A Tale of Two Cities - With the Nokia N86 8MP!

A new exhibition has opened at London’s Heathrow airport this week, showcasing photographer Henry Reichhold’s latest work. Running in Terminal 5’s Expo area until May 2010, the exhibition features large panoramic photographs of two of the worlds most famous cities; Dubai and Mumbai. As interesting as all this is, at this point you may be wondering what exactly this is doing on the pages of a mobile phone blog. Well, rather than opting for a dedicated digital camera, Henry instead decided that a Camera Phone would be more than up to the job. The Phone in question? Well, that’ll be Nokia’s 8.0 Megapixel N86.

That’s right, eschewing large cameras and lenses for a completely standard N86, the installation boasts over 90 images taken with Nokia's flagship camera phone. Taken over the course of eight days in November 2009, the images were created by stitching several separate shots together contrasting the slums ob Mumbai with the fabulous wealth of Dubai.

Speaking about the exhibition, Henry commented “The Nokia N86 Explore exhibition visually maps the polar opposites of two of the world’s most extreme urban dwellings: Dubai is a showcase of extraordinary wealth, development and architecture, whilst Mumbai is an extraordinarily vibrant city driven by the resilience and incredible good nature of its people who live for the most part in poverty. It also goes to show the potential and range of new multimedia communication devices which are able to capture the world in a way never previously thought possible.”

Mark Murphy, operations director at Terminal 5 said, “We’re delighted to welcome Henry Reichhold back to Expo at Heathrow Terminal 5. His photographs not only add a dynamic visual presence to the airport but also challenge preconceptions of what can be achieved with a mobile. It’s very inspiring and certainly encourages us all to celebrate technology and create our very own mobile artworks.”

So, enough chit chat, i’m off to grab an 8.0 Megapixel camera phone and a one-way ticket to the far reaches of the globe. And if you can’t wait for my exhibition, be sure to check out Henry Reichhold’s at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 Expo Area before May 2010.

E4 sends up the iPad in TV advert!

Poor old Apple despite being ubiquitous with cutting edge technology, it seems people are queuing up to have a dig at Job’s and Co. It’s not only their products that seem to be the butt of many a joke, but also their marketing and advertising that people seem to find perfect parody fodder. Cast your minds back to December and you’ll remember the Sun newspaper's comical send up of the iPhone adverts. And now, it’s the turn of Channel 4’s comedy off-shoot E4, who have decided to playfully poke fun at the upcoming Apple iPad. We won’t spoil it for you, check out the video below to see for yourself (and check out the Original iPad video to see just how well it has been parodied). Well, they say imitation is a form of flattery so i guess Apple should be flattered by the raft of send ups that have surfaced in recent months. I wouldn’t bet on it though…

Nokia officially announce the C5!

Nokia have officially announced the first member of the new Cseries range; the Nokia C5. Having done the rounds in numerous spy shots and leaked images and hinted at way back when Nokia nabbed the copyright for the C series name, the C5 enters Nokia’s range as the phone to bring the Symbian Smartphone operating system to the masses. Will it succeed? Read on for our first look at the new C5.

Aesthetically, the C5 bears a striking resemblance to the 6300, one of Nokia’s most popular and successful launches in the companies history. Sporting a candybar form factor, the C5 boasts a large finger-friendly keypad and sharp 2.2 inch display. So on the outside, the C5 could easily be mistaken for yet another Nokia candy-bar feature phone but on the inside it’s a totally different story.

The C5 runs Symbian series 60 pitching it as a fully functional smartphone only with a feature phone design, size and, most important of all, price. Download apps from Ovi Store, pull in Facebook status updates to your contacts list and launch instant messaging conversations from your home screen. As a Symbian smartphone, the C5 also benefits from Nokia's free Sat Nav initiative with Ovi Maps pre-installed, offering free voice guided in-car and on foot navigation.

The premium features don’t stop there. The C5 includes HSDPA connectivity ensuring the aforementioned app downloads and web browsing are lightening quick. Nokia have also found room for a 3.15 Megapixel camera with Flickr support, MP3 music player and FM radio, a 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth and expandable memory. Throw in up to 12 hours talk time and a staggering 26 days of standby and it’s obvious Nokia are on to a winner with the C5.

Keep an eye on the blog for more information as soon as we know more.

Apple sues HTC for patent infringement!

