Mobility

Once in a blue moon, you see a product that defies logic by converging two seemingly incompatible technologies.

Here's the scenario: You're taking photographs at a family occasion. Everyone knows that you take wonderful photographs (:D) and can't wait for you to upload them. But, uploading requires:

• Connecting the camera to the computer OR removing the memory card from the camera and sticking it into the card reader
• Transferring the photographs
• Resizing the photographs to a good size
• Uploading the photographs (Picasa combines the last 2 steps)
• Adding your comments

Ideally, I want to go straight to the last step. And now I can (technically).

Eye-Fi is an SD card - yes, a normal SD card with 2 GB storage space that will fit in most video and still cameras - which can upload images to PicasaWeb (and other photo sharing websites) directly. If there is a wireless router within range, it starts uploading images automatically. Alternatively, it starts uploading the images when you are next in range of a wireless router. You configure the card when you connect it to a PC.


Just imagine the amount of time saved! All this for just $100 (Sandisk currently sells its standard 2 GB SD cards for $45).

The world was introduced to the iPhone yesterday (June 29, 2007). Along with many others, I am not at all excited (well, of course there are many many others who do not subscribe to this line of thought). Then why a post about the iPhone, you ask?

In a way that I cannot completely describe, I have looked up to Apple. Maybe not for their design, not for their innovation, but for their resilience. They have stayed alive making things that they like to design, in the face of stiff market opposition. And of course, whatever they make ends up looking very cool. I have seen (albeit with a pinch of salt), 'Pirates of the Silicon Valley' and do believe that Steve Jobs has made very conscious choices towards what products Apple makes.

However, with the iPhone, Apple has introduced something in the market that perplexes me and feels like something that (gasp) Microsoft usually does. Let me explain. Apple's iPod is an ingenius gadget. With the iPod, Apple became the market leader in portable music players. What did Microsoft do? It launched the Zune - a half hearted attempt at a portable music player with only one USP - wireless music transfer amongst friends (that the transferred music only plays for "three days or three plays, whichever comes first" is a less known fact). Needless to say, the Zune never became popular (many a technophile did criticize it thoroughly though). Microsoft took on Apple inspite of many years of market and technological disadvantage - in a product line that was far away from their core competency - just to get a slice of the pie.

Circa 2006, Motorola launched the Moto Razr V3i with iTunes included - marking the coming together of Apple and Motorola. Those who read my blog already know what my thoughts on the V3i are. The Moto Rokr that followed was not great either. Nevertheless, it took less than a year for Apple to dump Motorola and start designing their own phone. To be honest, Apple products take their due time to complete - so plans for the iPhone could have started even before the Moto Razr launch.

Bottomline - Apple backstabbed Motorola and launched a directly competitive product in the market. Doesn't that sound very 'me-too'ish in a Microsoft sort of way? Can anyone enlighten me behind what actually happened?

Whatever be the reason, I am not really impressed with the iPhone either. With a closed development platform, there won't be many third-party applications - something that I have to come to cherish about Symbian. No Apple, the iPhone may be cool, but I am not going to be an iLoser!

PJ Warning: If Apple had made this product, would they have called it the iPee?

I consider myself to be very fortunate living through these days of technology redefinition. I finally found a software that I was desperately waiting for. Skype now runs on my Nokia E61.

The E61 has a built in VoIP client. It has WiFi connectivity. Then why is it that Skype was not made available for the Symbian platform?

Some reports I read indicated that it was due to the processor speeds in Nokia phones - the processor could not handle the encoding required for Skype. One workaround devised was the iSkoot. The iSkoot client loads your contacts list from your PC, and when you select a contact to call, it calls an iSkoot service to connect with the contact. A very nice workaround - but it uses SkypeOut credits. So you pay for the international call and use Skype credits.

FringLand Ltd. recently launched fring that does away with this shortcoming and went ahead. fring allows users to make calls to Skype and Google Talk contacts directly through WiFi. fring has its own network that they have bridged to the Skype and Google Talk networks. Which basically means, free calls to your Skype contacts.

Though their beta has some stability issues, I'm way too happy to complain. Remember, this works best with WiFi enabled phones. The lag in GPRS connections could be as high as 1 second - not a very good calling experience. I hope they keep this service free just like Skype does.

Another reason for you to get a Nokia E61 :)

[Update: Changed the description of iSkoot in accordance with Doni's comment below. Apologies for misinterpreting how iSkoot works. I think there is a software that works in the way I had described earlier (briding 2 Skype calls). I don't remember now what the name is.]

I recently had the opportunity to use a BlackBerry and compare it to the Nokia E61. I can safely say that even though RIM pioneered a wonderful concept of mobile email and QWERTY keyboards, it took Nokia to make it into a really usable device.

I have always found the side scrollwheel to be a non-intuitive user interface - it allows movement in only 1 axis (and you can press to select - a second axis). The Nokia joystick allows movement in 2 axis and also acts as a button to select. For example, to move from one icon to another just below it, the Blackberry requires you to scroll through the entire row. In the E61 (and all other Nokia phones having a joystick) I just use the joystick.

