I have had a few days with the 3Gs, playing games, surfing the web taking pictures, chatting on Yahoo via wi-fi, and listening to music, among other tasks. Here I present my impressions of the device.

Note that this is not a full review but a compilation of my impressions of the device over a few days of use. NB: I will update this page with more detailed impressions as I use the device.

User Interface
I have found the user interface really very fluid and fun to use. The iOS user interface is not wanting for eye candy. However, it is not without its glitches and annoyances. For example, while the capacitive display is very good, I keep reading reviews of how every tap is registered and responded to. This is simply not true. Like on competing platforms (Android, Symbian, Windows), not every tap is registered.

Also, I found the 3GS homescreen flawed. It is simply nothing but a menu – no widgets and no app integrations of any sort. It is not a very useful homescreen for a smartphone. Still, I am sure that there are people who like it that way anyway. That kind of simplicity is not necesarilly a bad thing even though it won’t fly with hardcore smartphone users.

Another usability glitch is the fact that the homescreen does not have landscape mode. As such, you may be web browsing or checking out photos in landscape and hit the menu key to launch an app from the homescreen. You get portrait right away and have to adjust. Double-tapping the menu button for a list of running apps too displays the app manager in portrait as well even though you may have been in landscape elsewhere.

This user interface inconsistency exists in other areas of the phone as well. Landscape view is simply not enabled for some menus e.g. in Settings, as well as apps e.g. in Maps and App Store. I wonder why there is so much talk about inconsistencies in say Symbian S60 5th Edition, and none about the inconsistencies that exist on iOS.

Besides the above, the user interface is indeed very polished. It is just that the above are an annoyance in use.

Text Entry
The onscreen keyboard is indeed good, but suffers a usability flaw that I keep running into with many such keyboards – the lack of arrow keys for navigating through blocks of text. You have a correction to make in some text that you have already typed and there’s no way to scroll to the very point where you need to modify or insert text. Many times, you have to delete entire words just to correct one letter or number. Or did I miss something? Seasoned iPhone users may help here.

Again, the keyboard is available in landscape in some apps and available only in portrait in others. Quite annoying for me.

Web and Email
Web browsing on Safari is very good – and again enjoyable. I miss Flash, and it is my opinion that Apple needs to re-think their policy on Flash.

Safari has its quirks too, though. For example, I find it very frustrating and time-wasting that I have to scroll back all the way to the top of a page in order to reload/refresh the page.

Email is superb. Setting up an Exchange account got my mails, contacts and calendar items syncing without issues. Those are winning qualities for me any day.

Gaming
I have already spent some time on gaming on the 3GS. It is superb. I haven’t tried many games on it but from the two that I have, I can say that gaming on the 3GS is as good as on the Nokia N900 which was my best gaming experience before now. Perhaps it is even better.

Camera
The camera produces good shots. Nothing exceptional, and certainly not a strong point of the 3GS.

Like all other menus on the 3GS, the photo gallery looks sleek and does a good job of displaying your pictures. However, I love the way you can select multiple items for deletion off the device. Sweet.

Wi-fi
Because my unit is currently network-locked, I had to resort to Wi-fi for data. Unfortunately, wi-fi on the 3GS has been unreliable. Getting a connection is a hit-and-miss affair. Sometimes, even after a connection has been made, data transfer is painfully slow.

I cross-checked with a Google search on the internet and found that this is a well reported issue, so it isn’t just my unit.

Music and Video
Music playback is very good and the built-in speaker is okay. Unfortunately, it isn’t as loud as I had expected it to be. I ran a comparative loudspeaker test with a Nokia 5800 and the Nokia came out tops.

Video playback is lovely on that beautiful display. Codecs are limited and the same not-so-loud speaker is a minor let down again.

File Transfer
Now, this is where I have a big headache with the 3GS – and indeed the iOS platform. There is no USB mass storage mode and no Bluetooth file transfer, so getting files on to and off the device is a pain.

Yes; I know there are third party apps that let you transfer files from one iPhone to another. I take pictures, and I can send them only to other iOS devices? Honestly, that is a joke; right?

In an age in which other products are toting USB-on-the-go, not having such a basic function as USB mass storage is unbelievable.

At the end of the day, all that you have for file transfers is iTunes, and that software is choosy and picky too about what and how it transfers them. File transfer (or the lack of it) is a very strong disappointment with the 3GS. I cannot use a device with this kind of limitation as a primary mobile device. Apparently, many others don’t mind, because the iPhone continues to sell.

Different strokes for different folks.

Appstore
The Apple appstore has tons of apps available. As has already been said before, you do not need a credit card to register in the appstore and download freeware. There are lots of free apps to download too, so if you have an iPhone, go get those apps now.

Conclusions
I love the iPhone 3GS. It is a phone I could use, especially because it handles both email and web browsing well. The fluid user interface stands out and is a huge plus. But beyond that, it has its usability annoyances and functional limitations just like with any other mobile OS platform.

One thing you cannot fault with the iPhone 3GS, though, is how the 600 MHz processor keeps everything running smoothly. Everything looks and feels good. The user interface is indeed very fluid and fast> But let no-one make the mistake of confusing that for user friendliness. There are a number of glaring inconsistencies that I have found not friendly in the interface.

Eye-candy? Always. But user friendly and/or intuitive? Not always.

Still, this guy gets a 4 out of 5 points from me.

Last Monday, I received a call from Nokia West Africa. The summary was that I would be getting a Nokia N8 from them this Thursday (today). They kept their word, and I have with me now a brand new unit of the N8. My unit is greenblue. Believe me when I say that the pictures do not do this handset any justice. The greenblue unit positively makes a statement!

Earlier this year, I made an appeal for phone manufacturers and dealers to step up to the plate and provide Mobility Nigeria with loan devices for review. We have had CricketPDA, and now we have Nokia. Let it be on record that Nokia is the first manufacturer to do this kind of thing in this country. We hope that other manufacturers with a physical presence in Nigeria will also step up. Samsung? LG? What say ye?

