the provider for everyone in the area. Doesn't matter, there still aren't enough people.
From My house to New York is farther then from most houses in Europe to Moscow, and I'm on the east half of North America. Americans are criticised for now knowing geography by everyone else, but everyone around me knows better then to drive to New York for an afternoon, which many Europians I've met think they would to regularly if they lived in my house.
Well, if GPRS is dominant by the end of next year and 9210 is not even available, it will last only a year. That is hardly an adequate life for any product.
And what about dominance? GPRS is clearly a better service than HSCSD by any standards, and it's supposed to be cheaper too. So if you're buying a new phone, this phone is not the one you're looking for. If you already own a HSCSD phone, you may not want to go the GPRS way, but for a new phone, it's a must.
And did you know that many network already have GPRS capabilities ready? They're just not activated yet because there are no phones with support.
For those that are considering the Nokia Communicator as a handheld computer for connected/mobile use (and I know of one friend that used the first model very successfully for that), the Nokia Phone Card may be a better proposition.
:-)
Being just a PCMCIA type II card which will plug into anything, including potentially Linux machines, this doesn't tie you to the phone manufacturer's idea of what a portable computer or PDA should look like. All we need now is a PCMCIA slot in a Palm.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
I have been using EPOC devices for years now. EPOC32 devices have only been around for 18-24 months, but I've had one of those for over a year.
I'm currently using a Psion Series 5mx - go to series5mx.com for the full spec. It's chunky and heavy (compared to a palm) but fits nicely into the document case I usually carry and into my coat pocket otherwise. The keyboard is superb, battery life is excellent, speed is good and software selection is (alas) somewhat smaller than for Palm.
I rate EPOC as immensely superior to PalmOS, and I hate the lack of keyboard and the small screen-size of most palm-like devices - the 640 pixel wide screen on my PDA is worth the slight increase in size and weight.
I believe the Ericsson R380 is also meant to be using EPOC as the OS, although without a keyboard, and with a touch sensitive screen.
Btw, yeah, EPOC can handle Java 2 happily, both as standalone java program and also applet in web-page. Pretty nice given the memory limitations.
~Cederic
<troll>
"In this truly global economy, why aren't things globally launched, and if their aren't enough units then why aren't they launched right here in the sweet U.S. of A. more often?"
Isn't it soooo sweet to hear Americans, always at the forefront of technology, complaining about how they get all the cool stuff last...?
</troll>
Now, you have to complain to the FCC for that, IIRC. The US has a record of choosing its own standards for some reasons. I remember a similar dicussion fairly recently, and that was the general consensus among /.ers.
Hopefully, within a few years new standards like UMTS etc. will be globally accepted and affordable "to the rest of us" (the lot who doesn't want to spend a fortune for their phonecalls)...
Trian
I'm no longer fed up with MS Windows: I go rid of them
Of course, the gram is not a measure of wieght, per say. Weight = mg, or mass times gravity near the surface of the earth (~ 9.8m/s^2), and is a force, which is measured in Newtons.
Forgive me. I'm Just a high school student looking for an excuse to post.
Your wireless phone may be Dual Band, but it's the wrong bands. There are no EGSM 900/1800 networks in Boston.
Dualband means that the phone supports 2 frequencies.
Triband = 3 Frequencies
In Europa, we use 900 / 1800 MHZ for GSM -- Most phones support those two frequencies (that's why dualband)
Most of USA uses 1900 MHZ for GSM
Before you email me, remember: "There is no god!"
AT&T and BT have a strategic alliance ("Advance") to unite TDMA and GSM. They're banking on it.
-- Anne Marie
I say it's over half a pound!
"I believe that the cult of the particular brings only death - for it bases order on likeness." St.-Exupery
The point here is that most countries have at least two overlapping GSM operators that compete for the same market, and it makes them work very, very hard. Now, I belive that Slovenia (which most of the US probably thinks is a buttfuck country somewhere between madeconia and Kosovo) has 65% of mobile penetration and 99% coverage ;)
And, while most of this (70%) is pre-pay, there's a definite interest from the manufacturers to provide us with the new tech forst, since the average phone-cycle time is one year.
