You might have seen Stefan’s post recently, mentioning that the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) E72 is finally in stores (and long while after it was announced, judging by the dates given) – well, eXpansys have just pinged me an email to let me know that they have the Nokia E72 in stock – at a pretty reasonable £349.99!

Rather than repeat the specs for the device, I’ll note what eXpansys say is in the box:

- Nokia E72
- Battery BP-4L
- Stereo Headset WH-601
- Data cable CA-101
- 4GB Memory Card (MU-41)
- Carry Case & Strap
- Clean Cloth
- Mains charger (AC-8)
- User guide

That’s a decent size memory card, and it’s nice to see the inclusion of a cleaning cloth – most devices these days are grease and dust magnets, so something to clean them off with is always appreciated!

If you want to grab the E72 for yourself, you can reach eXpansys by clicking here.

[Via: eXpansys]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Expansys Friday Deals for 16/1/09: time-sensitive!
• UK: eXpansys: bringing a cracking HTC Hero deal!
• UK: MobileFun: Save over 25% on Bluetooth Stereo Speakers From Intempo
• Nokia sells mobile phone charms too
• UK: eXpansys: Nokia N97 with £30 of vouchers included!

Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) (and Sony in fact) have been right out there in recent years, with their Marketing campaigns – largely they have focused around the use of colour, relating to Sony (Bravia) TVs being great at displaying it, and Sony Ericsson cameraphones being great at capturing it.

The recent campaigns for the Satio and Aino devices featured people on hoppers (check it here) – and now they’ve gone one step further in the land of weird, by asking people to visit their site, and take a look at a webcam focused on room full of empty hoppers. To inflate the hoppers, you need to Tweet #pumpt – now of course you might be asking why you should want to inflate the hoppers, and the answers would be that apparently they are going to release the hoppers somewhere if you suggest it whilst Tweeting – see, I told you it was Leftfield!

ANYWAY – back to the mobile-related bit – whilst you are on the site you can check out their Satio and Aino devices – or you could just go to any other Mobile News site (say, for example, IntoMobile) and read stuff about the handsets!

If you’d like to see what’s going on in the room full of hoppers, and/or check out some device info, click here.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Video: New Sony Ericsson device commercials
• This week in fake devices: 3 Sony Ericsson clones
• FCC: Hello, Sony Ericsson Satio!
• Sony Ericsson Satio goes live with 12.1-megapixel camera in UK!
• Zeemote V3 Bluetooth controller is optimized for gaming on Sony Ericsson handsets

O2 has announced that the HTC HD2 will be on sale in-store (in the UK) from today. Available from free on O2 Pay Monthly, the HD2 packs in a pretty massive 4.3-inch touch screen, fast processor and camera with LED flash – all into a package just 11mm thick and weighing in at 157 grams!

“The HTC HD2 is the first HTC branded phone to be sold on O2. We love the large screen and combination of Windows Mobile 6.5 with HTC Sense,” said Steve Alder, General Manager Devices for O2 in the UK. “We are proud to be the home of smartphones and the HTC HD2 adds a new dimension to the range of devices we offer to our customers.”

The HTC HD2 is powered by a 1Ghz processor and has built in Wi-Fi, GPS, and FM radio. It also has YouTube, Facebook and Twitter integration and a MicroSD card slot, along with a standard 3.5mm audio jack, Bluetooth and microUSB charging port. ??The HTC HD2 will be available in-store and over the phone. To find your nearest O2 retail store, visit http://www.o2.co.uk/shop/retailstores.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Samsung S3650 Corby Gets Official
• Samsung’s new YouTube Phone – SGH-L760
• Sprint launches LG Muziq musicphone
• Samsung L400v – Vodafone’s affordable 3G clamshell
• Samsung B5722 and C6112 DuoS phones show up

Okay, so the question was going to get asked sooner or later, and given we are only a month or so out from the big day, I thought I’d jump in with it:

What Mobile devices/accessories are you planning to buy this Christmas?

There are a few reasons behind me asking the question – one is of course, that this dilemma is faced by many with some kind of gadget-fetish, but also perhaps from a more altruistic perspective, we might be able to help each other with suggestions, if we ‘crowdsource’ everyones plans together! I’ll get it going with some suggestions:

• Devices: The HTC Hero, which I thought was a very good device when I had hands-on time with it, should now be doing the rounds with the Operators at a slightly reduced price, compared to when it came out – that would make it good value if you fancy some Android goodness! Alternatively, if you want Maemo in your life, then the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N900 is going to slip in to the market just before Xmas it seems. The eponymous iPhone 3GS is also now becoming more widely available (in the UK at least) with Orange now selling it (and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) to join shortly after Christmas).

