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Nokia's New All-In-One Phone
conq writes "BusinessWeek has a piece on Nokia's new phone, introduced today and hitting the shelves in July. The N93, costing $660, will supposedly fill all of your needs for electronic equipment on the go. From the article: 'Should anyone miss the point, Nokia's press extravaganza in a spiffed-up Berlin warehouse ended with a video in which the camera slowly panned across a tableau of dusty, discarded electronic equipment -- including digital cameras and a cobweb-covered iPod. The message: Nokia plans to make these products obsolete.'"
As the greatest stupidity in consumer electronics.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
It may or may not be as much of a computer as a Treo or a Pocket PC, but it has many trademarks of a computer. Pictures, music, videos, wifi and even voip services are possible. This in particular make phones in direct competition with their carriers. Why pay $150 a month for cell phone service when you can get a "Multimedia Enabled" voip capable phone with a $50 dataplan and talk all you want through Skype or other similar services?
Bottom line? If we let carriers like Verizon continue to cripple these awesome phones, we lose money, ease of use and a significant portion of usability. But if we keep taking them to court and winning, we will have the ability to use all of the features the manufacturers intended and save money in the process.
Funnypics
So this thing will have 2-60GB of storage in it?
And high resolution, non-shitty CCD+Lenses in the camera?
And last as long or longer than both devices, on the same battery?
Somehow I doubt it, and this is Nokia sticking their collective foot in their mouth again, just like they did with the ngage.
AAGH MY BRAIN!
.
[gets a mop]
Linkage for those curious. .
technical specifications
N Series overview
"He may be mad, but there's method in his madness. [...] It's what drives men mad, being methodical." G.K.Chesterton
So has there been any serious discussion about the fact that the screen is held to the body of the phone by a single strut? My inclination is to say that it looks flimsy, and while i'd be interested in the functions of the phone, i'd be afraid to do things like cradle the phone.
There are lives at stake here!
The problem with browsing songs on a cell phone is the lack of an iPod-like wheel to navigate with. Well you know how the iPod has tactile buttons under the scroll wheel? The cell phone solution to add twelve buttons instead of five like the ipod has. Put the buttons in a standard dial-pad orientation. Then replace the wheel shape with a rectangular touchpad. Print the image of the wheel and the numbers on top, and put a protective clear coating as the final layer. End result: A touchpad with cursor functionality if desired, standard dialing with the numbers in the right locations and tactile feedback, and iPod wheel navigation!
For naysayers out there who might complain the touchpad can't be made accurately enough for a cursor, fine. Forget that part. But the iPod wheel and dial-pad could be created today. It's just taking Apple's tech to the next step.
image of phone
one thing is for sure, Nokia are pretty consistant in making phones asthetically ugly as they can, still looks like a Motorall flip phone from the early 90's, its as if a good display, touchscreen , hi-res etc isnt important to them, unlike the massive surge of smart phones with hi-res screens, touchscreens to replace aging remote controls, handwriting recognition, etc etc
Cue the asshat that appears in every convergence thread to cry "I just want a phone to make calls and nothing else" in 5, 4, 3, . . .
everything in moderation
but here in U.S. I'd be happy to have a cellular telephone that can actually place an occasional PHONE CALL! Keep your camera/MP3player/PDA/whatever technology and just give me a trustworthy cellular network. Then we'll talk about extras.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I'm not normally pro-reguilation, but we need a few simple laws to fix this. Let's start with this:
I'd like to just outlaw contracts longer than 6 months and bundling phones with service, but the above will do as a start. Hell, a government mandated network standard (instead of GSM/CDMA/EDGE) could be an improvement, even if in the form of a mandate for the industry to pick their own standard with some regulatory backing to the mandate ($1,000,000 per day per company per metropolitan area if they go over the deadline to decide or the deadline to implement sounds good to me).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Purchasers will also get a free copy of Adobe (ADBE) Premier Elements 2.0 video editing software.
If you buy this multimedia computer (AKA not a phone) will it be able to run this software (as you would assume since its bundled)? Alas, apparently this does not replace your other computer that requires at least 4 GB of disk space. I suppose if someone figured out how to run DirectX 9 on this multimedia computer...
