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Are you a small business who wants to make a big impression with your phone system?  If so, check out Jazinga, the so called “No IT-guy required” phone system.  In basic terms, Jazinga gives small businesses a high-end phone system that includes features such as an automated attendant, company directory, individual voicemail boxes, and voicemail to email.  Additionally, the Jazinga box includes wireless networking, fax and email.

Many business want to install and configure their own VoIP systems to enhance the functionality of their phone systems.  Such systems are very, very expensive to install and maintain.  Alternatively, Asterisk provides an open source (free software) PBX system, but to use it you have to be a wise phone geek and have copious amounts time to invest in implementing the system.

Jazinga aims to fill this void by supposedly simple to buy, install, and maintain.  The box can use your own VoIP or standard landline for calling in and out.  Additionally, a few of the features Jazinga provides are:

• Auto Attendant - “Press 1 for John, Press 2 for Sarah”.
• Free voicemail with voicemail-to-email: have your voicemails sent to your inbox for portability.
• Music-on-hold: upload your mp3s so you can have music playing for incoming callers on hold.
• Simulanious ring: have an incoming call ring multiple phones so you never miss a call.

I just received a Jazinga box to put through its paces.  I’ll post status updates as I try out this box and will post a full review upon the conclusion of my trials.

Introduction

The Samsung SCH-i730 is among Verizon Wireless’ newest Windows Mobile smartphones to come on the market.  The i730 is a slider style phone that is black in exterior color.  The slider, when engaged, displays a full QWERTY keyboard.  Like the Motorla Q9M, the i730 runs Windows Mobile 6.  However the Samsung phone runs the full Professional edition, whereas the Q runs a more stripped down SmartPhone edition.

The SCH-i730 includes bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera, touch navigation, a music player, and on-board Wi-Fi capabilities.  With a 2 year contract, the phone is currently $350 from Verizon Wireless’ website.

Exterior appearance

Where one would describe the iPhone as sexy, brilliant, even chic; the Samsung SCH-i730 is the polar opposite.  The clunky and cluttered exterior is tattered and distracting.  The front of the device is dominated by a large LCD screen with send and end buttons adorning the left and right side of the middle part of the device.  The number keys are squished and I found them very hard to use.  The rest of the keypad is made up of awkwardly placed function keys and a directional navigational pad that looks like a minature compact disk.

I found the keys to be very difficult and tedious to use.  Once you slide out the keyboard, a full keyboard is revealed that is slightly more usable than the main function keyset found on the face of the camera.  The screen switches (slowly) from portrait to landscape mode when you slide the keyboard out.

As a final note, this device is bulky and heavy.  It is definitely not made to fit comfortably into a pocket and will not draw the looks of passers by when you want to whip out your smartphone.  The buttons on the phone are adequately backlit for easy use in dark environments.

User Interface

While Microsoft made efforts to make Windows Mobile 6 more appeasing to the eye, there is still much to be desired.  In a market where the iPhone’s user interface dominates in terms of beauty and functionality, Windows Mobile is paltry in comparison.  Even Symbian OS is a figure of beauty and functionality compared to Windows Mobile 6.

However, I did find text both in the phones menus and inside applications to be very readable, showing the LCD’s display quality.

Dissapointing Performance

I found the performance of the i760 review unit to be terrible.  The response time when pressing keys and navigating menus is slow and annoying.  The touch screen is not responsive at all as it did not recognize numerous taps with the included stylus. However, the screen was very readable.

The Samsung i760 has poor cell phone reception capabilities.  I have numerous Verizon cell phones and am fully aware of areas where reception is strong or poor.  Being in an area where I know I get four bars with every other phone, the i760 continually dropped the signal and was unable to make or receive phone calls.  It was until I restarted the device that it re-gained connectivity on Verizon’s network.

When I was able to make a call on the i760, the sound was tinny and contained many echos, resulting in my having to ask the other to repeat themselves.

Also, battery life was terrible, even for an EVDO smart phone.  I was only able to squeeze out 2-3 hours of talk time, compared to 5-6 hours of talk time on other Verizon EVDO smartphones.  This poor battery life was displayed at a time in which I wasn’t employing the onboard Wi-Fi.

Conclusion

Overall this phone has many drawbacks, too many to justify its high price.  Even though the touch screen is large and vibrant, its lack of response makes it at times unusable.

As stated above, calls on this phone are full of echos and tinny speech.  The i760’s cannot retain cell phone reception which makes the use experience immensely frustrating.

After being a huge fan of the Nokia Nseries, I wanted to change gears and evaluate Nokia’s business line of phones - the E Series.  For my first trial, I received a review unit of the Nokia E61i, their flagship E Series devices that features onboard Wi-Fi, a full QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, and a large vibrant screen.