Now, if you're looking for proof - go to the GSM Union page and check out the coverage maps of the operators. They're pretty much correct.
since I don't see myself using it in the near future, but seeing as how it's focused towards people like members of the press and people like that I can't imagine it being dirtcheap.
GSM 1800 is NOT a new technology. It wasn't introduced because of any technical coolness, but because the GSM usage in Europe is so high that the 900 band is pretty much saturated in most of the bigger cities. Hence 1800 was introduced to boost capacity.
Yes, that is why I put "newer" in quotes. The 900 band was rolled out first, but like you said the technological differences are insignificant. This was more in reply to the original post where it was stated that Europe use one standard (900) while Africa and Asia use another (1800).
Fairly effective Linux tools exist as well, and there is some interesting work going on to get Linux running on it.
The Nokia appears to be using EPOC 6, which is very interesting. I recently pulled down the EPOC 6 SDK just for the emulator. They seem to be aiming at a palm sized device with a built in mobile phone.
While you're looking at this the Ericsson R380s might be interesting to compare. This uses th eolder EPOC5, but is only 160g (56x27x158mm in size)
I suppose the point is that WAP sucks, and people see a market in having the PDA built into the phone. What I think I'd prefer, instead, is to have the phone built into the PDA, if you see what I mean.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
There are however dual-band phones that work both in Europe and in the US. For example, the very cool Ericsson T28 World, which is a GSM 900 and GSM 1900 phone.
Unfortunately, the only GSM provider here in California is the dreadful and pathetic Pac Bell Wireless which, based on plenty of personal experience, are a freakin' nightmare to deal with.
(There are pictures etc if you roam the site. The European version is being advertised heavily in Europe - it's really cool, and also runs the Epoc operating system from Symbian
it's in my head
It was interesting to see this item posted on ./ today, as also today I heard from a friend of mine who works for a cellphone operator that Nokia informed them that they are canceling the 7110 and there would be no more shipments of this phone.
It was quite popular as it looked nice (and the way the flap operated reminded people of the Matrix movie) but its software was very buggy and there were also quality problems with the hardware. [I believe in that since the first I had broke down for no apparent reason and was replaced by Nokia under guarantee as they were unable to repair it. Second one works till this day but frequently hangs when using the WAP browser.]
If you care about using the net with your phone, you don't want this thing. At least if you live in Europe, where GPRS is available in just a few months. It features faster transmission and he connection is always on. When GPRS becomes available, this product will be obsolete. And by the way, there are lots of better keyboards out there, like in Psion Series 5 and Ericsson MC218.
;-)
That's my main concern, I *would* prefer a GPRS device, but I doubt that it will arrive as quickly as you predict. I doubt if the 9210 will be available before summer, so it will be obsolete before it comes out...?
I don't count on using any phone for more than a year. The 9210 will probably be the best available when it comes out, so I'll get one. If at that time GPRS is there *and* the devices are there, I will change my mind. I wonder if a GPRS device could work with 'standard' GSM data if the provider doesn't support it. I want my smartphone to work as worldwide as possible.
There will undoubtedly be a successor that support GPRS, so I can migrate my files easily when the time comes.
Of course, when I do that, you'll tell me not to upgrade because UMTS is just around the corner...
What you say about better keyboards is true, the 9110 keyboard is far from ideal, but the products you mention are PDA's and not phones I think. I prefer a single device solution.
Regards,
Xenna
You're moaning about a non-US company launching it's products outside of the US?
Simple really. Nokia's a Finnish company (that's in Europe ;-), so they launch in Europe first. When it comes to mobile's, you grand old Americans have got the slightly unusual 1900 frequency instead of the 1800 and 900 used in a hell of a lot more countries.
DVD players, you got those first. Games consoles, correct me if I'm wrong, but you got those in October didn't you? They don't launch in the UK till friday (I'm guessing that's a simultaneous european launch.) TiVo, Replay, you got that first. Massive Rear project TV's... there's a lot more of them in the US then anywhere else. HDTV?