   

There, of course, remain other things that the BlackBerry provides that are missing in the E61. One is a spellcheck/word suggest functionality.

From a useability perspective though, the E61 wins hands down. Try one today!

I had promised myself that my next post would be about the Nokia E61, that too when I owned one. As can be guessed, the sparkling new E61 (you can see an actual size picture here) lies right beside me. I tried writing this post directly from the E61, but unfortunately, the interface to my blog editor does not support the E61 browser (any listeners amongst the developers of the Serendipity platform - this is actual feedback!).

The E61 boasts the most connectivity options I have ever seen or heard of. GSM, GPRS, WiFi, UMTS, Bluetooth, Infrared, Pop-Port (USB connection) - there is no way that you can find yourself disconnected. Even the new thin charger has an attachment by which you can charge your phone through the older (and thicker) Nokia chargers. Till now, the only option I have not used is UMTS - and that too because no network in India supports this.

My quest for the Nokia E61 began when I searched for a Nokia phone (obviously - I have known very few people who have moved away after owning a Nokia) that has the series 60 operating system (I like to install and try new applications) and does not sport a camera (cameras are slowly being banned from offices, they increase prices and are rarely used anyway). The only phone shortlisted was the E61. The more I read about it, the more I was convinced that this was going to be my next phone. Now that I have owned it for quite some time and have experimented extensively, I think it is about time that I set the record straight.

Pros:

• The QWERTY keyboard is VERY convenient to use and not at all cumbersome. I see no advantage of styluses and touch screens.
• Contrary to common belief, the size is not dificult to handle, considering all the other advantages the phone offers.
• There is a lot that you can uncover in terms of features, options, tricks, and shorcuts. Not a day goes by when I don't learn something new about the phone.
• Nokia has ensured that the user experience picks up from earlier series 60 phones, and delivers much more. The active display is a case in point. The standby active display shows upcoming meeting/appointments, new messages (email/SMS/MMS), and the current playing song (if any).
• The inbuilt browser is very intuitive. The joystick doubles up as the mouse and you can control an intelligent cursor that tries to identify links which it automatically points to, and also scrolls the screen.
• The organizer is a boon - and is very easy to update given the fact that you have a QWERTY keyboard.
• The light sensor makes a comeback (reappearing after the Nokia 7650) and saves battery life by dimming/switching off the display and keypad light based on ambient lighting.
• You can view and edit MS Word, MS PowerPoint and MS Excel documents with the built in office tools. Believe it or not, you can draw charts in the spreadsheet application. You can also export your view to a projector/PC monitor.
• The large portrait screen and stereo sound will give you a wonderful experience while watching movies and serials.
• Finally, and most importantly, you can install a host of applications that make life simpler. Try Gmail Mobile to read your mail with the familiar Gmail interface that includes preloading of data, viewing attachments, and grouping of conversations. Chat with your Gtalk friends through GoTalkMobile. Browse the web (especially long textual pages) with Opera Mini, or relax with a wonderful round of golf in Golf Pro 2. You an even watch a movie compressed using the DivX codec using Divx mobile.

Cons:

• The phone ships with a mono headset even though stereo playback is supported. I had no problem as I had a stereo headset from a previous Nokia phone.
• The built-in browser is a bit too simplistic. I would love to have the ability to see the URL (pay attention to the status bar - there is a lot that you learn about what you are going to view on a page from the URL itself), and scroll/select text.
• Though easy to use, the joystick sometimes becomes a pain in the thumb after extensive use. The rumored Nokia E61i may be a welcome change.
• The settings might be a pain for those not comfortable with the Nokia interface.
• Series 60 v3 requires all applications to be recompiled and digitally signed by Nokia. Therefore, as of today there is a paucity of applications out there. Hopefully, this will change soon.
• The change from RS-MMC to Mini SD memory cards has rendered my 256 MB RS MMC card useless.

All in all, the advantages way outweigh the disavantages. With this phone, Nokia will take a big leap ahead from other phones in the market.

Mork would really be impressed with the iPod Nano - it doesn't look earthly. Trust me, I have one. I was introduced to my new iPod Nano this last Friday. Apart from office time (where I am not allowed to take my beloved), I have spent considerable time with it. Enough has been said in praise of the iPod family, and of the Nano, so I'll refrain from that. My only disappointment is in that the Nano does not have any charging interface apart from a USB port. That means I'll have to find a computer/laptop wherever I go. I guess I'll resort to carrying my Creative Nomad MuVo² during journeys - that comes with a wall adapter/charger, and the battery is a replaceable-rechargeable Lithium-ion (unlike the iPod that has a built-in battery).

Most of us already know a lot about MP3 players, in general, and the iPod in particular. But few know about iPodlinux. iPodLinux is an open source initiative to make Linux run on an iPod. And it promises some magic. Would you believe that it lets you play videos on a non-video supporting iPods (including the Nano, Mini, 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G iPods)? Well, to be honest, it currently only supports uncompressed videos (which can be HUGE!), but then they're working on enabling compressed video too. The Apple iPod interface is replaced with a new GUI named podzilla. There's even a boot loader that lets you choose between iPodLinux and the native Apple interface. The project promises to support a wider variety of formats, some more games, and most importantly, themes for the iPod.