At first glance

When I first picked up the Nokia E61i, I was surprised with how light it was.  Looking at the device which stands 4.6 x 2.7 x .5 inches in dimension, I was expecting it to be pretty bulky.  Not that it’s a feather, but it’s weight at 5.3 ounces feels good in the hand.

The keys are rubberized and are easy to type with.  The menu and control keys are a little small, so if you are someone with big fingers, you might want to look elsewhere for a smartphone.  There is no pointing device, but Nokia designed this phone to be an ace at one-handed operation.

I took off the battery cover and popped in my T-Mobile SIM card.  The E61i fired up and booted.  The screen is quite bright and easy to read.  Text is very distinguishable and the graphical Symbian UI excels on the E61i.

The software experience

Nokia’s E61i has the same Symbian applications as the NSeries devices, with a few extras.  Being a business phone, it has applications to read Office documents, PDF documents, and a few others for easily swapping office files around with your co-workers and colleagues.

Hopping in wireless networks was a painless task.  Also, like the Nseries, the E61i has Internet telephony built right into the phone.  This means with the right application, such as TruPhone, Fring, or other VoIP product you could make and receive phone calls without using your conventional phone minutes.  This would be extremely useful when traveling internationally.

I also loaded what I call the “Google Suite’ of applications.  This includes Google Maps (with My Location - easy GPS-like location service), Gmail, and a new feature called Google Search.  After loading Google Search, a little widget sits on the bottom of the E61i’s home screen and allows you to hit ctrl and quickly enter a Google search term.  A web window pops up with the Google search results.

One software feature that disappointed was the Exchange client.  Nokia has an Exchange client for download that allows you to connect to your corporate Exchange/Outlook email.  I successfully downloaded and installed the application, entered in my Exchange server information and user credentials.  However, the client consistently reported a “System Error” when trying to connect to the Exchange server.  I verified all the settings with our IT department, but despite all my efforts the Nokia couldn’t connect.  One attractive feature I saw the Exchange client support was its ability to configure the client to only check emails every 30 minutes when you were outside of business hours.  This will reduce battery drain by not initiating a data session every 10 minutes or so when it’s unnecessary.

Performance

On the software side, the E61i is like the other Nokia devices I’ve tried: a little sluggish.  There’s a delay when you press a key and when you get multiple applications loaded up, there’s a definite gap between the software needs and hardware resources.

However on call quality side, the E61i excelled.  My callers reported that I sounded very good and to me they sounded incredible.  The speaker is audible and crisp.  I was able to get a strong signal in areas that other phones reported weak signal strength.  Battery life was very good.  Even on days with heavy data usage, I didn’t have that much drain on the battery.  I was able to go about 3-4 days between charges.

Using the phone overall was a very high-quality experience.  Composing emails and SMS messages using the full keyboard drove higher usage of these services for me.  Navigating the call menus and working with applications was a breeze.

After having a DirecTivo for many years, I grew to love the TiVo.  It’s intuitive, easy to use, and makes finding and recording TV shows a snap.  Then, in early 2007, I acquired an HDTV and switched from DirecTV to Comcast because at the time, Comcast had better HD programming.  Now as you all know, times have changed.  DirecTV has almost 100 channels of HD programming compared to Comcast’s like 10, but that’s another story.

With the switch to Comcast, we got a Comcast DVR.  Going into it, I figured it’d be mostly the same, just a different sequence to do the easy tasks of finding and recording shows.  Whoa was assumption wrong.  I won’t go into it very much, but to sum up: the Comcast DVR is a nightmare.  The user interface is clunky.  The DVR gets all confused and “forgets” that I  press keys, meaning we press a key and it queues them all up and executes them at once.

TiVo has a Series 3 DVR that does HD, but up until late last year, the Series 3 costs around $400-500.  However the released the TiVoHD, a stripped down Series 3 that has all the essential components of the Series 3, just a little less storage space and the fancy OLED display on the front.  These are add-ons I am very willing to sacrifice for the much lower price.  The list price for the TiVo HD is $299, however I see them on Amazon often for as low as $230.

When my review unit came from TiVo, I opened it up and saw the normal looking TiVo box along with a Wi-Fi adaptor.  This was the first time I’ve seen the TiVo use Wi-Fi to get its programming data.  Pretty damn smart, if you ask me.  The Comcast and DirecTV DVRs get their data over the wire through their coax connection.  Using Wi-Fi, TiVo gets its data quicker and populates the programming guide much faster.

