We have a newly-used Nokia 5800 XpressMusic for sale. Sales box and accessories available.

One flaw: The display blanks out a number of times in the course of use daily. Buyer may need to have the device repaired.

Current market price for brand new boxed device is about N36, 000.00

Initial bid price is: N21, 500.00

You can submit your bid by posting in the comments section. Please include your GSM number, so that we can contact you if necesarry.

The highest bid wins. If there is only one bidder, that individual wins.

Bidding is open to individuals based anywhere within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

• Preferred bidders must pay for and collect the phone from our office in Ojodu (not Ogudu), Lagos within 48 hours of announcement of a winner.
• Alternatively, a successful bidder resident outside Lagos can pay by bank deposit into a designated bank account and also arrange for the phone to be sent to him by courier at his own cost and bearing all risks associated with delivery.
• If a preferred bidder fails to meet the deadline, the next highest bidder will be contacted to pick up the phone.

The bidding is now on.

For all those who have been asking about an N900 auction, we have a newly-used Nokia N900 running Maemo OS for sale. No physical or performance flaws/faults. All accessories available except for TV-Out cable.

Current market price for brand new boxed device is: N75, 000.00

Initial bid price is: N60, 000.00

You can submit your bid by posting in the comments section. Please include your GSM number, so that we can contact you if necesarry.

The highest bid wins. If there is only one bidder, that individual wins.

Bidding is open to individuals based anywhere within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

• Preferred bidders must pay for and collect the phone from our office in Ojodu (not Ogudu), Lagos within 48 hours of announcement of a winner.
• Alternatively, a successful bidder resident outside Lagos can pay by bank deposit into a designated bank account and also arrange for the phone to be sent to him by courier at his own cost and bearing all risks associated with delivery.
• If a preferred bidder fails to meet the deadline, the next highest bidder will be contacted to pick up the particular phone.

The bidding is now on.

Networks all over the world keep investing millions of dollars in providing BlackBerry services. Many corporate organisations and individuals are also clearly hooked on the BlackBerry. Here in Nigeria, BlackBerry usage is becoming more and more widespread. The Mobility Nigeria phone store records a significant request for BlackBerry devices as well.

When the BlackBerry 9630 Tour arrived here at Mobility Nigeria for our first BlackBerry review, a respondent asked the question: What is special about BlackBerry?

In this feature article, I present to you one major reason (alongside a few others) why both networks and subscribers are hooked on to the BlackBerry service. And it isn’t anything spectacular like a fancy user interface or other common features. It is actually something that happens behind the scenes.

Data Compression

One of the powerful features of BlackBerry is data compression. Data routed through BlackBerry servers have a compression ratio as much as 1:100. This translates to the following:

1. bandwidth preservation for the mobile operator – bandwidth is expensive, and anything that lets operators conserve bandwidth while taking on more subscribers is attractive
2. network stability – with less data being consumed by subscribers, the integrity and stability of the mobile networks are better secured, increasing the chances of better service delivery
3. savings in cost for the user – by default, BlackBerry subscribers get a bigger value for their subscription, almost regardless of how small their data allocation is. A 1GB BlackBerry service cap goes a longer way than a 5GB generic data plan.
4. device stability – it isn’t difficult to see that a smartphone that uses about 10kb to download a mail of 1mb translates to device stability. A BlackBerry is less likely to hang, freeze or slow down in handling email or web browsing than any other smartphone

Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEO of RIM, puts the compression feature of the BlackBerry service this way:

“What that means for the carrier, though, is after they have committed all those billions of dollars on new network technology and new network spectrum, they can have three BlackBerrys using the same network capacity as one of the other smartphones.”

Devices on other smartphone platforms such as Symbian, Android and iOS may provide richer web browsing and video streaming, but these other smartphones use up much more bandwidth and system resources (both on-device and on-network) than BlackBerries use.

Other BlackBerry Pros

QWERTY – RIM has mastered the QWERTY keyboard and can even be acclaimed to have turned it into an art. They have consistently churned out some of the best hardware QWERTY keyboards for years, and people looking to enjoy tactile text entry have come to develop a loyalty to BB devices.

