I live on email. Literally. Whether its concerning my responsibilities at Alireta, here at Mobility Nigeria, or elsewhere, I depend extensively on email for notifications and communications. As such, for me to take up any smartphone as my primary connected device, it must deliver on the email front.

In the days of Symbian 3rd Edition and 5th Edition, I kept running into email issues, especially with regards Gmail-based services – email IMAP, and contacts and calendar syncing See: Smartphone blues: S60 and Gmail. I had some of those same issues with the Maemo-based Nokia N900.

The New Symbian Email App Gets a Pass Mark
The N8 supports multiple protocols including Mail for Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo, Live, Hotmail and other POP3, IMAP services.

I was delighted to find that email setup on the N8 was smooth. I had my Google contacts and calendar syncing by setting up an Exchange account for that purpose. This syncs once a day to keep my details in loop. Fixing this to once a day also helps conserve battery life.

***I was reading up an article and its follow-up comments on a popular mobile site and the impression was given that the Nokia N8 does not handle synchronisation with Google calendar and contacts. Honestly, I don’t know what they are talking about. My N8 syncs my Google contacts and calendars without issues as well as the Android-powered X10 Mini Pro did and as well as the iOS-powered iPhone 3GS did.

Then I setup another email account just for my Google-based personal mail and set this one to sync every 15 minutes. Receiving and sending of mails work just fine.

HTML Email? Check.
Finally, we get HTML email support from Symbian. This means that you get to see and read HTML-formatted emails sent to you in all their glory.

Attachments
Symbian has been traditionally good with handling attachments, and the N8 does not break this tradition. Attachments can be sent easilly and when received in an incoming mail can also be directly or saved to the device. Whether its a Word document, PDF file or an image file, the N8 handles attachments well.

Others
There’s email forwarding. You can fix a signature for your outgoing mails too. You can mark mails as read/unread, mark, move to folders and flag mail items for your attention at a later time.

You can set detailed retrieval info – days of the week, hours of the day, and frequency. There’s PUSH service too if you want it – and it gets my mails to me faster than my PC does. You can also opt for mails to be downloaded in full or just headers.

There is also a useful homescreen email widget for easy access to your incoming mails.

In all, I have found the email app intuitive, and the improvements in the Symbian user interface are here as well. Subtle (not loud) transitions and effects, and consistent tap actions are also accounted for.

The interface delivers more advanced functionality in a user-friendly way too. For example, press and hold to bring up a drop-down (or is it pop-up?) menu. For example, if you press and hold on a link, you get the options to open the link, add it to bookmarks, or copy the address.

There’s more in there, but the summary of this is that for the first time in a couple of years, I am really satisfied with email on a Symbian device.

A Nigeria-based Tablet manufacturer is looking for in-house Application Engineers for their Owerri Head Office operation.

The company seeks people with excellent programming skills that can develop Apps for their Android-powered Tablet PC. There are many local and niche Apps that they will develop to drive that product line. There is no academic requirement for this position. Just be a nice coder or programmer. This job also requires the back-end support of our Electronic Medical Records systems for hospitals that deploy their Tablet PC. You will create hospital records database and optimize their systems to work with their Tablet.

Successful individuals will work with an expert who will be joining from abroad.

Please use the comments section below to submit your details as follows (your comments will not be published but simply forwarded to the Company):

1. Full names
2. Mobile number
3. Email address

We have revamped our new post notification system to make it an opt-in service. If you want to be notified each time that a new article is published on Mobility Nigeria, look in the right column for the section labelled “Be Notified of New Articles!!”

Type in your email address, and hit the “Subscribe” button.

This feature is available on both desktop and mobile interfaces of the site. Please spread the news!

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On the 5th of November, I updated my Facebook status with the following:

In contrast to me, my wife is very cyber-disconnected. For example, she has over 60 pending FB friend requests. How can I win her over to the “dark side” of ultra-connected people?

You see, she would go for weeks (and sometimes even months) without access to her Facebook account or Yahoo mailbox.