...ended with a video in which the camera slowly panned across a tableau...
If they shot this with the actual phone, then maybe it will make all that other stuff obsolete.
I've been waiting my ass off for the Nokia N80, out of the same series of phones. It shares many of the same features. While lacking the Carl Zeiss lens, it gains wireless LAN (802.11g). Combine that with a keyboard accessory, the N80 could be very handy for remote on-the-go system administration (via whatever Series 60 SSH client exists) or blogging while on-the-go with the built-in 3MP camera. For the geeks, the N80 seems a bit cooler and isn't quite as crazy of a form factor as the N90 (though sliders might still be a little off-beat).
Unless they somehow make a new battery that's dramatically better than the ones we have, people aren't really going to take these all-in-wonders seriously. I wanted to get a new phone last Christmas, that had an mp3 player and could play good games. Didn't want to have to carry so many gadgets in my pockets everytime I went out. So I got myself an SE Walkman phone. I won't do a review on that here, but to sum things up, the sound was ok, I could play games, make calls, etc. (Also had a camera and and FM radio btw.)
In the end, I had to make up my mind each day what I was going to use it for since I had to recharge every so often. (Much more often than what I would have liked.) A phone? A camera? Or a player? Maybe a little of each?
I ended up buying a small Creative flash player. A single battery lasted about 18 hours, could hold much more songs, etc. In practice, since I use it about 2 hours a day, I could go on a single charge for a week. (And no more calls or text messages interrupting my music or games.)
Instead of shelling out more than half a grand for an ultra-phone, I think money's better spent buying a regular phone, plus a dedicated gadget. (Player, camera, etc.)
(And on a slightly unrelated note, a lot of people still prefer regular calculators over the ones in their PCs.)
Seriously, have you tried finding a phone that is stylish, small, has good battery life, and yet doesn't cost an arm and a leg because all it does is voice/text?
Yes, there are plenty of small-ish, plastic phones that do this. But they lack the elegance of, say, a Motorola V3 or a high end Nokia or Sony.
I think there is certainly an untapped market for the following phone:
- metal body
- slimline and actually fashionable design (may I suggest sleek, matte-silver or black, no clear plastic or flourescent colours?)
- integrated aerial
- 4-6 day battery life
- medium sized colour screen
- adequate sized buttons for SMS
- speakerphone feature
- compatible with ordinary (wired) handsfree
- robust and preferably semi-hardened against water and dust
- FAST and bug free software
- price reflecting the functionality and manufacture cost, not the desirability of the device
Leave out bluetooth, photos, videos, IR, memory card functionality, internal hard disk or flash drive, huge colour screen and any other crap you might consider adding 'because it's cool' that would drive up the price.
I and many others will buy this phone.
Read Pynchon.
Not with an attitude like that, it won't.
... Does it run Linux?
Just because it can't be explained doesn't mean it isn't true. Science fits into reality... not the other way around.
First, you enter any of these contracts completely by choice. If you don't want to sign up for a two-year commitment, buy your phone on the open market -- without their discount. It's an incentive, not an imperative.
You are already allowed to bring your own phone to their network. You don't pay more for a non-provider-provided phone.
If you want a phone that's portable between carriers, again, you're free to buy one on the open market. (AFAIK, not counting locked phones, GSM phones are more portable between carriers than CDMA phones. Analog is a few months from death, and I have no idea whatever became of TDMA or PCM.)
If you want a phone that's not crippled by Verizon (the worst) or another carrier, buy one on the open market.
Basically, the reason contracts are as bad as they are is that people are very attracted to the "free" phones, or the steeply discounted phones available from the cellular providers. That's the idea. But the free market is still out there. Quit whining about locked-down phones and insane contracts and spend the $200 extra for an unlocked phone. Or take their discount and STFU about it.
What I'd rather see is sanity brought to the plans. Having to "guess" at how many minutes you'll use in a month is a pretty lame way to force us to make a purchase. But all of the "pay as you go" plans cost far more for anyone but a mime.
John
Here's some images of this thing.
. php?showtopic=5892= 5892
http://www.dexigner.com.nyud.net:8080/forum/index
http://www.dexigner.com/forum/index.php?showtopic
Seems like they could have thrown in a keyboard for such a big phone. Seems more like a camcorder-phone than an all-in-one device.
