Samsung have announced the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, an improved version of the original Galaxy Tab. This new device runs Honeycomb (v3.2), has sleeker looks, and at 9.9mm is thinner than its ancestor which measured 12mm.

It is powered by a Dual-core 1.2GHz processor, has 1GB RAM, same 3.2 MP camera, same battery, but also supports USB Host.

This looks like the tablet that I have been waiting for (though I am also very curious about the Amazon Kindle Fire). It is scheduled to be released by end of October, but no pricing info has been revealed yet.

Samsung GALAXY Tab 7.0 Plus Specifications

In my earlier article, An economy grows when everyone earns an income, I laid a basic foundation for some of the things that I had burning in my mind for years. I had vocalised some of these things before. Not many people listened.

However, the repercussions have begun to hit us and now stare us in the face. Hopefully, more people will pay attention this time.

I will not blow my trumpet here, but suffice it to say that I have been in the tech scene since 2002. Some of you who are reading this were in Secondary school then. Bear that in mind.

For a while, I did not see the problem either and I was a part of it. However, it soon became clear that the freeway was leading nowhere. Nowhere good.

Years ago, a craving for freebies hit the young people of our nation, Nigeria. Whether it was due to years of suffering or feelings of being defrauded or simply the base human selfish tendency, we began to want things for free.

We wanted free mobile internet, free PC software, free mobile apps, free calls, free websites – free everything, if possible. I warned about that craze. I preached. But no-one listened. It was fashionable to get freebies, and we dove into it.

Bang!
What we did not know was that someday, it was going to backfire and blow up in our faces.

Consider the following:

• How many software developers in Nigeria today are making significant sales?
• How many mobile app developers are making a living off their apps?
• Have you noticed the aversion for paid seminars and conferences – except when employers sponsor their staff for such? Free events are in, especially in the tech sector.

Nodding your head? Yes; all these are products of our years of developing and/or fanning an appetite for free.

Somehow, we must execute a U-turn and begin to develop a culture of paying for services again, even if its a small fee. Then, we must progress back to the point where we are willing to pay a premium fee for better quality of service.

The state of our startUps and SMEs
Shoot me all you want, but the consequences of our love for free are staring us in the face. StartUps and SMEs that can’t generate sustainable income litter the landscape. Why? People are not willing to pay for services. They want free.

But don’t forget that it is only when each individual is paid for services rendered that our economy grows. For now, the Nigerian economy is on a backward roll.

Young people are flocking out of our higher institutions with great zeal and great ideas. But who will they sell to? A population that is addicted to free?

I will pursue this crusade passionately, for I daresay that the future of this nation rests on this paradigm change. We cannot thrive on free!

Taking a Stand
I encourage you to take a stand. Put a price on your skills, services and products. Make the price affordable, if you will. But do put a price. Say no to “free” services (at least until you can afford to give out the occasional freebie).

Take a stand. Let that stand say something like the following:

1. I will not speak at your seminar for free
2. I am not available to anchor your event for free
3. My expertise is not available for free
4. My time is not available for free

Yes; we can work out convenient fees and all, but if you are not paying, don’t call me.

I have nothing against free services, but if you are giving out free services, you must have a strong, sustainable alternative source of income. If that alternative source does not exist, a freebie/freeware model is an exercise in futility.

Like I said to Jesse Oguntimehin today at “Mobility Towers”, simply getting more people to use your service and/or product doesn’t mean much if they use it for free. More people paying zero for your services equals zero returns.

When we all take that stand, then we ALL begin to earn, and then this struggling economy can begin to truly grow.

RIM has launched BBM Music, a service that is about to go head-to-head against Apple’s iTunes. BBM Music allow 45 million Blackberry users to build a music library and share with friends. Blackberry has signed deals with Universal, Sony Music, Warner Music and EMI. The major features of BBM Music service include:

1. Create your playlist from over a million songs

2. You can invite your buddies from BlackBerry Messenger contacts list to BBM Music service and access their music as well as allow them to access yours playlist.

3. BBM music allows you to follow friends’ activity via timeline and comments.

4. Offline music service is also possible as tracks can be cached in to BlackBerry smartphones.

5. It allows you to buy songs directly from Amazon Mp3 Music Store.

6. Every user will have a 50-song profile, and they can swap up to 25 songs every month to keep up-to-date.

There are several ways you can take advantage of your large number of BBM contacts, as you can gain access to all of your contacts’ playlist. In other words, your friend’s library can be a part of your library too.

New BlackBerry smartphones will be equipped with BlackBerry OS 7 and this BBM Music Service. We will have to wait some time to find out how BBM Music service performs against iTunes and whether BlackBerry can finally get its groove back.