I got some interesting responses to that status, with a good friend even jabbing me for using up the quota of connectivity that she should have used. Here are some of the responses:

• Ah! sir, I don’t think you can win this battle. Even fasting and prayers won’t solve this. Maybe you should try gisting tech things with her. I’m not even trusting this would work sha
• How can she when you have taken over her own quota of connectivity. You need to slow down a bit so she has some more opportunity.
• Yomi, whenever u get the answer let me know so I can use same formula on my wife Lol

Well, I do think that the solution I opted for hit the nail right on the head. The following day was her birthday, so I simply gave her a new phone as a birthday present. Since then, she has been active online with Facebook, her Yahoo mail account, and web browsing. She even visits Mobility Nigeria. Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable.

Now, I know that you are all interested in knowing what phone that must be. A device that has successfully turned an internet-disconnected middle-age mother of two and corporate manager into a semi mobile nerd within two weeks must be of interest to anyone who is into phones.

Is it a Symbian device or a Blackberry? Windows Mobile or Android? Or perhaps even an iPhone? Please hold on to your horses and take a chill pill first.

I thought you would also be interested in the factors that I had to contend with in choosing a device for her. Here they are –

1. Simplicity – the device must not be so complex as to overwhelm her. This is someone who has done little more than voice, SMS and taking pictures with her past phones.
2. Battery life – she very often fails to remember to charge her phones, so it must not be a device that would die by 2pm. Her previous phones went at least two hectic days on a charge.
3. Hardware QWERTY – from experience, she’s pretty much lost with touchscreens. All that swiping and tapping takes her nowhere – or to the wrong menus. If I was getting her this device because of email and Facebook, text entry must be sweet and easy
4. Appearance – well, it must look the part. A trendy-looking, classy-looking device
5. Cost – yes; it must not cost an arm and a leg. This device was supposed to be an experiment to see whether given the right tool, she would adapt. If this worked out fine, I would be very willing to splash out on a more expensive device for her

So, those were pretty much the factors that I juggled in mind in approaching this very difficult problem. Plus, it was almost embarassing that the wife of a mobile web nut like I am goes for months without logging into Facebook or checking her Yahoo mail (for all those of you who had requested her FB friendship, sent a message or mailed her and didn’t get a response until recently, now you know why). Eventually, I did make a choice. And so far, that choice seems to be working. Perhaps its still the euphoria? Is this a crush that my wife has for her new toy or is this the start of the making of an epic?

Oh, yes; the phone?

A Standing Ovation Please
My madam’s new connected lifestyle was made possible by getting her a simple, non-smartphone device – The Nokia C3 running the proprietory S40 operating system. That’s it? yes; that’s it.

Don’t tear your hair out (at least not yet). The solution works. Or is working. Or appears to be working.

Now, you know what to get your wife (or, God forbid, husband) if you’d like to gently prod her into hopefully becoming a hopeless mobile internet addict like yourself.

We have been tracking mobile internet trends for Nigeria for years. It is something that I am personally passionate about. Well, today I present some snippets of information from the guys at Opera and Royal Pingdom to help buttress much of what we have observed and stood by here at Mobility Nigeria.

According to the results of a survey conducted by Opera (from the Opera State of the Mobile Web report), 90 percent (%) of Nigerian internet users between the ages of 18-27 said they use their mobile phones more than desktop or laptop computers to access the Internet. Nothing new to us there.

The guys at Royal Pingdom (using statistics from StatCounter) say that over 25% of internet traffic from Nigeria is mobile. That’s not far off from what we estimated here too. For example, our own State of the Mobile Web reports for the last five (5) months show that mobile traffic to this site has hovered between 21% and 30%.

According to Royal Pingdom’s findings, “in every single one [country] where mobile web usage makes up an unusually high share, Nokia’s Symbian OS completely dominates.” We already knew that too. Just check out our State of the Mobile web reports again. Also, smartphones sporting Android, iOS or RIM’s Blackberry are reported to have tiny market shares in these countries. We had that as a fact too.

