Samsung T929 (Memoir) camera

It’s been almost 6 months since I picked up the Samsung T929 (Memoir), the first subsidized 8 megapixel cameraphone in the US, and I’m overdue for a review :)

Over the years, I have tested a plethora of 5 megapixel devices – the i-mobile 902, the Nokia N95/N95-3/N95-4, the Sony Ericsson K850i, the Nokia N82, the Motorola ZN5 (ZINE), the Nokia N96, the Nokia N85, the Nokia N79, and more recently the Nokia N97…

There are now several 8 megapixel cameraphones available from Samsung (Pixon, Memoir, INNOV8, Omnia HD), LG (Renoir, Viewty Smart), Sony Ericsson (C905, W995), and Nokia (N86 8MP) – not to mention upcoming 12 megapixel units.

I’m getting a Nokia N86 8MP review unit soon, but so far I’ve only played with the Samsung i8510 (INNOV8), the Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD), and of course the Memoir.

For over 4 months I used it as my primary imaging device, and 1000+ pictures later, I have to say that the Memoir features the best camera I have ever enjoyed on any phone – and by a wide margin!

CTIA: Days 2 and 3

Well CTIA is now over and I’m back in San Francisco… Here’s a summary of what I ended up doing on days 2 and 3:
- Demo of the Nokia N97 with Julien Fourgeaud of Nokia (with video)
- Meeting with Nokia to discuss accessories
- Dinner with Matthew Bennett and Jeb brilliant after the Opera party
- Walkthrough of the Palm Pre at the Sprint VIP lounge (with video)
- Hands on time with the Nokia 7205 (Intrigue)
- More time with the Nokia N86 and Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD)

Check out all my pictures and additional videos!

Tasty bits – CTIA and beyond

Wait! Did two months of tasty bits just go by, CTIA and all? Hmmm yes…

HP 2133 (Mini-Note):
- HP 2133 Mini-Note UMPC Reviewed (Verdict: Rich Man's Eee PC)
- Lightning Review: HP 2133 Mini-Note
- HP Mini-Note 2133 officially official, reviewed
- HP Mini-Note gets unboxed, causes extreme jealousy
- jkOnTheRun review- hands on with the HP Mini-Note UMPC

Asus 701/900 (Eee):
- Video Hands on With the 8.9-inch Asus Eee PC 900
- Asus Eee PC 900 Hits U.S. May 12 for $549
- 1.2 GHz Pentium M in your Eee PC? No problem
- Hands-on with the 9-inch Eee PC
- ASUS' 9-inch Eee PC, now with living pixels!
- Eee PC 900 gets dissected, looks about the same as the Eee PC 700

Nokia N810:
- Android on the N810: Working on it!
- Nokia Internet Tablets to get Ubuntu and Qt ports
- Nokia's N810 Internet Tablet WiMAX Edition gets official

Nokia N95:
- 8 GB North American Model N95 available: $779 online
- North American Nokia N95 8GB (Nokia N95-4) Unboxing

Nokia N82:
- All About Symbian Review: Long term battle: Nokia N95, N95 8GB and N82
- Nokia N82 gets blacked out for retail

Other Nokia:
- Eight useful codes for S60 devices
- 10 Awesome Applications for Symbian Phones
- Your S60 smartphone as a drum machine!
- WalkingHotSpot trial available for download
- Nokia E71 Pops up Down Under
- FCC Gives Nokia 6220 Classic the Nod
- T-Mobile’s new mystery 3G Nokia handset outted
- Nokia secretly shows E71 at Mobile Wor… er, in Sydney
- Google gets even chummier with S60, releases search app
- S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 gets broken down to the nitty gritty
- Nokia N96 gets in-depth review months ahead of release
- Things may be looking brighter for Nokia N96, Xenon flash in the works?
- Nokia readies iPhone-ish "Tube," disses Apple's sales
- Nokia E71 sneaks into the wild once again
- Exclusive: latest update on the hotly anticipated Nokia Tube
- The Nokia Guide: Getting the most out of your Nseries’ camera