The success of BlackBerry’s QWERTY keyboard has spawned a whole new drive by other manufacturers to push QWERTY devices into the market. Whether it is Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, or LG, others are copying RIM’s keyboards in a bid to rake in some cash from the QWERTY revolution. And that’s not a bad thing.

Apple may be driving the touchscreen revolution. RIM drives the QWERTY revolution.

Email Messaging
Email on BlackBerry is one of its strongest features. It is simple and it works. Enter in your email credentials and the BlackBerry does the rest. In a few minutes, you are good to go.

The PUSH function is secure and delivers your mail to you as they arrive. The mail service uses the BB compression technology as well.

Simplicity
Modern touchscreen devices may be about fancy interfaces and finger gestures. Not so non-touchscreen devices.

While the BlackBerry user interface has been criticised for not being all-shiny, its simplicity is a plus. For non-touch usage, the BlackBerry user interface works well – especially with the trademark trackball or trackpad. The combination is addictive in use, as I found out when I used a BB device recently. There are also few lags. It just gets the job done without the bling.

**BlackBerry has been straying into touchscreen for some time, and for this class of devices they will need a totally different user interface. Nokia has made the same mistake of attempting to modify what is essentially a non-touch interface for their touch devices, and it hasn’t worked very well either. Touch and non-touch are different, guys!

Security
Security is one of the cornerstones of the BlackBerry solution. The protective measures built into BlackBerry products ensure customers can securely access sensitive information on their BlackBerry smartphones. Encryption is industry-certified Triple DES or AES-256 encryption.

Battery Life
Very few devices that match the BlackBerry’s features match its battery life. The OS and services appear to be top-notch in terms of power optimisation. A BlackBerry device stays always connected and yet delivers outstanding battery life when compared to other modern smartphones.

Many iPhone, N900, Nexus One, and HD2 users keep having to watch what they do or do not do on their devices in order to get the battery to last them through a day. Not so the BlackBerry. Truth is, regardless of how fancy our devices are, if they do not deliver good battery life, they limit our usage.

Ruggedness
Traditionally, BlackBerry devices are rugged. Try dropping some of the new touchscreen slabs on an asphalt floor to see if they survive the drop. With a BlackBerry, you worry less about such accidents.

Conclusion

BlackBerry uptake has witnessed strong growth year after year for some time now, and in some cases people have not understood why. Now, you know why mobile networks invest heavilly in the BlackBerry solution and push its usage on their networks.

It may not be obvious to the casual observer too, but signing up for a 1GB BIS plan for N5,000 may actually be much better value than getting a 3GB plan for N10,000.

Is the BlackBerry for everyone? No; it is not. It has its cons and quirks (though this article is not about those). Not everyone wants or needs a hardware QWERTY keyboard. The BlackBerry is not for everyone. No device is for everyone, but for those who seem to think that there is little value in getting a BlackBerry device and service, this article should help you see that there is more to the BlackBerry than meets the eye. Now, you know why RIM’s BlackBerry remains a force to be reckoned with in the smartphone world – and a still-growing force at that.

While a full-blown Firefox mobile browser is not yet ready for the iOS, at least iPhone users can now sync their Firefox bookmarks and open tabs with their phones. Firefox Home is a freeware application that lets Firefox users sync their bookmarks and open tabs between their desktop and their iPhone.

Download Firefox Home

The LG GW300 is a cute looking QWERTY candybar that runs basically the same software features that the LG KS360 has. The menu is the same, and the specs list just a little different.

The differences are the installed apps (the GW300 has a Facebook app pre-installed) the form factor, and a few minor features.

Anyway, here are a few close-up shots:

GW300 beside the LG GW550 in the background

GW300 on the left; GW550 on the right

GW550 in the background; GW300 in the foreground

Personally, I prefer the GW300′s form factor. For those interested, the GW300 can be purchased from the Mobility Nigeria phone store.

GloMobile has introduced a special BlackBerry package, dubbed BlackBerry U, which offers the lowest uniform tariff structure for Prepaid BlackBerry users on any network in the country.

