Nokia smartphone neep
Nov. 23rd, 2004 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msagaraI have found the new technical gadget that has my name on it.
My current phone is an old Treo 180g; my previous three phones were various flavours of Nokia. I don't hate the Treo; I do hate its battery life because, well, I forget to plug it in often enough. Which has meant, in the last few months, that I haven't had a phone handy. The upside? No annoying phone calls. The downside? No ability to make annoying phone calls.
So I went off searching, finally, for a new phone. Where new in this case means old enough that I can get it for Not Too Much money. I discovered, in this process, that fido has been purchased by Rogers. When did that happen? (As it turned out, I picked up the Sony T610 for not very much money, which has a lithium-polymer batter that runs for days, even by real test standards; it also has a crappy camera, which seems to be something that's required of the mid-range and up).
Ahem. Sorry. While searching for information on the phones that fido offers, I hit the Nokia site... and there it was, on the front page: the phone of my dreams. Well, except technically it's not really a phone.
It's a... 640x320 resolution hand-held Symbian OS platform that happens to also be a phone, a (crappy) camera, an MP3 player, a web-browser. I don't think it makes toast. But -- no chiclet keyboard. No thumboard. Just a stylus. There's apparently some form of handwriting recognition. If anyone out there knows more than I do -- which would be, if anyone sees one, touches one, or has used Symbian OS in smartphones -- that would be great. I've done all the internet/googling, so the standard information, the manual, the developers papers, etc., are now in my hands; I want a better sense of how it handles.
Some of you may know that my previous love-of-life was the Newton MessagePad 2000 (with the upgrade). It was and is large and bulky when compared to handhelds these days, but it was designed for actual input and use, and the OS was great for that. Steve Jobs killed it. I don't care why. I still use it from time to time, and travel with it when space permits, and I've been watching other devices to see whether or not one will appear that will, at last, be a suitable replacement for what was produced in, I believe, 1996.
This might be it.
Which is not, of course, why I'm writing. I'm writing because Nokia has no current plans to sell the 7710 in the Americas. Yes, that's the sound of me grinding my teeth to crowns. It's a (theoretical) 4Q Asia/Africa release, and a (also theoretical) 1Q 2005 Europe release... and there are no plans to bring it to where I can easily buy it.
Sob.
Okay. I'll try to stop obsessing now.
My current phone is an old Treo 180g; my previous three phones were various flavours of Nokia. I don't hate the Treo; I do hate its battery life because, well, I forget to plug it in often enough. Which has meant, in the last few months, that I haven't had a phone handy. The upside? No annoying phone calls. The downside? No ability to make annoying phone calls.
So I went off searching, finally, for a new phone. Where new in this case means old enough that I can get it for Not Too Much money. I discovered, in this process, that fido has been purchased by Rogers. When did that happen? (As it turned out, I picked up the Sony T610 for not very much money, which has a lithium-polymer batter that runs for days, even by real test standards; it also has a crappy camera, which seems to be something that's required of the mid-range and up).
Ahem. Sorry. While searching for information on the phones that fido offers, I hit the Nokia site... and there it was, on the front page: the phone of my dreams. Well, except technically it's not really a phone.
It's a... 640x320 resolution hand-held Symbian OS platform that happens to also be a phone, a (crappy) camera, an MP3 player, a web-browser. I don't think it makes toast. But -- no chiclet keyboard. No thumboard. Just a stylus. There's apparently some form of handwriting recognition. If anyone out there knows more than I do -- which would be, if anyone sees one, touches one, or has used Symbian OS in smartphones -- that would be great. I've done all the internet/googling, so the standard information, the manual, the developers papers, etc., are now in my hands; I want a better sense of how it handles.
Some of you may know that my previous love-of-life was the Newton MessagePad 2000 (with the upgrade). It was and is large and bulky when compared to handhelds these days, but it was designed for actual input and use, and the OS was great for that. Steve Jobs killed it. I don't care why. I still use it from time to time, and travel with it when space permits, and I've been watching other devices to see whether or not one will appear that will, at last, be a suitable replacement for what was produced in, I believe, 1996.
This might be it.
Which is not, of course, why I'm writing. I'm writing because Nokia has no current plans to sell the 7710 in the Americas. Yes, that's the sound of me grinding my teeth to crowns. It's a (theoretical) 4Q Asia/Africa release, and a (also theoretical) 1Q 2005 Europe release... and there are no plans to bring it to where I can easily buy it.
Sob.
Okay. I'll try to stop obsessing now.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 04:32 pm (UTC)But I don't carry it with me many places; the Newton was great for that.
But look at the little X40...
no subject
Date: 2004-11-23 05:56 pm (UTC)For a while this was my primary development machine, so speed mattered a lot and I generally didn't go more than a couple hours outside home or office, so power consumption wasn't a big issue. My primary machine for work is a Thinkpad as well--- going 'bigger better faster stronger' makes sense if it's going to be the primary machine, with mobility as an extra feature rather than the main concern.
no subject
Date: 2004-11-24 12:33 pm (UTC)My first portable -- the IBM portable -- had two floppy drives, and no hard drive, and a "super-twist" screen which was new technology; it came out before the Toshiba gas-plasma displays. That one -was- dropped from heights (by accident) several times, and I think it was about 14 lbs. But it could be carried easily compared to a desktop.
I like portability, but I tend to buy -- for the "main" machine -- larger & more powerful bulk. It takes longer for the tech to stale-date, and it is, as you said, a primary work machine.
I think it depends on how one defines work, though. Had I only wanted to use a computer to compose novels, the portable with the aforementioned floppies (Word 4.0 for DOS) would have been fine.
*cough cough*
Date: 2004-11-24 03:50 pm (UTC)I would call people who had volunteered for the program, ask them a bunch of questions, and if they fit the profile, invite them in to test stuff.
What I noticed was:
1) They had kind of strict profiles, and if you were computer savvy enough to want a laptop (or you didn't have kids), you didn't fit their less-savvy Persona.
2) No one within easy driving distance of their labs (in Redmond, WA and silicon valley) fit their low-end profile. (I was calling little old ladies that knew the difference between RAM and ROM. That's more than *I* know.)
...
So the reason *they're* not making less flashy stuff is that no one has officially asked them to.
Note:
If you want to get involved in long-distance testing, sign up at http://www.microsoft.com/usability/default.htm
and tell all your writer friends. (You even get free stuff if you participate)
***
I also used to write for a computer trade magazine. (I had no clue about computers, but my cover letter was the only one without any typos. Sigh.) We only covered Big Exciting Faster Better More stuff. There is no story in cheap and simple. So if companies wanted to get in the press, they had to have big exciting and new.
And, at least last time i was involved (4 years ago) There Was No Margin in Hardware. The only people making money were people selling storage or writing software. And the only way to sell hardware, says received wisdom, is if it's sporting Flashy Expensive Hardware.
Because there's so little margin, they aren't going to take any risks in changing the form factors (um, that is, the physical shape of the computer and what you can do with it).
...
So, really long answer, and that may have been a rhetorical question, but in case it wasn't, that's the info i have. :)
alia