Nokia taunts Apple lockware phone with posters for "open" N-series
Nokia is plastering NYC (and elsewhere?) with cheeky ads taking aim at Apple's locked iPhones. Not only does Apple prohibit installing third-party apps on the iPhone, but some users who modded their phones discovered that Apple's latest "update" actually bricked their phones, rendering them useless (and Apple says that modding your phone voids your warranty).
Nokia's N-series phones are designed to run third-party code, and Nokia encourages users to mod their phones (though, of course, Nokia's phones all come with a software switch that allows mobile companies to lock them to a single carrier). I've been seriously considering buying an N95, as I'm in the market for a new smartphone (my old N93 -- a giant hunk of junk to begin with -- is about to die). I've heard good things about the phone, except for battery life, which is apparently a real problem.
The other phones I'm thinking of are the Neonode (looks good, but I can't find one to play with and that's a lot of money to spend on a phone I haven't actually seen), or possibly an old StarTAK with a shoulder-holster (!). I missed my chance to get an Open Moko. Anyone got a phone they love? Especially something that'll synch reliably with my Evolution calendar?
Or better yet, does anyone have a phone that I can just load an .ics and .vcard file onto? I don't really care about synching this info -- I just want to carry the data around on a portable device.
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I had the N73 and now the N95 and both are very slow, almos 1min. to turn it on. I don't recommend you any of them. Anyway, you should have one for free writing a short review ;)
I'm still happy to shill for the Nokia E61. Its physical interface isn't totally perfect (the QWERTY keyboard is a little cramped, but still thumbable), but the screen is usable, there is plenty of software support for the OS, Symbian 60, it has 3G (HDSPA) and wi-fi, and on an unlimited data plan makes a great mobile office and modem. There is Exchange support and Blackberry support, it syncs with its PC Suite under Windows and with iSync under OS X (haven't tried it under Linux but it does SyncML and imports vCards). I got a 2Gb MicroSD card for mine this weekend for all of £10. The E61i is much the same with a camera. I've had mine for 10 months and I'm very pleased with it, which is something of a record for me. Until OpenMoko ships or someone creates a phone based on the AMD Geode LX800, it will do the job for me. With the occasional hardware update that is.
It's really too bad that my provider locks my Nokia phone down to the degree that I can't install my own software, use OBEX or even use songs off the SD card as ringtones.
They also charge $100/mo for 250MB of bandwidth, but that's irrelevant to the discussion.
I think everyone knows where the lockdown is coming from.
Isn't the OpenMoko Neo1973 coming out in consumer format (i.e., with GPS functionality, which the developer model lacks) in December or January? I'm very much tempted to buy one when it does.
@Ravuya: Unbranding the N95 is actually quite simple, see these instructions. Did it myself mainly because Vodafone takes forever to release the new Nokia firmwares in a branded version, and I wanted A-GPS on my phone that the v12 of the firmware has introduced. Vodafone still only provides v11 of the firmware.
Added benefit: all logo's and animations of Vodafone are gone.
I love my N95 as it has it all: HSDPA (sweet, 3,6 megabits, soon 7,2 megabits on a phone! And it really works here in the Netherlands!), WiFi, GPS, 3th party apps (Route 66 in my case).
Really the only downside is batterylife, but if you just get into the habit of recharching it every night this is not a showstopper. Only use a car loader when navigating in the car: with active GPS/navigation use the battery is empty in 2 hours.
And I do not think is slow, 1 minute start-up time is way exaggerating (or you should really need to clean up your phone).
I synch the phone with Outlook, no experience with other software, but I do not believe that Nokia supports much alternatives outside Windows/Outlook.
I have an unlocked N95 that I have recently used with T-Mobile in the US and with Orange in Spain. Call quality and signal pickup seem reasonably good. The N95 has an amazing collection of features (WiFi, GPS, built in maps, 5 mp camera, video call support, music player, slot for up to 2 Gb microSD card, etc.). That makes for a significant learning curve, even before you download additional apps, such as the SymTorrent client for BitTorrent. As for battery life, it's poor if you keep the WiFi and GPS on, but considerably better if you remember to turn those features off when you are not using them.
Hmm, hyperlink does not work in my previous post: the link is http://clear-nokia.blogspot.com/2007/05/nokia-n95-debranding-guide.html
NB: The unbranding actually does not hack the firmware, it uses official Nokia firmwares. The simlock is NOT gone btw.
