Lumia 800 on the N9

Nokia recently announced their first two Windows Phones, the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710. The former is a Nokia N9 look-alike that is being widely acclaimed as the first true Windows Phone. Of course, that is contestable depending on how you want to look at it.

Anyway, Nokia has provided an interactive app available for Symbian3 smartphone users to experience the all-new Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows Phone on their Symbian device. It is a great way to let current Symbian users get a glimpse of the core features that this Nokia Windows Phone brings to the table.

Take a look at the screenshots that I took off my Nokia N8 running Symbian Belle.

Download Page in Nokia Store

Swiping up the homescreen to reveal the main menu

Windows Phone Main menu - Scroll vertically only

Windows Phone Marketplace

Windows Phone People Hub

People Hub - what's new in social networking

Internet Explorer Mobile 9

QWERTY keyboard in Portrait

The app does not do a complete demo of the features of Windows Phone. The only sections (or Hubs) that are demoed are: Internet Explorer, marketPlace, and People. Still, it gives a fair experience of how Windows Phone works.

The “Nokia Lumia 800″ app is available for download from the Nokia Store.

Lagos, Nigeria and Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the launch of two new BlackBerry® Torch™ smartphones in Nigeria, both featuring the new BlackBerry® 7 Operating System (OS). RIM, in conjunction with carriers and distribution partners in Nigeria, is rolling out the new BlackBerry® Torch™ 9860 and the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810.

BlackBerry 9860 Torch

The BlackBerry Torch 9860 smartphone offers fast and fluid performance in a stylish new all-touch design. With a spectacular new 3.7” display, the largest ever on a BlackBerry smartphone, the new all-touch BlackBerry Torch 9860 is optimized for high-quality multimedia, web browsing and gaming. In addition, the BlackBerry Torch 9860 delivers the industry-leading real-time communications and collaboration experience that is loved by millions of BlackBerry smartphone users around the world.

BlackBerry 9810 Torch

The BlackBerry Torch 9810 is a powerful evolution of the original BlackBerry Torch 9800 model. The new model is faster and more fluid with high performance hardware features and the new BlackBerry 7 OS delivering an enhanced multimedia experience. Featuring a large 3.2”, high resolution touch display and a distinctive BlackBerry keyboard that easily slides out to allow fast typing; the BlackBerry Torch 9810 truly delivers the best of both worlds.

The new BlackBerry 7 operating system introduces the next generation BlackBerry browser, featuring a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry. Combining the dramatically improved performance of the advanced WebKit browser engine together with powerful hardware enhancements, BlackBerry 7 based smartphones deliver browsing results that are up to 40% faster than BlackBerry® 6 based smartphones and up to 100% faster than BlackBerry® 5 based smartphones*. Additional enhancements to this next generation BlackBerry browser include optimized zooming and panning for smoother web navigation and optimized HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences.

Waldi Wepener, Regional Director at RIM said, “The BlackBerry solution offers a best-in-class mobile communications experience that customers love and we think they will be thrilled by the faster performance, enhanced browsing and richer multimedia delivered by these powerful new BlackBerry Torch smartphones.”

The new BlackBerry 7 based smartphones will be available from local carrier partners Airtel, Globacom, Etisalat and MTN Nigeria.

For additional information please visit www.blackberry.com

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 was the first BlackBerry 7 (OS) device introduced to the Nigerian market in September 2011.

Over at Nokia Innovation, kelvin has published a A Symbian Users Wish List For Windows Phone.

Seeing that I have been contemplating the pros and cons of a move from the N9 to the Lumia 800, it sounds just right that I should publish a wish list of mine too.

Mass Storage Mode

I absolutely want to be able to plug in my phone to a PC to copy files across both devices without syncing via Zune.

Proper Multi-tasking

I don’t want background apps to freeze. I want the good old Symbian-style multi-tasking.

Bluetooth File Transfer

Please give us full Bluetooth transfer functionality. Bluetooth being available for pretty much nothing else but headset connectivity is lame. This is Sparta 2011!!

If you read Kelvin’s wish list, you’d see that we have different things on our individual lists. As far as I am concerned, Windows Phone’s weakest link is local connectivity.

Imagine that you have taken some great photos on your device and a friend asks you to send them to his device by Bluetooth. Duh!

If Microsoft would add the above-listed features to Windows Phone, they would have a product that makes long-time Symbian users really, really, really comfortable.

What do you think? What features would you like to see on Windows Phone?

View the full comic sketch: Siri

Engineered Luxury Meets High-Powered Performance

Stuttgart, Germany/Waterloo, Ontario: Today, Porsche Design and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM ) announced the elite new Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry®. Designed by Porsche Design, in collaboration with RIM, the luxury brand’s first smartphone delivers engineered luxury and performance.

The Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry is instantly identifiable as a Porsche Design product. The exclusive material choices for this unique smartphone include a forged stainless steel frame, hand-wrapped leather back cover, sculpted QWERTY keyboard, and crystal clear touch display. This customized Porsche Design P’9981 comes with an exclusive Porsche Design UI and a bespoke Wikitude World Browser augmented reality app experience. It also includes premium, exclusive PINs that help easily identify another P’9981 smartphone user.