With BlackBerry U, all existing and new Glo prepaid Blackberry subscribers can now enjoy a call rate of N25 per minute or 42 kobo per second for all calls including Glo-to-Glo and Glo to other networks as against the present N42 per minute or 70 kobo per second.

This makes Glo BIS the best BlackBerry internet service deal in Nigeria at the moment. BlackBerry uptake on the Glo network and in the country is likely to witness an increase because of this.

Steps to Get Started

Step 1:
Activate any blackberry prepaid package from Glo by sending the keyword of the package of choice to 777, e.g., Text ‘BISMONTH’ to 777 for the monthly prepaid blackberry package. Here are the available BIS packages on the Glo network:

*All plans are “unlimited”, but there is a fair usage policy on them all, so don’t go downloading heaven and earth.

Step 2:
Once the Prepaid Blackberry package of choice has been activated, simply text “U” to 7070 to begin enjoying the lowest call rate at N25/min or 42k/sec.

Non-BlackBerry Smartphones Supported

In a surprising twist, Glo says that apart from BlackBerry devices, BlackBerry Connect software on which BlackBerry U runs can also work with devices from manufacturers such as HTC (Only factory pre-installed models of HTC TyTN II, Touch Diamond, Touch Pro and HD), Nokia (E90, E61, E61i, E70, E51, E65) and Sony Ericsson (P1i, W950, Xperia X1).

These devices can also be configured to access niche packages which BlackBerry devices provide. These include connection to push email and access to social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Sluggishly reacting applications, latency in almost everything you do, crashes, blank screens, long lag to pick up networks, buggy settings. Do you remember any of this? Sounds like some old-fashioned feature phone that was somewhat overloaded by its ambitious maker, doesn’t it? But, alas, no, it is not. This is the user experience with a one-year-old iPhone 3G, 16GB since 24 June 2010. Do you recognise the date? Then luck will have it that you have experienced the same: the grandly titled “iOS4? update that was being pushed down your throat (or rather iTunes) to your iPhone 3G.

Apple has been hailed for poking everyone else making handsets in the eye when it came out with the iPhone: here is a newbie that got it all right and venerable industry leaders found themselves with cartons full of ostrich egg on their faces: here was someone who got it all right: combining great build quality, maybe only OK-ish specs and unsurpassed UI with a vertically integrated publishing and distribution system that made for a leap in usage of mobile devices. It was a bad slap for the Nokias etc of this world and a revelation for millions of users (even if they were not Apple fanboys).

And then it came back to bite them! I am not a techie but iOS4 on the iPhone 3G feels like someone put a little too much luggage onto too frail a porter: the things creaks and aches at every corner. Gone are the days where one could switch from one app to another in seconds, where the iPhone – in good Apple style – did what you wanted it to do without much ado but breathtaking efficiency and speed. Now, it is clunky and, well, very old-fashioned. It could of course all have been avoided: just don’t push iOS4 to the iPhone 3G (or older models). No one would have cried, you should think: if the hardware cannot handle it, it cannot handle it. Users understand such things one should think. Keep iOS4 to the iPhone 4 (even the numbers match, doh!).

I have been throwing this into the faces of Nokia lovers who never fail to point out how technically superior Nokia’s hardware is: users do not give a toss about hardware specs. They care for the overall user experience. The unhappy marriage of the 3G with iOS4 shows what this does when it goes wrong: all the fun of using an iPhone is gone. What good is it when my phone lets me down every 10 minutes? What fun if my e-mail doesn’t open for 20 seconds? How exciting if applications appear to be frozen only to open just seconds after I pressed the home button (that will kill them just in time after I saw that it did, at the end, react)? Utter frustration. Rotten user experience. Complete fail.

The above is the experience of an iPhone 3 running the latest version of iOS (v4). He says that allowing iOS4 to be pushed to the iPhone 3G was one horrendous mistake.

So, if you have an iPhone 3G (not 3GS) and have iOS4 running on it, what has your experience been?

Read Volker’s full take on How Apple Got it All Wrong.

Sales of Samsung’s first Bada OS device, the SuperAMOLED-packing S8500 Wave have exceeded 1 million units worldwide, just under four short weeks after its release.

