I am a shutterbug, and most of the pictures that I take are shot with a mobile phone. My kids once said to me, “Daddy, you can snap. You snap everything!”

One of my pet peeves with the Nokia N9 is the lack of a hardware camera shutter button. Not having one means that I can’t take those self-portraits that I so love.

If you own an N9 (or plan to own one) and you are displeased with the lack of a physical shutter button for the camera as I am, I have good news for you.

A hack has been released which maps the “volume up” button on the device as a shutter button for the camera.

How To

1. Download the hack as a Debian file (application format for Maemo/MeeGo)

2. Run it to install on your N9. Once installed, you will find its icon in your app menu just like other apps

3. Anytime you need to use a shutter button, launch the app and leave it running in the background. As long as it is running, whenever you launch the camera, you can just use your “volume up” button as a shutter key.

That’s it. I have it running on my N9 now, and it is such a joy to be able to point the camera at myself (or anything else), smile, and… snap!

Source via Nokia Innovations

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.

In addition to the Symbian Anna update, Nokia have also released a camera update adding several improvements to the world’s undisputed cameraphone till date, the N8. The enhancements include:

• Continuous auto-focus in video mode
• Faster speed
• More intuitive interface
• Smoother video (at 30fps)
• Red-eye reduction performance improvements

This update is available only via Nokia Beta Labs though. You will be required to login with your Nokia account details in order to download this update.

Why Beta Labs?
Here is Nokia’s answer:

The simple answer was that we really wanted to go further with the Nokia N8 camera but didn’t want to tie it to a future software update release. We therefore decided to create this update via our Beta Labs channel to bring these as quickly as possible, this seemed the best way of doing that. And at the same time you can use the Beta Labs discussion tools for providing feedback which we’d like to use for on-going development.

Again, this updated application will look familiar to you, but it’s much faster to use and more intuitive. Moving the video/stills mode switch to the top left has provided an extra slot on the right which we’ve used to provide direct access to the scene modes from the viewfinder and in the case of video, exposure compensation is available in place of the flash control for direct accessibility.

But the enhancements you’ve been wanting most are 30fps video and continuous autofocus.

If interested in all the details, you can read the full press release here: Nokia N8 camera mega-update – beta test open. If you want to skip that, head over to Nokia Beta Labs right away.

For years, mobile phone users have been forced to have to choose between business features and media features. An example: if you want a business smartphone, buy the E7; if you want multimedia, get the N8.

Pardon me, but in the real world, its the same guy who dons a suit to work from morning to evening who changes into a t-shirt to hang out with his friends in a diner in the evenings.

Why can we not have the best of business and multimedia combined in a single device? Afterall, we keep talking of convergence. Well, converge already!

Year after year, when I go phone hunting, I have to contend with these labels. But why can an E7 not have a camera with autofocus and Xenon flash?

Why can Blackberry devices not have superb cameras too? Why must we be forced to choose between business and multimedia needs? We need both, guys.

QWERTY versus Multimedia?
Bar a few exceptions, why is it that once a smartphone has a hardware QWERTY keyboard, the onboard camera must drop a notch in terms of quality?

I remember the Nokia E90′s superb camera back in the day. That was a business smartphone with spunk. Right now, I am using the E7, and the camera is just killing me. Not that it is bad. It is that it is so left-in-the-dust by the autofocus camera on the N8. The lack of autofocus (and Xenon) is killing me.

EDoF? Autofocus Please!
I understand the argument for EDoF, and I have helped explain it in the past. But for crying out loud, is any manufacturer out there considering that many CEOs are also photography enthusiasts who will value a proper autofocus camera on their business smartphone?

Leave EDoF on lower end smartphones, sirs. People willing to spend on premium devices can do with autofocus.

Scrap the Dichotomy
For Nokia, that means in your second coming (the age of WindowsPhone), please, please, please, scrap those two departments (N-series and E-series), and just give us superb all-round phones.

While we are at it, you guys at RIM need to sit up and put some camera love into your BlackBerry devices. Put some spunk in your game, sirs.