So far, so good. All indices from international statistics tally roughly with what we have here. 25% is not bad. Actually, it is very significant and is likely to grow more than that over time given the prevailing conditions here.

Now, where are those guys who dismissed it all and asked in disbelief how many Nigerians browse on their handsets? The joke is on them. Hopefully, we can all wake up to the challenges and opportunities of these screaming facts. A lot of people are still conservative about mobile web adoption across the country, but here is the fact – it is catching on faster than many of us think. Whether browsing via Opera Mini on a lowly phone or on a Nokia N8 or an Encipher Tablet, Nigerians are here to stay on the mobile web radar.

I said that years back. I stand by it now. Quote me.

It is no state secret that the latest Apple firmware for its iOS devices has been released. In fact, it went on air since Monday, 22nd November 2010. The update came with several new innovative features and a compelling ground for anyone using an iOS device to upgrade.

The devices supported in this update are the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, Iphone 4, iPod Touch 2G, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G and the iPad.

There are said to be more than a 100 new features and tweaks to the iOS 4.2.1. I would only list a few of the major new features relevant to our environment (Nigeria) and peculiar to this particular update are;

1. Airprint
   AirPrint makes it simple to print email, photos, web pages and documents right from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. All you need to use this feature are a few taps and availability of Wi-Fi and a Wi-Fi compatible Printer. There isn’t any new needed software to download, no drivers to install and no cables to connect before using Airprint.
2. Airplay
   AirPlay allows you stream digital media wirelessly from your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to your Apple TV or AirPlay-enabled speakers. So you can watch films and photos on your widescreen TV and play music through the best speakers in the house through Wi-Fi or yourinternet broadband.

3. Enhanced enterprise support
   Businesses can take advantage of stronger security features, new device management capabilities and improved enterprise integration.

4. Multitasking on iPad
   This is a new feature for the iPad. Any need to say that other iDevices have been enjoying this for long? iOS 4.2 brings multitasking from iPhone and iPod touch to iPad. The implementation of the multi-tasking is okay, every running apps work smoothly and efficiently — without slowing down the performance of the foreground app or draining the battery unnecessarily.

5. Folders on iPad
   Also new to the iPad. The ipad now has more rooms for more apps. You can now move apps into folders with drag-and-drop simplicity to declutter your Home screens and keep your apps organized for quick access. Should I say that I find this functionality invaluable for my iDevice. At last count the total number of apps on my iPod touch 4G/iphone 3G was about 312! About 5.3 Gigabyte in size! And there is no slowing of the UI or memory error on account of these number and size of apps! SO this option was really cool for me to keep my apps organized

6. Game Center
   Also new for the iPad. You can get more social with your gaming, Find friends or use auto-match to play multiplayer games against new opponents. Track achievements and compare high scores.

7. Even better Mail
   You can now See messages from all your accounts in a unified inbox (New to ipad) or separately. You can now also organize messages by threads and open attachments in third-party apps.

8. Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch
   Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is the MobileMe feature that actually helps you locate your missing iDevice in real time and protect its data. The icing of the cake is that it is now free on any iPhone 4, iPad or fourth-generation iPod touch running iOS 4.2.1. Once you set it up, you can find your lost device on a map, display a message on its screen, remotely set a passcode lock and initiate a remote wipe to delete your data. And if you eventually find your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, you can restore everything from your last backup. Set up is easy; Just read the step by step guide at: www.apple.com/uk/ipodtouch/find-my-ipodtouch-setup/.

Other features include: Find text on web pages in Safari, Notes with fonts, Reply to calendar invitations, Keyboard and dictionary enhancements, Accessibility enhancements, and a host of others.

Conclusion
The ios 4.2.1 is a welcome update to anyone using any iOS devices. I just got an iPod touch 4th Generation, and after upgrading to to 4.2.1 (8C148), the improvement in the User interface along with the everyday usability tweaks in the new firmware was profound.

