Friday, July 23, 2010

Nokia N8 ... Epic phone?


Nokia of course would never just stand still and watch HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and other mobile phone manufacturers take all the glory with their new shiny android phones ...


So the Swedish beast decided to shoot at them with its new flagship device ... the N8.

Here's a run down on the specs:



General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 2100 /1900
Announced 2010, April
Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2010, October




Size Dimensions 113.5 x 59.1 x 12.9 mm, 86 cc
Weight 135 g
Display Type AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches
- Multi-touch input method
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
- Scratch resistant Gorilla glass display
Sound Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Speakerphone Yes
- 3.5 mm audio jack
Memory Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records Detailed, max 30 days
Internal 16 GB storage, 256MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
Card slot microSD, up to 32GB
Data GPRS Class 33
EDGE Class 33
3G HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2.0 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, UPnP technology
Bluetooth Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support
Camera Primary 12 MP, 4000x3000 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Xenon flash
Features 1/1.83'' sensor size, ND filter, geo-tagging, face and smile detection
Video Yes, 720p@25fps
Secondary VGA videocall camera
Features OS Symbian ^3 OS
CPU ARM 11 680 MHz processor, 3D Graphics HW accelerator
Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS; FM transmitter
Games Yes + downloadable
Colors Dark Grey, Silver White, Green, Blue, Orange
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support; Ovi Maps 3.0
Java Yes, MIDP 2.1
- TV-out (720p video) via HDMI and composite
- Dolby Digital Plus via HDMI
- Anodized aluminum casing
- Digital compass
- MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ player
- DivX/XviD/MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player
- Voice command/dial
- Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
- Video/photo editor
- Flash Lite v4.0
- T9
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh (BL-4D)
Stand-by Up to 390 h (2G) / Up to 400 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 12 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 5 h 30 min (3G)
Music play Up to 50 h

Will this do Nokia justice and give it back its rightful position among the big ones? we'll just have to wait and see.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Windows phone 7 - Closer than ever

Of course you know about windows phone 7. You know how irritating it is that there's no REAL multitasking, and no copy and paste commands.

And you know how sexy the metro UI looks and feels.

Here's the PCmag video prereview of the Samsung prototype WP7 device.



If this thing turns out to be half as functional as it is smooth, it's going to give other OSes a good run for their money.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Or better yet: Ultrasound in mobile phone FORM!




Okay, GE has done it again and again ... imagine owning this as a cardiology resident ... stethoscopes ... to the trash cans and beyond!

Ultrasound on a mobile phone!


USB-based ultrasound probes have been around since 2005, offering a much cheaper and more portable alternative to larger ultrasound machines. Probes provide increasingly high-quality imaging for a tenth of the cost. A typical, portable ultrasound device costs around $20,000, while USB probes sell for around $2,000 right now - and the price is declining. Probes are ideally suited for first-responders and for primary care in developing countries, for example.


The small probes are connected to a phone with a USB cord that have been, typically, connected to a laptop for displaying the images. But carrying around laptops for transmitting images is not an option in many clinics in developing countries for lack of consistent electricity, heat, and lack of Internet access.

Mobile phones, on the other hand, are ubiquitous, easy to use, and they have the mobile network built in to transmit and retrieve images. William Richard, Associate Professor, and David Zar Research Associate, both at Washington University in St. Louis have now developed the first, fully integrated USB ultrasound probe.

As Zar notes, all of the electronics are in the probe itself; all that is needed is the actual probe, a USB cable, and the imaging platform connected with a USB cord -- such as Windows mobile phone. Working under a Microsoft Research grant, the researchers modified probes to work with a smart phone and developed a software development kit (SDK) to allow developers to build fully-custom applications for various mobile platforms.

Video after the break.




Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Dell streak Vs. Samsung Captivate

The Captivate is the Samsung Galaxy S, it's samsung's latest and greatest response to all the android phone hype, and especially dell's incredible STREAK ... Here's a side by side shot from streaksmart.com :


Through my research on the subject, here's the low-down on both handsets if you are not settled yet on which to get ...

Hull: The streak wins by miles. The Samsung has a plastic body while the streak has a metal back and gorilla glass up-front. period. Here's a video of the streak being tough under torture:



Hardware: Both are just fine, except that the captivate/galaxy S is superior concerning graphics performance, it's a powerful gaming device, not that gaming in android deserves all that juice quite honestly ... and of course, Samsung ALWAYS wins when it comes to displays, becuz of their amazing super AMOLEDs, not that the LCD on the streak is bad or anything, it's just that the captivate wins in here quality wise, because the 5" beast on the streak will attract you nonetheless like a mosquito to a candle flame ... The only thing that the dell possesses over the galaxy is it's HDMI port, which is a big plus if you ask me!

Software: Both run android, but the streak lags with v1.6 while the captivate leads by the 2.1, but both will be getting the latest android FroYo 2.2 by the end of the year, and both are probably eligible for the android 3.0 upgrade scheduled later on ...

Package: the streak comes with a desktop docking bay, while the galaxy doesn't ... meh.

So, It's a hard comparison, but the streak definitely wins as a marvelous peace of hardware, and the Samsung wins as a device, as a phone, and it's really really fast ... bottom line: you want a tablet phone: DELL STREAK , you want a SUPER phone: SAMSUNG GALAXY S!