Personally, it's nice to know the US doesn't get everything first.
No it doesn't. EPOC = Symbian Platform, not Microsoft.
Why have the input devices coupled with the CPU ?? With bluetooth coming around it would seem to be perfect for having a blackbox CPU say the size of a walkman, and let the mic, speakers, keyboards, use bluetooth to communicate to it.
Walkmans didnt require you to put the tape playback mechanism near your head to hear the music. This would make it possible to do more convergence (MP3, mobile computing, mobile telephony) without the cumbersome CPU being tied to the input devices.
Eh? Since when have Nokia and Ericsson made phones in the US?
In quite a few of those countries, you can take your phone almost everywhere and get some reception. That may be hard for Americans to imagine.
In addition, I don't think anyone's going to listen to lecturing from someone from a country that has as much blood on it's hands as the US.
I hate telephones. I hate reading about telephones. If there was a specific category about telephones I could exclude these stories from my /. experience and wouldn't post crap like this.
And don't waste your time objecting about the technical merits and geek chic of its OS and supported file formats etc. It's still a stupid telephone.
:wq
And *no* mention of its compute-time. Sure, it has great standby time and reasonable talk time (4hrs)... but when you crack that clamshell and start viewing PowerPoint presentations, how long does that poor little battery last?
Unlike laptops, I doubt many cellphone users are spending their time plugged into wall socket!
--
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
There were many other lighter models available in the shop, but they were too small for comfort IMHO - I would be frightened of losing them. I guess these weigh around 100 grams.
Dual-band usually refers to phones that work on US analog and digital networks. I think Hemos misspoke when he called the phone dual-band... he probably meant GSM.
Or could it be you're being ignorant. By dual band, the original poster probably meant 900/1800mhz. 900mhz being extremely popular in Europe, 1800mhz being somewhat popular elsewhere, including Europe. Both being frequencies that the FCC will not/cannot license commercial entities to use for cell phones. In the US and Canada (and possibly Mexico) cell phones operate at 800mhz (AMPS, TDMA, CDMA) or 1900mhz .. the "PCS" band
(TDMA, GSM, TDMA). While GSM is *the* standard for most of the rest of
the world, they've standardized mostly on 900mhz (and 1800mhz). GSM in
the US/Canada is standardized on 1900mhz only, no 800, 900 or 1800mhz. So
a dual-band phone from the UK would most likely work in Vietnam and
Germany, but would not work with the likes of PacBell Wireless.
- alex
NO! - It uses EPOC Release 6 from Symbian (http://www.symbian.com).
Most of the existing software for Release 5 (including Opera e.g. for secure home banking and tons of free & shareware apps - some even open source) can easily be ported and there is a huge enthusiastic user base. Current PDAs that run EPOC R5 include PSIONs (Series 5(mx),Revo,7, netBook), Diamond Mako, Oregon Osaris, Ericson MC218 and R380. EPOC is rock stable (due to it's modern architecture and good memory management) and very fast even on lower spec processors like the ARM7TDMI@36MHz most current devices use.
Benefon (another Finnish maker of cellular phones) has implemented GPS features in their Benefon Esc! Personal Navigation Phone.
Follow your Euro bills at EBT
bss?? you mean like a bullshit sensor? :/
i do know of gprs' inherent limitations, and that we're doomed with mobile communications that suck for a long time, here.
hopefully i'll relocate to japan next year
yay! umts here i come!!!:P
btw, i'm starting to read a book: "dead girls" by richard calder(with "dead boys" and "dead things" to follow)
thank you for the advice wise anonymous entity!
Why bother?
... mmmmmm :)
As far as I'm aware digital mobile phone communications are encrypted with something like RSA-64 anyway. It's possible to intercept analogue communications, but in the UK these are not really used anymore (at least in cellular comms.)
And with the way dist.net is going, I dont think the RC5-64's going to be broken in the time a normal phone call lasts. Sure, your governing body of choice may have access to the exchanges (court-order wiretaps etc) but that's the law when it comes to most personal communications.