Sony Ericsson seems to have gotten the message. Their smartphones (even those with hardware keyboards) usually pack a good camera with autofocus. I remember the Xperia Mini Pro with fondness.

Samsung dances around it a bit (imagine the Galaxy S camera without a flash at all; excuse me! But thankfully rectified with the Galaxy S II). And while I’ve still got steam to blow, what’s up with those plastic cases for your premium phones/ Say what? Please, put some class in the cases please! If I’m going to spend that much on your top devices, I dont want plastic.

HTC… did you say HTC? With tinny-sounding speakers, and sub-par camera performance, HTC has a long way to go with multi-media. Next!

Apple have only one range of products and are wisely not playing the dichotomy card. Perhaps this is one of the unique selling points of the iPhone (besides its other obvious qualities) – when you buy an iPhone, you buy a device that serves well for both work and play?

To almost every manufactuer out there, here’s my advice – scrap the dichotomy between business and multimedia devices.

PS: If there’s any genius out there who can surgically extract the camera in the N8 and integrate it into an E7, I’m willing to pay. Holla!

How many of us remember the days of wacky cameras on phones – producing pictures that could get any camera enthusiast nauseated? Those were the good old days; right? Now, everything’s messed up! We have a new range of mobile phones that produce pictures to die for. The multimedia capabilities (pictures and videos) of our phones have evolved significantly and are still evolving.

The recent addition of HD quality video capture and an increasing number of video editing apps on smartphones is gradually killing the need for a dedicated device for most everyday video needs.

The large storage capacities, geolocation features and wi-fi connectivity, also gives smartphones an edge for video recording.

At the moment, Nokia’s N8 rules the cameraphone world with its 12 Megapixel camera with autofocus, large sensor and Xenon flash. That’s a cameraphone worthy of applause. It WOWs you with its results.

HTC has announced a 16 megapixel camera, but anyone who knows HTC knows that if there is something that the Taiwanese company is absolutely clueless about, it is multimedia (especially audio and cameras). No-one should hold their breath for HTC’s cameras.

When it comes to cameraphones, the guys who have it almost to a fine art are Nokia, Sony Ericson and Samsung.

Other excellent cameraphones include the Sony Ericsson Experia X10 and Xperia Arc, Sony Ericsson Satio, Samsung M8910 Pixon12 (whom the N8 took over from), and Samsung I9100 Galaxy S II. If you really want a stellar cameraphone, you should check these guys out.

So tell me, who really needs a camera (as a single device) besides professional cameramen?

So why pack your bag with a camcorder and an HD quality video phone or with your camera and your high-powered cameraphone? When you can walk into that event with just your phone and record/ capture the beautiful moments you want to see again and again.

I will start this article by quoting something that someone has said about the Nokia N8:

You get the iPhone and are immediately wowed, and with time you start to notice the shortcoming and get frustrated. On the N8 you keep liking it more, the more you use it

This has been pretty much my experience with the N8 too.

Forget everything that Nokia/Symbian haters have said and be sure to use an N8 for a significant period before you pass judgement. Excuse my language, but very soon you’ll agree that it is one helluva device.

So, what are the things that I like about the Nokia N8?

1. The Hardware
Yes; that hardware is solid and well-built. You see, hardware cannot be updated, so it better be good.

2. The User Interface
The new Symbian UI is hundreds of miles better than what s60 5th edition is. I have never owned an S60 v5 device, but my friend Dayo has and I have had plenty of time with it. As a matter of fact, we did a detailed side-by-side comparison and found the difference great indeed.

3. The 12 Megapixel Camera
This camera re-defines what the word “cameraphone” means. You don’t have a cameraphone if you don’t have an N8. Simple. Whether it is still shots or HD video, the N8 rules without controversy.

4. Battery Life
I had doubts about the N8′s non-removable 1200mAh battery. All doubts have since been discarded. Let me put it straight – the Nokia N8 is the only touchscreen smartphone that I have used in 2010 that I didn’t have to worry about the battery dying out on me mid-day. Many times, the battery pushes beyond 24 hours effortlessly.