Apple iPhone:
- iPhone Pwnage Tool Getting Public Release Tomorrow; Unsigned Firmware Support For All
- iPhone to Support GPS, Stereo Bluetooth, Nike+, Battle Hackers
- iPhone firmware 2.0? You’re damn right we got it!
- Nike+ going WiFi and 3G, headed to iPhone
- The second-gen iPhone: 3G, GPS, only slightly thicker – Engadget
- Touchpad turns your iPhone into a remote trackpad
- Palm emulated on the iPhone: finally we can leave that IIIc at home
- Easy 1.1.4 jailbreaking with iNdependence, Ziphone, and… iTunes?
- iPhone PwnageTool released!
- 3G iPhone rumors building up steam
- iPhone gets VoIP and chat options thanks to Fring
- iPhone firmware hints strengthen case for GPS support
- iPhone feature rumor round-up: Jabber and iTunes control
- Flickr Find: Lilliputian iPhone unboxing
- Twinkle: location-aware Twittter client for iPhone
- iPhone video recorder with audio support debuts

Sony Ericsson:
- Sony Ericsson's X1 reviewed
- XPERIA X1 white paper reveals yet more details
- Is this Sony Ericsson's P5 or "Paris"?
- Specs revealed of the real (or fake) Sony Ericsson "Paris"
- Another shot of Sony Ericsson's Paris?
- Yet another convincing Sony Ericsson Paris pic — open, this time

LG:
- LG KG750 Is Sleek of Line, High (Five) of Megapixels, Shoots DivX, Called Secret
- Live Pics: MediaFLO for AT&T on the LG Vu and Samsung Access
- LG Vu further slides into view
- Hands-on with the LG Vu
- Thin is in: LG shares a glimpse of its 5 megapixel hottie phone

Samsung:
- Samsung-built, Google-branded Android phones due later this year?
- Rumored Prada II specs surface in purported leaked press release

Motorola:
- T-Mobile considering Motorola Z10 for 3G launch?
- Motorola’s 2008 Roadmap Revealed
- Spy shots of the Motorola ZN5
- Motorola's ZN5 gets clearer, Kodak co-branding and all

Android:
- Android gets handled, now with Street View
- T-Mobile confirms it'll have an Android device sometime this year

Other:
- Meizu M8, Something You Burn in a Paper Bag on Someone's Porch
- T-Mobile's 3G Network Rolling Out May in NYC, Coincides With 3G HTC Touch Dual?
- Sharp-Willcom D4 UMPC With Intel Atom Centrino, Vista Hits the States on June 20th
- Crowded Ultraportable Party Gets Dissected
- Meizu prototype caught in the flesh at CeBIT, we handle it
- Meizu M8 interface gets tweaked once again. A few pixels to the left, please?
- Meizu's M8 gets more UI tweaks for its music player
- More MID videos: IdeaPad U8 and Aigo
- Mozilla Mobile shows 5.9x performance increase on ARM device
- Opera Mini 4.1 beta released- good gets better
- Sharp Willcom D4: Vista in your hand for $1,526
- Life with the MacBook Air

Tasty bits – 27 28 29 (yummy chunks)

It’s been a month since my last tasty bits and a lot has been happening in the world of mobile technology!

But a lot has also been happening with me, like starting my new job, going to Burning Man, seeing my loved one through surgery, and moving to Seattle…

As a result, I’m a little behind and this is a triple edition. Below are the links I’ve gathered over the past month, organized by topic, thanks to some clever grep-ing of my Firefox bookmarks file :)

iPhone general:
- iPhone GPS Hack Works!
- iPhone Adding IM and Picture Messaging?
- Want push email on your iPhone? No problem
- Apple cuts 8GB iPhone price to $399
- Steve Jobs gives all iPhone owners $100 back
- The definitive iPhone native application list
- Apple iPhone hits the one million mark
- iPhone’s $100 Apple Store Credit program goes live
- Apple iPhone hits O2 in the UK on November 9th
- IPhone confirmed for T-Mobile Germany
- Orange nonchalantly confirms iPhone deal in France
- iPhone double header: First native IM client AND first native IRC released
- Install applications on your iPhone without hacking
- iPhone Coding: URL Launcher
- Playing with the iPhone’s accelerometer
- iFuntastic goes v3, adds PPC support
- Dock gets a spiffy new update
- Hackapalooza: making the iPhone main screen scroll!
- Beta Beat: MobileChat iPhone AIM Client debuts
- iPhone Coding: Using the Slider
- Push-to-Talk developer pack
- Installer.app locks out PXL package
- Colloquy for iPhone Debuts
- iPhone Coding: Using the Accelerometer
- Installing the iPhone Developer Toolchain: A simple How-To
- Run Widgets (kinda) on your iPhone
- iPhone: How many Hackers?
- Apple looks out for my best interests
- Shipley confronts Apple on “contain and engage”