This phone is seriously huge!
x .php?p=9/
x .php?p=7/
Check it out here: http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/nokia_nx3/inde
Also, the N73 was also announced, which is thankfully a smaller phone, still feature rich, and is quad band unlike the N93, and thus better for those of us in the US.
Check it out: http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/nokia_nx3/inde
Also, for those who are interested in phones check out howardforums.com It's the best message board for cell phones and network information.
The press release has enough buzzwords to give a corporate climber a bigger stiffy than Viagra. "Digital life", "global convergence"... Geez I better buy one so I'm corporately compliant!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
"The N93, costing $660, will supposedly fill all of your needs for electronic equipment on the go."
Let's see:
simple -- no
cheap -- no
long battery life -- no
Sorry. Looks like it will fufill none of my needs.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
The only phone company where I live with GSM service requires a two-year contract, regardless of where you get your phone. Also they don't subsidize phones, except to give away the bottom-end model that they're trying to get rid of. Since they're the only GSM game in town, nobody else sells GSM phones, so you're pretty much SOL unless you want to order one online. Which I will do.. to replace the freebie I got. At least I can swap out the SIM card and there's nothing they can do about it.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
If you don't want to sign up for a two-year commitment, buy your phone on the open market
Where is this "open market" you speak of? Does it have a store in Fort Wayne, Indiana? If you mean online, what close substitute is there for inspecting a phone in person before I purchase it?
You are already allowed to bring your own phone to their network.
The carriers make it seem like the opposite. I know little about GSM; can you show me that this is true despite what the carriers say? How do I determine whether any carrier serving my area offers SIM-only service (that is, without phone rental)? And if I put the carrier's SIM card into my phone, won't that let the carrier lock the phone, or can the carrier refuse service to SIM cards inserted in phones that aren't locked? If I am clueless about GSM, what do you suggest that I read in order to become no longer clueless?
You don't pay more for a non-provider-provided phone [...] spend the $200 extra for an unlocked phone.
Am I supposed to not see a contradiction here?
"Open market" phones are no longer that viable on Verizon's netwrok. I have used them for years, and they have the best coverage anywhere I've been. For years, I rarely used a Verizon branded phone.
I was using a 6585 from Ebay for 8 months. I sent it in to Nokia to have the firmware updated, and when I got the phone back, I was told that it was not compatable.
Not compatable when I had been using it for 8 months, and it was giving me much better service than the one Verizon branded phone I had been using in the interim. When I pointed this out enough times, I was told that it was because my phone wasn't E911 complant. It was. Eventually, I got them to reactivate that ESN under a different model, that they carried. It took a month and over a dozen calls to customer service, escelating every time to get that done.
I have since switched to Cingular, in spite of lessor service and worse coverage and call quality, and have been switching between the phone they gave me and another that I used to use on TMobile.
I think it's really unfortunate that Verizon has gotten so overprotective of their hardware sales margains that they're willing to give up customers. I used to reccomend them to everyone that I knew because of superior coverage and customer service. Now customer service has tanked, and they don't get my reccomendations.
On the other hand, my favorite N-Series Nokia is gonna be the N-80.
"He may be mad, but there's method in his madness. [...] It's what drives men mad, being methodical." G.K.Chesterton
Time Division Multiple Access is a strategy for multiplexing radio access rather than a specific standard, though in the US the term TDMA is often used to refer to IS-136/D-AMPS. D-AMPS service is still provided in many parts of the country, by Cingular among others (my dad still has a D-AMPS phone).
Code Division Multiple Access is sort of a standard, except that it's not. Originally, there was IS-95 which everyone (i.e., Sprint and Verizon) supports. Unfortunately, they've put incompatible protocols on top of that such that they're unable to use one another's networks anymore - you cannot roam between networks with CDMA. I used to work at a place that sold cellular data modules, and provisioning CDMA customers always required a flash of the module firmware to support the network (as well as to set the ESN for the module). Of course, all the data functionality is not part of the IS-95 spec, so maybe you could get away with an unflashed handset if you were only interested in making calls. You'd probably lose most of the bells and whistles, though.