I hooked the hardware up and walked through the set up process.  The TiVo first asked me about my wireless network and instantly hopped on.  I often have more trouble with devices on my wireless network because I use WPA encryption, but the TiVo handled it with no issues whatsoever.  There is a fantastic intro video that comes on after you set up the device to show you how to use your new TiVo box.  The set up process was seamless and easy.  You can definitely tell it was engineered for people who are not technical. i.e., my mom could have set up the TiVo easily without having to call me

I then set up the TiVo with all my season passes, which is TiVo speak for telling the TiVo to record all your reoccurring series.  The process was intuitive and care-free.  One new feature that I love is when recording an event that might go long like a sporting event, parade, or like show; the TiVo says “This live event may exceed it scheduled time, would you like me to record an extra half-hour?”  Brilliant!  Simply brilliant.

The TiVo HD has dual tuners, meaning you can record two shows simultaneously.  This is a very welcome feature when you have two shows on the same time.  You can easily record one and watch the other.  Also, the TiVo HD has 250 GB of storage.  I never even approached the TiVo’s limit, even when I was gone for a week without watching TV.  A new firmware upgrade means you can even add on to the TiVo’s storage by supplementing with an external hard drive.

The TiVO HD exceeds any other high definition DVR platform in terms of usability, stability, and the “fun-to-use” factor.  I had the Tivo for 2 months and I never had to restart it.  On the other hand, I have to restart my Comcast DVR once every two weeks because it becomes un-responsive.

After trialing the TiVo out, I would recommend it to anyone who wants DVR functionality in their home.  It may cost $12-14/month for TiVo service, but it is worth every penny.

I already reviewed a Nokia N95-3 back in November, but when Nokia announced the N95 8GB version, I wanted to see how it compared.

Most of what I said about the N95-3 still apply.  What does the N95 8GB add to Nokia’s NSeries lineup?  Two main things - a bigger (seemingly more vibrant) screen coming in at 2.8 inches and they’ve swapped out the Micro-SD card capabilities and stacked the phone with 8GB of on-board flash memory.

The model I tested was the European version, meaning it didn’t have support for the US 3G network (AT&T’s HDSPA network).  This worked well for me because I’m on T-Mobile’s network, thereby on EDGE for data access when I can’t access an available Wi-Fi network.

Nokia’s N95 8GB is noticably larger than the original N95 and N95-3.  You definintely notice it when it’s in your pocket.  However the trade-off is the larger screen: the display is large and vibrant.  Watching media on it is a great experience.

Even though there have been mixed reviews on the web regarding having removable media versus built-in flash memory, I prefer having the 8GB on-board.

Aside from playing media, the N95 8GB delivered stellar call quality.  The battery life on the EDGE network was great, giving me 3 or 4 days of use with moderate data and voice use.

Similar to the N95 I tested before, the N95 8GB took exceptional videos and photos.  Using Nokia’s Share Online 3.0, I easily uploaded photos to my Flickr account for sharing with family and friends.

Overall I thought the N95 8GB is a fantastic phone.  However when it comes to it, I would chose the N95-3 due to it’s smaller size.  The 0.2 inches doesn’t make the media experience that much better to justify the N95 8GB monstrous size.  If I were buying a new N95, I’d get the  N95-3 and buy some hefty Micro-SD cards for media storage.

TechCraver: BlackBerry Pearl Review
Overview:
The BlackBerry Pearl is Research In Motion’s (RIM) first attempt at making the BlackBerry a consumer device. For years the BlackBerry has been a device largely meant for enterprise customers to keep in contact with their office through email and calendar. The Pearl has been around for about a year on T-Mobile, and mobile phone enthusiasts have been clamoring for a CDMA. Well Verizon Wireless and RIM responded and they did so pretty well with a fun and useful mobile experience in the BlackBerry Pearl 8130.

On the hardware side the Pearl 8130 has an attractive silver colored exterior. This BlackBerry does not have a full keyboard but it does fit well into a front pants pocket because of it’s small size. It has built-in GPS, uses the speedy EV-DO network, features A2DP full stereo Bluetooth, a standard headphone hack, and a 2 MP camera. The Pearl has a Micro-SD slot that can be used for storing photos or playing media files in the on-board media player.

Currently, after rebate, the Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Pearl 8130 is $150 after rebate with a 2 year service agreement.

At First Glance:

The Pearl has a unique look, one I would describe as stylish and sexy. You can tell RIM was trying to balance work and play with this sleek device. In order to bring the size down, RIM had to shed the full QWERTY keyboard and replace it with a smaller version. Each key has roughly two letters assigned to it and is assisted with SureType.
In the box you get a software CD, a battery, travel charger, a USB data cable, the Pearl itself, headphones, and a belt clip.

Unlike the BlackBerrys before it, the Pearl does not have the side jog dial that is synonymous with BlackBerrys. You know, the one that gives you the fabled “BlackBerry thumb”. Instead, in the middle of the front of the device is a directional control that I would compare to the eraser-head control found on some laptop computers. I really like the new control mechanism and found it gave me greater control over the device than the old jog dial. It made it especially easy to control one-handed and while I was walking or on the go.