I've heard a lot of people complaining about the N95's battery life & bulk. Personally I opted for the E65 - quite a bit slimmer & with better battery life but it retains most of the key features found on the N95. Only notable lacks are GPS, some megapixels & a front video cam (but then I've never video called in my life so meh).
I used to have the N70 and it's certainly a good step up from that. Best thing: ability to run a Gameboy Advance emulator mmm metroid...
Another classic Steve Jobs boner...
He's so in love with himself that he's apparently forgotten what happened with Apple's 1980's trademark, gargantuan mistake of refusing to license the Mac OS.
He's fallen in love with another beautiful little toy, (iPhone,) and convinced himself that Average Joe will live with a forced marriage to the HORRENDOUS service of AT&T, in order to gain access to the pretty bauble.
He's wrong.
Again.
Bummer for Stevey, and for Average Joe. This AJ would really like to buy one of those neato trinkets, but there's no way I'd ever allow myself to be forced into another crappy service, crappy terms, AT&T contract.
The initial sales, (to the trinket prostitutes - those greasy haired geeks and geekettes who can't control their meth-like addiction to zippy techie sparkly thingies,) are over and done, and it's time for Average Joe to start buying - but Average Joe ain't as stupid as Stevey (still) believes he is.
Imagine the sales potential if Jobs would only wake up and license the pretty technology without his wishful requirements of having Apple as the sole entity that can replace the battery, and the disgustingly arcane hubris of believing he can force AT&T down Average Joe's throat as well?
Sorry Stevey, but Average Joe ain't gonna bite on this hook... Just like 1984, all over again.
If Apple wasn't so set into their proprietary locked down mindset that they've always had with every product, I think they could have made a real killing by releasing the iPhone simply as a piece of hardware that the user could go and put any sim card they wanted into. Sim-only contracts are common, not to mention pay as you go sims, plus the costs of an iPhone isn't subsidised by the network carrier like most handsets are so would be no more expensive to buy. They would probably be flying off the shelves if they were a plain open piece of hardware. The end user benefits in no way be being forced onto one particular network. The only thing that probably stopped the iPhone being an open piece of hardware was Apples greed in selling deals to network providers.
For some thoughts (mostly positive it seems) on the new Nokia E series smartphone, check out Stephen Fry's blog/review of it and other smartphones, including the iPhone.
I just got a free upgrade to a vanilla Nokia (having used Sony Ericssons for the last few years, for the UI) and I suddenly feel that little bit better about Nokia. Not much, but a little...
Just did some more digging and discovered that the NeoNode runs Windows, so count that one out.
The OpenMoko certainly seems available:
http://direct.openmoko.com/
What about a gumstix goliath
Just be sure to get a spiffy case so the TSA doesn't declare it an improvised electronic device
domeier@10 and absent@11
Dead on! And the same apple fanbois will rationalize anything he does. Frankly the best thing that could happen to Apple is for the iPhone and crippled iPod classics to tank, forcing Jobs to wake up before he re-emulates 70's Detroit and ends up with a
Guess everything depends on your definition of "open".
I saw a talk given by a Nokia engineer last week at an open source geospatial conference and his whole thing was making money by leveraging the built-in GPS in select Nokia phones. He kept pushing proprietary Nokia APIs that will pretty much ensure that porting your app to a non Symbian S60 device will be hell. Not quite "open" in the way rest of the conference was.
I bought the Sony-Ericsson K790 a few months ago and it is my favourite toy EVAR.
Comes with a 3.2mP cam, MP3 player (of course), interwebs, VideoDJ, PhotoDJ, Beats Master (for creating your own soundtrack to the movie you just edited), a radio and the thing even synchs to my Mac. the only thing that would make this phone better would be a sandwich-maker.
I have to agree with the people pushing the Nokia e61, it's a great phone - solid, efficient, good keyboard. And wifi. Put Opera Mini on it, plus Google Maps, Fring and Gizmo and you're good to go.
Everyone forgets about Nokia's triumphs of open-ness: the 770 and the n800 Internet Tablets.
These are not phones, but rather small computers running the same type of processor as the iPhone.
The operating system is directly based on Debian, and the distribution is called Maemo. Nokia actively supports this community, and software gets ported from other linux architecture all the time.
There are only a few proprietary components on the whole system and they are: the wifi driver, Adobe Flash 9 (so you can watch those Youtube videos the way god intended) and Skype (phone service anywhere within wifi range).
