The Etisalat Nigeria WAP portal has one of the most user-unfriendly addresses I think I have ever come across. Here it is: http://72.55.142.250/wap/(S(b1oxljz1dzoyciboftd2jlr1))/home.aspx?mode=testrxc.

How in the mobile universe is anyone supposed to remember that, muchless type that out on a mobile phone keypad. I would be hard pressed to type that out even on the super mini-computer, the Nokia E90!!

I came up with a solution to the problem by creating a short redirect that is much more memorable: http://mobinaija.com/eti. Try that out and it will redirect you to the Etisalat Nigeria WAP portal.

If you have an Etisalat SIM, remember that browsing around the portal is absolutely free. You start being charged (currently 35 kobo per kb) once you browse outside of the portal’s walls.

Hope the short URL helps.

We ran a camera test indoors during office hours involving five phones, the Nokia E66 slider, the Nokia E90 communicator, the Nokia 5800 “Tube”, and the Sony Ericsson T650i (all 4 being 3.2 mega-pixel camera phones), and the 5 mega-pixel Samsung i900 Omnia.

I must confess that we ran the test expecting the Omnia to win hands down. Afterall, it boasts greater specs than the others. But we ended up with a surprise winning streak by…. Nope; I’m not telling yet.

Some would wonder why we are comparing a 5 megapixel snapper with 3.2 megapixel snappers. Perhaps, just perhaps, such a comparison is necesarry to break the “megapixel myth”.

Here are the shots taken from the test, so you can see for yourself. All shots are close-ups from the same distance. By default, all devices are set to auto-flash. No resampling or touching up of the resultant shots have been done.

Nokia 5800:

The colour rendering of the 5800 is fairly accurate, but the shot suffers in sharpness and clarity. There is also a creamish tint to the shot.

Nokia E66:

As you can see, the Nokia E66 flash produced some blinding effect (with a bluish tint on white), so we gave it another shot without the flash (I know its cheating, sort of, but…):

With flash turned off, the E66 produces more accurate colour but again is let down by being not so sharp.

Nokia E90:

The Nokia E90 produces near-perfect colour rendition, picture clarity and sharpness. Very little to find fault with here.

Samsung i900 Omnia:

Like the E66, the Omnia’s shot is marred by the bright LED flash, but to a much greater magnitude. So, again, we give it a second chance with the flash turned off:

With flash turned off, the Omnia produces a better shot. Colour rendering is good, though not as good as produced by the E90. The image is also not very sharp. It was a disappointing outing by the Omnia’s5 mega-pixel snapper.

Sony Ericsson T650i:

The T650i’s flash is the most blinding, resulting in a totally off image. Okay, okay, you know what we did next; don’t you?

Yes; we tried out the T650i again with flash turned off. While features of the object were now visible, there’s still much wanting from the resultant picture.

Conclusions

In this test, the clear winner is the venerable 3.2 megapixel Nokia E90 Communicator (released way back in June 2007), followed by the 5 megapixel Samsung i900 Omnia. This is clear testimony that its not just about the megapixels. Other variables and factors beside megapixel count influence camera performance.

In our next test, we will be taking another series of indoor shots but from a range of about 1-2 metres. This is where we are hoping that those contestants with bright flashlight will shine a bit better.

Hang around for part two.

New CDMA entrant, Visafone, has announced 2.5million subscribers on its network in the 10 months it has been in operation. This announcement, if accurate, places Visafone as the largest CDMA network in the country ahead of Starcomms (which has laid claim to 2million subscribers), and ZOOMmobile (who last claimed 1.5million).

Visafone launched services 10 months ago after acquiring and integrating a handful of smaller operators in Lagos and the eastern region of the country.

Visafone, Starcomms, ZOOMmobile, and Multilinks-Telkom are key players in the CDMA telecommunications sector. They all run 3G EV-DO networks.

The Omnia is a phone that is good to look at. The guys over at Samsung responsible for the design of the phone certainlydid a good job. The combination of silver and black makes the outer casing of the device look appealing. My guess is that a lot of ladies will especially be drawn to the Omnia because of its design. No doubt, a number of guys will also find themselves attracted to this phone.

But once you move away from the design and outer part of the phone, and into what’s under the hood, the story is totally different. The Omnia is one of the most unusable phones I have used in all my years of using phones.

First off, because it’s a windows mobile based device, the average user will find it really daunting finding their way around. I’ve had situations where someone asked to see my phone. Upon giving it to them, all they did was stare at the screen. They had no clue as to what to do next or what button to press. They just couldn’t find their way around.

Secondly, text input is not helped by the fact that the phone is a full touch screen device. There are no physical keypad/keyboard for typing text. You will have to use the on-screen keyboard/keypad for any form of text typing. An attempt to use my fingers for typing resulted in abysmal failure. I completely depended on the stylus for typing text, and believe me when I say that it was not a funny experience either.

Another thing I found really annoying in the Omnia was the auto screen rotation feature. It was so flaky that I had to turn it off completely.

Now for some bit of good news in the software department. If you are looking for a phone that takes good photos and records very good videos, then look no further. The Omnia takes stunning photos with its 5 megapixel auto-focus camera. There’s also a very capable LED flash that helps with taking pictures in poorly lit environments.

I must say here that I have nothing against either Samsung or windows mobile. I believe there are good Samsung and windows mobile devices out there, but in my humble opinion, the Omnia is an example of a not well implemented smartphone.

If you have a Windows Mobile or Symbian s60 smartphone and a flat rate mobile broadband subscription e.g. via MTN 3.5G or GloMobile 3.5G, you can setup your device to serve as a WiFi hotspot. As such, you and others can use your laptops and any other devices with wifi to get online and surf, email, instant message, et al.

For Windows Mobile smartphones, download and install WMWifiRouter.

For s60 smartphones, download and install JoikuSpot.

Using WMWifiRouter, my Samsung i900 Omnia (which runs on a Glo 3.5G connection) currently serves as a hotspot at home, allowing me to connect a range of devices to the internet wirelessly. Setup took a few minutes and was fairly straightforward.

Once again, the beauty of convergence in mobile technology.