BBM Music will cost $4.99 per month plus tax. To sign up and get more details go to blackberry.com/bbmmusic

The JAMBOX is a Bluetooth speaker that does exactly what it was meant to do. It is a speaker that is worth the mention. It delivers crisp and stunning quality sound, even in a large noisy room. It does so wirelessly and the range from what I’ve tried is about 10 metres. It is very portable and easily fits into your pocket.

Features:

• Built-in mic to receieve phone calls.
• Connects with just about any device manufacturer (Samsung, Sony Ericcson , Hp, Dell, Apple iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Nokia, LG, .. you name it).
  Has 3 buttons: Volume up, Volume down, and a button which tells you the battery status, as well as the connection status of the device.
• Length: just about the length of your Tv remote
• Colour: Comes in 4 different colours (Red Dot, Blue Wave, Black Diamond, Grey Hex)
• Weight: Just a little heavier than my iPhone 3GS, or about the weight of the Nokia N8 (that’s not a specific measurement but you get the idea).
• Price: $199 (about N33,000)
• Battery life: If it is used continuously, about 8 – 12 hours after a full charge.

Pros:

• It delivers studio quality sound anytime anywhere. It’s super loud.
• The manufacturers claim an output capacity of 85 dB. (no way for me to verify that, but it is truly loud).
• It has a sleek design
• It even has tweeters and woofers in the small package
• Small enough to ‘take’ anywhere (not carry).
• Can be used for conference calls
• It is completely wireless (well, besides when you need to charge it, but you get my point).
• Can be used for small get-together parties, picnics, etc.
• Even the Jambox’s USB charging port can charge your iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Samsung.. etc.

Cons:

• I would have loved it even more if the battery life was even better.
• It is a bit expensive for even for Bluetooth speakers, but it is worth every penny.

The ideal buyer:

• Someone who values good quality sound
• Someone who doesn’t like earpiece headsets
• Perhaps an Apple Device owner. Let’s face it, iPad speakers aren’t that loud for watching movies.
• Someone whose laptop speakers aren’t that good
• Someone planning a small get-together or perhaps a picnic with just a few friends. Trust me, it is loud enough!

If I had to rate it, I would give it a 4.5/5.

So there you have it. Let me know if you’ve come across the JAMBOX speaker.

I am starting a series on must-have android apps here on Mobility blog. This series is motivated by requests from my friends as to which apps I can recommend for them.

The truth is that knowing and searching for the right app to download app (on the Android Market) is sometimes a daunting task for people who just bought a phone or tablet (except for those who have a list of apps to download before buying their device).

One of the best apps I have downloaded from the Android market is “Memory Trainer”. This app is a game. Just as you know, regular mental exercise can help to improve your memory. This app was designed specifically to handle this aspect of medical science. Truly for me, it’s an app that’s worth having on your Android device.

This game has different workouts and sessions; with the difficulty increasing progressively. The game is pre-built to take your series of sessions for a complete workout of your brain. However, you can choose a workout of your choice and even it’s difficulty by selecting Option 3 – “Choose Workout” from the main menu of the app.

The GridGrind workout on Memory Trainer

The developers of the game recommend playing it at least once in a day; and I also agree with them. Exercising the brain has great benefits.

Here’s an intro from the developers:

Memory Trainer helps strengthen your spatial memory. Spatial memory is the part of memory responsible for recording information about one’s environment and its spatial orientation. For example, you use your spatial memory is required when you navigate around a familiar city. You also use this kind of memory when you remember the position of objects as well as visually remembering patterns. By remembering the locations of target tiles in a visual grid, you are actively working out this type of memory when you use Memory Trainer. Scientists think spatial memory is tied to the right hemisphere of the brain.

One other thing I like about this game is that it makes me feel I am not wasting my time. This is unlike some other games on the Android platform. Almost Everyone that has played “Memory Trainer” has left a positive comment.

According to the developers, it can work on any Android version. I have only tried it out on an Android 2.2 powered tablet. I really cannot say how it works on smaller screens.

Cons
The game can be very confusing to newbies. I was very confused about how the game works when I first downloaded it. But after a few days of battling with it, it became clear to me.

To install, just visit Google Android app Market on your device and search for the term “Memory Trainer”. Alternatively, click here to visit the app page directly. It has a 4.2 ratings on the Android market.

Don’t worry, it’s free. Install it and share your experience with us.

Enjoy!

Back in February this year, I purchased an HTC HD7 WindowsPhone smartphone and ended up loving both the OS and the hardware itself. That was back when WindowsPhone was running its earliest version.

As is our tradition here, once done with the reviews, I sold it off. I later had time with the HTC 7 Mozart, which I upgraded to NoDo and was able to play around with the new text copy-and-paste feature. Of course, the Mozart was also sold off later.