“Since 1972 Porsche Design has presented milestone products with iconic style, and the P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry will be our next landmark,” said Dr. JuergenGessler, CEO Porsche Design Group. “The pure and distinctive design, coupled with authentic materials and an emphasis on the manufacturing process, perfectly match our philosophy and complement the Porsche Design product assortment.”

“This collaboration stems from a shared belief that form equals function,” said Todd Wood, SVP for Industrial Design, Research In Motion. “The Porsche Design P’9981 is a truly modern luxury smartphone, where the timeless style of Porsche Design meets the unmatched mobile experience provided by BlackBerry.”

The Nokia E71 is a phone that was released at a time when there existed in Nokia a dichotomy between enterprise and multimedia smartphones. The Nokia E71 belonged in the category of the E-series devices with the E tag standing for enterprise. Thankfully, today that dichotomy no longer exists. In my opinion, the distinction between those two categories was pointless.

It’s been three years since the release of the E71, and I am amazed at how much relevant it still is in today’s smartphone space. While the E71 has limitations due to lack of certain hardware and perhaps software present in today’s smartphones, you still will not feel very much left out carrying one around today.

My reason for saying this is really simple: much of what can be done with today’s smartphones can also be done with the E71. Period.

I have been carrying one around for a week now, and eish! It is delivering very well.

1. This is still a very beautiful and very well built phone
2. It is still enjoying support from the manufacturer.
3. This guy takes care of all my social networking needs.
4. I am able to edit and view office files on it, be they Word, Excel or Powerpoint. As a matter of fact, I am writing this article with the E71.
5. With Joikuspot Premium installed, I am able to use it as wi-fi hotspot.
6. This baby lets me use keyboard shortcuts when typing and editing documents.
7. It’s got very impressive battery life.
8. When it’s time to get my groove on, I launch the music player and blast away. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the gist.
9. While I won’t get the Nokia N8 picture quality from it, the 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash manages to snap decent photos.
10. I know I won’t be able to have an erotic conversation with the delectable lady Siri on the E71, but I am still able to initiate a call by telling my phone to call someone from my contact list using the voice command feature.

There you have it! Three years running, and the E71 is still rocking. That’s impressive.

If you have a Blackberry device that has an available firmware update, but for some reason you are unable to update via the regular process, here is how to go about it.

1. Download software update from here
2. Run and install the newly downloaded program
3. Do not mark the option to open Desktop Manager when finalizing the install
4. Go to C:Program Files/Common Files/Research In Motion/AppLoader and delete Vendor.xml
5. Connect BlackBerry to USB
6. Open Desktop Manager

You should be prompted for the update at this point. (If not, select “Update” in desktop manager) and you’ll get the prompt for the update. When presented with the menu in the shot below, select “View other Versions”, and pick the appropriate firmware version installed on your PC (local installation).

Complete the process from there.

Precaution
Please backup your Blackberry device first using the Desktop Manager

Disclaimer
This how-to is a public service only. You upgrade your device manually at your own risk.

eBuddy announced as a preferred messaging partner for Nokia

Messaging giant announces 4 Nokia-related apps for XMS

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – October 27, 2011 – eBuddy, the world’s leading independent web and mobile messaging service, announced today that it is to become a preferred messaging partner for Nokia, and will launch 4 Nokia-related platforms of its latest mobile messaging solution, eBuddy XMS, in the coming months.

eBuddy – who recently reached the 20 million downloads milestone in the Nokia Store -aims to continue its messaging success story with Nokia with the introduction of eBuddy XMS, available on Meego, S60, S40 and Windows Phone 7 devices, and providing coverage across all of Nokia’s current and future platforms.

“eBuddy’s success and experience in the mobile messaging field have made this partnership a natural step for Nokia” said Reno Marioni, Business Development Director, Global Social Partnerships, Nokia. “We are excited about the introduction of eBuddy XMS to Nokia platforms and look forward to having Nokia users enjoy the reliable and rich messaging experience that eBuddy XMS provides.”

eBuddy is one of the world’s most successful and popular mobile messaging services, having seen more than 150 million unique downloads of its apps to date. Known for its globally popular instant messaging (IM) solutions, eBuddy now aims to make eBuddy XMS, a free real-time mobile messaging solution, available to wider audiences.

“We’re delighted to have eBuddy XMS soon available to all Nokia users” stated Jan-Joost “JJ” Rueb, CEO and co-founder of eBuddy. “Partnering with the biggest handset manufacturer in the world reflects the strength of the eBuddy XMS proposition, and now supporting the majority of the mobile market allows us to make XMS the new norm in mobile messaging”

Be connected. Be social. Be entertained.
Besides the two Windows Phones launched yesterday, Nokia also launched four other new mobile phones which feature stylish design, a rich social experience and location-aware technology. The Nokia Asha 300, Nokia Asha 303, Nokia Asha 200 and Nokia Asha 201 blur the line between smartphones and feature phones, offering QWERTY and touch screen experiences, combined with fast and easy access to the Internet, integrated social networking, messaging and world-class applications from the Nokia Store.

