Nokia 6650, Super 3G Phone

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Posted by Hemos on Tuesday October 1, 2002 @05:03AM from the post-away dept.

Ch_Omega writes "Nokia has announced the 6650, which in short, is the first phone ever to meet the 3G-standard! It combines GSM and WCDMA into a single handset, then throws in a VGA still camera and video camera with sound. More info on Infosync and and Nokia forums!"

20 of 184 comments (clear)

will it take off? by Boone^ · 2002-10-01 05:05 · Score: 3, Insightful

3G has been hit the hardest when the economy went south... how will 3G gain a foothold in the land of disposable cell phones?
1. Re:will it take off? by grumpygrodyguy · 2002-10-01 05:42 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Hmm spend $60/month for spotty access to slow, unreliable data networks? No thanks.
  
  --
  The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
Great! by SexyKellyOsbourne · 2002-10-01 05:05 · Score: 3, Insightful

Finally, the beginning of the end for IPV4!
1. Re:Great! by Angry+White+Guy · 2002-10-01 05:07 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Then we can work on running out of ipV6 space. Each one of my socks can have an ip address! Where's my blue shirt? I'll just ping it!
  
  --
  You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
2. Re:Great! by joib · 2002-10-01 05:13 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  I'd say you have to get an awful lots of socks to exhaust the 128-bit address space in IPv6 :)
  It works out to something like 5e28 addresses per human being.
3. Re:Great! by SirSlud · 2002-10-01 05:16 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  > Where's my blue shirt? I'll just ping it!
  
  ping: cannot ping blueshirt.myhouse.pvt: destination shirt unbleachable
  
  --
  "Old man yells at systemd"
Awesome! Finally, a 3G phone...wait a second... by omarKhayyam · 2002-10-01 05:07 · Score: 5, Funny

I live in the US. Crap.
What's the point? by hamsterboy · 2002-10-01 05:16 · Score: 4, Interesting

I'm sure all these 3G gadgets will be cool and all, but what are they good for? What pointful activities can you do with a 3G phone that you can't do with a regular cell phone and a palmtop? Do you need your stock quotes in color while you're riding the train?
I think that 3G's time won't come until PANs become the norm. I'd love to have my cellphone talk to my PDA for its phonebook, and for my PDA to use my cellphone's transmitter to access the web, and for both of them to use my pager-sized solid-state drive for storage. I'm just not sure I need to watch movies on a 1" screen.
-- Hamsterboy
1. Re:What's the point? by Observer · 2002-10-01 07:09 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Well, finding ways to justify the networks' investment in 3G mobile licences, perhaps?
  Demonstrating that you're still up there in the leading group of equipment manufacturers, certainly. Nokia have produced some very speculative pieces of equipment to try things out (eg last year's 5510, full alphabetic keyboard for text messaging plus a digital music player) then later integrated some of the useful results in later more mainstream models.
  I'm not particularly disagreeing with Hamsterboy's comments - I get to try out quite a range of the new phones where I work and haven't yet seen a reason yet to upgrade from the 6210, but some of the newer kit is very nice even for basic voice + messaging. I still haven't yet seen a true "killer app" for 2G or 3G classes of devices: getting your stock quotes on the train can be done easily enough with text messaging, and these days, the red color can be assumed. But with enough on-demand bandwidth, maybe the suppliers can grow a market for a device that provides visual proof of the archtypical irritating Mobile phone user's message "Hello honey, I'm on the train".
  --
  The question of whether the egg or the chicken came first depends on which of the two gets to write the history.
2. Re:What's the point? by Some+Dumbass... · 2002-10-01 13:26 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I'm sure all these 3G gadgets will be cool and all, but what are they good for? What pointful activities can you do with a 3G phone that you can't do with a regular cell phone and a palmtop? Do you need your stock quotes in color while you're riding the train?
  
  Is it just me, or are cell phones quickly becoming "The only electronic device you'll ever need"? Who needs a PDA? Before long, cell phones will be as functional as PDAs, with built-in wireless internet access to boot (not to mention that they'll still work as cell phones!)
  
  But why stop there? Cell phones already have digital camera features. Media (e.g. mp3) playing functions can replace those devices. When they come up with a cell phone which can play CDs somehow, they'll have a replacement for just about every portable electronic device out there. Then you just need a portable screen and keyboard, and your cell phone can replace your laptop too :)
  
  All that, and yet the general public will buy them just to call their friends and maybe play a few games. Cell phones will become portable computing for the masses!
  
  At least it could happen that way.
Re:Hold your horses by Xerithane · 2002-10-01 05:18 · Score: 4, Informative
Besides, how is battery time on this one? The latest nokia phones i have seen has had two-thirds or even half the battery time of the competitors.

From the website:
- Talktime: 2 h 20 min (WCDMA), 2 h 40 min (GSM)
- Standby time: Up to 350 h
My Ericsson T68 with the battery bar at half:
- Talktime: 3 h 42 min (GSM)
- Standby time: 133 h
I've never had a Nokia even go close to this phone. I get about 5 hours of talk time on my phone, and I've verified it's battery reporting function too.