An area of praise is the Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch feature. It used to be a paid service but it is now free. All you need to do is to sign up for a free mobileme service in your iDevice, if you don’t have an account before and then activate the Find My iPhone, iPad or iPod touch feature under settings in your device. And presto, you can now go! If peradventure you misplaced your iDevice, all you need to then do is to Sign in to me.com from a computer to see your iPod touch on a map, or display a message on it or set a passcode lock. Or you can even remotely wipe it!

You can also do these on another iDevice after installing a Find my iphone app! This is a Neat feature, if you ask me.

So what are you waiting for? Go update your ipad or ipod touch! But there is a word of caution to be sounded at this moment. If you are using a Jailbroken iPhone, then you MUSTN’T upgrade immediately, or otherwise you would Re-Lock your phone. You need to wait until a Jailbreak for the new version is available before upgrading to iOS 4.2.1.

For the umpteenth time, another Nokia 5800 firmware update is available. Would anyone blame Nokia for sustaining the support for a hugely successful product? This bumps the 5800 to firmware version 52.0.007.

Specific changes include:

• Upgrade CPU performance
• Enhanced touch screen
• Improve wifi, connection error Ovi Store
• Rotation Enhanced
• Software Map added
• V52 pictures and movies better!
• No Nokia Email
• Interface does not change!
• Update to the Web Browser (to v7.2.6.9)
• Update to Ovi Maps (to v3.04 10wk32)

If you’ve got a Nokia 5800, go get it!

Source

Remember the Android tablet being produced by a Nigerian company, Encipher Limited? That’s the one named Inye. Dayo and I had a brief hands-on back at MobiFEST 2010. Yup.

Well, we have some updates for you. The device is already being sold in the market, and Encipher say that they currently have logistics for picking up the devices from Sokoto, Abuja and Kaduna. Lagos is said to be coming soon.

Now, here are juicy updated information about Inye:

• Processor: 800Mhz
• OS: Android 2.1
• Screen: 7 inch multi-touch display, 800×480 pixels
• i/o ports: 35mm headjack, HDMI ouput, USB port and micro-USB port.
• Battery life: 4-6 hours dependent on usage
• External modem support: Works with Etisalat’s E1550 modem out of the box with no extra installation required and currently testing out CDMA based modems at the moment.

Encipher also say that they will get back in touch with us next week regarding a loan unit for review by Mobility Nigeria.

The Inye tablet’s price point is certainly more comfortable for those who find the Samsung Galaxy Tab a bit pricey. There are two versions:

1. 16GB HD, 512MB RAM, 1.3MP Camera, other specs remain the same – N60,000
2. 4GB HD, 256MB RAM, No Camera, other specs remain the same – N45,000

At that price, I might just get the 16GB version for myself. Oh, plus the fact that this is from one of us.

We will present more details as we receive them. I am certainly looking forward to reviewing this big guy.

Opera today unleashed the final version of Opera Mobile 10.1 for Symbian/Series 60 phones, with significantly faster JavaScript performance for a speedy browsing experience.

Making its debut in Opera Mobile 10.1 for Symbian is just-in-time compilation (JIT) performance optimization to the Carakan JavaScript engine, the same powerful engine that drives Opera’s desktop browser. Speed trials of today’s release show that Opera Mobile 10.1 races ahead of its predecessor, performing nine times faster than Opera Mobile 10.0 on the SunSpider JavaScript test.

Location, location, location… Also making its debut in Opera Mobile 10.1 is support for geolocation, which puts you and your mobile on the map. Geolocation enables web services such as maps and travel applications to recognize your location to provide you with customized, relevant content. Your privacy is in your hands, and you choose if and when Opera Mobile shares your position.

“Powerful smartphones deserve an equally powerful browser,” said Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “Opera Mobile 10.1 today brings the best mobile browsing experience to the world’s most popular smartphone platform.”