Well, the HD7 is back, albeit for a brief period. A follower simply said to me on Twitter this morning that he would love to make his HD7 running the latest OS version 7.5 (Mango) available for me to use for a period of two weeks for review purposes.

To say the least, that surprised me. I didn’t know the gentleman personally. The HD7 is also an expensive device.

When I thanked him for the trust, he responded, “You are a public figure. Where are you going to run away with it to?” He was very modest about it. I did forget to take his picture, but I hope to do that when I return the HD7 in about two weeks.

Long story cut short, we arranged to meet, and this afternoon, we did and I now have with me the 4.3-inch display monster in my possession.

Here’s a group pose with the Nokias E7 and N8:

I was on the road for most of today, but I will be able to sit down and begin playing with this big guy by tomorrow.

Here is a shot of the OS version screen:

In the meantime, if you have any specifics that you would love for me to test on the HD7 – with a focus on the WindowsPhone OS 7.5 (Mango), do post a comment below.

Mango was released just yesterday and has been the toast of the mobile world since. Let’s see if it tastes as good as the rave its been getting.

Follow @scartag please

Meanwhile, if you are on Twitter, you might be interested in following our phone lender, @scartag. He is a developer of many years who has done good stuff, including Glo Fone Pals (anyone remember that service years ago?). It was a WAP-based service that allowed for subscribers to meet and chat with new people on their phones within the Glo Mobile GPRS network.

Submit your best Series 40 Java or web apps in Nokia’s ‘Create for Millions’ contest to win your share of cash and prizes, worth 1 million euros. And stand a chance to represent West African developers in Nokia World in London!

For each of the four contest categories, there will be 10 cash prizes, with a top prize of 50,000 euros in each category. The winning apps will be promoted globally in various Nokia-owned channels including: online, social media, newsletters and more.

The top app in each of the four categories will also receive a free user experience (UX) consultation from Nokia; and support from a top design agency to create Spotlight banners featuring the winning apps.

Additional prizes from regional versions of this contest will be announced soon.

Visit the Create for Millions Contest – West Africa page for more details and to get started.

Okay, let’s do this the easy way. Repeat after me:

1. In the beginning, there was Maemo from Nokia
2. Maemo merged with Mobline from Intel and became MeeGo
3. Then MeeGo got married to Tizen
4. Tizen. Tizen. Tizen. That’s the new name.

So, what is Tizen? Good question!
Tizen is a new open source project that is the home of the Tizen software platform, a mobile and device operating system based on Linux and other popular upstream projects.

Like MeeGo, the Tizen project will support multiple device categories, including Tablets, Netbooks, Handsets, Smart TV, and In-Vehicle Infotainment systems.

The Linux Foundation will host the project, where Tizen development will be completely open and led by a technical steering team composed of Intel and Samsung. The Limo Foundation is also involved here.

Meanwhile, what happens to Nokia and MeeGo, especially with the launch of the N9? Well, the N9 is not really MeeGo. It is Maemo 6 Harmattan branded as MeeGo (which sort of suggests that MeeGo wasn’t quite ready, just as Nokia had claimed).

Will Nokia hold on to the Maemo part of MeeGo for their disruptive activities? Seeing that they are in bed with WindowsPhone already, it does not seem plausible that they will jump in with Tizen. But what do we know?

Anyway, that’s the low-down. Say bye-bye to MeeGo, and hello to Tizen.

Source. Also, you can visit the Tizen homepage for more details.

As at mid-2010, I didn’t think that Microsoft could pull off anything exciting with WindowsPhone. However, being my job to try out everything mobile, I laid my hands on a HTC HD7, a 4.3-inch display monster that ran WindowsPhone OS – and instantly fell in love. Microsoft proved me wrong.

The WindowsPhone UI is simply clean, elegant, and very usable. In my opinion, the WindowsPhone UI beat everything else in the mobile space (read: Android, iOS, WebOS, and pre-Belle Symbian) hands-down (minus the new Nokia MeeGo UI which wasn’t in existence then and which I am yet to try). I have been an avowed WindowsPhone fan ever since.

But WindowsPhone was limited by a lack of some functionality available on other OSes at that time. These include: copy and paste and multi-tasking, among others. However, with the release of WindowsPhone version 7.5 AKA Mango, those listed features and 480 other improvements have been added to this very elegant OS.

In case you missed the news, this long-awaited Windows Phone 7.5 Mango update has started rolling out to devices.

A follower of this site is making available his HTC HD7 running WindowsPhone Mango for me to play with and review, so you can expect some exciting reviews and articles as I try to squeeze all the juice out of this Mango.

I am including below links to some of my past reviews of the HTC HD7 when it was running the first iteration of the OS. Do enjoy them while waiting for my Mango reviews.