The User Experience:

The BlackBerry excels at putting you in touch with the people around you. BlackBerrys are made for people who communicate in their business or personal lives primarily through email. The Pearl is no different. You can easily go to RIM’s website and set up your personal and business email accounts. The BlackBerry service allows for up to 10 IMAP or POP3 email services to be configured. Within second of configuring your e-mail services online, you BlackBerry lights up with all the new mail items. It’s magic!

Using the directional control on the front is very effective and cuts down on the frustration of the old job dial. I found it easy to navigate to items and use applications. Out of the box, the Pearl comes with a basic web browser, email program, media player, their map program, tasks, calendar, alarm clock, and a few others.

I tried out RIM’s map program, hopefully to tap into the on-board GPS to track my position and get some point-to-point directions. However I was unable to get the program to use the GPS and I was just stuck with a basic mapping application that was less than mediocre. I thought to remedy this mapping problem, I’d have to download VZ Navigator, Verizon’s navigation program and services. I successfully downloaded and installed the application. However, whenever I tried to load the application, it would fail and go back to the main BlackBerry applications screen.

After trying out the on-board applications, I added some ones from the web including Gmail, Google Maps, and Facebook.

As I said before, the Pearl is made for keeping you in touch with your friends. If you are a Facebook user, you have to check out the Facebook application for BlackBerry. It’s a speedy responsive application that allows you to update your status and view the statuses of your friends, upload pictures taken on your Pearl, and fully interface with Facebook directly from your BlackBerry Pearl mobile phone.

I found web surfing to be a bit cumbersome on the BlackBerry Pearl. Not because of the device itself, but because viewing web content on any mobile phone is difficult. This device shines when using applications that take advantage of the Pearl’s hardware and connect to the Internet for rich content, notably the FaceBook application and Google Maps.

My main critisizm of the Pearl is the midget keyboard and the SureType technology that is supposed to make the lack of a QWERTY keyboard a non-issue. I found SureType to be frustrating and at times made me what to through the Pearl against the wall. I spent too much time managing SureType to tell it what I really wanted to be entering in. I found the keyboard layout combined with SureType to be no more effective or easy to use than the standard T9 most of us with cell phones are familiar with.

Overall I enjoyed the user experience on the BlackBerry. The operating system is well designed and responsive. The Pearl is peppy with no lag or other frustrating factors in the user interface realm.

Performance:

As a phone, the Pearl 8130 performs just a tad above average. I was able to hear callers clearly. My only complaint is that I had the volume almost all the way up just to hear people, even when I was in a quiet environment. Callers noted that when I was in a place with background note that my voice was hard to hear. In my opinion, this is caused by the placement of the microphone as it picks up ambient noise. Verizon’s material says the Pearl has noise filtering technology, but it doesn’t do much apparently.

The operating system was very stable, not requiring resets like the Windows Mobile devices I have tested in the past with only one exception. When I was working inside Google’s java-based Gmail program, the phone froze frequently, requiring me to pull the battery and manually reset the device. This was very annoying.

The Pearl 8130’s battery life seemed a little short. With moderate voice and data usage, I was only to get about a day and a half of usage. I know this is normal with 3G smart phones, but it should still be noted.

I was lucky enough to be trialing this review unit when Google Maps released a new 2.0 version that features “My Location”, a service that allows you to track where you are based off the cell towers your phone is connected to. It is a feature that resembles GPS. My Location is only accurate to about 1500 feet, so it’s not very effective for point to point driving directions in a local area, but it is perfect to find all the pizza places around you, for example. I really enjoyed this feature and thought it was very slick.

Conclusion:

The BlackBerry Pearl is a welcome addition to Verizon Wireless’ product line. It’s sleek and brings the BlackBerry platform to stylish consumers who want the BlackBerry features, but not a big mobile phone that screams “corporate”. The data access is fast and makes getting e-mails quick and painless.

Aside from the noted complaints about the keyboard and SureType, the Pearl is a great mobile phone that combines personal information management, e-mail, and a fun user experience. I’d easily recommend the Pearl to someone who can learn the SureType and is a heavy text messaging or e-mail user.

The Nokia N95

Introduction

To the person in the elevator, I’d describe the Nokia N95 Multimedia computer as a Swiss army knife of personal entertainment and connectivity. From the college-student to the Internet content creator to the business professional, the Nokia N95 will keep you in touch with your peeps and will entertain you all along the way. The N95 I was able to review (and sadly have to send back) is the North American version. This is an update to the N95-1 that supported the 3G networks in Europe. The new N95 has support for the US 3G network (AT&T HSDPA),more RAM, and a larger battery. The price is steep at around $600. This phone is not subsidized by any carrier, which is a good thing! I’ll post about that on a later blog entry, but basically by not bowing to pressure from US carriers such as AT&T or T-Mobile, Nokia delivers a phone that doesn’t have any features locked out.

