Nokia 888 Concept Phone

Now this is cool. I don't know if this will ever come out to market, but it's certainly thinking outside of the box.

LG KE850

Apparently LG is coming out with a touch screen phone and it looks very similar to Apple's version. There unfortunately isn't any specs on the phone, so I don't know if has the same features as the iPhone.

I will say something that LG has that Apple doesn't have: a bigger market share. This phone will probably do better overseas than Apple's phone. I'm still not convinced that a touch screen phone will be very usable, but another bonus is that it's made by someone that already knows how to make cellphones. Experience must count for something.

And by the way, there have been rumors that Nokia is prototyping their own touch screen phone, called the Aeon. So it will be interesting to see what the playing field will look like a year from now. There apparently is suppose to be a Prada version of the LG phone coming out this April.

Check out the video (sorry, it's in French, but at least it demos what it's capable of. Anyone want to translate?).

Mobile Web

I read this article which commented on how the next wave of the Internet will be Mobile Web. Basically, it states that people will be doing more Internet surfing on a smart phone than on a PC.

The cell phone makers certainly know that this going to be a big thing, so they are going to do all they can to help it along. The other day, I was at a Blackberry demo (the sales guy was showing a pretty cool device that will allow you to hook your Blackberry to a projector to show Power Point presentations, it was pretty cool, much better than lugging around a laptop) and the sales guys had mentioned that in 2007 and 2008, RIM will be releasing smart phones with higher download speeds, to help boost the abilities of mobile web.

I personally am all for it. There have been times when I had to find information, and wished that I had the ability to find that information while out and about. Or if I'm not at my PC, I would like to be able to purchase something online when I want, and not have to wait. Better use of my time, I have to say.

I have a smart phone that is ready for Mobile Web. It's got a Opera browser that I've been itching to try out for some time now. So what's holding me back?

The article says it quite well.

One of the biggest obstacles to mass adoption of the wireless Internet remains the high rates phone companies are charging, especially in Canada.

Let's face it, I refuse to pay $45 per month for 0.5MB of data, and this is on top of my regular monthly cell phone plan. Considering that many files, including Internet pages, are much larger that this, my monthly allotted usage would be gone in a blink of an eye. Or more realistically, Rogers (my carrier) would start charging me for the extra data packet used.

I really don't like the fact that Canadians have this culture where they are always slow to embrace new technology, and the high prices are certainly not helping. So to Rogers, and all the other Canadian carriers out there, get with the program, and lower your prices if you want people to start using it. I'm a willing participant, but I would like to get more value for my money.

Apple iPhone(?)

• It has Wi-Fi & Bluetooth capabilities
• It does have a wider screen that will allow for better viewing (of whatever you're looking at)
• It does make good use of screen real-estate by removing the buttons

What I'm not so hot on:

• It still seems too big
• It has no memory card slot (I betcha version 2.0 will have one!)
• If you look past the eye candy, it really isn't that that different from other smart phones.
  
• Relying solely on a touch screen, your biggest single point of failure is the screen itself. Once it's damaged, you need to replace the phone.
• Other points of failure: you can't replace the battery (just like in an iPod) and I couldn't find any evidence that you could take the SIM card out and put it into another phone. (This phone is only designed for GSM networks as it uses EDGE technology).

I guess we will just have to wait and see...

Cell phone value

I was reading this article today in the Globe and Mail. Apparently we pay more for our cell phone service than those people down in the US. My sister constantly astounds me with stories of how cheap cell phone plans in the US are compared to Canada.

Granted, the US has 10 times the population, and thus, 10 times the market, so they can afford to be more competitive.

One line in the article did interest me:

“In Canada, wireless has been seen as a luxury,[...] In the U.S., it's been seen as a necessity.”

The perspectives are interesting. This would maybe explain why a lot of people that I know don't use their cell phone, and in fact, want to get rid of it. This sort of thinking however, really keeps Canada in the dark ages when it comes to tech-savviness, and also explains why Canada never really get the cool phones till later, if at all. Boooo.

It would be interesting to see how the landscape will change once the cell phone number portability regulation comes into effect next March...

My new toy

I got a new toy today, a Nokia 6682. Review forthcoming, once I figure out a few more functions on the phone and actually have a chance to give it a good go at playing with it.

I did have a bit of a headache getting the phone. First, I wanted to switch to an corporate Employee plan. In the mall that I went to, there are three Rogers dealership. After doing a quick check, I found out that one was selling the phone cheaper than the other two. I'd always wondered why, but I was too excited to getting this phone to care. Plus said store had an extra $50 credit for some Mother's day promotion.

Well, I discovered that resellers don't have the permission to transfer existing Roger accounts to a Employee Corporate plan, but regular Roger dealers do. What a pain. (I also ran into a similar scenario with another Employee Plan that I was considering. Bah.)

So I eventually got the hardware and plan upgrade. I'm already suspecting that I'll need to purchase a special proprietary Nokia memory card, but that's a rant for another day. However, the phone is a smartphone, and it can run Java applications, so maybe one day when I have some time to fool around, I may actually develop an application and see if it'll work on my phone...

Yes, I'm a geek.