And just in case you were wondering whether installing the software is legal, the site helpfully informs readers that they have confirmed from Apple that the iPod's warranty is a hardware warranty - and Apple will renew the iPod back to working condition. The site also goes on to provide elaborate instructions for reviving your iPod even when things go horribly wrong.

I got my hands on a new Motorola Razr V3i with iTunes. I'm quite impressed with the phone, but as usual, I have my 2 cents to put in. These are my observations:

Pros:

• The phone is amazingly sleek. It's almost half the thickness of my Nokia 6260, while offering more features.
• The external LCD is quite feature-packed - incoming numbers, camera viewfinder, missed call notification - all rolled into one.
• The keypad is quite nice to work with. And it boasts of at least 3 additional navigation keys apart from the ones offered by Nokia - This helps getting things done faster.
• The phone ships with a 256 MB card - enough for storing quite a few songs for iTunes.
• The camera offers quite a few funtionalities out-of-the-box - colorize, zoom, lighting conditions, etc. The camera can zoom up to 8x (digital, of course).

Cons:

• Americans chose right-hand driving because the British drove on the left. Carrying on the tradition, Motorola has the Select/Activate/Yes softkey on the right, and the Cancel/Back/No softkey on the left. This can be quite irritating to Nokia users. It could easily have been offered as an option (Left/Right handed phone).
• There's no way to cancel a call while the phone is closed. You can only mute the ringer/stop vibration using the volume keys on the sides. The caller will get the impression that you missed the call - not cancelled it.
• The phone is not exactly plug-and-play. Windows required a restart to install the phone, and I still have not managed to make the Tools application, which ships with the phone, to work. iTunes does not detect the phone either.
• No Symbian - the biggest drawback. This means that we are primarily restricted to applications developed by Motorola and not by third party providers.

If only it were possible to get Nokia 6260's software onto the Razr V3i!

Samsung has unveiled a new MMCmicro memory that provides 2 GB of storage for mobile phones. That's enough space to hold 512 songs (in MP3 format). The dimensions of the card memory are 12 x 14 x 1.1 mm and its based on Samsung's proprietary NAND Flash technology.

I, on the other hand, have a 256 MB MMC in my mobile phone that I have found quite difficult to fill. Cameras in mobile phones are usually banned in most places, they take ages to start so you cant take spontaneous photographs, and they are pretty much useless at night (read more here). Similarly, not many people are interested in an MP3 Player - Cellphone combo as is made obvious by the increasing sales of IPod's in the presence of Sony's range of Walkman phones and Motorola's Rokr (among many, many others). Lastly, movies and games just don't feel right on that small screen.

So how much memory do you need on your phone? Do you think that you'll ever watch videos, listen to music, store and give presentations, write reports, play 3D games on your mobile phone? Leave your comments by clicking on the comments link in the box on the right. Continue reading "How Much Mobile Storage Do You Need?"

Just days before the release of Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry in China, a local chinese service provider (China Unicom) has deployed a service provokingly called 'RedBerry'. The RedBerry service is similar to the BlackBerry service in that it provides email sending/receiving on mobile phones. However, the mails are sent and received using SMS which allows the service to be accessed by any existing mobile phone. BlackBerry requires a proprietary handset. Further, the cost of the RedBerry service is a small fraction of the cost of the BlackBerry service.

Though RIM cannot stop the RedBerry service based on technical grounds (the implementations of the services are quite different even though the end objective is same), RIM will probably go after China Unicom with a case of trademark infringement. China, as we all know, is quite famous for such infringements.

More commentary and examples can be found in this article.

Frankly, I am quite surprised that products like the Sony Reader have not become popular. I did have my hangups on reading e-books, but they were quashed when I managed to read a couple of (long) books on my Nokia 6260.

I firmly believed that e-books could never replace a good paperback. I find nothing more enjoyable than lying down and reading (yes, I know its unhealthy). I find reading (for pleasure) from a computer monitor irritating, and laptops are still quite uncomfortable to take to bed.

However, I have come to appreciate the idea of a small reader. Let's look at the advantages of e-book readers:

1. Small and easy to use
2. Can hold a huge number of books
3. If e-book services become popular, acquiring e-books would be much easier from the Internet, as compared to     visiting the neighborhood book store
4. Configurable fonts and sizes
5. Searching for favorite paragraphs, quotes, bookmarks (something that I find very cumbersome in books)

Unfortunately, digital books inherently lead to piracy (as is rampant today). Arguably, the following steps will ensure that publishing houses can embrace digital media, and cut out piracy:

• (Obviously) price e-books so that people do not feel pinched
• Make procurement so easy for end-users, that they find paying to be more convenient than spending hours on     the Internet searching for a pirated copy

Want to try an e-book? Project Gutenburg has thousands of legally downloadable books (including some classics that have fallen out of copyright, including Joyce). If you have a Symbian series 60 phone, you might want to try QReader for reading. Q-Reader is a free, customizable, multiple format book reader, that even lets you search text.