That is sure impressive if you note that the first iPhone didn’t hit the 1 million mark in sales until after two months.

Via

I had the priviledge of having a Nokia E72 with me for a few hours and so I took the camera for a quick spin.

Nigeria’s first and largest mobile application event will be in Lagos less than seven weeks and a key focus for this inaugural event is not surprisingly – Mobile applications in a leading market in Africa where mobile subscription level has surpassed the 50% mark and still counting. The event is targeted at the M-Generation which are upwardly mobile and are ready to go.

The expo will host:

• Independent mobile application developers / vendors
• Device manufacturers
• Content providers
• Integrators and Aggregators
• SMS services providers
• Location based services

Covering mobile financial services,Mobile Insurance, entertainment, enterprise solutions, mobile govt,tracking services, Health,informational,who will showcase their latest mobile applications and solutions to a ready and willing segment.

There will also be Showcase highlights sessions from leading sponsors and also connect young innovative developers in touch with industry experts and decision makers.

Date – August 17
Time – 10.00 a.m.
Venue – Afe Babalola Hall, University of Lagos, Akoka

MobilityNigeria is a media partner to the event, and I will be speaking at the event alongside others.

Read more about mobiFEST 2010.

We have a newly-used unlocked BlackBerry 9630 Tour for sale. It is in brand new condition, and has no physical or performance flaws/faults.

Available accessories:

1. Battery
2. Charger

Current market price for brand new boxed device is: N67, 000.00

Initial bid price is: N30, 000.00

You can submit your bid by posting in the comments section. Please include your GSM number, so that we can contact you if necesarry.

The highest bid for each device wins. If there is only one bidder on a device, that individual wins.

Bidding is open to individuals based anywhere within the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

• Preferred bidders must pay for and collect the specific phone from our office in Ojodu (not Ogudu), Lagos within 48 hours of announcement of a winner.
• Alternatively, a successful bidder resident outside Lagos can pay by bank deposit into a designated bank account and also arrange for the phone to be sent to him by courier at his own cost and bearing all risks associated with delivery.
• If a preferred bidder fails to meet the deadline, the next highest bidder will be contacted to pick up the particular phone.

The bidding is now on.

I was standing in the queue at the bank a few days ago when the Blackberry Tour beeped to signify that I had mail. I whipped it out and with one hand (the left), I whizzed through different menus, checking mails, and surfing webpages while on that line. All with one hand. It felt good to be able to do that again after a long time.

It was such a pleasant and convenient thing, as I recalled that had it been the N900 I had on at that time, I would have had to put my chequebook under my arm so I could free my two hands for navigating the menu of the device.

Ease of Use
Simply put: the simplicity and one-handed use that the BlackBerry provides scores a very strong point in its favour. It is so refreshing.

I had written about this imonths back in an article, Usability and Non-touchscreen Phones, and it was a contributing factor to why the QWERTY candybar Samsung B7320 beat “more capable” devices to clinch for itself the spot of my Smartphone of the Year 2009.

A trackball, trackpad or D-pad beats touch for one-handed ease of use anyday.

Battery Life
The marathon battery life is also amazing. Of course, both the one-handed simplicity mentioned above and this astounding battery life are attributable (perhaps in part, but significantly) to the smaller size and non-touch nature of the display.

A touchscreen display would require more processing power and consequently less battery life. A larger display would require same.

Of course, I would prefer a slightly larger display to what obtains on the Tour, though I am not sure how that will be implemented on a QWERTY candybar. With a landscape display of 2.8 inches, the Motorola CHARM looks like the kind of device that’s right up my alley. It doesn’t have a trackball, trackpad or D-pad, which is essential for one-handed use. Still, hopefully, more of such devices will be available by April next year when I go smartphone shopping again.

Having used the Tour for a week, I am left wishing for the ease of one-handed usage and the kind of battery life that it has. Actually, if I get half the Tour’s battery performance on my N900, I would be in heaven. But the one-handed usage would still not be in sight.

Looking Forward
I have been waiting for Android-powered QWERTY candybar devices, and a few seem to be on the horizon. Perhaps then, I would have my wishes come true. Or at least in part.