It Gets Even Better
This has to be said. The guys at Nokia say that this unit is given to me for keeps. Yup; it is not going back. Before you go all blue with envy, the truth is its about time. Think of all the devices that I have spent hard cash purchasing for review purposes. Think of all the mobile devices (including Nokias) that have been purchased because of my reviews. Think of all the mobile devices (including Nokias) that I have given away free or at subsidised costs. Consider all that and you will agree that this has been long overdue. A Christmas present in November! Pass the thanksgiving turkey!!

Thank you, Nokia!

PS: It needs saying too that you can count on me to be as objective as I am known to be in all my reviews, this gift notwithstanding.

First Impressions
Setting up the N8 was a dream come true. Getting my contacts, mails and calendar entries on it was as simple as setting up an Exchange account with my Google Apps email and in a few moments, I was home dry. Am I impressed or what?

Of course, getting my files, documents and media on it was as simple as popping in my 8GB microSD card. It couldn’t have been simpler than that. Shame on devices without an external card slot.

Next was social networking – and that too was dead easy. Using the social networking widget, i was connected to both Facebook and Twitter in minutes. I’m now back online on the go.

I plugged the N8 to my netbook and selected USB drive mode on the device. Immediately, I could copy other files. In addition, I was prompted to install Nokia Ovi Suite. The installation file was on the device. No CD; no downloads. Excuse me, but this is what I call easy setup.

The new Symbian user interface is cool. While the icons are the same old S60 5th Edition icons, eye candy is there. It is different from how it is implemented on iOS or Android or WebOS, but it is there. I don’t have a problem with different. Plus there is haptic feedback when you touch the screen, making the touch experience much more enjoyable.

My device came with the very latest firmware, V11.012, so I was good to go right from the start.

The sales pack contains:

• charger
• headset
• manual
• quick start guide
• USB data cable (also for charging)
• USB-on-the-go adapter
• male miniHDMI to female standard HDMI adapter

That is a very complete pack.

The N8 feels solid (and cold) in the hand. That Aluminium build makes it a solid device. But it doesn’t stop with the build. The user interface is lovely too, at least I can say that of the parts that I have interacted with so far.

So far, Nokia seems to have got it right with the N8. And I haven’t even touched that 12 world-acclaimed camera yet. Nokia has succeeded in making it super easy to pick the N8 up and get going. That counts for a lot. Expect detailed review parts over the next few weeks.

Reactions welcome, please!

I have had the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro for two (2) months now and have used it extensively in that period. While I have written bits and snippets about the device – its great usability due to the size and Sony Ericsson’s UI customisation, and its top-notch 5 megapixel camera, among others, I have refrained from doing a full review until it received the andropid 2.1 update that SE promised at launch.

Well, that update is here now, and it is a pleasant surprise. Android 2.1 has catapulted the X10 Mini Pro into a level of performance hitherto reserved for devices like the Nexus One and HTC Desire. This guy may be much smaller but it packs a punch that no-one was probably expecting.

The X10 Mini Pro is one of the smallest smartphones on the market, and just a little bit bigger than its sibling, the X10 Mini. It is a sliding QWERTY Android-powered smartphone initially launched with v1.6.

Hardware
The build quality is very good. The handy dimensions help too. Almost everyone who has seen it took a second look. It looks good to the eyes and feels good in the hands. The sliding mechanism feels sturdy and is spring-assisted.

The display is scratch-resistant capacitive TFT at 240×320 pixels. No AMOLED or Super-AMOLED here. It fades significantly in direct sunlight but is usable if you set the brightness to 25% or 50%. If you notch the brightness all the way up to 100% (with the consequence of greater power consumption), it is very usable in sunlight. But at 50%, you are really good to go.

There’s a really loud speaker at the back of the Mini Pro. because of the “human curvature” curve at the back of the phone, the speaker is never totally covered when you put the phone down on its back. As such, music playback still comes out quite loud (the sound bounces off the surface that the phone rests on).

At the bottom of the Mini Pro is the microphone slot and a larnyard slot. To the left is the USB port. At the top are the quite large power button and a special 3.5 mm audio jack. The right side of the phone spots the volume keys and the camera shutter button. All keys are comfortable to use.

The front of the phone (which is in black) features only three hardware buttons (all in chrome) – a menu button, a home key, and a back button. The contrast is really cool. See the chart below for a labelled walk-through of the Mini Pro.

The 2.6-inch capacitive display is a joy to use. Usability is further enhanced by the small size of the device – one-handed texting and general use works so well that for the first time I am really enjoying entering text via touchscreen and only use the slide-out hardware keyboard for more extensive typing.

Sony Ericsson did their homework with customising the Android interface to work on such a small display. They did a good job. There are four large icons in the corners of the homescreen. You can set your favourite apps to these slots.

During ongoing calls, the same concept of large icons at the four corners is utilised to provide you in-call options.

Widgets can be placed on the homescreen, which has multiple desktop pages. Because of the display size, only one widget can be placed on each desktop page, though you can have as many pages as you desire.

When the display is off, you can unlock it by pressing the power button (or home button) to light it up and then sliding an onscreen button to the right. The phone can also be muted without having to unlock the display at all.

All icons in the menu are large and finger-friendly. The menu itself is flat and you navigate by swiping horizontally.

Text Entry
One would think that a device this small could never provide a usable hardware QWERTY keyboard. Wrong. The keyboard is quite good and I am able to crank out text with almost no mistakes. It has no dedicated numeric keys though, as it has only four (4) rows, but that is forgivable on a device this small and with the good performance of the keyboard.

But there’s also an onscreen keyboard. In portrait with the hardware keyboard retracted, you get an alpha-numeric keyboard that is an extreme joy to use for short text. There is auto-prediction and correction. Both work quite well. You can add new words to the dictionary’s vocabulary and so increase its usability per time. Once the hardware keyboard is extended, the onscreen keyboard disappears.

Messaging
Messaging is a cinch on the Mini Pro, whether it is SMS or Gmail. They just work well. The built-in Gmail app supports labels, batch operations, searching and multiple Gmail accounts.

Gmail retrieval is a breeze. My mails regularly arrive on my device faster than they show up on my PC. I am talking of instantenous email.

