nokia

Nokia is ‘greenest’ electronics company says Greenpeace

Computers, Miscellaneous / By /

Greenpeace’s latest edition (12th) of their Guide to Greener Electronics still has Nokia at the top with Samsung and Sony Ericsson rounding out the top 3. Holding extremely poor scores, Nintendo, Lenovo, Fujitsu and Microsoft are at the bottom of the 17 company list. While this isn’t meant to be an all out examination of every electronics manufacturer out there, covering the top vendors makes sense as they would contribute directly or indirectly to pollution and environmental damage.

Greenpeace has the latest rankings at their website, and you can download the full report in PDF format as well.

Truphone – softphone for cell phones

Gizmo of the Day, Phones / By /

Truphone is a free software app for your mobile phone that routes your calls over the Internet. These calls are made using VoIP using your phone’s WiFi connection and even Nokia and Blackberrys can make calls via Truphone’s network without a WiFi conn.

In case you’re wondering what’s in it for Truphone, their business model is to charge lower rates than your mobile provider, particularly for international calls or calls made when you’re roaming abroad.

List of supported devices.

More info from the manufacturer

Price: Free for software. Call Rates start at $0.06/min.
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

First look at the Nokia N96

Phones / By /

I recently got a good look at the Nokia N96 which brought my attention to the accelerometer in particular the moving ball and light sabre application which are cool novelties – my kids love swishing the light sabre around even though they have never seen Star Wars (come on – they are under 3!).

My current phones of choice are the Nokia E71 for business and the Nokia N95 8GB for personal use so it was interesting to look at this new device which is a mild step up from the N95 8GB.

One of the most striking differences is the cleaner, flatter interface and the more streamlined design of the device – it looks a lot more attractive and a step up from the N95 but still has some way to go to meet the solid feel of the E71. The keypad buttons are another major difference – this time following the flat clean design that is becoming popular in new devices. Internally the 16GB memory and the memory card slot are welcome additions but the Micro USB type B interface is a new replacement for the previous standard Micro USB connector.

Click the link to read more about my first impressions of the Nokia N96.

First impressions of the Nokia E71

Phones / By /

Having been quite happy with the Nokia e61i in our organisation it was with a little trepidation that we approached its new sibling, the Nokia E71. We use these devices in our organization primarily for their email messaging abilities (using Mail for Exchange) though we are starting to see more interest in the application of mobile broadband technology.

From the brief information we received about the Nokia E71 from our supplier it seemed a small step up with some added refinements, so we pressed ahead, but when it arrived it turned out to be a little different from our expectations.

I have to say, to hold this phone, it is quite beautiful and feels really comfortable in the hand. It is physically smaller than the e61i and as a result the screen size has had to shrink to 2.4 inches from 2.8 inches which I really am in two minds about (as our preference is for emailing). In comparison, it is physically larger than the more commercial Nokia N95 but heavier and more substantial.

The display interface feels quite different from the e61i though it does feel a little more responsive (the problem with the e61i was at times it could feel a little sluggish). You can read more about our first impressions of the Nokia E71 here: Getting hands on with the Nokia E71: First impressions

Nokia buys the rest of Symbian; will open source it

Phones / By /

In a somewhat surprising, yet not so surprising move, Nokia bought up the rest of Symbian that it didn’t already own and will open-source the cell phone OS platform. Why? This is the strategy du jour in this age of Linux vs Microsoft, and now Android (Linux basically) vs iPhone/Win Mobile/Blackberry.

It’s a $410 million gamble for Nokia, but not a bad risk. Open-sourcing products many times results in amazing contributions and improvements to the products which in turn fuel sales of hardware, software and services surrounding that product.

Time will tell how Nokia fares. This writer thinks this will certainly help to keep Nokia firmly in the top tiers of the cell phone handset industry.

Nokia E61 smartphone

1 Comment / Gizmo of the Day, Phones, Portable / By /

If you’re one of the, yes, many people who aren’t necessarily in love with either a Blackberry or an iPhone, and are considering other cool phones, take a look at the Nokia E61.

This is a business-oriented smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard and a huge 320×240 full-color screen. Apart from the touchscreen, this smartphone even has a mini joystick for navigation. No digital camera, but it has a miniSD memory card slot, a WiFi conn, not to mention UMTS, EDGE and Bluetooth support. Its browser even supports CSS and Javascript to make even the most broadband-centric website viewable.

Do yourself a favor and take a good look at this phone.

Gimme!

More info from the manufacturer
Price: $379.99 unlocked
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Getting value from technology

Networking & Internet, Phones, Software / By /

There are two things I am pretty pleased about this week – my new phone and a really useful plugin for Outlook, both of which are allowing me to get much more value out of the technology I use every day.

I have recently changed my mobile phone to a Nokia N95 8GB (from a SE K800i) and so far I am really pleased with its performance. The interface is responsive and the functionality including the wireless connectivity, 5 megapixel camera and N-gage are well worth the upgrade – you can read more about it Welcome to my Nokia N95 8GB.

Xobni (read Inbox backwards) is enabling me to get way more use out of Outlook (Why I need Xobni to manage my e-mail) than I have had before. Two of the key features for me are the contact relationships and the exchanged files indicators. The Contact Relationships part allows me to find a particular email recipient who have been involved a communication chain whilst the exchange file indicators keeps a log of files transmitted between us.

I have also posted the next part in the Web 2.0 series: 42 things about Web 2.0 in 2008, part 2 of 3.

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