Although I think the Nokia unit in the spotlight here is just eyecandy, or at least proof-of-concept. Like someone mentioned before, I'd much rather take out a Palm Vx and a Nokia 8850 than one of these anyday.
Or the Palm Vc when it comes out
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.
Yes, it does support SSL. And 128-bit encryption, too. (You should see my 6210 - it contains all sorts of interesting warnings about how it contains encryption technology which may not be imported into certain countries, yadda yadda.)
m l:
Direct quote from http://www.nokia.com/phones/9210/apps_internet.ht
The Nokia 9210 Communicator supports frames and Java, so you can view Web pages in their original form and in color. It also supports SSL, the security protocol.
It's really an amazing leap forward. Oh, and it's unmetered flat-rate - I prepaid for a year of service for $825. About as expensive as DSL or cable, but mobile and just about as fast as the low-end offerings for each.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
You can also buy the book "Professional Symbian Programming"(published by worx) which costs about 50$ and comes along with a CD which has all the C++ and Java SDK's which you can install on your Windows System. You also get a whole lot of examples for Epoc to help start of your programming. Also, OPL - or Organiser Progamming Language, can be used to program on your organiser. And as far as C++ programming for Epoc goes, you just need to learn up the Naming convention,how to implement the "new" operator and the way to write constructors and the rest is pretty much the good old C++ without exception handling.(The method of Error handling is different in Epoc and pretty easy to learn)
Yes, it supports encrypted web traffic, which is nice I guess, but there's nothing on the site to suggest it comes preinstalled with the most important feature of the communicator: ssh. On the 9110 telnet is an absolute godsend, and with the extra power of the 9210, ssh would be a natural inclusion, but I can't see any mention whatsoever of either.
Still, I guess it'll become available somewhere and they have put the escape key back somewhere sensible (according to the photos), so vi becomes usable again. Hmm reminds me, must take another look - the most irritating thing about the keyboard on the 9110 is having to go to a character menu to type a pipe (which of course is used loads - scan | tail -20 saves you lots of time over 9600bps!).
The hip pack CPU with a wire / wireless connection to
- monocle / monitor
- headphones
- keyboard / tablet / game controller(?!)
- modem
- printer
would be great.I just can't wait to have a dual PPC with half a gig of RAM on my hip... BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Why not use some Java shh client?
Dear Developer,
Nokia has today unveiled the world's first integrated mobile multimedia
device for all mobile professionals, for their corporate and personal use
alike. Nokia 9210 Communicator brings the mobile multimedia experience in
full color for the first time to GSM markets. The new Nokia 9210
Communicator was announced in conjunction with the Nokia Mobile Internet
Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, and at the same time in a virtual
launch on the Internet. The Nokia 9210 Communicator is expected to be
available during the first half of 2001.
The Nokia 9210 Communicator is a dual band EGSM900/1800 integrated full
service mobile communications terminal combining phone, fax, email,
calendar, imaging, WAP and WWW. Support for the most commonly used PC office
applications makes it possible to create Microsoft Word and Excel documents
and view PowerPoint slides. A standard memory card of 16 MB extends the
memory for installing new applications. The new communicator is also the
world's first SyncML enabled product, making it easy to remotely synchronize
calendar, contacts and to-do lists. Desk and background images can be fully
customized according to individual tastes. The Web browser supports frames
and Java applets. Wireless imaging enables users to save memorable moments
in a personal photo album.
Functioning on Symbian's EPOC operating system with PersonalJava support,
the Nokia 9210 Communicator allows an unlimited number of third-party
software solutions, ranging from corporate applications to entertainment
content.
"With the Nokia 9210 Communicator we are taking a major step forward in the
road to the Mobile Internet environment. This pioneering product showcases
the key elements in future mobile communications, such as easy navigation
and input, a high-quality color display, mobile messaging with high data
speed, imaging and video clips. Additionally, Java support and Symbian's
EPOC operating system bring open development interfaces to the Nokia 9210
Communicator for numerous additional applications to be provided by any
third party developers," said Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia
Mobile Phones.