Where I have faced issues till date is trying to setup a non-Gmail email account on the device. I always get an error that says the server could not be found. Entering all the paprametres manually didn’t make any difference either. Till date, I have not been able to setup a non-Gmail email account on the X10 Mini Pro.

Web Browsing
Web browsing on the X10 is typical Android-fare. It works well, supports javascript and supports text reflow when you zoom into a page. It works fine. There is no flash, as that is supported only in Android version 2.2 upwards.

My only complaint with web browsing on Android has to do with the way that multi-tasking is implemented on the platform and Webkit’s issues with cache. By default, when you launch an app that Android has shut down in the background, the OS restores it to the last state it was in before it was killed off. In the web browser, all pages that were opened before are re-opened – and the browser actually reloads all those pages afresh by connecting to the internet. It does not reload them from cache. You can begin to imagine how much of your mobile internet bandwidth is wasted this way.

Believe me when I say it is expensive business using the built-in Android browser. If you need to save on mobile internet, download Opera mini from the market right away.

Besides that, I have no other complaints about the browser.

Camera
Permit me to say it upfront – the X10 Mini Pro has one of the best 5 megapixel cameras on the mobile market. While the options offered in the camera interface are few and limited, that simplicity works well for how the average person uses their cameraphones.

Again, Sony Ericsson has implemeted four, large finger-friendly buttons at the four corners of the camera interface. Simple. Elegant.

The hardware camera shutter key is easy to use, though you need to watch out that you do not push the slider down while shooting.

The Mini Pro produces stunning images. Colours are sharp and bright. Details are fine. Auto-focus is fast. Pictures are processed quickly so you can take your next short almost immediately. The camera simply rocks. it is one of the reasons why giving up the Mini Pro is going to be difficult for me.

To see for yourself, visit my X10 Mini Pro Camera Samples Gallery.

In video recording mode, there is continous auto-focus and also LED light for recording in low-light situations. The continous auto-focus, which was added with v2.1, is not quite smooth, as you can clearly observe brief pauses when the camera re-focuses.

This is hoping that SE refines this feature some more so we can enjoy it to the max.

Music and Video
The X10 Mini Pro performs above average in the multimedia department as well. There is no stuttering and audio reproduction is fine. There is no support for AAC files (audio) or DivX and Xvid (video), so I keep having to convert some files. Minus these limitations, I am quite satisfied with its audio and video playback capabilities.

Other Features
There is Facebook integration with contacts, so you can synchronise your Facebook contacts with those on the phone, and even pull their profile pictures. It is also stressless uploading images from the album to your Facebook or Picasa albums (or sending them as email attachments et al). You can create new Facebook albums and add a caption to each image. Videos can also be directly uploaded to YouTube too with a few taps.

There’s Bluetooth file transfer and apps downloaded from the Android Market can be set to automatically update without any action on your part once an update is available for individual apps.

There’s Wifi, GPS with A-GPS support, FM radio, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, and HSUPA, so the Mini Pro lacks nothing on the connectivity front.

Oh, there’s also Timescape – Sony Ericsson’s homegrown solution for aggregating all your communication information – Facebook updates, Twitter updates, call logs, messages etc. To be honest with you, I didn’t find any real use for it. Clicking on a Facebook update for example launches a web page or the built-in Facebook app. Twitter updates are also handled the same way. Timescape is just not functional enough. After trying it a couple of times, I just filed Timescape away on a back shelf. I didn’t miss it, and I doubt that anyone else will.

Battery Life
The Mini Pro won’t win any battery performance marathon, but it has one of the best battery performances among touchscreen devices out there. It gets me through a day of fairly intensive use (that amounts to really intensive use for the majority of mobile users that I have met).

I ran an extreme battery test on the X10 Mini Pro to see how much to expect of it in a worst case scenario. In this test, here are the parametres that I set up:

1. I charged the battery full
2. Set network mode to always-on 3G
3. switched WiFi radio on
4. switched Bluetooth on
5. set volume to loudest
6. set Gmail synchronisation to automatic, so delivering always-on real-time email
7. set the display backlight to brightest
8. watched a movie for about 20 minutes
9. played some music for about 10 minutes
10. automatic synchronisation with Google calendar and contacts

During the period of the test, I received 2 SMS conversations and had three phone calls of a little over 4 minutes. I also browsed the web for 1 hour.

The test commenced at 7.25 p.m. About nine hours and twenty minutes later, the X10 Mini pro shut down at 4.43 a.m. That kind of result in an extreme situation suggests that my regular experience of having the battery last a day or more is just fine.

Performance
For a device running on 180MB of RAM and 600 MHz, one would have expected some level of sluggishness; right? Wrong? The Mini Pro is snappy and performs like a champ.

Running several Quadrant benchmark tests, the highest figure the Mini Pro hit was 553 and the lowest 537. Here’s the surprise – even at the lowest score, the X10 Mini Pro outguns bigger boys like the HTC Desire (v2.1, 1GHz processor; 576MB RAM) and the Nexus one (v2.1, 1GHz processor; 512MB RAM). The X10 Mini Pro sits right below the Galaxy S (v2.1, 1GHz processor; 512MB RAM) on the scale. Take a look:

Don’t let the looks fool you: if you want a powerful Android device but cannot afford the Galaxy S, give the X10 Mini and/or X10 Mini Pro a shot.

Conclusions
Do I like the X10 Mini Pro or what. You know Michael Bolton’s song with the lyrics, “Said I loved you but I lied… this is more than love I feel inside…”. The X10 gives me that feeling. Saying I like this smartphone is an understatement, but I will leave it at that.

It is so handy that using it as a phone is a breeze. yet, it is so powerful that it puts many other smartphones to shame in terms of features and performance.

If only I can get to setup my non-Gmail accounts (tips, anyone?) and also cut down on that data guzzling…..

Score: 4.85 out of 5.0

By virtue of running an “old school” OS, the HTC Touch Pro2 would be considered by many as no longer in contention. Though launched only February 2009, one and half years in the modern smartphone world can be a long time.