GSM is nice because it's made for easy portability of devices - you change SIMs and that's that. CDMA may be "better" from a technical perspective (it seems to attract fanboy zealots), but it suffers from real world implementation issues. Plus, you gotta pay the Qualcomm tax.
I like the way the people on Slashdot always complain about new multitalented phones. Don't buy them if they don't suit your needs or work properly in your networks!
Nokia and all other manufacturers have plenty of entry level, sub $100, "calls only" style phones in the product portfolio for you critical consumers to purchase.
I like my 9500, soon to be replaced with an E70 (I want more CPU power and 3G). Yes, I use the camera daily (sending MMSes to friends/moblog).. I listen to MP3s and C-64 SIDs often from my 1GB MMC card. I use it for GPS navigation with TomTom mobile when I'm driving in an unknown town. I use PuTTY over GPRS or WLAN for remote terminals every day on it.
They wouldn't make these if there weren't people willing to buy them.. And usually the will to buy comes from a need for some certain features.
-Jope
It seems as though there are a lot of negative comments here from people who just want a phone to be a phone. If this is the case then dont buy this phone! Slashdot release news about interesting geeky products, not boring ones. If you just want a phone that calls and SMSs then get the Nokia 1100 or 1101.
This phone actaully has a great spec. Lots of people don't seem to be reading the article. Battery life will be similar to the N91 for playing MP3s, i.e. about the same as an iPod. The MP3 player has a better interface where you can actually search without scrolling through all your songs.
The camera is no DSLR but that's not the target. It's a 3MP with a good lense. It would replace an average $150 digi cam.
The video recording also looks fantastic, with resolution and bitrate that will look good on a standard TV - possibly better than home (analog) video cameras. It has TV out as well.
It runs S60 so you can write your own programs or download other peoples. There's thousands, possibly more than Windows Smartphone / Mobile.
This phone has an undeniably great spec. If that's not for you then don't get it.
http://dave1010uk.blogspot.com/ - the st
First, you enter any of these contracts completely by choice. If you don't want to sign up for a two-year commitment, buy your phone on the open market -- without their discount. It's an incentive, not an imperative.
Actually, that's not necessarily true. Some markets simply don't offer no-commitment contracts.
But the free market is still out there.
You're making a common mistake: you assume that if there is more than one source and if people have a choice whether and which contract to enter, the market is a free market. That's wrong. For a market to function like a free market, there need to be numerous other conditions. Usually, they won't be met unless there are dozens of competitors with similar product offerings.
Calling a market a "free market" when it is not is a way for companies to avoid the kind of government regulation that is necessary to keep monopolies and oligopolies in check.
Jeezz, you live in America, `the land of the free?' I live in Holland, and except for point one we have everything you list here. Amazing.
-- Cheers!
I know Nokia's R&D gets paid by 16 year olds doing overtime at the local McDonnalds, but it keeps on amazing me how nobady develops the business marked. My phone can synch with Bluetooth and IR. Guess what? The average corporate desktop has neither. How about a intelligent USB craddle? When I put the phone in it, it not only recharges, but automatically forwards all calls to the desktop phone standing just beside it, and all text messages to my email inbox? How many mobile phone owners sit 8 hours a day at the same desk? Why does nobady cater for them?
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
The stupid part is that these phones can't interface with computers well. All I want is one of these fancy phones that will interface well with my Linux PC.
/photos and /videos, respectively.
These are the things I expect from a phone:
- Appears as a USB mass storage device.
- Data like contacts, messages, and so on should be stored as CSV files or some similar sort of text files. I want them editable in a text editor.
- Photos and videos stored in
- Photos and videos in common (and preferably patent-free) formats. PNG and Ogg Theora would suit me fine.
- Bluetooth.
- A C or C++ cross compiler.
I think the Nokia 770 might be perfect for me if only it was a phone. If anyone knows of a phone that can do some of those things (a bare minimum would be appearing as a mass storage device...) please let me know!
I also don't see why digital cameras and other devices shouldn't all appear as mass storage devices. It is ridiculous to require some crappy half-hearted software effort (that usually doesn't work) from phone companies.