The sales and production of Nokia 9110i Communicator continues normally. In
future GEOS developer support is given through Nokia Communicator Discussion
Board. Please visit our developer section to get the latest information
which Nokia has to offer in Symbian and SyncML. Everytime we have something
new to offer for our developer in the field of Symbian and SyncML you will
find it in www.forum.nokia.com.
Please see more information: http://www.nokia.com and
http://www.forum.nokia.com
Kind regards,
Forum Nokia - 3rd party developer support
How many people move around so much that a GPS is actually useful? Mounted in a boat I understand. 4-wheel-drive, outback adventures sure. But just wandering around during the normal course of life? Can't you people read maps or something?
Your point is valid, though: the US is screwed in the mobile telephony department.
You're a suburbanite.
"dual band" refers to the phones ability to communucate using two different frequecy bands (not at the same time). Basically, most parts of Europe use one fequency band (eg. 900 MHz) while parts of Africa and Asia use another (1800 MHz).
The nokia phone only supports one standard (GSM) in different frequencies. Here in the US we don't use GSM, we use CDMA or analog. Someone mentioned that they have a "dual band" phone in the US. What they have is a "dual-mode, dual band" phone. This means that it can handle two different standards (dual mode) and the two different frequencies (dual band) needed depending on if the phone is in CDMA or analog mode.
I see what you mean but I was referring to what Hemos said-
Just dual-band support, so it won't work in North America
He said nothing about EGSM, but thanks for the info, hopefully we'll get the coverage soon.
Sorry guys, you're not the centre of the world for everything.
Not sure where the centre of the world *is* for techno toys right now, but the combined population of Europe is pretty similar to the USA, with a lot of mobile telephonic innovation happening by Nokia and Ericsson. Somebody want to give me a figure for the Asian market for mobile technology?
I went to a lecture recently on iMode with a speaker from mOgilvy (Japan) and the speaker made an excellent point about access to the internet/ other info services via mobile telephone interface for Asian countries. Sure, the interface sucks, but if your mother tongue isn't written down using a Latin character set, well then a standard PC keyboard sucks big style. So a well designed mobile phone/ small screen touch and click interface can be an awful lot easier to use. Apparently the end of this year will see the mobile phone overtaking the PC as the prime entry point to the internet for people in Japan.
IMHO I reckon you're going to see an awful lot more products developed with the USA seen as a subsidiary rather than primary market.
The US adopts incompatible standards for the same reason computer manufacturers do: to protect our markets.
Yo dawg, I heard you like the Ackermann function, so OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
EPOC grew out of the OS used on Psion products. Symbian is a coalition of Psion and a bunch of phone manufacturers, who I believe were motivated in part by wanting to avoid being assimilated by Microsoft.
For the seller not the buyer
why aren't they launched right here in the sweet U.S. of A. more often?Corporations don't care what you buy just that you buy
Ill Agree With That Statement
FearLinux.com
1. Try looking something up on it while making a telephone call -- "uhm, yeah, uh, can I call you back, I have to look it up in my phone..." ;-)
2. Too small to type, too small to read, too big to hold up to ear for extended length of time.
3. I'd hate to try and get my data back off this puppy after it took a swim in the urinal. My phone doesn't store anything more than a few numbers, and I don't use my Palm until I am safely seated.
What I really want is a speaker/microphone with a magnetic off-switch glued to my mastoid or other suitable place, and RF linked to my Startac, with special software to listen for voice dialing commands. I want a Palmtop that has a screen like the old HP 360LX, wide enough to get 640 pixels across, but works like a Palm with a touch screen. And make it about twice deep (480 pixels), Also, I want the two week battery life, even if I have to go to monochrome to get it.
I know what I want. How come I never get invited to focus groups?
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
It's a unix thing: fsck - filesystem consistency check and interactive repair
Links if it was a serious question...
man page for openbsd fsck
jargon file: fsking
It's pretty cool, but it's a friggin' brick compared to everything else. You're better off carrying an 8290 or an 8890 and an Ipaq or PalmOS device. You can use the IR on the phone to link your palm device up to your ISP and do whatever you need on that. I don't carry my Palm everywhere, but I do carry my phone everywhere with me. Having the 2 glued together would annoy me.
