Slashdot Mirror
Nokia Shows Off Megapixel Camera Phone
Anonymous Coward writes "According to PC World, the Nokia 7610 has been announced at Cebit in Germany - it boasts a megapixel camera (1152 x 864 pixels), 65,000 color screen, and 4x zoom, along with an MP3 music player and smart phone features that allow users to manage and edit digital images. It can also create short films of up to 10 minutes and with the Movie Director application users can add special effects and music to the video clips." Other readers point out a picture of the phone, which comes with the LifeBlog software "to help people organise the information they capture about their lives on handsets."
Locker rooms everwhere are in jeapordy, complete with automated pr0n-site deployment!
I assume that's 4x digital zoom, not optical.
Best stick with the mobile phone that's also a low-res video camera aspect I think instead of making wild marketing claims about how the phone can make you the next Steven Spielberg...
Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.
That's only 995328 pixels.
As the resolution of the sensor increases in cell-phone cameras, Image quality is going to suck even more because of the crappy little lens used in them.
the 72MB are marketspeak for 8mb internal plus 64mb sd card.
Megapixels is the most idiotic resolution measurement system ever. Quick, what resolution does 3 megapixel equal? 3.2? 4? 5? IF THE CAMERA HAS A RESOLUTION OF 1152x864, just fucking say so. I should make a camera with a resolution of 1x5000000 and call it a 5 megapixel camera just out of spite.
I've had it with mobile-phones... when something new like this comes out, they cost like 2000$, and when the prices are low enhough for the average person to buy something new has been released. Im happy with my Ericson T65, and as long as it survives the daily beating i give it, i will keep it.
this is probably the most boring sig in the world
Well, that's great and all...seeing technology advance like this.
But, honestly who buys a phone for the CAMERA? Now we're packing in video editing software and whatnot. Is this really necessary? The quality is usually so poor that it's not worth the small size...
Yea, I own an LG-VX6000, and I tell you this...I bought it for the actual features it has as a phone and not the camera. I've taken a few pictures with the camera, and put simply...there can be no replacement for film and digital cameras anytime in the near future.
If you want to take pictures..buy a camera! It will be a better investment of your money.
I can understand combining a phone, camera, and mp3 player since they are all features that fit into a nice small form factor. I think that this will put a lot of the mp3 players and lower-end digital cameras out of buisness. After all, everyone wants a cell phone, why not get an added feature for just a $$ more. Combining a hand-held game however doesn't really fit the profile though, as with the N-Gage.
--
Find real time deal updates from multiple sources
Can I *CALL* people on the damn thing..!?
--- Stop the world! I want to get off!
Take a good look, iTunes users. This phone has AAC support. One of the few players outside the iPod to do it. Don't take that to mean you can play music from the iTunes Music Store, I doubt it supports the Fairplay DRM, but now you can use the smaller better (IMHO) format than MP3!
http://www.mobitopia.com/20040317.html#155506
Nokia do make nice devices. Phones, though, are a compromise. I've had a look at things like the XDA (you look a real dork holding a big wide PDA to your ear when making a phone call, and it also runs Windows - I don't want MS bloatware in my pocket thanks). The Sony-Ericcson T800/T900 has a much nicer form factor, but you've still got to type with a stylus when you text someone or need to enter a URL.
I bought a new phone less than a month ago, and I looked at all of these. Then I saw the Nokia 6820. It is the same size as my old cheap-o basic Nokia phone, so it fits easily in any pocket I care to put it in...but it folds out - with a full QWERTY keyboard. Although I had to compromise in screen size (standard mobile phone screen) to have a genuine pocket-sized phone, the fold-out keyboard more than makes up for it: texting is fast, if I'm waiting for a plane, I can go onto IRC (using a neat little open source J2ME IRC client), I can ssh into a server if I get the call saying there's trouble and do some basic troubleshooting all with a keyboard. I couldn't care less about cameras particularly.
The camera in my 6820 is useful in case of emergency, or if I really need an image right now and to hell with the quality because it means I now always have a camera with me. If I get rear-ended at traffic lights, I can take some photos of the incident to supply with the insurance forms as an example.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
http://nokia.com/nokia/0,,54665,00.html
Finally, yet another discraction while driving... SMILE!