• Accessories: 2009 has really been a year of Mobile speakers as far as I’m concerned, and Altec Lansing are as good as any. Particularly for me, their Orbit-M speaker was a breakthrough combination of portability and high fidelity. Other accessories I like are cases, and in that respect the recent addition to my accessories grotto is the iPhone 3GS variant of the Beyzacases Slimline Vertical Leather Case.

But never mind me – what are you planning to purchase within the mobile sphere, in the next month or so? It doesn’t have to be for you, it can also be a gift for someone near and hear – but hit us up with a comment and let us know where your hard earned moolah is going this Christmas!

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Hands-on with the Altec Lansing Orbit-M
• Orbit USB is a powerful little laptop speaker
• Beyzacases Slimline Vertical Case: does exactly what it says on the tin!
• Paul Frank does iPhone 3G cases, too!
• First impressions: Altec Lansing InMotion Classic and Orbit-M

I’m always looking for good accessories to make sure my iPhone is protected – and I’ve lost track of the amount I’ve been through including:

• Rubber surround cases
• Leather flip-out cases
• Screen protectors
• Two-piece clip together plastic cases

However, it was largely a poorly-performing area of accessories as far as I was concerned, until I came across what I thought was the ideal type of cases – the Vertical Leather slip case. This genre of case works ideally for me, since I need the iPhone out of it’s case (say to dock in the official Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) charger mount) as much as in it. Now, most leather slip cases don’t afford any protection for the top of the phone (since that is where it ejects), but, overall a good compromise.

Fortunately, I think I’ve found a good performer in this genre of case, in the Beyzacases ‘Slimline Vertical Leather Case’, being retailed by MobileFun.

There actually isn’t that much to say on the case, other than to summarise that it does what it says on the tin – but, I’ll try and give you the highlights:

• Made from real leather
• Snug fit for iPhone 3G/3GS so it won’t fall out
• Cut-out at bottom so charger can still be plugged in, and, phone can be ejected with finger
• Refined styling
• Good protection for all but top of phone!

Actually MobileFun do a range of Beyzacases that you can see here. However, the case I am using is this one here.

In summary, great quality, and a reasonable price – you can get one here.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• What Mobile devices/accessories are you planning to buy this Christmas?
• Beyza slimline leather device cases – great quality, good price!
• UK: MobileFun: PDair cases now back in stock!
• Even more iPhone cases
• Review #3: Apple iPhone 3G case – Sena Ultraslim (black)

Anyone that reads IntoMobile regularly will know that I’m a real accessories freak – I love to test the latest innovations and products in the accessories arena – partly because it’s a hotbed of activity (certainly around smartphones at the moment anyway), and also because a good accessory can really enhance the value of the device you own.

Case in point: Altec Lansing’s Orbit range of speakers – currently there are two, the Orbit-M, and Orbit USB. Both are entirely portable, and hence mobile, but are targeted at slightly different audiences. The Orbit-M (which I’ve reviewed, see here) has a 3.5mm jack, and connects to (ideally) your Mobile (though it can connect to other stuff, obviously). The Orbit USB has (surprisingly enough) a USB connector, and hence is for you Laptop – but again a portable accessory you might use when out and about.

The two speakers do have other subtle differences too – the Orbit-M is grey in colour and uses batteries (since no power comes over the 3.5mm connector), whereas the Orbit USB is black in colour, takes its power from the USB port, and also has a nifty little kickstand which can angle the sound trajectory. But, clearly the biggest difference between them is that the Orbit-M takes an analogue signal and then boots it out the speaker, whereas the Orbit USB takes a digital signal, and converts to analogue inside the speaker.

I’m happy to report that both ways round, the sounds is really excellent from such diminutive little speakers! The Orbit USB might just possibly edge it in sound quality, but it’s minimal – much more important is the quality of the source (be it a mobile or laptop) and also the quality of the source files you are playing back.

Personally though, I think that the Orbit speakers, and in this case the Orbit USB, are well priced (£39.99 in the UK), and do the job of providing music on the move, a lot better than a lot of other speakers that I have heard of a similar size.

I think, in conclusion,  the Orbit USB continues the great run that Altec Lansing is having with producing quality audio accessories, at great prices!