Coming from a new-kid-on-the-block OS, the Nokia N900, I should be able to tell whether or not the Touch Pro2 is still a credible device in today’s smartphone world. Let’s get to the meat of this review; shall we?

Key Features

• Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
• Size and Weight: 116 x 59.2 x 17.3 mm. 178.5 gm
• Display: 65, 000 colors. 480 x 800 pixels, 3.6 inches resistive touchscreen
• TouchFLO 3D finger swipe navigation, Touch-sensitive zoom bar, Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, Handwriting recognition
• Processor: Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 MHz processor, 288 MB RAM
• Data: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA (3.6 Mbps), HSUPA (2 Mbps)
• Camera: 3.2 MP, 2048 x 1536 pixels, autofocus
• Connectivity: USB. Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
• Text Input: Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• Mesaging: SMS (Threaded view), MMS, EMail, Instant Messaging
• Web Browser: Opera Mobile 9.5, Internet Explorer Mobile
• Large capacity Li-Ion 1500 mAh battery
• Wi-Fi
• Video call with secondary VGA videocall camera
• Office documents viewing and editing
• PDF viewer
• Built-in modem (internet sharing)
• TV-out

Strengths

• Excellent and highly functional QWERTY keyboard
• Very good display
• Good battery life
• Very good loudspeaker
• Excellent video playback
• One-handed use and fluid desktop interface

Weaknesses

• Very poor 3.2 mega-pixel camera

First Impressions
At first sight, the Touch Pro2 looks big, but in reality is smaller than it looks. Once you hold it in your hand, it loses that huge impression a bit. By way of comparison, the TP2 is smaller (but longer) and lighter than the N900.

It is also well built and has a classy look and feel, unlike the N900′s mostly plasticky impressions. Overall, the TP2 is the kind of device you want to walk into a business meeting with, if first impressions are important.

PS: Note that I have the T-mobile version, which looks different from the regular version, though specs remain the same.

Operating System and User Interface
The TP2 runs Windows Mobile OS 6.5, a thumb-optimised version of Microsoft’s mobile platform. HTC has also added its home user interface, TouchFLO 3D on top of this to provide users with a beautiful desktop experience.

With TouchFLO 3D, I had access to contacts, calendar, mails, messages, weather updates, settings and more – all right on the TP2′s desktop. You swipe across different customisable tabs and tap to select menu items. It is all very fluid.

With the keyboard retracted, the TP2 is quite usable with one hand in many areas, which is a plus for a touchscreen device that is this big.

Form factor and Display
At first glance, all you see is a slab of glass covering most of the front of the device – much like any typical touchscreen smartphone. But then, there’s a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard lurking behind that slab.

With a slight push, the keyboard extends out – and it is a glorious keyboard. While you can use it extended straight out, it also tilts upwards at an angle if you want to use it that way.

Navigation and Text Input
Navigation is by touch and the four hardware buttons at the bottom end of the display.

For text input, there’s the superb 5-row QWERTY keyboard, onscreen software keyboard (regular and QWERTY, its your choice), and also handwriting recognition. You have the full range of options to pick from.

The QWERTY keyboard of the Touch Pro2 is now officially the best keyboard (hardware or software) that I have used on any mobile device. Scratch Nokia 9500. Scratch Nokia E90. Scratch Nokia N900. This is the keyboard to beat. Tactility is good, the keys are large and well-spaced, and there are shortcuts for everything under the sun – mail, SMS, browser, page down, page up, and other PC-style functions such as copy, cut, and paste.

I dig this keyboard and rate it 5/5.

Web Browsing
The TP2 comes with two browsers built-in. Someone should file a suit to prevent Microsoft from imposing Internet Explorer Mobile. I wouldn’t mind if it was such a good browser, the average Windows Mobile user simply never uses it. What’s the point?

Anyway, HTC was smart enough to include Opera Mobile 9.5 as the default browser on the TP2. Brilliant guys!

Opera Mobile 9.5 is finger-optimised, supports javascript, SSL, multiple tabs (I configured mine to open as many as 9 tabs), and zoom with text reflow. It lets you select text (and copy and paste), save pages, and search text on the page. Simply put, it remains a capable browser though version 10 is already available at this time.

I did download and run Opera Mobile 10 on the TP2, found it good, but it disn’t handle javascript/AJAX drop-down menus as good as v9.5 does. That was the same issue I had with v10 on Maemo. I am sticking with v9.5 on the TP2.

Opera Mobile 9.5 is not MicroB (the built-in browser on the N900, and still the best mobile browser on the block). Opera Mobile 9.5 does not have the full flash capabilities of MicroB and its page rendering is slightly inferior, but it is a capable browser still.

Email
Email on the TP2 works without issues. I didn’t have to slug it out with the OS to get Gmail and Google domains mail working on it as obtained with the N900.

Like with every other Windows Mobile device that I have used, I have no complaints with email.

Organizer and Office features
The TP2 contacts app is extensive, letting you save almost any detail to your contacts. It also comes with Facebook integration. This pulls your contacts’ Facebook status, photographs and other contact information and integrates it with their details on the device. Cool.

Even the ability to view the location of a contact via maps application is integrated into the contacts app.

There’s full Office viewing and editing out-of-the-box. There’s online backup and synchroinisation via Microsoft’s My Phone service, which works extremely well. All my previously synchronised contacts, calendar entries, and browser features from my previous Windows Mobile devices (Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, Samssung B7320, and LG GW550) were retrieved to my TP2 without issues.

If I wanted, I could opt for images, videos, music, documents and even items on my memory card to be added to the mix. Honestly, everytime that I use My Phone, I am tempted to stay with Windows Mobile. It just makes switching handsets seamless.

Synchronising with PC via ActiveSync is also available, though personally I find little use for it.

Multimedia
The TP2 is a strictly business; right? Right. And wrong.

Right first. The poor 3.2 megapixel camera is the worst thing on the TP2. As a matter of fact, if HTC had left it out with the excuse that the TP2 was strictly business, the TP2 would have been a faultless device. Just take a look at the TP2′s camera shot samples and see why HTC shouldn’t have bothered.