• HTC HD7 Windowsphone First Impressions
• Pictorial Mini Review of HTC HD7
• Things I like about the HTC HD7
• Am I confidently recommending Windowsphone above other OS?

*This is not another iPhone 5 rumour.

Yesterday, Apple officially silenced all the iPhone 5 rumours with the official announcement of the iphone launch. The message simply reads “Let’s Talk iPhone”.

As you can see in the picture, the event will take place on the 4th of October (the 4 in the calendar app) at 10.00 am Pacific Time on Apple’s Cupertino Campus (tagged on the Maps app). Apple also could just have silently mentioned that only one iPhone will be launched, but we can’t be too sure.

One more ‘secret’ feature that Apple claims will be a game changer besides the new camera and iOS5 is what is now referred to as the “Assistant”. It is believed to be enhanced voice control which has deep integration into the iOS5.

Stay tuned to Mobility for full coverage of the event next week.

The concept of convergence in mobility is focused on one device handling every task required by the user. In the beginning, we had PDAs and mobile phones. Then as the idea of convergence gained ground, PDA features began to be incorporated into phones and the smartphone was eventually given birth to.

For years now, the smartphone was the champion of convergence. But that concept does not look like it will see mass adoption anymore unless and until certain factors on ground change.

Let’s face it, power users are pushing their smartphones too hard these days. Take my situation – my Nokia N8 has an always-on 3G connection, busy synchronising my mail, contacts and calendar via Microsoft Exchange.

My Twitter account also stays connected all the time. There’s yahoo Messenger when I need it, and the ocassional web browsing. I also enjoy music on my device. Lastly, there’s voice calls and SMS.

Put all these together on a touchscreen slab, and with current battery technology on mobiles, you know it is insanity for me to expect the N8 to last through a full day.

This is why I am becoming increasingly convinced that we are soon going to witness the end of convergence. With a tablet, I would be able to move certain tasks off my smartphone, thus improving its battery life by stretches.

This was my experience while I had the Apple iPad. Music, appointments, email, social networking and web browsing were moved completely to the iPad, and my phone had less to do.

On the phone front, I had a very capable phone, SMS, and a superb camera. This resulted in longer-lasting batteries on the phone. And less worries.

This is my perfect combination. I am likely to adopt this combination. This means that when picking a primary smartphone, I will always be on the lookout for the following features:

1. Excellent call quality
2. Good SMS functionality
3. Top-notch camera

As for my choice of a tablet, I do not know for sure yet. I want a tablet with 3G radio built-in. I would also need hotspot functionality, so i can share its internet access with my netbook when I do need to use that.

The iPad 2 springs to mind immediately, especially also considering its superb battery performance. However, I do not like the lack of a phone and SMS interface on the iPad range (for loading airtime and subscribing to data plans) – and please don’t mention jailbreaking to me. Not interested.

But even some of the Android alternatives lack these features too. Its a jungle out there, and choosing a tablet is becoming a daunting task.

Still, I am only in the conceptual stage of this plan. I will cross that bridge when I get there. Or perhaps some new, great development in mobile phone batteries will arrive and make this article obsolete.

In the meantime, let’s hear from you: if you were to adopt a phone-and-tablet strategy, what would inform your choices? Comments please.

Last weekend, I laid my hands on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc for a brief hands-on. Honestly, the Xperia Arc is a good one from Sony Ericsson. The 4.2″ Multi-Touch device boasts of a 8.1 Mega Pixel camera with LED flash and HD Video Recording. It runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

Here are the major reasons why I love the Xperia Arc:

• The Touch Display: its glass capacitive multi-touch LCD screen with Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine got my attention first and made me fall in love with it
• HDMI port: This is used to connect your Xperia Arc to TV Screen. The way this work is  that everything you do on your phone shows directly on the TV screen it’s connected to.
• Speed: Tried doing a couple of things on it and it responded very fast enough (This shouldn’t be a surprise for a 1Ghz processor device).
• Sleek: It is a very sleek smartphone and is very light
• Good Sound Quality
• The Android advantage: When I first asked the owner why he bought it, his first response was “…because it runs Android”. So, the phone boasts of every good advantage of the Android platform you can think of.

Cons

• I looked out for a front-facing camera and it was missing. Not too good
• Low internal Memory: Unlike some other Android devices that have large internal memory, the Xperia Arc has just 320 MB storage. This is too small for this kind of smartphone.

1 Cool Feature: The Xperia is very Sleek

Check the official Sony ericsson Arc specifications page for full specifications.

CONCLUSION
Generally speaking, the Xperia Arc is a good buy, in my opinion. I had a great, albeit brief, experience with it on Saturday. Probably I would have discovered more cons about it if I had played with it longer. Anyway, I will update you all about my latest findings on the phone as soon as I can get my fingers on it again.

The Arc currently sells for about N95,000 in the market.