At First Glance

Out of the box, you can tell Nokia took a lot of time in designing the N95 to wow the customer. The phone has a dual-sliding action, one side revealing the numeric keypad and the other side featuring the media controls. The gorgeous 2.6″ QVGA display is good but not great, and the screen is easily visible in direct sunlight. The phone is great to handle and has a rubberized back side that makes this phone impossible to slip out of your hand. With so many features loaded into the N95, you’d expect it to be heavy and bulky. But not so, the phone is a little thick but overall feels great in your pocket or in your hand.

The Basics

First and foremost, this is a standard quad-band GSM cellular phone. And as a basic phone, the Nokia N95 is outstanding. Call quality is fabulous both to me and the people I talk to. I used this phone on T-Mobile USA and AT&T and on my end people sounded clear and crisp. When asked how I sounded, callers couldn’t tell I was on a mobile phone. There was a slight high pitched noise for me while on a call, but it didn’t detract from the conversation at all. The address book is logically put together and allows for easy classification of my contacts. This phone had awesome battery life, even when using the advanced features such as GPS, data, and the camera. I was able to go 2-3 days between charges with moderate to heavy use. Minimalist battery life was a major complaint of the original N95.

Features

It might be take less time to describe what the phone can’t do as opposed to what it can do. Lets start with hardware. The N95 features full fledged Bluetooth 2.0 including support for A2DP; meaning it supports full stereo headphones and Bluetooth headset for making calls.

Wi-Fi (802.11G) is built in, allowing for you to easily switch between cellular data and uber-fast wifi for all connectivity. Downloading VoIP clients such as Gizmo Project or fring will allow you to make cheap or free calls when in range of a wi-fi hotspot or on a 3G data connection. I wish the N95 was a little more transparent with it’s ability to use wi-fi or the cellular data connection. The iPhone excels at this, making the hop between the two types of connections.

GPS - this one is huge. The N95 comes with Nokia Maps installed which utilizes the on-board GPS. It downloads the maps as needed and is available for many geographic locations including North America, Europe, and more. It is so great in a pinch to be able to use the GPS to find your way, a nearby restaurant, or other type of business based on where the phone is located. I can’t say how many times I used the GPS to find my way when lost, even in areas where I knew the roads. At times it takes a while for the GPS to lock on to satellites, but once connected it does a great job of staying locked on and tracking my position.

The N95 also features a high quality 5-megapixel digital camera that also shoots VGA quality video at 30 frames per second. As a person who has long had a digital camera built into my mobile phone, I thought I wouldn’t use the camera feature on the N95 very much. However the picture quality is so good; I was constantly reaching for the N95 to take some great quality digital photos and videos. With the capability to add Micro-SD cards, your storage is almost limitless. My main complaint about the camera is that when you zoom in, the picture quality suffers greatly. I’m assuming this is because the zoom is merely a digital one, meaning it only enlarges the existing pixels. Also as expected, video capture when zoomed in to any degree is almost illegible. The N95 can take video at 30 frames per second which is fantastic.

The Nokia N95 shines as a media playback device and supports virtually all audio and video media types. The screen can be viewed either in landscape or portrait mode. In landscape mode, the 2.5 inch widescreen display shows tv and movie media in wide-aspect mode. The screen is a little small, but perfect for one person to view a quick tv show or video podcast. I downloaded some beta software from Nokia to be able to push media from my Mac onto the N95. It wasn’t as seamless as using an iPod with iTunes, but wasn’t too difficult at all. I had podcasts and music from iTunes on the N95 in a snap and was off to the races rocking with my tunes and media.

The N95 can also be used to output video and audio to a TV. An amusing part of my review was when I plugged headphone into the 3.5 mm jack, the N95 asked me if the new device being plugged in was 1) headphones, 2) TV-Out Cable, or 3) a Music Stand. Pretty cool. The speakers that are onboard the N95 sound awesome (for mobile phone speakers) and in a quiet room you can definitely use them to play your podcast or music.

Messaging

The Nokia N95, because it boasts the Symbian S60 operating system, is stellar at messaging. You can open Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents and the N95 does a great job of formatting these types of documents for the N95’s screen. Also the N95 supports IMAP4, POP2, and SMTP e-mail accounts. Microsoft Exchange users will be happy to know the N95 will support Microsoft Exchange Server synchronization, giving you access to your company’s email system.

Performance

As stated above, call quality was impressive on the Nokia N95 MultiMedia computer. However it should be noted that the device feels a bit sluggish at times. I’m not sure if it is because the N95 lacks in hardware or if Symbian is a sluggish application stack, but there is a noticable lag when you hit a key or especially when trying to launch the camera to take a photo. Also, when loading media there is an annoying lag that can’t be missed.