But camera aside, it is amazing how good this device is for multimedia consumption. That huge, lovely display makes watching movies a lovely experience. Add to that the fact that the TP2′s loudspeakers are LOUD and audio quality is good.

Unfortunately, there’s no XviD/DivX support out-of-the-box, but 3rd party solutions for that exist. Still, let me say this: if you ever have the opportunity to watch a movie on the TP2, don’t miss it.

Music playback is good as well, but I wish that HTC had put in a 3.5 mm audio slot. The supplied earpiece set is just not up to scratch. I wouldn’t use it if my life depends on it.

Battery Life
For a powerful device totting a 3.6-inch touchscreen display and consistently connected to a 3G network, the TP2′s 1500 mAh battery delivers the goods.

I have the device connecting to my mail server every 5 minutes, and using the device the way I do, I find myself not having to nurse the device in order to make it through a day. I cannot say the same of the N900. With the N900, I had to disconnect from the 3G network, set mail polling to 30, 60 or 120 minutes, turn off some desktop items, etc in order to keep the device alive till 5 p.m.

While I love the N900′s feature set and fluid interface, I live in the real world and have better things to do than nurse a mobile device through a busy day. The battery life of the TP2 is a breath of fresh air. I need no compromises to use this device to the max.

Customisation
Windows Mobile has thousands of applications available for customising your device to your needs. Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s appstore, MarketPlace, hasn’t been a hit in any way, but its there and you can download and install a range of apps from there.

If you have a Windows Mobile device, what you should not miss is OMarket, a 3rd party appstore that trounces Microsoft’s Windows Mobiile MarketPlace in every way – including number of apps and usability. Best of all, all apps there are freeware.

Besides 3rd party apps, one of the most unique characteristics of Windows Mobile is the active modding community. You can mod your device and flash it with a wide range of custom ROMs available from a number of online communities, including the popular XDA Developers where I am a member too (though I’m mostly dormant).

Even camera performance can be enhanced somewhat via modding and tweaking with the device’s registry settings or available hacks from the community. That is the beauty and strength of Windows Mobile. You can take a device and transform it into almost anything you want.

Miscellaneous
The TP2 also has GPS and there’s Google Maps pre-installed to put that to use. Alternatively, there’s Garmap for Mobile if you want something more comprehensive.

As a phone, call quality is good. There is little to dislike about the TP2 once you get past the terrible camera performance and the lack of a 3.5 mm headset.

Conclusions
Do I like the Touch Pro2? Like crazy!

It has all my needs checked – and very well too. The integrated package that delivers a powerful desktop-like web, email and office experience without making me paranoid about battery life has me sold.

I think I’ll keep this one over the N900.

We have a unit of LG’s bestselling touchscreen budget phone, the KP500 “Cookie”, available for sale. The device is in very neat condition and has the following accesssories with it:

• Battery
• Charger
• Headset
• USB cable

Specifications of the KP500 include:

• 3-inch TFT 240×400 pixel display
• 48mb internal memory plus microSD slot
• GPRS/EDGE data
• Bluetooth 2.1; USB port
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• Java
• Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
• 900 mAh battery
• Stereo FM radio

Current market price for brand new boxed device is about 16, 500.00

Initial bid price is: N8, 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 phone.

The bidding is now on.

I seldom really get excited about a phone. Maybe, except the iPhone which I have used for about a year.  I believe it is now about time to move to a better offering. That is if one exists. My choice phone is one that should have killer specifications in the hardware. And more importantly, it should also have a suave, impeccable and intuitive user interface. I believe that user interface makes up 70% of a phone. Like some people say, it is what you see that you get. The features complement the UI.

What then has engendered me towards gunning for the Nokia N8?

The hardware of the N8 along with its Multi-media monster features impresses me a lot, but at the same time, the software, especially the user interface dissatisfies me a little. With this compromise, could I still make the jump, and go for the N8? I don’t know that for sure, although I feel I will make my ultimate decision after it finally comes out! The Nokia N8 definitely has some cutting-edge features. These include USB-On-the-Go, wireless Keyboard syncing, multimedia features like the 12-megapixel camera and HDMI-out. Thereafter, the software appears stale with little modification from the omnipresent Symbian S60 UI platform.

I have to point out at this stage of this article that this article is not a hands-on experience, but from deep research on the internet inclusive of viewing of dozens of YouTube videos from Nokia’s site and also from third party Reviewers and videos on the web.

Size:  The N8 appears to be lightweight, measuring 0.5-inches thick. It would be good to compare this with the soon to be released iPhone 4 which I wish to choose from (The iPhone 4 is only 0.37 inches, making it thinner).

Screen Size: The face of the phone is quite plain as most, if not all touch screen phones are. What design could you put on a touch screen?  The front has a 3.5-inch 640-by-360-pixel display dominating its face with a single hardware button below it (just like the iPhone 4). This hardware button allows you to change from the homescreen and menu screen. It can also act as a task manager when held down to allow you to visualize all open applications. (the N8 display size is the same in size as the iPhone 4′s, but pixel density is much lower)

USB-On-The-Go: You can connect and view the contents of a USB flash drive or other phone from your Nokia N8. This is one of the first phones to incorporate this feature. I hope this feature becomes replicated in other phones. The iPhone 4 does not have this!

Wireless syncing with a Bluetooth keyboard: You can use a wireless keyboard to type on your N8. This feature is also present on the iPhone 4.

Third party applications: Of course Symbian OS has a lot of apps, but whether the specific Symbian OS ^ 3 device, the N8 would have a lot of third party apps at launch I cannot rightfully say now. This is in contrast with the iPhone 4 with acclaimed 200,000 and more apps. I believe third party apps have a big role to play in a smart phone’s usability!