Much of the software coming out for the internet tablets includes iPhone-like tricks, like kinetic scrolling and such, so there's no dearth of UI candy.
The wifi card on this one is pretty decent, outperforming some laptop miniPCI cards, and still being ultra low power. These devices also, of course, also come with bluetooth. This is how you can pair it with a keyboard, a GPS unit, or a cellphone for data connectivity (you can also have the tablet dial your phone by selecting a contact in a PIM).
Ubuntu is planning an Ubuntu Mobile distro, which will be able to run on the n800 (at least). There's still great software coming out, and a healthy community, so this isn't a complete niche product.
Disclaimer: I'm a proud owner of a Nokia n800 and it has brought me only joy and utility.
I love my Nokia E70. It's the E61 in a different form factor (flips open) and with a camera. Having a full keyboard is essential, IMO, for real web useage.
Sony-Ericsson Walkman phones are my preference du jour. They show up as USB mass storage devices (linux friendly). They have the best music players I've seen on phones, and very slick firmware/interface. Sync to Evolution via latest opensync and bluetooth. A2DP support for stereo bluetooth. (I hear it also works great w/ iSync on the mac, but I don't drink the corporate koolaid, so I wouldn't know).
Not truly "open" like the OpenMoko (too bad it's so fugly), but open enough to get the job done.
I'm on my second, an "nsa"-branded w580i. I'm slightly skeptical of build quality (vis-a-vis slider mechanism), but otherwise it's a greaty multimedia linux-compatible phone.
Motorola's MC35 is a somewhat ruggedized Windows Mobile GSM smartphone with GPS, EDGE, Bluetooth, 802.11g, and a camera that doubles as a barcode scanner.
The device is not locked to any carrier, and Windows Mobile is fairly easy to write custom programs for.
It'll cost you a bit more than an iPhone, due to the riggedization and lack of carrier subsidization, but if I had the money, I'd buy one.
The MC70, at roughly twice the price, is nearly the same thing (no GPS, yet), but almost indestructible. It's also a bit larger.
(Disclaimer: I'm an engineer for a company that sells them.)
imho opinion the N95 is a step into the right direction, but, oh oh, bad start. to put it simple, the N95 comes at a hefty price tag, so i expected more. here's what i don't like about it:
- camera startup time is super slow, 4 sec. to be up and running is too much. in my experience it's also very hard to take photos that aren't blurry
- gallery and other inbuilt apps also are very clumsy, slow to start up etc.
- mp3 player has less than mediocre sound quality
- and the battery life is terrible
whats great is:
- the wifi really does work everywhere, from all apps, except strangly, the inbuilt IM and VoIP apps, but other than that no artificial restrictions
- isync works, don't know about linux
- installing of 3rd party software is easy and not restricted
- it plays all mp3s, no drm-check
in the end, it's just another piece of plastic, overrated, underpreforming, i think i am finally getting sick of this gadget craze. i wish they still built phones like the nokia 7650, sturdy, that kept running and running... well, ofc with a better camera would be sweet.
I know that T-mobile customer care will unlock any phone if you pay full price for it (you have to have proof of purchase) or if you've been under contract for 90 days. The best way around the 90 days is if you know someone who's been with tmobile for that time frame and give them your imei and call in, because its free. The only device that doesn't follow this policy is the sidekicks because even with another companies sim card in it, the sidekick still uses the tmobile network. Is that the problem with the iPhone? Or are they really just that power crazy?
I've always like boring phones because anything else is still a pain.
The N95 reads vcards fine and if you don't care about 3G speeds ( No 3G coverage here ) you can switch it off in the settings which I find saves battery life considerably.
The N95 does have its problems, the camera isn't fantastic, although the video is far better than many stand alone digital cameras.
The stereo speakers on it are pretty good, although I've busted the volume rocker. The GPS can also be very slow.
Its the best phone I've had and a significant step up from the first generation of the N series ( I had an N70 )
Cheers
If all you want is Contacts (vcard) and some basic info, consider the Samsung i500, available on EBay. This phone is Sprint only, but at $15.00/mo all you can eat internet/email it is an interesting choice.
I got one for less than $70.00. It is the smallest Palm phone, at least waiting for the Centro.
I know Palm has alot of haters, but this is a really user friendly answer to "I just want to carry the data around on a portable device."