Tasty bits - 10

I think Tim Wu hit the nail right on the head with his paper on wireless net neutrality, and I applaud Skype for getting involved!

Are you looking for more Nokia E90 goodness? Well here is a detailed preview and a whole bunch of pictures for you :)

It looks like the Macworld keynote is full of additional details about the Apple iPhone…

Not much to report

Well, it’s been a quiet week… If you’re interested in the Nokia E90, you’re supposed to ask questions! Otherwise, enjoy a bit of humor :)

Update: How about a hands-on with the fascinating Neonode N2?

3GSM goodness

The Nokia E90 is here… And according to this review, it’s the über phone! I’m very excited that it features a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash. Maybe I’ll even wait for the E90 instead of getting the Nokia N95.

A OQO Model 02 with HSPDA instead of EVDO? Oh yeah! Unfortunately it’s a only a tech demo, and it’s not available yet…

As expected, the touch-based Neonode N2 is here, and it looks very interesting - perhaps I’ll even order one if/when it’s available :)

Tasty bits - 9

It’s official, the Nokia N95 is now blessed by the FCC.

Move over, iPhone and Nokia N95, there’s a new kid on the block - it’s touch-based, with tactile feedback… Or perhaps iPhone + N95 = Samsung F700?

Oh my! Pictures of the rumored Nokia E90. I’m definitely looking forward to 3GSM this year :)

i-mobile 902 first impressions

Yesterday I received my i-mobile 902 and today I played with it a bit… Of course it was raining all day - doh! So here are my first impressions:

Pros:
- Great camera :)
- Great speakerphone
- Well made device
- Reasonably small and light
- Good battery life
- Decent phone reception and audio quality
- Decent user interface
- USB 2.0 mass storage device (with standard connector)
- USB charger
- Bluetooth File Transfer and Object Push

Cons:
- Narrow screen viewing angle
- Slow operation at times
- No email client
- No Bluetooth DUN (but Bluetooth Serial Port, so stay tuned)
- No iSync support (but vCard support, and worked fine with MegaCellX)
- So-so music player and audio quality (even with good headphones)
- So-so HTML web browser
- So-so GPRS performance
- Small amount of Java memory
- Tri-band GPRS only

Unboxing the i-mobile 902

Here are the unboxing pictures of my i-Mobile 902, complete with new “bento box” notes.

Enjoy :)

Tasty bits - 8

Here’s another interesting Nokia N95 preview!

The OQO Model 02 is now also also available with Verizon EVDO.

Take a look at this video of the touch-based LG KE850 (Prada) showing the user interface…

Somehow I missed this at the time, but Google recently released a native Symbian version of both its Google Maps client and its Gmail client, as well as a native Windows Mobile version of its Google Maps client.

No, there’s no Tasty bits 1-7 :)

The proverbial finger

Sure, I’ll admit that I’m a bit of an Apple fangirl… But you’ve got to admit that under all that ego, Steve Jobs is a genius sometimes!

So why is yesterday’s “open letter” a big deal?

Because so far, other than the EFF and a few other small players, none of the big players have been willing to give the RIAA and MPAA the proverbial finger. Kudos to Steve - here’s to a DRM-free future :)

Best kept secret

It’s a well known fact that there are some very cool phones available in Asia, especially in Japan and Korea… But there are also some great devices available in China and Thailand. Unfortunately most Japanese and Korean phones don’t use GSM - but Chinese and Thai devices do, and some are even tri-band, making them akin to a best kept secret - rare here, feature packed, yet reasonably priced and compatible with North American carriers!

The i-mobile 902 is a tri-band GSM phone manufactured by Taiwanese giant Asus for the Thai market. At first glance this device is very similar to the Sony Ericsson K750i, but that’s where the similarities end - instead of the K750i’s pretty decent 2 megapixel CMOS camera with auto-focus, macro and LED flash, the 902 features a very good 5 megapixel CCD camera (supplied by Sony) with auto-focus, macro and xenon flash. Furthermore, it’s capable of recording video at 30 fps with a resolution of 640×480 pixels (DVD quality).

While being only tri-band and missing EDGE, this device offers a decent set of modern features, including a QVGA display, audio/video player, Bluetooth, and a microSD card slot - but by most accounts, the camera on this phone may just be the best currently available on a GSM device, especially when it comes to low-light performance! Since I really like camera phones, I’ve purchased an i-mobile 902 while I’m waiting for the Nokia N95 to be released, and I’ll be putting it to the test…

More iPhone competition

Now this is interesting!

Two years after releasing the N1m, a phone featuring a touch screen with gesture recognition, Neonode announced that it will be showing a new device at 3GSM…

Is this more iPhone competition, perhaps? Or will the Meizu M8 just be a replica?

I really mean it - 2007 will be the year of the touch-based device.