Conclusion

There are a few caveats (as there are with ANY electronic device), but overall the Nokia N95 is the best mobile phone on the market and the best phone I have ever used. I have tried many different types of phones including Treos, Motorola Windows Smartphones, BlackBerrys and more. I have to say the Nokia N95 packs so many features and ties them all together that it makes my head spin. There are so many uses for this phone that it pains me to have to send the review unit back.

No matter if you are a business user, Internet content creator, or high school student; the N95 is a great platform to stay connected with your friends, co-workers, and family. The openness of the Nokia/Symbian platform means you can do virtually anything with your phone that you want. There are many 3rd party applications for Symbian and the list grows every day.

Apple has drawn criticism because the iPhone is a great piece of hardware and with the right software it is capabale of so much. Imagine being able to use an application like Skype to make VoIP calls or being able to use an IM client on your iPhone. With the N95 you can do this already. Gizmo Project is built into Symbian and there are many IM clients available for free download (not to mention countless other tools). You can take great looking video with the N95 or shoot awesome photos and directly upload them to the web without having to hook up and sync with your PC. This upload can happen either by wi-fi or the cellular network.

I would whole-heartily suggest the N95 to my friends. The steep cost is made up for in features and openness.

What are your thoughts?

Techcraver N800 Review

Overview:

When I think of Nokia, I think cell phones. Which is why I was surprised when I heard about the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. The N800 is a beautifully designed 3 1/2 inch mobile tablet that allows you to surf the web, chat via Instant Message, and do VoIP calls among many other tasks. The N800 has a lot of onboard hardware including wi-fi (802.11B/G), bluetooth, and a video camera. You can interface with the device using the included stylus, onboard keys, or through its amazing touch screen. The N800 is a follow-up device to the Nokia N770 Internet tablet, which received poor reviews. The N800 has better hardware, fixing a key complaint about the N770 - sluggishness.

Another bonus is the N800 is running a Linux based operating system, meaning external developers can write software for the N800 Tablet. This fact alone makes the N800 a very attractive package. Unlike the new Apple iPod Touch, the Nokia N800 is an ‘open’ device that outsiders can develop software and hardware for. This is very powerful. For example, the N800 came with an FM receiver, but Nokia didn’t ship the N800 with the software to utilize this facility. Someone took it upon themselves to write the software and now you can use the N800 as an FM receiver, adding to its utility.

At First Glance:

The Nokia N800 is a beautiful device. The screen, which is simply stunning at 800×640 dominates the front side of the screen and is surrounded on the sides and bottom by the speakers. On the upper left of the screen are the directional navigation/operation buttons. There is a swing-out stand that allows you to view the N800 on a table when watching media. On the sides of the device you have the pop-out webcam, stylus, headphone jack, power jack, and power/volume buttons. Nokia really took their time to design a functional and eye catching portable computer.

Capabilities:

So you have a mini portable computer, but what can you do with it? The short answer is many, many things, most of which are focused on staying connected. Even though this device isn’t a cell phone, you can make phone calls via VoIP. Out of the box, Nokia has a client called Nokia Internet Call Invitation. In addition to this software, you can install a custom version of Skype and the Gizmo Project has just released a client allowing access to their network. The Skype software integration is of great interest to me and should be to anyone who is a traveler. Think about it. Anywhere you can hop on a wi-fi network, you can have voice calls and instant messaging conversations to anyone on your skype contact list. This ability to add portability to Skype makes the N800 of great interest to me. More on the Skype client below.

Another thing that was really fun to do was to have the N800 be portable with Gizmo Project as well. By pairing Grandcentral and Gizmo Project, I can get phone calls directly to the N800 to my ‘normal’ grandcentral number, allowing me to get regular phone calls at no additional cost. Pretty cool!

The web browser available on the N800 is Opera. This browser is fully functional and allows to display webpages as they are meant to be seen, not scaled down as normal on cell phones or other mobile devices. The N800’s Opera 8 client allows you to zoom in and out on webpages and supports Javascript and plug-ins. It’s pretty cool to be able to watch youtube videos right out of the box with no add-ons! Sure any smartphone can surf the web - but the N800 has Flash built in and a full browser so surfing the web is beautiful on this device.

Nokia also included a fully functional RSS reader and e-mail client which supports POP3 and IMAP4. In addition to email, the N800 supports Instant Messaging via Google Talk, Jabber, Yahoo!, MSN, and Gizmo Project. It should be noted that Yahoo! and MSN access are a feature of the Gizmo Project N800 software.