Multimedia Features:

1. Camera – The N8 has a rather large Carl Zeiss 12-megapixel camera with Xenon flash. Nokia claims the 12-megapixel snapper is the largest sensor on any phone and is reputed to take amazing photos. (In comparison, the iPhone 4 has only a 5 megapixel snapper with LED flash. The Nokia N8 trounces it here clearly).
2. Front facing Camera – There is also a front-facing camera which will work for video calling. This is similar to the front facing camera on the iPhone 4. Apple calls their video calling feature, Facetime.
3. 720p HD video Recording – Additionally, the N8 video is at the HD level, 720Pixels. This is laudable but not the first. The Apple iPhone 4 also has this function. While I couldn’t confirm the frame rate of the Nokia N8, the iPhone 4 has its own at 30 frames per second, which is herculean for a phone.
4. HDMI out – Need I say this? The Nokia N8 has HDMI out which can transfer video and graphics to a screen at the HD format of 720P. Even the mighty iPhone 4 cannot attempt that! You can thus play High definition videos from your Nokia N8 phone to your LCD or Plasma TV and your Home Theatre!

User Interface: From the dozens of videos that I watched on the capabilities of the Nokia N8 on the web, the user interface was something that did not give me a WOW factor compared with the other features of the phone. I still prefer the slick operating structure of my tested iOS.

Some months ago Nokia indicated that they were revamping the Symbian user interface when they announced their new open source Symbian S^3 open source OS. I hoped then for a more modern looking and suave UI with good looking icons and major UI changes than what I saw in the YouTube videos of the N8′s UI.

The Symbian ^3 user interface resembles the previous version of Symbian to a large degree, although with a little added features here and there, along with some tweaks in some other places. Thank God Nokia informed Eldar Mutazin earlier in his disparaging review of the Nokia N8 that it was only a pre-production copy he reviewed. But then I failed to see dramatic changes in the UI of the N8 videos from recent videos on the web. Here is hoping that there would still be some more changes and revamping of the UI in the commercial copies of the Nokia N8.

Despite my gripes with the UI, there are still some obvious improvement over the previous versions of the Symbian 9.4, series 60 version 5 UI that is found in Nokia N97, Nokia 5800 and the likes. Examples of these improvements included in the N8 include:

• Multi-touch gestures in the browser and photo gallery. There is nothing better than multi-touch technology in a touchscreen Smartphone to improve usability and dexterity.
• Fewer taps required for navigation.
• Simpler multitasking system.

Other Important Features;

Other areas in which Symbian phones top others apart from the Android OS devices is the value-added feature in the guise of their superb free navigation service; Ovi Maps. In my my opinion, Ovi maps rivals and even surpasses Google maps. This is expected to be loaded on the N8.

Conclusion:

As I always say and it always rings true, the test of a pudding is always in the eating. Whatever we do now would only be to analyze, forecast and predict the outlook of a yet-to-be-released product. The actual fact whether a phone would sell or would do well lies only after it is released into the market. And as such, I would have to wait for the release of the Nokia N8, and not just make my summation on this truly great phone from presumably early prototypes. Maybe then I’d see things in the UI that would endear it to me and perhaps surpass the expectations I have of its shortcomings. And I also know I may just have to spend more time with the N8 myself before making a good appraisal. Until then, the Nokia N8 remains a phone to watch.

That’s right, folks. We have the Maemo 5-powered mobile computer, the Nokia N900, in our hands – and we are drooling all over it.

A picture, it is said, is worth a thousand words. Fortunately, we have more than one picture. So, feed your techno-lust on these while you wait for the detailed review/s.

Comparison shots with Samsung S8003 Jet and LG GW550:

A few years back, every self-respecting touchscreen smartphone sported a stylus – that is a pen-like device used for selecting and tapping on the devices’ displays.

We remember the Sony Ericsson P800, the for-runner of sorts to the modern touchscreen smartphone. We remember the excellent P1i and those from other manufacturers such as HTC.

Then came along the iPhone and touchscreen smartphones never remained the same. For the first time, here was a deviuce that did not necesarilly require a stylus for usage. A finger was sufficient.

Of course, that came at a price. We lost handwriting recognition when we threw away the stylus. We lost some measure of accuracy once the onscreen item is small in size.

But it felt great to do away with that ugly, wieldy stylus! And every touchscreen manufacturer seemed to join the bandwagon to get rid of the stylus on their devices.

But is the idea of using a stylus on a smartphone without any merits whatsoever? Is the stylus really that bad – afterall we are used to using pens in everyday scenarios. Even some iPhone users have had to purchase a stylus eventually for use (God forbid!) with their Cuppertino toys. Perhaps the sylus is not such a black sheep?

1. Tell us if you have ever used any stylus-based device
2. Tell us if you have used any of the newer no-stylus device
3. Tell us what you think are the pros and cons of both sides
4. Then tell us what (or what combination, if possible) you would prefer

Samsung’s first Bada-powered device is the S8500 Wave. That device is soon to get a bunch of siblings, including two side-sliding QWERTY keyboard devices.

You’ve read our reviews of the Samsung S8003 Jet, as well as demos of the S8500 Wave, so you have a good idea of what to expect from Samsung’s Bada OS. Now, think of that gorgeous display, sweet user interface, add some even more advanced functionality and then slap a QWERTY keyboard on those. Smartphone heaven?

Samsung is reported to have displayed four new Bada devices at a Bada Developer Day. Reports from the event state that there is no detailed information on these new smartphones, besides them being cheaper, and two of them having a hardware slide-out QWERTY keyboard in addition to touchscreens.

Highlights of the event:

• info on latest user interface, TouchWIZ 3.0
• info on integrated Social Hub
• Samsung’s plans to expand its Bada smartphone to 75 countries, 156 operators, and offer more than 6 500 apps to go with it
• Samsung’s ambitous target of overtaking Nokia in terms of marketshare

Source

Samsung is officially after Nokia’s marketshare? We knew that those guys were ambitious, but this is setting it in stone. Go, Samsung!

Watch these pages for more information on the upcoming devices, launch dates and prices.

We have often said here at MobilityNigeria that there is little functionality that the newer crop of smartphones offer that the older generation (up to about 3 years ago) don’t. In this interesting article, MobilityNigeria contributor, Brym, presents why the Sony Ericsson P1i, a Symbian smartphone released back in July 2007, is still very much his beloved.