I have an 8260 now. I want the 8290 or 8890 for the cool GSM features, but ATT Wireless doesn't support GSM yet. Anyone know if they plan on it? I don't want to lose the number I've had for like 6 years, but to get GSM capability, I might be willing to.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
I Asked Jeeves, and found a nifty Mass Conversion Calculator. It claims that 244 grams is approximately 8.6 oz, or a little over half a pound. Hmm, weighs about as much as two quarter pounders from McDonald's (without the cheese, of course, since I'm allergic). It still seems kinda heavy to tote around in one's front pocket, but with that many features, sure! So what if only half of those many features work in my area!
Aciel
aciel@speakeasy.net
Anyone know when we plan to get dual band here in the US? I wanna get that phone!
this is old news
Why is it that the states are the absolute last to get new consumer devices? Game consoles, cell phones, etc. About the only thing we get first on this side of the ocean is movies, and those usually reek.
In this truly global economy, why aren't things globally launched, and if their aren't enough units then why aren't they launched right here in the sweet U.S. of A. more often?
I've got a 9110 as well, and it's one of the most useful tools I could imagine. I often need to send out bulk SMSs to people to keep them informed of situations - so I just set up a distribution list, and send them all at once to that.
The speakphone is amazing - even better than the one on my landline, and as for the ability to store contacts - I have the contact details of every internal employee in the IT Group avalible at my fingertips - over 1000 of them. That's something I NEED - it's pretty much non-negociable, and I haven't seen many other mobile phones that could handle that (ericsson do one that I know of).
You need a keyboard for telnet? So do I - and I have a telnet application right there on my phone, along with an e-mail client and a web browser. Also nice to have my calendar synced with Outlook and ready to be accessed at any time I need it as well.
All in all I thought the 9110 rocked, but the 9210 almost has me drooling in anticipation.
It was mentioned that the 9110 has a 486 CPU, and the author of the message wrongly assumed the same of the 9210 - it has a 32-bit ARM9-based RISC CPU instead. I'll certainly consider upgrading when it's released some time next year.
Mmmmm.
-- Pete.
Monochrome - Probably the UK's largest internet BBS
Yes its true. I remember reading about an internal Microsoft strategic report that concluded
that the whole EPOC/Psion/Symbian crew was the biggest long term threat world-wide to Redmond.
Seeing the very impressive capabilities of this leetle phone, I can what they mean.
As wireless blows up, it will be interesting to see how this new battle plays out.
Opera has even ported their browser to EPOC. Very Cool.
You asked about no choice across EU?
;-)
I used to live in Sweden, one of the cuttingedge countries regarding cellphones. I remember when the first cellphones appeared on the market 20 years ago.
They where huge and heavy but the worked just fine, of cource they where all ananlog. New kinds of analog cellphones came to daylight, 450Mhz analog was quite common just 7-8 year ago, then the digital era started. Since we have had some years to deploy equipment, we have covered every spot almost. If you have that coverage, analog is like no option anymore.
Another thing that probably helps EU to keep the pace up compared to the US is, in europe you dont have to pay for incomming calls. That makes a big difference. I can use my cellphone and always be avaliable and answer free of charge. I now live in the US (NYC and DC) I can tell you, The coverage is quite bad in DC and Manhattan. But I hope thats just locally
No sig... At least no important funny message in the sig..
All these features and not the one I'd really want: encrypted communication. With so much DSP power available, why not?
Yet again, most people use license plates and birthdates for their bank account passwords, among others. Not considering the government and conspiracy theories.