Aside from Internet connectivity, the N800 offers many multi-media features. It can take 2 SD cards (the same ones that go into your digital camera or PDA) so you can import and play media. The built-in kick stand allows you to put the N800 on a tabletop and comfortably watch a movie, video podcast, or other video without having to hold it in your hand. Also you can play mp3s or virtually any music file. I have read that some people were unhappy with the N800’s video playback, but I found the video to be smooth and high-quality. The speakers are a little tinny and not loud enough, but this would be expected of tiny portable speakers on any electronic device.

Skype on the Nokia N800

One of the main reasons I wanted to evaluate the N800 was it’s special Skype client. Shortly after the N800s release earlier this year, Skype was fast to develop a customized client specially designed for the Nokia N800. Downloading and installing the application is quick and easy. I fired up Skype and was happy to have my skype contact list with me as I walked around my home office. I fired up a chat window and used the N800’s touch screen to type out IM’s. I found this to be a little clunky, but I immediately became comfortable typing and was doing so pretty quickly.

Next up was testing voice quality. There are two ways to make voice calls on the Skype/N800 package - using the onboard mic and speakers and with a special pair of headphones with an onboard mic on the headsets. I called a skype contact using the onboard mic and speakers. The caller said I sounded great, however the tinny speakers on the N800 didn’t relay his voice very well. The caller, to my surprise, said there was no feedback on his end. When I make calls on my MacBook with onboard mic and speakers, people always complain that they can hear their voice and quickly become annoyed with the feedback. Also, skype calls with the included headphones/headset sounded great both for the caller and myself. So, overall the N800 is a fabulous platform for running Skype on the go.

I have two main complaints of Skype on the N800. First, you can’t currently make voice calls using a Bluetooth headset. Knowing the N800 had onboard Bluetooth, I tried to sync it to my Motorola Bluetooth headset to no avail. Through conversations with Nokia and Skype, I found that the Bluetooth onboard is currently only used to pair with a mobile phone for access to mobile data networks. So unfortunately if you want to make a skype call on the N800, you’re bound to being physically hooked up with a standard pair of headphones.

Secondly, even though there is an onboard webcam, Skype currently does not take advantage of this capability for skype video calls. You can do webcam calls with a proprietary Nokia software package, but I’d like to see Skype embrace the webcam on the N800 so make awesome video calls wherever you can get a wi-fi signal.

Conclusion:

I have throughouly enjoyed the N800 in the time I’ve had it. It’s great to be able to get access to the web or IM networks without having to lug around my laptop. Should you buy the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet? Well that depends on what you need in a portable device. If you mainly want a media player and you think it’d be cool to be able to routinely surf the web, then I’d recommend you buy the iPod touch. Especially considering you can use iTunes to keep the iPod Touch and your media in sync between your computer and the portable device.

However if you consider yourself a technophile, the N800 is the device for you. If you are in support of open standards and expandability, the N800 is for you. As of the time of this writing, the iPod Touch does not have the ability to have 3rd party applications added to it. The N800 is built on linux and new apps are being continually being released for it.

The N800 is currently aroud $350 so I think it’s main target audience is geeks who constantly want to be in touch and who are in environments where they are constantly around a Wi-Fi device or have a smartphone that they can get online with.

What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment or call me and let me know!

-Jason

Random thought: I wish there was a synchronization utility for keeping this in sync with a PC, namely my MacBook.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

I’ve recently come across a Nokia N95 North American Edition. Up until this phone, I thought my next phone was going to be an Apple iPhone.

I have a full review coming in the coming weeks, but here are some initial thoughts:

Unlocked: This phone is unlocked, meaning I can use any GSM carrier I want. T-mobile pisses me off? Cya I’m going to AT&T. If I travel to Europe - I can pop in a local SIM and I’m off to the races.

Fully functional GPS: The iPhone has GPS built-in but it’s crippled. With the N95 I can map routes using the onboard navigation software, geocode my photos automatically with ShoZu, and track my workouts with Nokia Sports Tracker.

Video capture: I can take video at 640×480 at 30fps. The iPhone has this capability (with it’s 2.0 MP camera) but again, doesn’t.

VoIP calling: I can make VoIP calls over Wi-Fi or 3G. Gizmo Project, Skype, and Google Talk are now usable on my cell phone.

Yeah the iPhone may be purdy and easier to use. But for me, I want funtionality and the N95, just in the 2.5 days I’ve had it, has eroded my want for an iPhone considerably.

Overview:
Verizon Wireless recently updated their very popular Q mobile phone lineup with the eagerly awaited Motorola Q9m. The wireless service provider was the exclusive carrier of the Motorola Q9 when it debuted early last year. Now Motorola has updated the line with Q9s all across the GSM and CDMA markets. The “m” Verizon’s Q9m stands for music. Even though the Q was originally aimed at the business professional market, they are trying to pitch the Q9m at the consumer market, and the music piece centers on trying to get users to pay $1.99 forVCast Music, an exclusive to Verizon Wireless. One other advantage to the Q9m is that it is rocking the latest Windows Mobile 6.