I've personally owned four handsets in my time, and through work I've had the experience to use dozens of others, and when asked by others which manufacturer to go for when buying a phone I don't hesitate to say Nokia. But, having seen some of its recent designs, including this one, I can't help but think that the people in Nokia's design teams are losing it.
Just look at the numeric keypad portion of this new handset. Then look at the numeric keypad of any handset you have to hand. Unless you own a quirky model, the odds are that your current numeric keypad is little different to that on a wired phone: four rows of three (1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9, *-0-#) arranged in a grid-like fashion with similar-shaped and -sized buttons.
This traditional configuration is great, because it allows you to dial numbers easily by touch alone, even in very poor lighting or total darkness. Now tell me how you're meant to do that on this new handset? 3, 6, 9 and # are pretty well vertically aligned but 1, 4, 7 and * are pratically sloped at 45 degrees.
Now I don't know about you, but if I was dialling without looking (something that's child's play on most phones) I'd expect the 7 to be two buttons directly below the 1, but on this handset, if you drop two buttons vertically down from 1 then you're hitting 8. Which means that to dial a number on this handset you're pretty much forced to look at the keypad as you dial. That's poor design.
Sure, sure, it looks pretty enough. But if how a handset looks even comes in your top three criteria when buying a new phone (above, say, features/functions, battery life and size/weight) then you're a fool.
The unwritten first rule of useability and ergonomics is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The traditional keypad layout works, and it works damn well: it looks like someone needs to remind Nokia of that.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Phones are adding things. Watches are getting bigger. Let Phone(t) be a function defining a Phone at type t, likewise for Watch(t).
Phone(t) = Watch(t) | t->infinity
Since the early 1990s I've seen immense value in having a mobile phone - just to remain in contact. 1990s phones were temperamental, fragile, bulky and permanently approaching a flat battery. In the noughties things started to look up - phones designs started to become more robust (no aerial sticking out); came in conveniently small packages and battery life sufficient for a working week on standby.
Britain recently passed drive-phoning laws - which bans using a hand-held phone while "driving" (including when stationary - say in a not-infrequent motorway hold up) and I decided a legal hands-free kit would be needed. Blue-tooth seemed to be the perfect answer to the problem - a simple system wired into my car so that whenever my engine is running, the in-car hands free kit takes control of any phone calls - allowing me to legally use my phone without taking it out of my pocket. Off I trooped to the mall now obscenely cluttered with mobile phone shops. To say I was surprised is an understatement!
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!
Don't get me wrong I've been very impressed with my current Nokia 8310, but can't help feeling that more modern phones have become feature crazy and now neglect the primary requirement to make mobile telephone conversations convenient and reliable with minimum effort. Nokia - PLEASE - stop concentrating on the gimmicks and get back to making solid reliable phones for business use.
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.
Here's an another (non-slashdotted) picture of the phone.
The phone you reference is from Japan which has had superior phone technology for many years. It is fair to say a phone that comes out in Japan today will take at least two years to have a US/European competitor.
Nokia is not so much behind the times but, much as every other vendor, is is behind Japanese phone technology.
]{
It really doesn't matter what Nokia put into their phones as long as they don't know how to make quality.
Here in Norway clerks in several stores where asked if they would recommend Nokia to their customers and almost everyone said no! They have too much customer complaints on Nokia phones. Every third Nokia phone sold in Norway has to get service within 6 months...
The most recommended phones where Siemens and Sony Ericson. They only have to have one out of ten phones into services within 6 months.
I just want to make a damn call from the thing, but the keypad is not very well designed for punching up a phone number. Cell phone keypads have become an ugly mess as of late. I don't need it to do anything but make calls, and have a phone book. I don't need a camera and I have a gameboy. geeze.
Ubuntu- Linux for human beings.
I guess now would not be the time to mention that Japan is already up to two megapixel phones . . .
