Will Nokia Ever Get N-Gage Right?

Last month saw Nokia making a second bid at releasing the N-Gage platform. The first attempt was a resounding failure, with the Nokia N-Gage handheld gaming device proving to be a failure. In a bid to make amends, Nokia’s latest attempt has seen them restructure N-Gage as a mobile service that can be used by any compatible device.

It has emerged, though, that the games can only be downloaded once and to one device. This may be a move to prevent pirating of software but it means that when gamers upgrade their mobile device they would need to purchase the game again for that new device. Understandably, gamers are disappointed. Read more

Curved LCD Displays, Thinnest Ever Display, And Improved Touch Screen Displays

Who can keep up with technology, eh? One minute, manufacturers are doing all they can to create the flattest form TV monitors imaginable, and then AUO come along and brag about their latest innovation – the curved LCD display on glass substrate. While e-paper displays don’t quite manage to get colours and image quality perfect, AUO claims that using new technology, they can do just that on glass substrate. Read more

The Gear4 Blackbox

Gear4 is a truly great company that regularly releases new products for the technophile. They make some damn good speakers for mp3 players and PSPs (no, they haven’t suddenly offered us sponsorship although if they’re reading…). We recently reviewed the Bass Station – another great sounding speaker but it looked, to be frank, dull and unimaginative.

In order to try and show off some of their better looking, or at least less dull, speakers here is the BlackBox. Compatible with Bluetooth phones (but not the iPhone without a little tinkering), laptops, mp3 players, and the iPod it is still in essence a box but it has a lot more character than the BassBox.

24w output from two speakers gives crisp sounds and clarity, while the funky graphic equalizer display is retro styling at its funky best. A Mini USB port is provided so that you can also downoad the most appropriate firmware for your mobile device.

Pretty much every conceivable store stocks the BlackBox and it is available (with it’s very own carrier bag) and at £100 it’s not an unreasonably priced bit of kit. We’ll be the first to admit that the design won’t be to everybody’s taste but I personally like it and it’s got oodles of character compared to the Bassbox.

Does The Modular Mobile (Modu) Represent The Future Of Mobile Communications?

The mobile communications industry is constantly evolving and transforming. The modular mobile phone is one possible direction for the industry, and in the Modu we have a potential trend setter. Slightly bigger than a domino, the Modu is a mobile phone stripped down to only the most essential components.

The screen is small but does its job, and there are no discernible numerical keys. It will send and receive data in the form of voice and text packages and it will store up to 16GB of data including software, images, and contacts. However, the ingenious idea behind the Modu is in its modular lego style application. Read more

The Action Man Styled Wrist Tracker Thing

Despite looking like the type of thing you buy an Action Man fanatic kid for Christmas, the Wrist Tracker is serious piece of kit. It integrates all the functions of a mobile phone, GPS tracker and datalogger, oh and a watch. The GPS tracker could be handy for locating your kids but it would give you a distinct advantage when you’re next playing hide and seek.

The design of the thing really does turn me off it. I just can’t get over the commando green plastic look but the features and potential uses are great. I think. Fortunately, though, there are other watches offering similar features and functions but in different designs (some even look like they’ve been designed rather than thrown up).

The tracker can transmit coordinates of your current location (or, at least, the location of the watch – if you forget to put it on in the morning at least you’ll be able to track your bedside table) to your mobile phone or it can be located/tracked in real time using GPRS. Coordinates are also displayed on the watch itself.

The logger will track thousands of positions and will even update routes and maps into Google Earth so you can keep everybody updated as to your location.

Essentially I suppose it’s a marginally better looking alternative to electronic tagging although I’d be equally as inclined to hide this under my clothing, or in my pocket. Kids will surely love it though. The problem is that while this one doesn’t look as good as the others it offers more functionality than the majority.

Samsung i780 - Just Another Blackberry Clone?

The Samsung i780 is, at first glance, another Blackberry clone – in fact, no matter how often you glance, that’s pretty much what it remains. It does throw in some pretty impressive additional features including the rather useful mini touchpad tracker pad navigational thing and HSDPA support for lightning fast download and upload speeds. But, like many clones it looks the part and tries to impress, but it has some imperfections compared to the original.