For Apple’s legal team, it seems three is the magic number. Not content with counter suing Nokia and being sued by Kodak, Apple have launched yet another law suit this time against Taiwanese smart phone manufacturers HTC. The reason? Patent infringement. Or so Apple has alleged.
Yes, following ongoing legal wranglings with Nokia and Kodak, the Cupertino outfit have now filed suit against HTC claiming the smartphone manufacturer has violated patents relating to the iPhone’s “user interface, underlying architecture and hardware”. Speaking about the legal action, Apple CEO Steve Jobs commented “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
Some of the 20 patents Apple claim have been infringed include Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image, something that could quite easily cover any touchscreen phone without a hardware unlocking button, List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display which relates to how scrolling menus bounce when you reach the end (among other things) and Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices which refers to the proximity sensor turning off the screen when the iPhone is held to your ear on a call.
At this point, it’s very early days with HTC yet to answer to the claims and a court date potentially months (or even years away). We won’t see the end to this one just yet. At this point, you may be asking yourself why HTC? All 3 of the above features have all been seen in notable handsets from the likes of Nokia, Samsung and the Palm Pre so why are Apple only going after HTC? Well, that’s anyone’s guess, but the cynical amongst you may see this as a thinly veiled dig at Google. Whilst HTC manufacture both Windows Mobile and Android handsets, the Taiwanese outfit has been a major supporter of Google’s OS from day one.
With Apple and Google originally co-existing quite amicably (the iPhone uses Google Search and Maps after all), the relationship started to turn sour after the arrival and subsequent success of Google’s Android smart phone operating system which has clearly moved into iPhone territory. Now, with the release of the HTC manufactured Google Nexus One, Google have moved from software to hardware and it comes as no coincidence that Apple have decided that now is the time to act. Looking closely at the patents, we can see that it is Android that is mainly being implicated.
Google have even gone as far as to issue a statement following the law suit, commenting “We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.” Whether this means standing behind their partners with moral support or some financial clout remains to be seen but this one’s definitely set to run for some time. Keep an eye on the blog for more information on this as and when we get it.

Google launches Gesture Search for Android 2.0 phones and above

Google have officially announced the launch of Gesture Search, which is a new way of searching your Android phone’s content by simply writing letters on the screen with your finger.

Below is an explanation from Google themselves.

“Say you want to call your friend Anne. Just open Gesture Search and draw letter “A”, and Gesture Search returns a list of items that have words starting with “A”. If your handwriting isn’t all that neat, that’s okay. If the “A” you draw looks a bit like an “H”, as seen in the bottom left corner of the screenshot, “H” results will be brought up as well. If needed, you can also erase a query by crossing it horizontally: left to right erases the entire query, and right to left removes the last letter or space in the query. Now you can either scroll down the list to find Anne or write more letters to refine the search.”

Sounds like a pretty good and simple tool to use, and definitely a lot more convenient to use in public rather than voice search. If you fancy trying out the Gesture Search for yourself, search for it in the Android Market; it will only appear and be available to download for handsets running on Android 2.0 or higher. If recent rumours are correct, all Android phones will be upgrading to 2.1 meaning all Android users will be able to take advantage of the new Gesture Search tool.

Keep an eye on the blog for new Android mobile phone releases which will be sporting Gesture Search.

T-Mobile unveils Sidekick LX and Sidekick Slide

After quite a long time of speculation and rumored pictures, T-Mobile and Danger have unveiled both the Sidekick LX and the Sidekick Slide. The two new mobile communication gadgets are both pretty cool but might each be targeted to a slightly different set of people.

The Sidekick LX looks to be the new, latest and greatest Sidekick with a wider QVGA display, mood lighting with LED lights that blink with alerts and a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash. It also comes with a 128MB microSD card. The Sidekick Slide comes in a little smaller package measuring 4.6 x 2.4 x 0.68 inches and is from Motorola. It doesn’t have the swivel display like the traditional Sidekicks but also doesn’t skimp on features as its set up the same as the LX.

The Sidekick LX is expected to be available October 24 for $299 (with contract) and comes in colors of “midnight blue” or “espresso brown”. The Sidekick Slide comes in at $100 less for $199 a couple weeks after the LX on November 7 in a single color of black and purple. We’ll put out more info on both of these as we find it.

Sidekick Slide

Bang & Olufsen Shows Off New Mobile Phone

Bang & Olufsen has launched a new mobile phone, supplied by Samsung - the Serenata. The phone features a built-in stereo loudspeaker system, and users have the choice to listen through the integrated loudspeaker system or through the dedicated stereo EarSet 3 earphones or to connect it to their hi-fi as an auxiliary source. The focus has been on providing a music performance with emphasis on playback of "uncompressed" music. Besides handling lossless formats, Serenata also handles playback in compressed formats including MP3, WMA, and AAC.