iPhone unlocking:
- iPhone freedom
- How To: Activate the Voicemail Button in Non-AT&T Unlocked iPhones
- iUnlock Reloaded: free iPhone unlocking for dummies now available
- iPhone Dev Team announces free GUI iPhone Unlock Tool

iPhone ringtones:
- Daring Fireball: The Ringtones Racket
- iToner makes adding iPhone ringtones ridiculously easy
- Song Sender sends iPhone tunes to email and ringtones
- Apple intros ringtones for iPhones
- iPhone Ringtones On The Cheap
- Cleverboy discovers ultimate ringtone hack
- Ringtonator, a GUI for the ringtone hack
- MakeiPhoneRingtone hits 1.1, further obsoletes the ringtones racket
- iToner 1.0.2 is available
- Ringtonator Studio makes ringtones from any QT format

Nokia N95:
- Nokia N95 – One Name, 3 Devices?
- AAS Feature: The Black Beauties Christmas Showdown – Nokia N95 8GB versus the Apple iPhone
- Hands-on with the US Nokia N95
- Nokia N95 for North America: get it September for $699
- Hands On the Nokia N95i (The Black One) and the N95 US-Band Cellphone

OQO Model 02:
- OQO Model 02 lowers price, bumps specs, adds SSD and new CEO
- OQO brings the OQO Model e2 to Europe

Google phone:
- HTC insider confirms Google Phone?
- Google’s mobile OS well on its way to production
- New Google Phone rumors get real specific
- DigiTimes: Google will definitely launch its own branded handset

Motorola’s secret device:
- One of Motorola’s most secret projects…
- Motorola secrets? ELBA, E8, E7? That’s why we are here!
- Is this the Motorola MOTOROKR E7?

Samsung F700 (Croix):
- Samsung Ultra F700 Smartphone Rechristened “Croix”
- Samsung’s F700 Ready for Business in November with Vodafone
- Samsung’s Croix: yet another ‘iPhone rival’
- Samsung F700, others to sport “Croix” interface concept

Samsung G800 (5 megapixel camera phone with 3x optical zoom and xenon flash):
- Stolen Snaps of Samsung G800 Reveal 5 Megapixel camera with 3x Zoom
- Samsung G800 gets previewed

Samsung P520 (Armani):
- Armani and Samsung Team Up to Create a New Touchscreen Fashion Phone

LG KU990 (Viewty):
- Hands-on with the LG KU990 Smart Phone (Verdict: Definitely Not an iPhone Killer)
- Up Close and Personal Video of LG KU990 “Viewty”
- Hands-on with the LG KU990
- LG’s KU990 “Viewty” reviewed, loved

Meizu M8 (miniOne):
- Meizu’s M8 MiniOne shipping January 17th?
- Meizu’s MiniOne M8 GUI exposed: shame on you J. Wong

Other:
- i450, i550 and i570 – rumoured Samsung S60 devices
- Coming soon: Samsung i560 – S60 with GPS
- Opera launches second beta for Mini 4
- The Nokia iPhone-like Slip?
- Intel demos iPhone-like MID of the future

Tasty bits – 22

The iPhone launch (now with YouTube support) is one week away. Are you ready for total chaos? I have a plan :)

In the meantime, here’s a nice article comparing the iPhone with other devices, including two from my current stable (the Nokia N95 and the Sony Ericsson M600i).

Speaking of my favorite phone, the Nokia N95 just got better! And if you’re still not convinced, here’s yet another review. Alternatively, the Nokia E90 is also a good choice…

I’m also pretty excited about Nokia’s Mobile Web Server – it’s a very interesting idea. BTW, here’s a look into the Nokia Media Transfer application I mentioned last week.

The Sony Ericsson K850i is official, complete with a 5 megapixel camera (with auto-focus, macro, xenon flash, and powered lens cover), and supposedly tri-band HSDPA (as well as quad-band EDGE). Yummy :)

Opera announced a flash replacement for phones, and released a beta version of Opera Mini 4. After playing with it, I have to admit that it’s a pretty good web browser, especially for a Java application – in fact, it’s quite similar to Nokia’s very nice web browser.

The Meizu M8 (miniOne) is still evolving and is supposed to be available in late 2007.

Finally, here’s another installment in the multi-part review of the OQO Model 02.