Here are more reasons to put Opera Mobile 10.1 in the driver’s seat for your Symbian mobile browsing:

• Pioneering features from Opera — such as Speed Dial, tabbed browsing, Opera Link and password manager — reduce the time and typing required to navigate your favorite websites.
• When slow network speeds put the brakes on your browsing, gear up with Opera Turbo compression. Opera servers shrink webpages to as little as 20 percent of their original size, reducing your data costs and turbo-charging your browsing speed.
• Opera Mobile fine-tunes the look and feel of your browsing with kinetic scrolling, a virtual keyboard and auto-rotation to landscape.

Opera Mobile 10.1 is available for smartphones based on Symbian^3, and Symbian S60 3rd and 5th editions. Opera Mobile is free to download from m.opera.com. Read more about Opera Mobile at www.opera.com/mobile.

Source.Thanks to EyeBeeKay for the tip-off.

Today’s smartphones are inching ever closer to delivering true PC-like functionality. Features like web browsing, email, document viewing and editing have become things that we take for granted on our smart mobile phones.

One feature that simply makes one re-examine the term “mobile computing” is the ability to plug in external USB storage to access, view, copy, delete and even edit files on such storage media. Well, the future is here. Now, your smartphone can replace your PC. Well, that is if you use a Nokia N8.

The USB-on-thee-go feature on the Nokia N8 supports a number of hardware items – flash drive, keyboard, mouse and some external HDDs. I don’t have a USB keyboard available, so I didn’t get to try that out. As for the others, my reports are below.

2GB USB Flash Drive
I plugged in the USb adapter and then my 2GB flash drive. The N8 promptly (and I mean promptly) opened the built-in file manager – and there was my flash drive (that’s the drive labelled “Yomi 230408″ in the screenshots).

I was able to open, edit, copy, paste, move and delete files without any issues. And the N8 handled everything speedilly.

250GB External HDD
I also gave it a go with my LG 250GB external HDD.

Here’s what I got:

The N8 simply replied, “Connect USB cable to the device”. It didn’t recognise it. Of course, Nokia had said that it wouldn’t work with external disks that require electric power above certain levels, so no problem.

USB Mouse
Will this thing really work with a USB mouse? Watch the video below to find out:

Anything else?
For the kicks, I plugged in the iPhone 3GS. yes; cheeky me.

Sorry, but the USB icon on the N8 just kept flashing. No error. No connectivity.

Conclusions
USB-on-the-go on the N8 delivers exactly as Nokia said it would – and then some. It works without issues with the flash drive that I tested, it works with a USB mouse, and I have read reviews that say it works with a USB keyboard too.

The interesting thing is that the N8′s 680 MHz processor handled it all smoothly (and I will come to the device’s performance in another part of my series on the N8). Just like the cameraphone war is not always about the megapixels, apparently, the CPU war is not also always about the GHzs.

Now, I can carry my PC along with me everywhere I go. Got a file on a flash drive that you want to give to me? No problem; my mobile computer – the Nokia N8 – is up to the task.

There are those who want to define how much closer to PCs smartphones are by other yardsticks, but functionality is still the primary factor in measuring it. The USB-on-the-go functionality makes devices like the Nokia N900 and more especially the Nokia N8 closer to PC functionality than any other smartphone on the market. This is simply years ahead of others. Simple.

HD/720P video recording on the 12 megapixel Nokia N8 at the famous Lagos Bar Beach. By default, the Youtube video below will play back at 360p, but you can downgrade it to 240p. If you want to watch it at better quality, you can select 480p, and the full quality clip is also available at 720p. Simply select your preferred option. Enjoy.

By the way, that’s Dayo doing the introduction.

Source

Well, finally, the transition is complete. Zain Nigeria is now Airtel Nigeria. This is the 6th mask that the 0802-0808 network will be putting on since 2001 when it arrived Nigeria as ECONET Wireless. New brand. New logo. New website. Same numbers. Hopefully, better services.

According to a news report by The Vanguard, the name change was announced at a colourful celebration in Abuja on Thursday.

Source

Here’s the evolution chain: ECONET Wireless Nigeria >> Vodacom Nigeria >> Vmobile Nigeria >> Celtel Nigeria >> Zain Nigeria >> Airtel Nigeria.

Welcome, Airtel!