The Media Guru

Jul 30, 2008

Recycling_lowres

When you think of recycling, it's usually this that comes to mind...

Nokia_Recycling_03_lowres

However, Nokia's policy of sticking to 4-digit models meant that they'll eventually run out of numbers (even for the Nseries - what comes after N99). So someone in Finland had the bright idea of recycling model numbers.

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The Nokia 7610 Supernova. Yes, Nokia have zombified my good old 7610. smile_whatchutalkingabout

7610

Let's go back 4 years ago in 2004. Nokia launched the world's first fashion & design-oriented smartphone! With cutting-edge specs (first megapixel phone) & an exquisite elegance with its curved edges, the 7610 was meant to break an unspoken rule - that smartphones were meant to be unstylish. The Nokia 7610 was one of the most successful phones ever & it's still being sold (last time I checked it was around Rs 5000).

Nokia_7610_Supernova_01_lowres

So what would a mid-end successor stand against its flagship namesake. In terms of specs, there have obviously been some major improvements. You can check the original Nokia 7610 specs on Wiki.
The Nokia 7610 Supernova has the following Key Features

  • Fashionable slider with smooth curves
  • Exchangeable XpressOn-covers
  • Theme Colorizer with color detection and automatic setting of navigation key illumination and wallpaper color
  • 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, dual-LED flash and 8x digital zoom
  • TV out for image sharing and Instant messaging
  • Background Noise Cancellation
  • Stereo music player with dedicated music key supporting MP3, AAC, and AAC+, and RDS stereo FM Radio
  • XHTML browser

Technical Profile

  • System: GSM/EGSM Quadband 850/900/1800/1900
  • User Interface: Series 40 platform
  • Dimensions: 98 mm x 48 mm x 15 mm (L x W x H)
  • Volume: 63 cc
  • Weight: 99 g
  • Standby time: Up to 12.5 days
  • Talk time: Up to 8,4 hours
  • Main display: 240 x 320 QVGA,  16 million colors
  • Battery: BL-4S, 860 mAh, Li-Ion
  • Memory: 30MB free user memory plus support for microSD memory card up to 2GB

Camera:

  • Image capture:  up to 3.2 megapixel (2048x1536) JPG 24bit color
  • Video capture:  VGA (640x480) at 15 fps

Data Services and Connectivity:

  • GPRS multislot class 32 (31 in China), up to 100 kbps
  • EDGE multislot class 32 (31 in China), up to 296 kbps
  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • Micro USB

The 7610 Supernova is a slider, compared to the candybar that is the 7610 v1. In terms of design, it's much less revolutionary but nevertheless stylish enough for fashion conscious target market.

Hands-on Video


The lesser cousins…
7210 Supernova

Nokia_7210_Supernova_02_lowres

A slim candybar with almost the same specs except here there’s no TV out, the battery is smaller & the camera’s only 2MP.

7310 Supernova

Nokia_7310_Supernova_01_lowres

Same specs as the 7210, but better display, TV out & better recording with the 2MP camera.

7510 Supernova

Nokia_7510_Supernova_01_lowres

A folding phone with same specs as the 7310, with better battery life… 

The Verdict

Nokia_7610_Supernova_05_lowres

So is the clone better than the original? The final answer is a blatant NO! No matter what the specs, the 7610 Supernova is as distant as the nearest supernova from Earth from being a smartphone - it runs a lowly S40 v3! Yet again, my beloved S60-powered 7610 lives on until a suitable heir comes along... smile_tongue

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Jul 26, 2008

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Yep, the much-awaited Nokia’s touchscreen 5800 Tube has been leaked by a Chinese website

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5800 XpressMedia has been re-christened into 5800 XpressMusic…

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The UI is totally primitive… looks like the basic (pixelised) theme on my phone…

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There’s a new battery – BL-5J at 1150mA. That should be enough to support that 640x360 screen!

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At 640x360, it’s almost nearing VGA & definitely better than the iPhone (480x320).

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This is CRAP!!! Honestly, even Windows Mobile’s UI is better than this!

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The Specs:

  • Measurements: 111 × 52 × 14.5 mm, and weighs only 104 grams.
  • 16 million color TFT LCD, 640×360 pixel resolution, 16:9 display mode
  • Haptic feedback
  • 3.2 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics with autofocus
  • Dual LED flash
  • Built-in GPS
  • 140 MB RAM
  • GSM / GPRS / EDGE / WCDMA / HSDPA / WLAN / Bluetooth
  • 3.5 mm audio jack, TV-out
  • BL-5J 1150 mAh battery


touchui04

Fortunately, this is only a prototype device, meaning that’s definitely not the final UI. A week ago, these screenshots (640x480) of the new S60 Touch UI were leaked out from the Carbide.UI theme maker!

touchui05

touchui03

These are no good either – hope Nokia has a secret UI in development… & remember the Tube is not the high-end device!