Phones with additional features will always be a compromise, between packing all the features in, keeping the size manageable, and trying to make it fit in the hand like a phone should (does anybody really like using those matchbox sized phones?). As it is, in the US and UK, you really need a hands-free device. That could easily be connected to a wristwatch with the same features. Maybe we could even use the cord running between as an aerial, and improve the signal. Then, it becomes an all-purpose device, with less concern about the fit in the hand. With Hitachi's new mini hard drive coming out, it'll be the camera/watch (and/or phone). If you think it's annoying not being able to have your cell phone in a locker room, wait til you can't have your wristwatch in there, because it can store hours of DV. Phones with additional features will always be a compromise, between packing all the features in, keeping the size manageable, and trying to make it fit in the hand like a phone should. As it is, in the US and UK, you really need a hands-free device. That could easily be connected to a wristwatch with the same features. Maybe we could even use the cord running between as an aerial, and improve the signal. Then, it becomes an all-purpose device, with less concern about the fit in the hand. A+ certified, and just as proud of being potty-trained
For the employee friends, visitors, vendors and contractors, this means they are immediately banned from any and all sites for a duration of 3 years. The employee who has friends onsite using a cameraphone is immediately terminated.
They are being very harsh, but these are the rules. Having someone walking around with a miniature camera in their hands inside labs, through buildings, etc. is an ENORMOUS risk to them.
Check with your employer first, before you invest in one of these phones, or you could find yourself out on the curb without a job.
Cellphone vendors need to be very careful with their product lines, and includes phones that do NOT include these features, so that they can continue to sell product. Don't just cater to the teenagers who think having a camera and a phone is "cool". Cater to the people who actually have to pay for those cellphone bills... the parents, and the businesspersons who actually use the devices for what they are.. a phone.
Careful if you're buying a camera phone. They're rather good fun, but you need to know upfront whether you're going to be able to transfer pictures onto a PC directly.
I know a number of people who have to send a costly email/photomessage for every picture they want to move off their phone, because their network operator (from whom they bought the phone) has disabled the functionality to transfer a picture over a wire/bluetooth/IR.
I'll admit that the functionality and versitility of these new phones sound great, but it really begs the question, how much is too much?
It's hard enough to pry some people off a computer and make them, oh let's say, take a walk outside. I don't know if I could handle seeing every other person sitting at a park bench "appreciating" the scenery by listening to an mp3, taking pictures, and posting them in their blog.
It's probably inevitable. I just hope we don't let technology govern what little part of our everyday life that we have left that isn't affected by technology.
Actually, it's standard for digital camera manufacturers to quote the megapixel rating based on the entire sensor, rather than the output resolution. The sides of the sensor are blacked out, for calibration, and don't appear in the final image.
1600x1200, for example, is the standard 2.0 megapixel resolution (but 1600x1200 is actually only 192k pixels).
I mean, it fits the pattern. Every second store on the high street is a phone store. Phones are made increasingly more difficult to use, and are replaced more and more frequently until eventually it becomes uneconomic to open anything other than a phone shop.
I warned you. Don't say I didn't warn you when the Phone Warriors are sent in. Relax and enjoy your phones. They are very stylish and fashionable...
Cheers,
Ian
Wow, this sounds great, but how does this PHONE do with making PHONE CALLS? You know, the thing you use your phone for 90% of the time? I'd bet that most people who have camera/mp3/video/whatever capabilities in their phones probably use those for about 3 days until the "look, it's cool" factor wears off, then they just talk on their phone like normal people.
--Stupid Sig Here--
sony had this out in 2002... and it did work through a bluethooth phone...
Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-FX77
A pretty sweet camera... great design... i'm STILL using the earlier model with the same design...
Sony Ericsson have a 1.3 MegaPixel 1280 x 960 16x zoom called SO505iS.
Let me try to explain...
If you move your right thumb up and down like you were dialing a number, it can be somewhat natural to move down and to the left at the same time. I think the keypad shape reflects this movement. It might be more natural than expected to dial numbers with the distorted keypad shape.
Guess I gotta go to a shop and try it out first.
Nokia seems to have this weird fixation of pushing more and more weird keypads to their phones one after another. Not that they are the only ones, something like Siemens SX1 is even worse, but still...
What's wrong with the good old squarish design with all numeric keys being at least approximately same size & shape?