Whoa, is that webOS 2.0 we see on the horizon? No, sorry, it definitely isn't -- but we can say with relative confidence that the upcoming Pixi will be shipping with a newer, slightly more feature-rich version of webOS than its Pre brethren around the world; if nothing else, Synergy supports Yahoo on the new model, as PreCentral observes. What remains to be seen is the exact version number that'll be shipping out of the gate -- recent DSLReports user agent logs suggest that 1.2.9 might be the gold build (for the record, the Sprint Pre currently rocks 1.2.1), but apparently there's some chatter going on about a 1.3 as well. Doesn't seem like much of a difference, but a 0.1 increment usually means more features, fixes, and changes than a 0.01 increment does, so naturally, we're pulling for a bigger number. There isn't any intel on what this mythical 1.3 might contain just yet or whether it'd be heading to Bell, Sprint, and O2 Pres, but we'll keep an eye out.
Search in plain English, rather than stick with specific points of interest categories and specific addresses. Google allows these, as well as approximate addresses and business name, and it can resolve misspellings.
Voice recognition allows the user to speak the address, or query a specific search such as ask for the museum with a certain exhibit. Android is able to perform the search online, as you would with Google at your desktop, and integrate the findings into the navigation app.
Live traffic data is displayed with green, yellow, and red overlaps on the route. Android can provide alternative routes.
Points of interest can be found along the route, though this function is common among current portable navigation devices (PNDs).
Satellite view as popularized online is available to provide the context for routing, though this may not be the preferred mode when driving.
Street view gives a photo-based take on reality, overlaid with the colored route guidance. When you arrive at your destination, the address may be shown with a photograph, when available.
Car dock mode reacts when the phone is put in a mount to provide easy access to voice command and navigation.
Whether these nifty features hold up against the ease of use and travel information provided by other applications and dedicated portable navigation devices remains to be seen. Both our telephone and GPS experts will evaluate the Droid and this software for a full report in the coming days.
The Droid will also face competition from the Garmin Nuvifone G60.
The Motorola Droid, the spunky phone Verizon recently introduced as the anti-iPhone in a barrage of clever commercials, is now in our hands as a press sample. My initial impression? The Droid lives up to its promise as one of the more capable and interesting phones of a busy fall season.
Available from Verizon on November 6 for $199, the Droid has attracted attention initially for being the first phone to offer the “free” beta version of Google Maps Navigation, which provides spoken turn-by-turn directions and other features previously available on phone only at extra cost.
Our Cars blog will be taking a closer look at Google Maps Navigation on the Droid later this week. Meantime, here are other highlights of the phone:
“Raw” implementation of the Android operating system. The Droid employs the latest, 2.0 version of Google’s Android operating system in a different manner than many other Android phones we’ve seen. Phones such as the Motorola Cliq have fine interfaces that sit over Android, and enhance its features and functionality. Droid does Android “raw,” without such customization. It doesn’t suffer for it, however. Instead, the Droid brings out the OS’s capability for personalization via the addition of widgets and other tools.
Full access to Android’s app store. In a surprising but welcome touch, about the only Verizon app you’ll find on the Droid is Visual Voicemail, a $3-per-month service that lets you “view” and forward voice mails. Verizon relinquished its customary tight grip on phone functionality by giving Droid users full access to Android Market, Google’s app store, which features some 10,000 free and paid apps. For example, you can use widgets to passively monitor power consumption, stay updated on Facebook or the weather, and other services.
It’s thin. Measuring 2.36 in. x 4.56 in. x 0.54, the slick-looking Droid is one of the thinnest slider-style phones with QWERTY keyboard we’ve ever seen.
It’s fast. Several of the latest smart phones, including the Samsung Moment, boast speedy processors. But, to me, the Droid seems noticeably faster than them all, both when switching apps and when downloading Web pages—provided there’s a strong 3G or Wi-Fi signal, of course. It also responds quickly if you need to abort a mistake, such as launching the wrong application.
Big, bright display. At 3.7-inches, the high-resolution LED touchscreen outsizes the the iPhone’s 3.5-incher. It appeared sharp and bright indoors and out, even when it was sitting in the sun. A built-in sensor automatically adjusts brightness for different conditions.
Nice navigation. Touch-sensitive symbols for Back, Menu, Home, and Search handle most of the operations. The touch-screen display is not multi-touch (like the iPhone’s), so it can’t interpret gestures. But I found it quite responsive. You can move about a Web page or document by dragging your finger along the screen. A double-tap and you can zoom in and out, thanks to Android 2.0. Slide open the keyboard and you’ll find a 4-way toggle/OK button, which comes in handy when you’re trying to maneuver the cursor to a specific word or Web link. But I found it a bit too easy to accidentally launch the touch-sensitive Search Key when I held the phone in my right hand.
Interesting interface. The Droid allows you to view all of your e-mails from different accounts (except Gmail) under one view. To keep them properly sorted, each account is assigned a distinct color, which appears a little bar to the left of each message. You can also do the same for multiple text-message accounts, if you have them.
Serious searches. The Droid’s search feature works pretty much like the ones on some other smart phones, such at the iPhone and Palm Pre. Just start typing a term and Droid scours you contacts, music, and documents for that term before it moves on to the Web, where it also considers your GPS location. You can also perform these searches by voice, which, thanks to Android 2.0, works quite well. But it doesn’t search your calendars, as does the iPhone.