"Since we first started our partnership with Bang & Olufsen, we have confirmed our belief that both companies share a passion for innovation and consumer-focused technology. Serenata is another example of new ways of thinking", said Geesung Choi, President of the Telecommunications Network Business in Samsung Electronics.

"We have high expectations for Serenata as it is a result of our joint vision to constantly push the boundaries and bring unique and exciting products to our customers", said Torben Ballegaard Sørensen, CEO of Bang & Olufsen.

Serenata's click wheel navigation gives users simple and easy operation of the phone's functions. There are very few actual keys, with the wheel being used for all primary operation supported by on-screen operation based on sensi-touch technology. A large 2.4-inch colour LCD display developed by Samsung allows Serenata to show album covers in high resolution and facilitates on-screen navigation.

The phone comes with 4GB of memory and supports HSDPA connectivity.

Posted to the site on 1st October 2007

Click on images to enlarge

Bang & Olufsen Serenata Bang & Olufsen Serenata

Smartphones that Work for Business

Carl Weinschenk, who edits our Unified Communications Edge site, asked several analysts which smartphones were best for business. Clearly, Carl found that these devices -- and others that didn't quite make the list -- will play a central role in both unified communications and business computing.

Some responders went with the cool and some with the functional. The bottom line is that there is no shortage of useful and fun phones for business people as well as consumers.

Participants in this slideshow were two Gartner analysts -- Carolina Milanesi, research director of Mobile Devices for Technology and Service Provider Research, and Ken Dulaney, a vice president and distinguished analyst. Other participants were Chris Silva, senior analyst for enterprise infrastructure at Forrester Research; Allen Nogee, principal analyst for In-Stat; Kevin Burden, practice director for mobile devices for ABI Research; and Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices, mobile devices/digital home for Current Analysis.

Not surprisingly, Research in Motion was the big winner of our informal poll. All but one of the analysts chose at least one BlackBerry device. Among those chosen were the Bold 9700 and the Curve 8900. Two analysts chose Nokias – the E71 and N900 Maemo. The Apple iPhone was chosen by two analysts. Single votes were cast for the Google/HTC Nexus One, the LG eXpo, the HTC Fuze, the Palm Pre and the HTC Touch Pro 2.

Chinese company announces new mobile phone watches

Beam me up Scotty! In an announcement expected to go hand in hand with hover cars and robot servants, Chinese electronics company C-Sky Industrial limited has announced that it will be producing a range of mobile phone wrist watches.

Though not a new idea (see the Samsung GPRS watch phone), these new models (from the pictures at least) stand out from previous failed attempts at converging a watch and a mobile phone due to the sleek design and excellent spec list. Apparently, if these products do ever see the light of day, we can expect Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera and mp3 playback.

As with many Chinese companies, innovation is the name of the game and what once would have seemed laughable, today seems entirely feasible.

Though many of you will be looking at the watch phone with a large degree of scepticism, what this undoubtedly does go to prove is how far mobile phone technology has come in the pursuit of integrating multiple devices.

Past products which spring to mind in this vein include the Sony Ericsson MBW-100 Bluetooth watch, an incredibly attractive watch which provided owners with excellent features such as caller id and text message alerts on the watch face itself as well as the ability to pair it with an accompanying Bluetooth headset and answer and end calls directly on the watch.

Bluetooth has always been an area of innovation with hundreds of unique applications, from the useful to the downright daft. Now an increase in the amount of fashion orientated products, including Bluetooth wristbands and even a Bluetooth headset styled as dog tags are becoming ever more popular.

Where past ventures have seen mobile phones partnered with fashion houses such as the giants of Prada and Armani, perhaps the manufacturers are now directing the fashion themselves with the products likening themselves more to jewellery. Should we expect a phone co-launched with a major watch brand?

Whether mobile phone earrings, necklaces or bracelets will materialize in the future remains to be seen, but the future design of mobile phones can be viewed with excitement (and a large pinch of salt!). While for the time being watch phones are still niche and viewed with a hint of negativity it is wise to remember how we all scoffed at camera phones!

So hang on to your jewellery and your fashion phones for the meantime, just don’t be surprised if your next handset ends up replacing that Rolex!

What is mobile technology and what are the benefits?