Flavio
This space intentionally blank
Wow This phone is so cool Hemos is speechless. I wish I was that cool :(
Steven
-- I have marked myself unwilling to moderate-- I don't have other accounts to artificially inflate the karma of
Why are Canadians so touchy. I've known my fair share, and they're all touchy. Chill out.
jred
www.cautioninc.com
caution, inc.
jred
I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
Get a life all you dual band whiners! Dual band just means that the phone can work in two frequency bands. The 9210 works in the 900 MHz & 1800 MHz bands which are standard in Europe. In the U.S. the standard frequencies for GSM are 800 MHz, and 1900 MHz, so the 9210 won't work in the U.S. However, there are dual band phones (GSM, CDMA, and TDMA) that work on the U.S. frequencies (800 MHz & 1900 MHz). A tri-band phon (800/1800/1900) is usually needed to work in both the U.S. and Europe).
The other Finnish mobile phone business makes a GPS-equipped phone. It has a large display for maps. Not sure what bands are supported, though.
--
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
While your at it check out Motorola's answer: The Accompli 009 which is due out in early 2001 both in the U.S. and Europe.
Here's another link: from cnn
Posted anonymously so I can't be accused of harma khoring:
Link for Symbian.
HTH
Wow... I have had a serious Nokia fetish since my first phone (3110, three years ago). Since then I've had the 6110 (as it was small) and currently the 7110 (as it has WAP). I've tried other phones, notably the startac, and the software just isn't as good, as intuitive.
This EPOC OS is the first fruit of the Symbian Relationship, stewarded by Nokia and Psion as an alternative "Consumer Electronics" (I know, it doesn't stand for that) platform for those in the world who don't kowtow to M$ dominance. And good luck to them.
As this phone has "Third party software development capability" and supports "pure" W3 html and java, I guess we should all get excited by it. It is pretty /.able.
Anyway, I'm off to see what they cost over here (less than a PS2, I'll bet) and I'll leave all you nice colonials with your chunky, insecure analogue models. Sometimes we do come first!
Ben^3, confirmed Nokia fetishestThe Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
JSYK, this thing is a brick, the design has been around for quite a while overseas and most people have found it quite annoying. It's too large to carry and use and too small to be useful.
--And sektor spoke and said unto the people. Hey, buttwipe hand me the cheezeos.
http://www.airbiquity.com/gpsaccessory.html
In fact they feel so threatened that they won't even speak its name! The Register now refers to Symbian as 'inaudible' in honour of this hilarious bit of censorship by M$.
Audio File WAV, AU, WVE
CompuServe GIF
Computer Graphics Metafile CGM
Corel/Novell Presentations SHW
EPOC Word -EPOC
Sheet -EPOC
Bitmap MBM
Internet HyperText Markup Language HTML, HTM
Lotus 1-2-3 v.1/2/3/4/5/97/Millenium WQ1, WKU, WK1, WK3, WK4, WK5, WK6, 123
Lotus AMI Draw SDW
Microsoft Excel 2/3/4/5/7/97/98/2000 XLS, XLC
Microsoft PowerPoint 3/4/7/97/98/2000 PPT, POT, PPS
Microsoft Project MPP
Microsoft Word 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/97/98/2000 DOC, WRI
Paintbrush PCX, DCX
PKZIP Format ZIP
Portable Network Graphics PNG
Rich Text Format RTF
Ringing Tones MG
Tagged Image File Format (TIFF, JPEG) TIF, JPG, JIF
Text TXT
UNIX Compress, Tar TAR, TAZ
UNIX Gzip TGZ
vCard VCF
Visio VSD
Windows Bitmap BMP, RLE, ICO, CUR
Windows Metafile WMF, EMF
WordPerfect 4/5/6/7/8 WPD
Calendar and contacts compatibility
Microsoft Schedule+ 7.x
Microsoft Outlook 97/98/2000
Lotus Notes 4.5, 4.6 & 5.0
Lotus Organizer 5.0, 6.0, 97, GS/4.0
SyncML
WOW...very impressive for a non-windows operating system on a phone.
Anyone know about this EPOC OS?
Found their homepage. It's a company called "Symbian". They also have a press release of their own.
NEET!
---
I wear pants.
People here are being ignorant.
If he had read the links and looked at the spec page for the Nokia phone he would have immediately noticed what they meant by Dual Band.
forge
"Just dual-band support, so it won't work in North America"
I guess I'll have to return my Dual-band phone that I've been using the last year, as dual-band support seems to not work here in North America.