After 27 months of usage the Sony Ericsson P1 is still my device of choice. This is obviously one device I have used the longest, beating the i-mate Jam by two months. So, why I am finding it difficult giving up the P1?

Four reasons:

1. Dimensions: For me, it still has the best dimensions and weight for a touch screen smartphone with qwerty keypad . At 124gm, it is about the lightest and most compact touch device out there.

2. Excellent multimedia/enterprise co-efficient: good camera, music and video playback on an equally effective business phone with strong PDA functions.

3. Mods: Ah, since I hacked it, I can’t do without the mods (Torch and Notes mods from SE G900, Walkman 3.0 from SE W960, clock, sound mods and more).

4. Gdesk: I am still crazy about this customizable UI application which enables me to use different UI designs for different days of the week. See screenshots:

So, how much longer do I intend to use the P1? Dunno, maybe until it totally packs up or when a truly revolutionary device is released.

I have been musing over the ongoing craze for touchscreen devices. While it seems that everyone and his dog now uses a touchscreen phone, in reality, touchscreen devices still make up a smaller percentage of the mobile market. But beyond that, it is generally believed that touchscreens provide better user interfaces on mobile devices. But do they?

I have been using a very capable touchscreen device for some time now, the Samsung S8003 Jet. Before then, the only other recent pure touchscreen devices that I have played with include the iPhone 3GS, Samsung Tocco Lite, and Nokia 5800.

Besides the pure touchscreen phones, a few hybrids have made my list – Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and T-mobile G1. But these are not pure touchscreen devices and so do not fall under the category of devices I am examining.

I have asked myself why the Samsung B7320 beat “more capable” devices to clinch for itself the spot of my Samrtphone of the Year 2009.

In one word: usability.

What? you scream, Impossible! Preposterous!!

But before you cry for my head, read on. By definition, usability refers to the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction with which users can achieve tasks in a particular environment of a product. In this case, the product is a mobile phone.

In my opinion, two features ensure that non-touchscreen devices provide better usability than pure touch devices:

One-handed Use
I am unable to remember the number of scenarios in which I had only one hand available, but carrying a phone with only a touchscreen slab meant that I had to drop whatever else I was doing to use the phone.

In contrast to this is the sheer ease of use that candy bar or slider phones with regular or QWERTY keypads offer. Pull the device out with one hand and type away.

In my experience, regular phones like the Sony Ericsson T650i and candybar QWERTYs like the B7320, E71, BlackBerrys provide greater usability than pure touch devices.

It is one of the things I remember the B7320 for.

Switching Screens
We love those huge displays, and coupled with a beautiful user interface, pure touchscreen devices just blow our minds away. Yet, those displays very often get in our way.

You are holding your shiny new touch device and showing something to your friend. But a slight tilt of the angle at which you hold it results in the display auto-rotating, messing up your presentation. Probably a minor irritation, but then it is often the minor irritations that make the difference between high and low usability.

You are watching a video full-screen and in landscape on that glamourous AMOLED touch display, and you lean back a bit on the couch, resulting in an adjusted angle. The display simply auto-rotates again, and you have to sit up straight to get back into landscape mode.

That never happens on your non-touch device. The display stays how you want it. That never happens with the E71 or BlackBerry Curve, for example

Conclusion
At the end of the day, much of this boils down to personal preference. Both sides of the divide have pros and cons.

For example, standard keypad phones are the best of the lot if your primary objective of having a phone is usage that mostly revolves around voice calls.

Replacing the standard keypad with a QWERTY improves usability for those who need to input lots of text. One-handed use is mostly possible and the display does not have a mind of its own. The B7320, being a case in point, gives you a fairly large display that does not switch orientation when you would prefer it to stay put, and one-handed usage. Usability.

Yet, though I am sold on QWERTY devices, I have consistently maintained that standard keypad devices provide the best usability on the planet. Those are the type of phones that the illiterate farmer in Owerri or the village in India is able to use without much problems. While the press may make noise about how they think that touchscreen devices provide the best usability, the truth is very far from that.

The most usable mobile phones are those simple, basic standard keypad devices that almost anyone is able to use without getting an education.

Touchscreen devices lend themselves to media consumption – the large screen being vital to that. Even then, the issues of one-handed use and display orientations still remain. Still, it depends on what the individual wants.

The above issues serve to remind us that touchscreens are not the mobile el dorado that many would like us to think they are. I predict that we will continue to ooooh and aaaah over our touchscreen devices for years and then when the euphoria wears out, we will largely return to more usable models – some sort of hybrids, perhaps.

One thing is for sure, pure touchscreen devices are not the future of mobile. They are certainly not the past. Or the present.

What do you think? If you use a pure touchscreen device, how do you handle the twin issues I raised above?

There are many things you may have heard about the iPhone. Some of these are good, but more often than not the comments are those of critics. When the author first heard about the iPhone it was from the hands of the latter. It appeared that the iPhone was a good for nothing device.

Eldar Mutazin from Mobile-review.com gave a disparaging appraisal of the iPhone and its features, several other sites also had no kind word. It was in this light that the author watched a review of the iPhone on CNN and watched the long queues a year after at the Apple stores as individuals lined up to be the first to lay their hands on the iPhone 3G. It was even christened the “Jesus phone” then because of all the emotions or commentaries that it generated, whether those comments were favourable or otherwise.

Now the question is, what is the iPhone? Has it lived up to its hype? Is there anything that it has to offer? Is it just overrated? Overblown? You may say that this article is belated and that the iphone is actually an old topic and that I shouldn’t stir up old wounds. But then the iPhone still needs to be discussed and laid bare in its intricate perspective.

Only then would you see that the iPhone is perhaps the only phone that generates such emotions from both sides of the divide. And the article becomes all the more expedient following the premise and inference from another article published recently here on MobilityNigeria, iPhone myths propagated by US bloggers. I think our readers have the right to see the two sides of the coin and make their own inexorable conclusions.

The iphone
An unbiased mind will be the best bet to properly put the iphone in its perspective from my discourse. Just let go of any idiosyncrasy and any previous conception of what you felt you knew and let’s rediscover the iPhone all over again.