Derived from Hindi meaning ‘hope’ – Asha signifies Nokia’s focus on positive user experiences and connecting millions of people to new opportunities that help them reach their aspirations.

Nokia Asha 200 Dual SIM Convinience

Use the Easy Swap function to swap SIM cards without even turning your phone off. Full QWERTY keyboard. Chat, email, and update your favourite social networks. Stereo FM radio. 2 megapixel camera.

Nokia Asha 201 Colourful and in Touch

Full QWERTY keyboard. Chat, email, and update your favourite social networks. Stereo FM radio. 2 megapixel camera.

Nokia Asha 300 Touch and Type and Swipe

Email, Facebook and Twitter feeds on your home screen. 3.5G. 1 GHz processor. 5 megapixel full-focus camera.

Nokia Asha 303 Touch and QWERTY

The 1 GHz processor. 3.5G and Wi-Fi. Email updates on your home screen. WhatsApp and Facebook chat. Touchscreen. Full QWERTY keyboard. Angry Birds Lite preloaded. 3.2 megapixel full-focus camera.

Nokia’s colourful new range of smarter mobile phones pack in great web access, loads of ways to stay in touch, and a ton of fun with music, apps, and games.

I can see that some Android readers have started tagging the Siri software as an expensive play device. Well, I’m sorry to burst your bubble. It’s a little more than that.

I personally would love for Android devices to have a fair chance as the competition in this case would make the product (Siri) even better. It’s not so much as what it does right now that makes it amazing, but the possibilities! It effectively blends between work and play so well that I tend to get the feel that I’m talking to a real person.

As for the data usage over the past 2 days, I have been consciously trying to monitor my data usage via Siri, and I have concluded that it’s probably as much as checking your Facebook wall – not that significant.

Over the past 2 days, Siri has consumed roughly about 7MB of data. I can live with that. I also have asked questions that some users requested below. The first few screenshots are from when I was doing some work with Siri. The latter ones are from my playtime. Feel free to ignore the latter if you’re inclined to work round the clock.

See why I love Siri?

Many years ago, both Ericsson and Sony existed as two separate mobile brands. Ericsson produced some of the finest mobile phones back then, and Sony had some unique devices going for them as well.

A merger happened in 2001, and Sony Ericsson was born. However, the joint venture was not the runaway success that many fans desired it to be. It wasn’t exactly a failure either.

Anyway, as of today, Sony Ericsson is no more, as Sony has bought out Ericsson from the joint venture. Sony is back!

I feel sad to see Ericsson go. I remember my Ericsson R320 and the R380s (the very first Symbian smartphone) with nostalgia. The R380s ran Symbian EPOC32 OS and had both a regular keypad and full touchscreen that required a stylus (supplied). Talk of Transformer smartphones back then.

Ericsson R380

I purchased mine in December 2002 and it was my very first smartphone.

Ericsson is being paid EUR 1.05 billion by Sony for their 50% share in the joint venture. This acquisition gives Sony more leverage to “rapidly integrate smartphones into its broad array of network-connected consumer electronics devices – including tablets, televisions and personal computers – for the benefit of consumers and the growth of its business”.

Let’s see how things play out. As always, the mobile landscape keeps changing – and often so fast.

The Huawei U8180 is an entry-level Android smartphone. As of now, it is available exclusively on the Etisalat Nigeria network, and costs just N18,999 only.

If the price tickles your fancy, you might also be skeptical of features and performance. If you are, wipe your doubts out. The Gaga smartphone, as it has been nicknamed, does not skimp on features.

It is a standard Android 2.2 smartphone. That means it has everything that Google put in Froyo for you to enjoy. Everything.

That includes Wifi hotspot, email, web browser, threaded SMS, and the rest of the usual suspects. There is nothing missing.

Plus, Huawei has implemented some neat cube-like animation in the user interface. It is sleek and works well.

Performance? Gaga won’t win any benchmark tests, but its 528 MHz processo gets the job done most of the time. Its not super-fast, but I won’t say that I experienced serious sluggishness either. With 256 MB RAM though, you won’t be able to keep lots of apps multitasking.

Perhaps, the tiny 2.8 inch capacitive display helps with performance too. and it is here that most people will balk. I find 2.8 inches small too. Too small for my big fingers. But it isn’t unusable.

I made more mistakes typing on such a small display, similar to my experience on the Samsung Galaxy 5, another 2.8-inch droid.

But for the price that Gaga goes for, the small display is not an issue.

Huawei threw in a 3.2 megapixel snapper as well. You have GPRS/EDGE and 3G/3.5G on board. Plus, Document viewer, and FM Radio too.

Lastly, Gaga is one budget smartphone that does not look the part. it looks more expensive than it costs, though when you hold it in the hands you can feel that its not expensive.

Still, it is a good looking smartphone that gets the job done.