More Info:
BGR
Digi.QQ.com (Chinese)
Symbian-Freak.com

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Jul 24, 2008

INNOV8_2

Well, Samsung just announced the best S60 device on the market – beating Nokia’s yet-to-be-released N96 in every spec, except DVB-H…

INNOV8_Camera

Network: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps (900/2100), EDGE / GPRS (850/900/1800/1900)
OS: Symbian OS v9.3, S60 v3.2
Display: 2.8” QVGA 16M TFT LCD
Camera: 8 Megapixel CMOS with AF and Dual Power LED
Smart Reader, Image Stabilizer, Auto-Panorama Shot, Smile Shot,
Blink Shot, Wide Dynamic Range (WDR), Face Detection, Front Camera for VideoCall
Video: Video Player (DivX / H.263 / H.264 / WMV / MP4)
QVGA 120 fps Video recording, VGA 30 fps recording
Video Editing
Audio: FM Radio with RDS
DNSe 2.0
Music Player (MP3/ AAC / AAC+ / eAAC+ / WMA / AMR/ RealAudio)
Bluetooth Stereo Headset (A2DP)
3.5mm output
Other features: A-GPS
Optical Mouse, Accelerometer
Embedded 3D Games : FIFA 2008, Asphalt
Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 / USB 2.0 / Wi-Fi
Memory: 16GB Flash + External Memory slot : microSDHC™ (up to 16GB)
Size: 106.5 x 53.9 x 17.2 mm
Battery: 1200 mAh
Talk time: up to 300/510 min (3G/2.5G)
Stand-by time: up to 330 / 310 hrs (3G/2.5G)

INNOV8_1

The specs just make you drool… 8MP camera!!! smile_whatchutalkingabout

 

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As for the interface, dunno what’s up with Samsung providing this crap UI & theme on top of the S60… & there’s no news of whether Samsung will allow installation of apps! I hope these can be disabled by hacking the C drive! smile_wink

Hands-on video:

More info:
AllAboutSymbian.com
Mobileburn.com
Samsung INNOV8 Hands-on Preview

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Welcome to Knol

Google Knol, supposed to be a Wikipedia wanna-be, has just launched. You can access it at knol.google.com

Knol Home

First impression of Knol is that it's far from being a Wiki clone. The interface's straight-forward - a few featured knols, search for knols or create your own.

Knol - healthpedia

The homepage looks like one of a Health Encyclopaedia. So far 90% of articles are health-related. There are definitely some great reads on them with some beautiful pictures & illustrations...(Yeah, do check out those articles by Tom Lue)

Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe Knol

Most knols are more in-depth that on Wiki, mainly because the articles are written by professionals. Knol is more author-centric. Once a topic has been covered by an author, it becomes the author's property. Unlike Wiki, you can't change it, but only add suggestions which will be moderated by the author. Or else you write your own article about that topic. (Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe!! LOL) smile_tongue

Write Your Knol

Anyone with a Google Account can create their own knols. The text editor's much better than that of Wiki, but not much external content can be embedded on it.

Name Verification

To provide much greater credibility to their knols, author can verify their names via phone or credit card. This is optional. Another plus-point of Knol is that authors can display AdSense ads next to their articles.

Knol Help

In short, Google Knol is much more a closed article platform instead of an anyone-can-edit Wiki - which is the biggest advantage & disadvantage of Wikipedia. But one catch with Knol is that let's say you write an article on “Orange,” you become the only source of fake information until someone else writes a related article or you are flagged! (Actually I was thinking of doing that, but I don't want to be the first spammer on Knol!) & the fact that it is integrated with AdSense means money-makers & spammers will be quick to flood Knol... Do check the Knol Help section for more info.

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Jul 23, 2008

vistaflat

Microsoft have launched a $300 million ad campaign to change the negative public perception of Windows Vista. The above ad is an example of how Microsoft wants you to change your mind: The ad redirects you to this page which tells you this:

Windows Vista: Look how far we've come

When Windows Vista debuted in January 2007, we declared it the best operating system we had ever made. "Windows Vista is beautiful," The New York Times raved. It's humbling that millions of you agree.

But we know a few of you were disappointed by your early encounter. Printers didn't work. Games felt sluggish. You told us—loudly at times—that the latest Windows wasn't always living up to your high expectations for a Microsoft product.

Well, we've been taking notes and addressing issues.

So as we prepare to stop selling Windows XP on June 30, it felt like the right time to update you on our progress, highlighted by the recent release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).

While we're at it, we'd like to clear up some confusion and lingering misunderstandings about Windows Vista—and our plans for its predecessor, Windows XP.

At least they accept that Vista sucks! (I’ve yet to try it!) But I think that the $300 million would have been put to better use if they had thrown it on making Windows 7 available sooner… Despite Microsoft’s claims that they’ve solved out most problems, just check out this Windows UX Taskforce site! smile_whatchutalkingabout

 

DirectX 11

DirectX_11_Microsoft_Logo

Good news for all heavy gamers (I was one a long time ago… in a far away galaxy…), DirectX 11 will support DX10 & 10.1 cards, Windows Vista (not XP) & newer versions of Windows. DX11 will compute a new Shader Technology, allow developers to take control of the GPU as a parallel processor & multi-threaded resource handling for multiple cores! smile_tongue
[Source: Joystiq]

 

Battle of the Smartphones:
Nokia N95 8GB v/s iPhone 3G v/s HTC Touch Diamond

N95 8GB, iPhone 3G, HTC Diamond Touch

By far the best real-life comparison test – what happens if you put the Nokia’s best smartphone against the iPhone 3G & the best Windows Mobile device on the market – the HTC Touch Diamond. Check it out here!
Obviously, no 3rd party apps have been considered, but even then the winner is still by far the best Swiss Army Knife device out there! smile_wink

Top Gear Magazine Crash

top-gear-oops

Yeah, Top Gear liked the Nissan GT-R so much… that they crashed it! smile_teeth

Top Gear Magazine was recently having some fun on the Isle of Man with a Nissan GT-R, but the playtime ended unexpectedly when the driver of the GT-R slammed on the brakes. That would be fine in any normal car, but Godzilla came to a halt so abruptly that the Audi behind it just couldn't stop quickly enough… [via Jalopnik]
Btw this black Nissan GT-R R35 was the only GT-R in UK!

Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent (wk29) I TorrentFreak'

Now for some Top Gear news… Guess who’s the No.1 on the Top 10 Most Pirated TV Shows on BitTorrent!

PS. There’s a TS by mVs of Dark Knight out… smile_teeth

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