But the iPhone does not support multitask? It has no copy and paste (oops, it now has). There’s no Flash support and you are stuck with the itunes store to buy applications! You have to use itunes to sync music, videos, apps… Oh, wait, it is still very expensive.

Yes; we have heard so much about the shortcomings of the iPhone. Despite all these it is still a top seller. It still has a following. The question is, Why is this so?

Nice Design
There have been gorgeous phones before the iPhone, but among touchscreen phones, the iPhone has set the standard. It has a pretty one-off design, with an elegantly designed body, and a 3.5 inch touchscreen and metallic back finish. The battery is not replaceable. Some may think this is a minus. That may not really be the case. What it shows is quality.

Apple feels that the phone has been manufactured adequately and that the battery should not fail you. There are few manufacturers today that can survive with an irreplaceable battery on their feature phones!

The iphone 3GS has an oleophobic layer on the touchscreen which is anti-dust. Have you seen other elegant touchscreen phones before the iPhone? Maybe. Now with the advent of the iPhone, so many other manufacturers are making iPhone look-alikes and the so-called iPhone killers. And mind you, no iPhone killer really exists to this day.

Iphone OS platform
Yes, it’s true that the iPhone did not invent the mobile operating system but should I say that perhaps it re-invented it. Before the iPhone, if you purchased a 100,000 Naira feature phone and a new one comes up then that was the end of your feature phone. You may need to discard it or give it out as a gift to get the latest version. To keep up with the trend, you have to cough up more money to buy the next latest. Over more than one cycle you become filled with remorse or anger at your device manufacturer. Don’t get me wrong, there was limited firmware update alright, but that still robs you of having some of the features of the newer feature product. All these changed with Apple iphone. APPLE updated the iphone Operating System (OS) of all its older products which was of course was forward compatible with the newer versions.

To be more exact, you can own the first generation iphone and be able to upgrade to the 3rd generation OS i.e. from the 1st generation iPhone 1.0 to the iphone OS 3.0 or iPhone 3GS. The hardware remains the same but you have the feel of the fluid interface and all the improvements of the latest OS.

Now you can buy a phone and you will be rest assured that in three years time, the phone will not be outdated or obsolete. This was not so in most other manufacturers until the advent of the iphone. Samsung was a culprit, it was even applicable with windows mobile phones.

Now, we now see updates to Windows Mobile 6.1 version to 6.5 and some limited firmware updates in some Samsung phones e.g. the Samsung Omnia i8910 and some Nokia phones. Mind you, in the majority of these phones, the full OS is not updateable as is done by Apple, only the firmware or some features of the phone.

These is evident that Apple, apart from the quality assuredness of its products also gives good customer support. It makes them to be able to create tremendous customer satisfaction and following.

Apple Apps Store
Before the iphone, an application store to take care of all the third party software application needs of a smartphone was not popular. With most of the smartphone manufacturers, it wasn’t even existent. Now came along the iPhone, and Apple’s app store.

As at today, there are more than 150,000 applications in the Apple app store. The apps there are varied, ranging from productivity, kids’ stuff, games, to professional. And there are lots and lots more. There are virtually apps in all categories you can think of. A lot this is even free. Even the commercial applications have their free or lite version which you are free to use and then buy the paid and full version if you are satisfied with them.

With the success of the Apple app store, Android, Blackberry, Samsung and even Nokia (Ovi store) created their own apps store. As at today, the android store is next to the Apple apps store in terms of popularity amongst third party developers with about 20,000 applications.

Multi-touch Screen and Fluid interface
What strikes you when you pick up the iphone is its smooth and fluid interface. Simplistic, yet complex and well thought through. The productivity of use alone makes you feel contented, in awe and wonder if this equipment was not out-of-the-world!

Apple did not invent the touchscreen. And perhaps neither did Apple re-invent it. As a matter of fact, Apple probably innovated from careful engineering, R&D and acquisition, Apple created the multi-touch technology which it has patented. Back in 2005, Apple had acquired Fingerworks, a company involved in touch screen technology.

In fact, Apple pioneered the GUI (Graphical user interface) with Mackintosh in the 80s. I believe that with the convergence of these technologies, and careful research, Apple pioneered the multi-touch touchscreen technology which gives one the awesome impressions of manipulating data with the fingers.

You see the coverflow artwork in the music folder, and flip pictures with precision with the flip of your finger, you pinch to zoom photos and web pages, you manipulate games and apps with the inbuilt multi-touch and accelerometer, and the effects feel truly magical.

Many smartphone manufacturers have tried to copy this. And of course the Apple iPhone leads the pace. Apple had to sue HTC for the infringing on the multi-touch patent for their copy-cat product, the Nexus-one.

The iPhone; A pacesetter to make other phones better
Even among the iPhone’s greatest critics, they cannot honestly deny the trend that the iphone has started. Everywhere you look, you see the proliferation of touchscreen phones. And a new adjective to the Techworld vocabulary is the word; “iPhone killer”.

Throughout 2007, 2008 and 2009 we keep hearing that term “iPhone killer”. Over and over again we see new phones on launch, like the palm Pre (Doing awfully bad in sales), Blackberry Bold, the Droid, Nexus One, Samsung i8910, and the Nokia N97 with one thing in common, which was the question of if they would be the “iPhone killer”. No one would disagree with the fact that the iPhone has been a pace and trendsetter. And like the proverbial Bigfoot, we only hear of iPhone-killers, we have never ever sighted one with our eyes!

The iPhone, A True revolutionary product
To understand why the iPhone could be regarded as truly revolutionary one need to appreciate what the iPhone has done to the mobile phone world. With examples enumerated above, I believe that it isn’t too difficult to appreciate.

To look at the iPhone as a phone with some good features and with some yet missing features is to totally miss the point. If you actually do that, the good features will definitely outweigh the missing ones.

The iPhone is a brand new platform, (compared with the likes of Nokia and Blackberry, it is still in its infancy), it is an exceptionally powerful mobile computer too and is the best selling touchscreen Smartphone today.

I believe it has totally revamped the mobile market and it is the harbinger of yet better phones to come.