For more information on the complete autumn 2009 audio collection from Altec Lansing, you can visit www.alteclansing.com

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Altec Lansing Orbit-M is a powerful little speaker!
• Hands-on with the Altec Lansing Orbit-M
• Video Hands-on with the Altec Lansing InMotion Classic, and Orbit-M
• First impressions: Altec Lansing InMotion Classic and Orbit-M
• Hands-on video: Altec Lansing Orbit-M

ALK Technologies, the makers of the popular CoPilot Live Sat Nav software, have announced that their software is doing very well in it’s Android guise – since its launch on Android Market in June, it has risen to become the top paid application on Android Market in the UK. The UK and Europe apps currently hold the number one and number two positions of all paid travel apps respectively.

ALK Technologies has recently released their latest free update for CoPilot Live for Android, adding text to speech voice directions and full compatibility with the latest Donut and Eclair versions of Android. This brings full on-board turn by turn navigation to the latest handsets including Motorola Droid and HTC Tattoo. CoPilot Live brings full featured turn-by-turn navigation to the Android platform, complete with automatic route calculation, some nice 3D map displays, and turn-by-turn voice directions.  Digital street maps are stored on-device, rather than relying on mobile Internet connectivity for per-trip downloads.

A range of CoPilot ‘Live’ services, delivered via the phone’s mobile Internet connection, are also available – these include safety camera alerts, 5-day weather forecast information and a new location sharing service called CoPilot® LiveLink™. CoPilot Live Navigation UK & Ireland can be purchased and downloaded immediately from Android Market for just £25.99.  The European maps version (Western and Eastern Europe) retails at £59.99.

If you happen to have an iPhone, I can also heartily recommend that version of the App – it’s rather good also!

Related News from IntoMobile:

• ALK’s CoPilot Live gives Nokia N95 some built-in GPS maps
• CoPilot Live Satellite Navigation arrives for iPhone
• HTC Touch Diamond2 to come pre-loaded with CoPilot Live HD in UK
• CoPilot Live iPhone Sat Nav App gets a free update
• Video: Google Maps Navigation – Voice guided GPS directions on Verizon’s Motorola Droid

You might remember not so very long ago I posted on giffgaff, which is a new mobile (virtual) network, launching in the UK. Well, time has passed, and now giffgaff is pretty much ready to go:

The new ‘people powered’ mobile network, giffgaff will launch on 25th November 2009 at giffgaff.com with free data to all members for a limited period.  The launch will be supported by an innovative marketing strategy which puts its members in the driving seat

Defining a new ‘people powered’ business model, giffgaff launches by asking people to help make the network famous in return for free UK mobile calls, texts and mobile internet for a whole year.  The original launch campaign is based on a ‘Tool Hire’ concept, whereby a series of fun and eccentric marketing tools will be available for free hire by the public at tools.giffgaff.com/log

The tools are designed to promote giffgaff in an amusing and capturing way, and in true giffgaff sense, those who get involved and simply upload videos of themselves using the tools onto YouTube, have potential to get rewarded – by becoming a V.I.G member (Very Important Giffgaffer) with a SIM that means you pay nothing for UK use of your mobile for a whole year

Sounds interesting, no? It’s from the same kind of mould as Blyk (which was ad-funded), whereby the traditional revenue streams that Operators are looking for are not in evidence. Most MVNOs would traditionally look for voice+text revenue streams, but the likes of some very new ‘network operators’ are seeking to run things in a completely different way – giffgaff is certainly an unusual concept, and I for one will be watching to see how things pick up over the next 12 or so months.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• giffgaff update: more details now known
• UK: giffgaff launches as new Mobile Network …
• Nokia and VH1 getting together to create music video from user generated content
• HTC Sense UI ported to Windows Mobile-powered HTC Vogue!
• Samsung confirms claims of Android-powered Samsung handset hitting T-Mobile and Sprint

Avenir Telecom (a distributor in mobile telecoms in the UK), has announced some pretty sweet results regarding its customer retention efforts…

In October 2009, Avenir Telecom and its dealer base reduced customer churn on O2 (NYSE: TEF) connections to just 8%. Avenir’s churn rate has been steadily declining each month over the past 12 months and is set to fall even lower in the coming months. This single-digit result is believed to be the lowest sustainable figure achieved by any distributor of Avenir’s size in the UK mobile marketplace.

“Churn has been the industry buzzword all year,” remarks Avenir Telecom’s Managing Director, Andy Tow. “We’ve been working tremendously hard with our dealers on this, specifically with our dedicated customer retention team, which is about to celebrate its first anniversary. So it’s great to come to the end of the year with proof that our efforts are working, and that we’re leading the game.”