The Q9m comes at a lower price, currently $199 after a $50 rebate and a 2-year service agreement.

At First Glance:

The Q9m at first glance is a very attractive phone as it’s aesthetics are improved over those the original Moto Q. It’s primarily black with red accents on the side. You can definitely tell Verizon is pushing their own branding and color scheme in this device. The keyboard is a big improvement as well (more on the keyboard below). The screen is big and bright, taking up about 50% of the face of this device and is easily visible even in bright daylight. One new feature with the Q9m is the screen has an adaptive technology that turns the screen brightness up and down based on how much light isexistent . Even though the Q9m has a native resolution of 240×320, I believe the resolution should be increased to allow more content to be displayed on the screen.

The Q9m, like the original Q, features a very slim design that is attractive and fits into a pocket very easily. I like the directional controls and soft keys, along with the jog dial on the side to allow for easy one-handed operation. Even though there is no stylus or other pointing device, Motorola made the Q9m pretty easy to work with.

The User Experience:

I was very anxious to try Windows Mobile 6 as my experience with Windows Mobile 5 was mixed. Windows Mobile 5 on my Treo 700W was slow and needed to be restarted multiple times per week as the phone OS would constantly lockup. I wasn’t sure if this bad experience was because of the hardware or Windows Mobile itself.

Windows Mobile 6 is a mostly enjoyable mobile computing experience. However, after using an iPhone, Motorola and the Windows Mobile Platform have a LONG way to go to match theiPhone’s user experience and ease of use.

In my trials with Windows Mobile 6 I found it to be very reliable. I never experienced missed calls (that I know of), text messages or had any of the other issues that Windows Mobile 5 presented. A few times I had to restart the Q9m because mobile Internet Explorer became unresponsive and would not loadwebpages.

My main complaint about the software on the device is Internet Explorer mobile edition. This is a bare-bones browser that is clunky to use. I have tried other mobileInternet browsers including Palm’s Blazer and Opera Mini edition. I tried to end my IE misery by installing Opera Mini, but for some reason I could not download the install package.

Syncing to my employer’s Exchange email system was a pretty easy experience, except for one caveat. I had a co-worker connect to his email and while this happened successfully, when I tried to change theusername and password to my own, I couldn’t find a way to change the username without having to do a Master Reset on the Q9m. I could change the password, but the username was grayed out and could not be changed under any circumstance. Very frustrating.

Motorola included Documents to Go to allow users to create and edit Office-compatible documents. I found using Documents to Go to edit word documents attached to emails to be easy and very useful.

Performance:

The Q9m feels very underpowered. There is a very noticeable lag when you hit buttons and you see an on-screen response in Windows Mobile 6. Applications load slowly and even making preference changes such as background images or themes seem like they take a long time to load. After doing some research online, I don’t feel the Q9m is the culprit, instead I think Windows Mobile 6 is a bit bloated. Hopefully a software update can give some much needed zip to this device.

My Motorola bluetooth headset synced flawlessly with the Q9m, allowing me to do hands free calling. I understand the Q9m has A2DP which allows for the use of stereoBluetooth headphones and headsets, but i wasn’t able to test this feature.

Text messaging is easy on the Q9m. I found the keyboard to be great to type on, much better than the Treo 700W and 600 I’ve tried in the past. The rubberized keyboard makes typing easy and fast.

I found call quality to be mixed. Overall I could easily hear the remote party and they could hear me just fine, but about 40% of the time I could hear an annoying buzzing hissing sound in the Q9m. People I called could never hear the sound and I never did hear it while making a call with theBluetooth headset.

Doing anything with data including downloading emails and surfing the web is a breeze on this device. Using Verizon’s fast EV-DO service, the bits fly quickly and without much lag. The connectivity piece of this phone is a major offering. I also downloaded and installed Google Maps, and using EV-DO this combination is a killer app.

Battery life is my main performance complaint. I had to charge the Q9m every day after moderate voice and data usage. This is common withsmartphones (especially 3G ones), but the complaint still needs to be registered.

Conclusion:

The new Motorola Q9m improved on it’s predecessor in many ways. However, I don’t like Verizon’s multi-media push. The Q was just fine as asmartphone that could browse the web and integrate the user into the Windows Mobile experience. $1.99 is way too much to charge anyone for a song that can only play on one mobile device.

Aside from my objections to Verizon’s multi-media services, I feel the Motorola Q9m is a great phone, especially at it’s $199 price. It’s a solid device that feels good to use and still gets looks when I’m in public. If you’re looking for a Windows Mobile 6 device and can handle a little operational lag, the Q9m is a solid choice.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.