The 2.5 inch display is touch-screen – much like the Blackberry line. The QWERTY keyboard could easily have been physically removed from a Blackberry. Yet, it doesn’t seem to manage these things quite as well as a Blackberry – it just hasn’t had the same amount of practice is probably the problem. Read more

Nokia Tops The Most Popular Brands But N-Gage 4th Most Hated

Marketing magazine has conducted its fourth annual survey on the most popular and least popular brands in the country. It’s perhaps not that surprising to learn that 6 of the top 10 most popular are tech related brands but more surprisingly (considering how annoying some tech gadgets can be) only 3 of the least popular are in this same technology genre.

Nokia is the most popular brand according to the survey with iPod, O2, Facebook, Virgin Media, and BBC completing an impressive line up. Notably, the three that feature in the least popular category are AOL falling in behind only McDonalds, N-Gage, and 3.

Such are the way with these brands, though, many of them feature highly in both lists. (Thanks to T3 for doing the leg work on this one by the way) The five most popular handheld gadgets provide an identical, albeit dishevelled, list of the five least popular - iPod, Nintendo DS, Sony Walkman, Sony PSP and N-Gage.

The Marketing Magazine is typically read by a demographic of people that like gadgets and are technologically savvy. So, do you love or hate these brands? Do surveys like this actually mean anything?

Iphone 3G Phone Might Not Be Released In June Then

Well, there’s good news and bad news for iPhone fans. The good news for those that don’t yet own one is that O2 reports they will soon be getting more stock of the 16GB iPhone on their website. The bad news is that this may mean a slightly longer than expected delay before we’re treated to the next incarnation of the ultimate in touch screen mobile phones.

Of course, extra stock doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be no new release during the keynote speech in June. But, as T3 reports, it does mean that the more likely outcome of a release in time for christmas is the most probably outcome.

Rumour had started to do the rounds (we’re not ashamed to admit that we did assist a little in their circulation) that the disappearing stock was because a 3G version was going to be announced and released during the eagerly anticipated Apple keynote speech in June.

Despite this potential set back, we are still in confident mood that there will be an announcement along these lines. Of course, the nasty thing about expectations and hopes is that they can (and often are) dashed.

HTC Touch Diamond – Competition For The iPhone?

The iPhone was far and away the must have gadget of the last year for many people. Touch screen goodness and a good set of features made it truly stand out from the crowd, although the millions of people that will seemingly buy anything with the Apple logo also helped its popularity I’m sure. Recent news on the iPhone is that it’s now unavailable in the UK but an updated 3G version will be available very soon.

In the meantime, here’s a potential competitor to salivate over. The HTC Touch Diamond is expected to be released in less than a couple of months although no firm information on networks and pricing have been released. Murmurs have indicated that Orange will be the first to offer the Touch Diamond at a sim-free price of £400 or, if you’re willing to sell your soul on a monthly basis, you could get the handset free.

As well as offering a full touch-screen interface with 2.8” display, it will have built in A-GPS software to use with any satnav application. It will also have a 3.2MP camera and 3G data meaning that users will be privvy to speeds of up to 7.2MBps. FM radio and built in WiFi and bluetooth round off an impressive set of features that is designed to make the Touch Diamond compete with the latest incarnation of the iPhone.

Vodafone Includes Mobile Data In New Increased Tariffs

Vodafone has become the first UK mobile operator to include data usage as standard with their pay monthly tariffs. However, it comes at a price of a £5 per month tariff increase. Vodafone currently only offer bolt-on additions to tariffs that allow 120MB downloads for the cost of £7.50 per month. Customers will now be entitled to unlimited downloads with an unenforced fair usage policy.

While the £5 addition will apply to all tariffs, those customers that do not wish to use the Internet or email can ask Vodafone to opt out of this portion of the tariff. The £5 will be deducted from the price. Essentially, Vodafone have reduced the price of the bolt-on and made it an opt-out rather than opt-in addition.

A fair usage policy of 500MB downloads is included as part of the tariff, but Vodafone has stated in communication with the ZDNet website that they won’t fine customers that go over this limit.

Mobile Internet and email has come under fairly close scrutiny because it simply hasn’t taken off in the way that many people anticipated. However recent developments in improved hardware and greater software options, as well as our increasing fascination with social media websites, are proving to increase the amount of data downloaded with mobile phones.

Mobile data downloads are used for accessing the Internet and reading email, as well as downloading files from the Internet. Most mobile pages are optimized to reduced sizes, making the 500MB download limit seem more than reasonable for the majority of mobile surfers.

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