Funny I swear I've been able to make and receive calls all year......
Or it could be that people forget CANADA is PART OF NORTH AMERICA!
and dual-band phones work here fine.
I don't know about other modes, but GSM is fully aware of your location: in cities this can be as accurate as a dozen feet or so. A mobile sends out a signal whenever its on, leting the network know which cell you are in, so that your calls can be sent to the right one. Some networks (vodafone for example) actually display your location on the phone. In the UK this would be your postcode. Very useful - I wish orange did it. The WAP specs do allow for this information to be used to deliver location-specific information, but this doesn't seem to be much used.
Of course there is the other side to this. YOU ARE BEING FOLLOWED. There have been several occasions (the Mardi Gra bomber was one, I think) where the police have caught a suspect by following the phone comapny's network logs.
Would be the addition of GPS capabilities. That would seem to be about the one thing extra that I could think of that would be useful in an all-in-one device like this. GPS isn't catching all too fast, but I think it is more because the devices are cumbersome/overpriced. I would buy one of these in a second if they could add GPS support to the unit.
Russian Russian Russian RussianDollSig DollSig DollSig DollSig
Is the same phone featured on The Saint?
The situation is similar to the US in terms of standards (lack of conforming to), but the phones themselves are much cooler. Not suprising, since most are made there.
>It uses EPOC, like the 9110 (surprisingly enough).
The 9110 used GEOS (remember Geoworks anyone?) on an x86. Nokia ditched them and switched to ARM and Symbian/EPOC for the new phones.
Most of the time, when I need a keyboard, it's to TELNET and configure a piece of equipment or to act as a TFTP server, so my needs are not typical, perhaps.
*whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"
Funny thing how nobody here mentions that it runs Java. In my opinion, that's one of most important features on this. It's no Java 2 ME either, with KVM that has such a crappy GUI toolkit it's hardly worth mentioning. No sir, it's a full Personal Java implementation and there's a good SDK for it, downloadable at www.symbian.com, where you can also get the C++ SDK for the Epoc OS. Now before anyone says "write once, debug everywhere", I can tell you that I've actually coded Java apps that were run on the Epoc OS (a Psion 5mx device) and I could code everything from scratch on my desktop and just move the code to the Psion and everything worked right away, without *any* changes to the code - no problems what so ever.
Now thing about what you can do.. RMI to do distributed & mobile apps (remote control your sauna, VCR & whatnot), JDBC to databases, games.
The real strength here is that they have good free SDK's for it so there will a flood of applications for the phone - and those apps will be compatible with all other Epoc devices, such as those made by Psion and Ericsson and perhaps a little later, by Motorola.
What is happening here is a clear division of the mobile industry into Epoc & Java vs. Windows CE. Don't miss what's going on! This is the next "browser war"!
And to think that 4 days ago I just got a new (114g for you weight watchers) 6210. Well, at least 28.8kbps on a palm v isn't too bad for wireless access...
By the way, does *any* network now support all 3 channels for 43.2k (3x14.4) support? My network only gives 2 (2x14.4=28.8) for now at least.
Karma makes sense. It makes a lot more sense if you add reincarnation.
I don't see .mp3 on this list... what's the deal?
with the roll-out of gprs due q1 2001 here in france, it'll be great to have a phone with real email and browsing capability(and color to boot, just like my old NeXT! :)...
... or clunky palm+phone ir setup!
no more fucking wap!
a note for our american friends: not for you.
keep your stupid palm vii and blackberries!
In Europe, we'll have GPRS in just a few months. Then this product will be obsolete. GPRS offers faster data transmission and the connection is always on, so it really is worth waiting for.
If you care about using the net with your phone, you don't want this thing. At least if you live in Europe, where GPRS is available in just a few months. It features faster transmission and the connection is always on. When GPRS becomes available, this product will be obsolete. And by the way, there are lots of better keyboards out there, like in Psion Series 5 and Ericsson MC218.
That's almost half of what the P4's heat sink weighs, isn't it???
:)