I'll stick with Sony Ericsson
--
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
Video vs. Communication by jeffersonebell · 2002-10-01 05:20 · Score: 4, Interesting

It's interesting that Nokia is positioning this phone, seemingly, as a "multimedia" phone vs. a communication tool. Their website seems to emphasize "movie making" and picture taking, but not better communication or interactivity with your office. However, I'm wondering who'd actually buy it for those features rather than just take a digital camera with them. I know that I'm a big fan of having a phone that communicates really well and a camera that takes pictures really well, not a convergence device. I'll probably sing a different tune in a couple of years when some magic device takes care of all of my pocket garbage, but until then give me a phone which handles one thing and handles it really, really well.
1. Re:Video vs. Communication by BrookHarty · 2002-10-01 06:06 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  However, I'm wondering who'd actually buy it for those features rather than just take a digital camera with them.
  
  Its not buy a camera, its get video features added in at no extra cost. Video camera phone attachments are selling quite well. People like having the option of sending pictures/movies of friends/family. Take a feature upgrade people are buying, make it a standard on the phone. This will reduce the cost and make it normal feature on phones.
  
  Look at how people will buy new cell phones just for the ringtones. Features sell.
Re:Awesome! Finally, a 3G phone...wait a second... by Cyn · 2002-10-01 05:21 · Score: 5, Funny

It's okay, if you look at
this
you'll notice you really don't want to be anywhere near this phone. Apparently it's "connect anywhere / to anything" ability has rather a microwave-oven effect on the people beyond the lens of its camera.

--
cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
It's a pity! by SonOfSengaya · 2002-10-01 05:24 · Score: 3, Funny

camera, sound, ten frames per second, 4096-color display, up to 128 kbps and you can even make a phone call! ...but they forgot the coffee machine!

--
My spirit takes a journey through my mind...
Don't sweat it. by theonomist · 2002-10-01 05:26 · Score: 4, Funny

All the 3G in the world won't change the fact that 99.9% of cell-phone conversations are moronic anyway:

A: Where are you?

B: I'm on th' terlet, huh huh! Where're you?

A: HOLY CRAP I'M ON THE TERLET TOO! What'cha doin', "number one"?

B: Nope, "number two"! Plop, plop!

A: HUH HUH HUH!

B: I'm wipin' my ass now! I'm wipin', I'm wipin'! What'cha doin' now, huh? Huh?

A: I'M WIPIN' TOO!

Brief pause...

A: You still wipin'?

B: Nope, ain't wipin.

A: So, uh, what'cha doin'? Where are ya'?

Later, rinse, repeat...

What we need, for example, is technology that will summarily strangle anybody who actually uses a cell phone. That, I think we'll all agree, will improve quality of life for everybody, just like Jesus meant for technology to do.

Until then, I'll just go on tripping morons who walk down the street yapping into their fists and bumping into each other.

--
"Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive" -- hey, that's me!
Just recorded video? by mwalker · 2002-10-01 05:26 · Score: 3

Will these phones only be able to send video that you've recorded with the phone? Or will you be able to upload images to them? For instance, I'd love to be able to beam nude images of the Brazilian women's soccer team to people from my computer using this phone. I can't seem to find a data sheet which talks about the upload capability.

--

--
What happens when you outlaw guns
Can I pay off my phone with p0rn? by ngoy · 2002-10-01 05:27 · Score: 3, Funny

Everything invented now seems to be for the sake of p0rn or entertainment. Just think, these phone probably could be setup to send pics directly to webserver. And you thought you didn't have enough upskirt photos already. You could probably remote control these from a computer and set them up all over the place and take pictures every minute or so.

Seriously though, there are two sides to this. You could be being watched at any point in time and not know it (well, we are right now but I mean up close), or this could be the start of a turning point in moving more countries in the world towards democracy. When you can't hide what you are doing to your people you tend to be a little more scared of doing something bad. What are they going to do, ban cell phones?

Shango

--
--ngoy
128kbps for a data link ... by Macka · 2002-10-01 05:28 · Score: 3, Insightful

... if it were at the right price enough would be fast enough for most laptop users to have as their dedicated connection to the internet.

Unfortunately, I'll bet it won't be cheap at all. I have GPRS on my phone, and bluetooth connect from my PowerBook when I'm mobile. But I have to use it sparingly because my phone service provider charges by the MB, and it can get very expensive.

If 3G can be charged by the minute, or even better at a fixed rate like Cable and ADSL, then it stands a chance at being widely used and accepted. If not, then they will just price themselves out of a market.
The 3G way by Sulka · 2002-10-01 19:32 · Score: 4, Funny

You think 3G camera prohes won't change that?

A: Look what I just did in the terlet!

B: HUH HUH HUH!

--
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."