And that is after 15-minute email syncs, Facebook and Twitter, hours of web browsing, calls, awesome 12 megapixel shots (I have gotten addicted to taking pictures now), among others.

5. The Display
Indoors, outdoors, low light, burning sunshine, the display is visible, clear and sharp. And responsive. The homescreen’s customisation works well too, turning your display into a highly informative and dashboard.

6. Ovi Store
While the Ovi Store does not have as many apps as Android or iOS, it has more than enough. But beyond that, the store works fine and looks to me like it measures up to the Android market.

7. Game On!
Oh…. Let’s start with Angry Birds, just because the world has gone Angry Birds crazy. its there and sweet. But, move over, Angry Birds, and let’s burn some rubber with Need For Speed Shift!

Gameplay is smooth and sharp. The combination of that 680 MHz processor and graphics accelerator works wonders – whatever it is that Nokia did to it. The N8 certainly does not need a 1GHz processor.

Watch out for my N8 gaming review.

8. Onboard Photo and Video Editor
Rotate, resize, crop, insert clipart, draw, add bubble text, frame, remove red eye, stamp, tune, add special effects to your images.

Make a stylish slideshow from your pictures, create a video from your video clips and photos, merge videos, add background music, text, and split your clips.

What you have here is your own mini multimedia studio.

9. Ovi Maps
Free drive and walk license. Pre-loaded maps, so you conserve network data, and more. GPS fix is fast too. Review coming up soon.

10. Google Sync via Exchange
The ability to keep my phone contacts and calendar in sync with my Google contacts and calendars is very handy.

11. USB-on-the-Go
I can leave my netbook at home and not worry about running into a client who has something on a flash drive that he wants to copy for me. The Nokia N8 handles it just fine. I call it mobile computing approaching new frontiers.

12 FM Transmitter
Being able to play my favourite music through my car speakers is just cool. Need to rock the party with a track that you have on your phone? Not a problem.

I’ll stop at 12 for now. There is much to like about the Nokia N8, and attempting to list everyone of what endears me to this device in one article might result in a burnout. Keep on the lookout for those reviews.

The X10 mini pro may be small in size, but it touts a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash. The small size of the device gives it a nice feel when held in camera mode, so this morning, I went snapping the usual suspects.

There’s a dedicated camera button that launches the camera application, and when half-pressed focuses before you push all the way down to take the shot.

The camera interface is simple and easy to use. All controls are in the four (4) corners of the display and very accessible.

This cutie shoots fast too and is ready for the next shot almost immediately. That’s a good thing. But are the end results any good?

You be the judge:

From Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro Camera Samples, posted by Yomi Adegboye on 9/01/2010 (15 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

The Nokia E5 is a candybar QWERTY smartphone running Symbian S60 3rd Edition. This pictorial review presents shots of the hardware of the device.

From Nokia E5 Hardware, posted by Yomi Adegboye on 8/19/2010 (6 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

While predominantly plastic, with touches of metal here and there, the E5 hardware seems well built and feels comfortable in the hand. One handed use is pleasant. Everything packed into the comfy size of the E5 is a miracle if you remember how big the E61 and E61i were years back. Here’s a picture from my archives (E61i on the left; E61 on the right):

One thing is sure, those two ancestors were built like tanks compared to the E5.

The 9630 Tour has a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash. I took it for a spin yesterday. Here’s a gallery for you to enjoy.

“Pictures taken with the 9630″

From BlackBerry 9630 Tour Camera, posted by Yomi Adegboye on 7/03/2010 (7 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

What do you think?

The N900 spots a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash and auto-focus. Here are a few camera shot samples – one outdoor, the others from indoors.

Picture taken in traffic from driver's seat. Click on the image for full-size picture

Indoors at an eatery in Lagos. Click on the image for the full-size picture.

A crop of a section of one another picture taken at the eatery to show the level of details captured in the shot. This crop is from the PIZZA INN section seen in the picture above this one

Both shots were taken in daytime and in good weather. I didn’t tinker with any settings – just default parametres, and all shot on the spur of the moment.