OK so it’s not big-ticket news that might excite the pants off you, but on the other hand, this does go some way to explaining why O2 are far and away leading the market in the UK at the moment – if you introduce exclusives like the iPhone and Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre, and then manage the customers that are potentially wanting to churn well, you’ve got both sides of the equation under control – customers coming in to O2’s network, and not many leaving – nice!

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Video hands-on with the Beewi Bluetooth Pocket Car Kit
• Brief: Avenir Telecom and O2 get ‘Joined Up’
• Beewi Accessories arrive in UK through Avenir Telecom
• Sprint posts $344 million in losses while slowing customer defections
• Top Ten US Wireless Carriers

For all our readers in the UK, eXpansys have been busy cooking up some news deals to tempt you in your hour of need for gadget-related goodness:

• Acer beTouch E200 Windows Mobile 6.5 - Normally £249.99 Now £219.99 Save £15
• Acer beTouch E100 Windows Mobile 6.5 - Normally £234.99 Now £219.99 Save £15
• Nokia 6700 Classic Silver - Normally £209.99 Now £194.99 Save £15
• GMAX 2-Bay Alloy Desktop Hard Drive Enclosure – Normally £39.99 Now £34.99 Save £5
• Novatel Wireless Merlin XU870 3G HSDPA 3.6/7.2 Mbps ExpressCard – Normally £49.99 Now £29.99 Save £20
• B-Stock Palm m500 PDA + Accessory Pack – Normally £34.99 Now £24.99 Save £10
• Chilly the Singing and Dancing Polar Bear – Normally £7.99 Now £4.99 Save £3
• Premier Systems Keyring Breathalyser - Normally £4.99 Now £1.99 Save £3

Personally, I am liking the look of the HSDPA ExpressCard – I’ve been trying to find a use for my ExpressCard port on the Mac – seems like this might be it!

These deals are available on Friday the 20th of November 2009 between 11am and 5pm by following the links above only. Normal pricing will apply outside of these hours.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• eXpansys Friday Deals: Selected deals between 11am and 5pm, 13th November 2009
• eXpansys Thursday deals, October 22nd 2009 (for those in the UK)
• eXpansys – New Windows Mobile 6.5 & Android Smartphones
• Acer WinMo smartphones to get new names: neoTouch, beTouch E100, beTouch E101 and beTouch E200
• UK: eXpansys: Most Wanted Gadgets in 2009

So I was typing away this evening, and thinking about the movie Swordfish – an enjoyable romp featuring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, and of course (who could forget) Halle Berry

There are several priceless moments in that film where the lead characters are spewing techno-babble that is devoid of any joined up thinking – trojans, firewalls, ciphers, you name it – all mashed together in meaningless, cringe-inducing, gibberish. But that’s kind of what makes the movie good!

It got me thinking, there must be some of these types of moments involving mobile devices – and then suddenly a couple hit me – but before I name them, feel free to zing a comment on the end of this piece if you can think of others – as I said, there must be lots, right?

Great moment #1: Die Hard 4.0 (2007) - Justin Long is using a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Communicator, when the mobile networks all drop (as the bad guys are busy taking them down). He turns to Bruce Willis and says something along the lines of surfing the military satellites, and lo and behold, one dodgy cable later, he’s up and running with a mobile data connection!

Great moment #2: Cellular (2004) – a thriller movie, with Kim Basinger and Chris Evans. There’s not a specific moment as such in this film, but they sure do eke out the moment the battery on the mobile phone is running down – it goes on for seemingly forever. As we all know from the irritation of real-world calls, once the battery bleep comes on in-call, you are very soon going to be out of juice!

So what moments can you think of – and no using ‘The Matrix’ as an example please, although there are some quality moments in there too

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Nokia owns the fourth Die Hard film
• Gary Oldman's new short film premieres on the Nokia Nseries Studio
• Keep Going and Going: The Duracell Battery Phone
• Rambo Mobile Game not quite the same as the film
• Nokia N96 Bruce Lee Edition Available in China

I’ve reported on the Amazon Kindle International Edition before (here), which is an interesting device, because its packing a SIM card in it that can roam seamlessly across network in Europe – in fact you could argue it’s the main way of acquiring e-books for that device.

Well now there’s another (yes, another) e-book reader, the Bookeen Cybook Opus, which has a couple of interesting traits:

1. Some kind of landscape mode
2. A price-point that is worryingly close to the Kindle

Yep, that’s right, this bad boy isn’t packing 3G data, yet it’s only $40 cheaper – that’s not good, is it?