Fine keyboard. The real QWERTY keyboard is responsive, well-spaced, and backlit for dark environments. The virtual keyboard was responsive, too, if a bit squished when the phone is in the vertical position. The wider version you get by tilting the phone on its side is better, but the virtual keyboard disappears when you turn the phone on its side to switch from narrow mode to wide—a mild annoyance. (You can bring it back by tapping a text field.) There’s no vibration feedback in either virtual mode; it’s available only for the soft keys on the bottom of the phone (Back, Menu, Home, and Search) and for some app operations.
Cool camera. The 5-megapixel camera comes well equipped, with auto-focus and auto-flash. You can launch the camera by pressing a button on the right side of the phone, or tapping the camera icon on the phone's desktop. Tapping the menu button after snapping a photo summons action buttons to share the image via Facebook, e-mail, SMS, Picasa, or Bluetooth data. It’s easy to toggle between still images and video, which you can record in true 16x9 format. The Droid seemed sluggish when taking next shots, but that’s typical of many camera phones.
Decent phone controls. The large virtual keys make dialing easy, and a proximity sensor disables virtual keypad when you bring the phone to your face; reactivates it when you pull it away. But, as with the iPhone, getting to the phone requires pressing a virtual button on the phone’s desktop.
We’ll have more details on the Droid as we test it more fully in our labs. In the meantime, check out our smart-phone Ratings, available to subscribers, for some other interesting phones. —Mike Gikas
Nokia is shutting down N-Gage, its beleaguered, two-year-old mobile games service. The company will still sell N-Gage games through the end of September 2010, and players will still be able to interact via the N-Gage Arena, but after that the service will go dark. Instead, the company will focus on funneling gamers through to its Ovi Store.
This is a huge blow to Nokia (NYSE: NOK). Though Marco Argenti, the company’s VP of media, hinted that Nokia planned to streamline its mobile content offerings into a “single distribution channel” back in March, the Finnish mobile giant has invested millions in staffing and promoting N-Gage.
In the meantime, Nokia has been losing money on both handset and service sales—posting a $1.3 billion loss for Q3—and Comes With Music, its other mobile content add-on, has struggled to gain traction. But two major factors have contributed the most to N-Gage’s demise: lack of developer buy-in, and competition from the iPhone.
—Lack of developer support: N-Gage’s biggest problem was that developers didn’t like working with the platform. They called the N-Gage app development process a “time-consuming and expensive endeavor”—partly because they had to create different versions of games for Nokia’s myriad handsets, but also because of the complex approval process. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) too, has a bad rep when it comes to getting apps approved, but developers seem to actually like creating games for the iPhone. With N-Gage, that wasn’t the case.
—iPhone competition: And then, there’s the consumer appeal of the iPhone and the App Store. Access to games and apps was integrated into the iPhone from the start; in contrast, it took Nokia a year to start selling a high volume of handsets with N-Gage pre-installed. iPhone games also launched with cool features like motion-control from the onset; N-Gage games only started making real use of handsets’ accelerometers this year. It also didn’t help that the same games often cost much less on the iPhone than N-Gage.
Moving forward, Nokia will be able to devote more resources to gaining developer support and traction for the Ovi Store. In July, the company closed its Vancouver-based in-house N-Gage development studio, and a Seattle-based content-development shop in May. We’ve put in a request for details on whether there will be more layoffs tied to the full N-Gage shutdown.
By JBC on 28 October 2009
Alongside new features the latest version of the N97 software brings a host of optimisation tweaks, improving performance and battery life. Navigating the device is a pleasure with kinetic ‘flip’ scrolling available right across the OS. Other updates include shortcuts to the personalised homescreen, the addition of Ovi Maps 3.1 which brings with it 3D maps alongside tweaks to Nokia Email, Ovi Contacts and Ovi Store.
The new software update is available through the device (go to Menu > Applications > SW Update and enable automatic checking), through Nokia Ovi Suite 2.0 or you can visit the Nokia Software Update website. Over the next few weeks a wide range of country and operator versions will be coming online, so if your device hasn’t got the update available yet, set up automatic checking and you’ll be notified when it becomes available.
Right, we’re off to update our N97s. Check out your local Nokia Store or operator to pick up a shiny new Nokia N97 mini.
GLOBAL – The Nokia Booklet 3G is one of those products that surprised many when it jumped out of the bushes at Nokia World 09. Yet once the initial shock of seeing a Nokia mini-laptop PC subsided, it rapidly established itself as curious and exciting new beast that the entire village is talking about and is eager to meet. Raising the ceiling on the spectrum of Nokia devices currently available, the Booklet 3G certainly warrants a top slot in The Almanac here on Conversations, so we willing obliged and have now added it to the pantheon of great products you can rummage through.
Announced the two companies "Sony" and "Panasonic" their intention to launch a three-dimensional television in the coming year, although skeptics say that this system will not be ready for use domestically.
Vice President of the "Panasonic" Robert Berry Network, "CNN's" This American "television has become a reality."
According to the network, "CNN's" American that this system requires the use of special glasses and a new TV etc price higher than the advanced televisions on the market. The two companies will unveil the price of this TV soon.