What do you think of the shots?

For Comparison
Here is a picture taken indoors with the Samsung S8003 Jet’s 5 mega-pixel, autofocus, LED flash camera:

Picture taken with the Samsung S8003 Jet's 5mpx camera - indoors, good lighting (click on image for full shot). Note that this is one of the finest indoor shots I have from the Jet. This shot is not a cropped image. Compare with the indoor shot taken with the N900's camera above

I have included this shot from the S8003 for the benefit of those who have never done analysis of mobile phone cameras and think that the N900′s camera is a poor shot among 5 MPX cameraphones. Compared to what the Jet produces, the N900′s production shines.

To do even further comparisons, can anyone who has a 5 megapixel cameraphone upload shots from their device under the forum topic, Post pictures taken with your mobile phones?

A more extensive gallery that demonstrates the power of the N900 camera can be accessed at tnkgrl mobile’s slideshow of pictures taken with the Nokia N900.

The Samsung Jet is equipped with a 5 mega-pixel camera that supports D1 video recording. D1 represents 720×480 pixels and is a resolution standard for TV and DVD-Video. Let’s put it this way: D1 is a resolution that produces videos that are good enough for TV and DVD.

The question is: does the camera on the Samsung Jet deliver on the goods?

The Jet’s camera LED flash lights up when you start video recording, which is good. While results in night recordings are not superb, the flash does help low light situations and makes daylight video recording better.

We were unable to convert to DVD format because our video editing software needs a paid upgrade (and we are just penny-pinching at the moment), but conversion to VCD was smooth and easy.

This means that we were not able to examine the full potentials of the Jet’s recording. VCD conversion gave us MPEG1, 325×288, at 25 frames per second, 1150kbps. DVD conversion on our video editor would have given us MPEG2 720×576 at 25 frames per second, 6000kbps. Note that the Jet is capable of 30 frames per second.

If and when we do get that upgrade, we will update this page with a DVD quality file.

Playback on VCD

Video playback of the VCD quality file is pretty good – home video quality actually. Audio playback is good and loud – no issues there. One bit of good news is that the lip-sync issue that occured on a couple of Samsung models in the past is nowhere to be found here. Audio and video sync perfectly.

So that you can judge the quality for yourself, should you so wish, here is a short video we recorded on the Jet indoors, mid-morning. Click on the image or text link below to download the 2.8mb video file and burn it to VCD or copy to a USB flash drive to watch on your VCD/DVD player.

D1-video recorded on Samsung S8003 Jet – converted to VCD quality

YouTube Playback

Alternatively, you can view it via YouTube:

What do you think of the video recording prowess of the Samsung Jet?

I have spent the last few weeks talking about the Android OS, and how it is the best thing that happened to mobile phones since the iPhone Honestly, while Palm’s Web OS has a lot of eye candy, reviews coming in suggest that it has some catching up to do with Android.

Back to topic, there can be no doubt to my readers that my new-found love is Android, after years with Symbian. Still, Symbian has its strengths, the strongest (though not so significant) being that it is a more mature OS. But that is a story for another day.

So, now that I have chosen the path of Android, is there any reason why I would get a Symbian device now?

Yes; if I needed a top-notch camera on my smartphone, I would get a Symbian device at this point in time. It is not because Symbian is better than Android in imaging capabilities. It is simply because Nokia makes some of the best camera phones out there, and Nokia makes the majority of Symbian devices.

Last week, ‘Dayo and I put the venerable-but-still-very-much-in-the-game Nokia E90 to use for imaging and video, and we were still awed by the quality of shots and clips we got from this device.

By the way, I still hold to my earlier position that the Nokia E90 is arguably still the best all-rounder. That guy rocks! I just wish Nokia would revamp that user interface.

Nokia has several other Symbian devices with amazing imaging capabilities. Until other manufacturers like Samsung and LG (both of whom are strong contenders in the camera game) roll out their Android phones, the Android platform currently has no competitors against Symbian when it comes to cameraphones.

It sure didn’t help that the first Android devices were from HTC – well known for less-than-stellar cameras on their devices.