Mobile technology is exactly what the name implies - technology that is portable. Examples of mobile IT devices include:

• laptop and netbook computers
• palmtop computers or personal digital assistants
• mobile phones and 'smart phones'
• global positioning system (GPS) devices
• wireless debit/credit card payment terminals

Mobile devices can be enabled to use a variety of communications technologies such as:

• wireless fidelity (WiFi) - a type of wireless local area network technology
• Bluetooth - connects mobile devices wirelessly
• 'third generation' (3G), global system for mobile communications (GSM) and general packet radio service (GPRS) data services - data networking services for mobile phones
• dial-up services - data networking services using modems and telephone lines
• virtual private networks - secure access to a private network

It is therefore possible to network the mobile device to a home office or the internet while travelling.

Benefits

Mobile computing can improve the service you offer your customers. For example, when meeting with customers you could access your customer relationship management system - over the internet - allowing you to update customer details whilst away from the office. Alternatively, you can enable customers to pay for services or goods without having to go to the till. For example, by using a wireless payment terminal diners can pay for their meal without leaving their table.

More powerful solutions can link you directly into the office network while working off site, for instance to access your database or accounting systems. For example, you could:

• set up a new customer's account
• check prices and stock availability
• place an order online

This leads to great flexibility in working - for example, enabling home working, or working while travelling. Increasingly, networking 'hot spots' are being provided in public areas that allow connection back to the office network or the internet. The growth of cloud computing has also impacted positively on the use of mobile devices, supporting more flexible working practices by providing services over the internet.

Drawbacks

There are costs involved in setting up the equipment and training required to make use of mobile devices. Mobile IT devices can expose valuable data to unauthorised people if the proper precautions are not taken to ensure that the devices, and the data they can access, are kept safe. See our guide on securing your wireless systems.

Mobile technology

Introduction

Mobile computing allows people to use IT without being tied to a single location. Any business with staff that work away from the office can benefit from using it.

Whether you are travelling to meetings, out on sales calls, working from a client's site or from home, mobile devices - can help you keep in touch and make the most productive use of your time. You can use a range of devices to stay in touch including laptops, netbooks, personal digital assistants and 'third generation' (3G) smart phones.

Mobile IT devices can also change the way you do business - new technologies lead to new ways of working, and new products and services that can be offered to your customers. This guide explains how mobile computing can benefit your business and introduces the key technologies available.

This guide explains how mobile computing can benefit your business and introduces the key technologies available.

Lip reading mobile promises end to noisy phone calls

Technology that could see an end to the bane of many commuters - people talking loudly on their mobile phones - has been shown off by researchers.

The kit is still very much at the prototype stage

The prototype device could allow people to conduct silent phone conversations.

The technology measures the tiny electrical signals produced by muscles used when someone speaks.

The device can record these pulses even when a person does not audibly utter any words and use them to generate synthesised speech in another handset.

"I was taking the train and the person sitting next to me was constantly chatting and I thought 'I need to change this'," Professor Tanja Shultz of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology told BBC News.

"We call it silent communication."

Translation system

The device, on show at the Cebit electronics fair in Germany, relies on a technique called electromyography which detects the electrical signals from muscles. It is commonly used to diagnose certain diseases, including those that involve nerve damage.

The prototype that is on display in Germany uses nine electrodes that are stuck to a user's face.

Nasa have explored the use of silent communication systems

"These capture the electrical potentials that result from you moving your articulatory muscles," explained Professor Shultz. "Those are the muscles that you need in order to produce speech."

The electrical pulses are then passed to a device which records and amplifies them before transmitting the signal via Bluetooth to a laptop.

There, software translates the signals into text, which can then be spoken by a synthesiser.

In the future, said Professor Shultz, the technology could be packed in a mobile phone for instantaneous communication.

"We know this is not appealing for mass market use at the moment."

However, she added, it could be initially used to help people who have lost their voice due to illness or accident.

It could also form the basis of an instant translation system, she said.

"You could speak in your mother tongue and the text could be translated into another language," she said.

"The person that you are communicating with would then hear the synthesised voice in the other language."

It is not the first time that electromyography has been explored for silent communication.

The US space agency Nasa has investigated the technique for communicating in noisy environments such as the Space Station. It has also used the technique to explore advanced flight control systems that do away with joysticks and other interfaces.

Nasa, she said, explored the technique to understand simple commands.

"The difference with our system is that we can record and recognise continually spoken sentences," said Professor Shultz.

Cebit runs from 2 to 6 March in Hanover, Germany.