FIFA 08

Although I don't go in for much gaming on my phone, there are many who do. I have a friend who behaves pretty much like the guy in the video below, too engrossed in his phone, playing games!



Nokia have 120,000 licenses for FIFA08, to give away until the end of August 08, details of which you can find here.

Read more »

What I Want in a Mobile Phone

Currently I use the Nokia N82. Although I don't change my phone as often as I used to, I still get the occasional impulse to try something different. I bought a Sony Ericsson W890i just the other day, using an upgrade I had available, but it only lasted two days - the speaker is just awful! Ringtones and text alerts sound distorted.

So, for the next phone I get this is going to be what I look for:

3G - As a minimum, the phone must be 3G
Bluetooth - Almost a default feature these days, but I expect my phone to be Bluetooth 2.0 compatible, for stereo connectivity
Form factor - I like candybar phones, I do not like slide, nor clamshell.
Keypad - My phone has to have a usable keypad. Messaging on my phone is by far the biggest usage, text, email and IM.
Battery - My phone *must* have a decent battery. All the features in the world mean nothing if the phone cannot survive at least one day of solid usage as an absolute minimum.
Size - I don't want a bulky phone. Not too long, and not too thick.
Java support - My phone has to have good java support, to at least run the java GMail app and Opera Mini. Opera Mini is especially necessary if my phone has a poor native browser.
Email support - I wasn't sure if this would be an required option or not, as I use GMail, I mainly login via a bookmark on my phone's browser. But for sending email direct from the phone, it is easier to compose in the phone's email client, so decent email support gets on the must have list.
Alarm Clock - The most used feature on all my phones. If I can manually adjust the snooze time, so much the better.

Optional features on my phone are:
HSDPA - Ideally, the phone I buy should support HSDPA
WiFi - This is an optional extra. I rarely use WiFi, but it's a nice feature to have if possible
Operating system - S60 is by far the best I've ever used on any phone, and it has just got better and better over the years. But I'm not so blind to S60 as to not consider other phones. I like Nokia S40, UIQ, and standard SE phones too. But if a phone carries S60 it is a definite plus
Customisability - What I mean is I want control over the shortcuts on my phone, on how the display looks, on what appears on the standby screen and what doesn't.
MP3 Player - I like to listen to music on my phone, but it isn't essential.
Radio - As above. A radio is a useful option to have, but not essential.
Camera - So far down the list. I really am not bothered about a camera on my phone. If there is one, I'd like it to be worthwhile, to take decent pics, but I am not fussed too much.
GPS - Including GPS support is a nice touch, but overall I think I've used Nokia Maps three times in the last six months, and two of those occasions was because I could, not because I needed to. An application like Sports Tracker is useful, but not enough to make GPS vital.
Profiles - I like to be able to adjust the tone settings on my phone to my own comfort, that means being able to set different ring tones and text alerts for each separate profile.

I think I've covered the essentials and desirables. There's nothing extreme in my list, I think my requirements are quite conservative really. My N82 covers all of this (apart from maybe a decent keypad and size), I would want my next phone to cover all the essentials and as many desirables as possible.

Read more »

Nokia N78 Review

I haven't had much hands on time with the N78. I recall seeing an early prototype at a testing session, and I was less than impressed. When the handset was officially announced, I was at a press event at the Nokia store in London. Seeing the handset there, I changed my mind and thought it could be a worthy successor to the almost mythical N73.
As I said, my hands on time with the phone is severely limited, however Rafe over at All About Symbian has an excellent in depth review, in three parts. Click here for part one, here for part two, and here for part three.

Read more »

N-Gage

I don't play games on my phone. I just have no interest in it. The only reason for installing the full NGage app on my phone is it allows me to move the icon from the main menu screen and hide it away in a folder where I store all unused apps.

However, there are some who like to play a game or two. I've been reading about a game called Reset Generation over at All About Symbian. And I found that there is an option to put a full version of Reset Generation right here on the blog. So, here it is:

Read more »

Nokia N95 8GB
It's hard to believe the N95 8GB version has been available for a year now. Despite this, it is still one of the best featured handsets on the market, and there are some cracking deals around. Such as that at E2Save, you can buy the N95 8GB right now with 7 months half price line rental

Just in case you haven't been following the phone market in too much detail, the stand-out features of the N95 8GB include:

• 8GB Internal Memory
  
• 2.8 Inch QVGA 16 million colour screen
  
• HSDPA Mobile Broadband
  
• 5.0 Megapixel Camera
  
• Built in GPS
  
• 3.5mm Audio Output Jack
  
• TV Out option
  
• MP3 Player
  
• Stereo FM Radio

And that's just for starters, there is so much more. I would expect most people reading this blog have purchased the N95, but if you're anything like me you have more than one contract on the go, and this is a very good deal.
This deal is available to UK residents only.

Read more »