Right now, from a mobile data connection perspective, Kindle is cream of the crop – but could we see a newer revision of the Opus coming soon, with 3G or WiFi data? Quite possibly.

[Via: e-reader-info.com]

Related News from IntoMobile:

• The Five-minute fiddle: Amazon Kindle (International version)
• Amazon launches iPhone-optimized Kindle eBook store
• Amazon Throws Down Sweetheart of a Deal: Get the Palm Pre for $99
• Barnes & Noble releases iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry eBook reader and announces eBook store
• Amazon Launches Free Kindle App for iPhone

GoPayforit has announced that it has launched its new mobile small payments service to enable bloggers and content owners to more easily sell content online.

“When making small donations of £5 online, or buying one-off pieces of content from websites for say £1 or £2, entering your credit card details can be a long and tedious process,” said Chris Newell, CEO, GoPayforit. “Many potential customers may not even have a credit card, while those that do often just don’t want the hassle of entering all that information, meaning there is a huge drop-off at the payment stage.”

Newell continued, “Not only that, but for many smaller sites there are a lot of hoops to jump through to use credit card payment on the site. GoPayforit is both easier to set up for the website and easier to use for the consumer, making it a better experience for everyone.”

Related News from IntoMobile:

• CHARGE Anywhere unveils mobile payment app for Android
• PayPal Mobile Checkout goes live!
• Obopay partners with Citi; Set to rule the mobile payments
• Brief: Nokia and TANLA sign 5 year agreement to work on mobile payments
• Research: Mobile Content Consumers are more loyal than ‘Internet’ Consumers

Orange has been rated the top provider for overall mobile broadband quality for the second time, according to a survey by independent research company YouGov.

Orange achieved the number one position in both quality and value for money, while customers have also rated Orange’s mobile broadband service top in nine out of 15 categories, including ease of use, staying connected and overall network coverage.

Orange is also continuing to invest in its network for voice and data – much like the other guys I think.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• UK: Orange expands its mobile broadband portfolio
• Ericsson to build commercial 4G network for TeliaSonera
• 48% of Americans Willing to Ditch Mobile Data
• T-Mobile 3G network does voice and 384kbps data!
• T-Mobile USA 3G coming to Memphis, Tampa and Washington D.C.

The data issue is only going to grow in the coming few years, particularly with ‘unlimited’ mobile web add-ons (both for contract and PAYG users) becoming the norm – so this is all good news

O2 today unveiled plans to accelerate growth of its mobile network and build extra capacity for mobile data, in a multi-year programme of investment (running to hundreds of millions of pounds).

The planned investment will cover upgrade of the current radio network and also the delivery of new sites. 200 sites will be delivered in London alone in the next 12 months, 40 of which will be live by Christmas 2009. In 2010 other areas of the UK will see similar developments.

Derek McManus, Chief Technology Officer for O2:

“Anticipating growth in demand for mobile services, we have quarter on quarter increased investment in our voice and data networks. Our £500m investment over the last two years has enabled us to offer our customers the best products in the world, including the Apple iPhone and Palm Pre.

“In the past 12 months the mobile industry has seen an unprecedented change in demand. The introduction of world-class devices, in combination with a wide variety of data applications, has brought about a dramatic change in customer behaviour and created an exponential demand on mobile data networks. To put this in context, watching a YouTube video on a smartphone can use the same capacity on the network as sending 500,000 text messages simultaneously.

“We are now aggressively accelerating our network growth programme to ensure we have significant headroom for the future and retain our focus on being number one for customer satisfaction.”

Fairplay on O2 – they’ve taken their share of criticism for issues of network bandwidth/contention with the hugely accelerated data consumption coming from the likes of the iPhone, and are pressing on in addressing the issue.

The data issue is only going to grow in the coming few years, particularly with ‘unlimited’ mobile web add-ons (both for contract and PAYG users) becoming the norm – so this is all good news

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Will there be a new network menace this Christmas?
• Mobile phones usage reaches 2.5 billion
• AT&T upgrading 3G network with 7.2Mbps HSDPA for new iPhone
• AT&T “doubling” 3G network in anticipation of iPhone 3G data demands
• Nokia Siemens Networks Helps StarHub tackle data deluge

I wrote a piece yesterday about first impressions the N900, which really seemed to upset some people – chief amongst the objections were the fact that not everyone believed I have the N900 – well it’s picture-time, check it out:

Other objections included black-and-white statements that resistive screens don’t support multi-touch – with a couple of minutes Googling, I think you’ll find that multi-touch on a resistive screen is entirely possible – it just happens not to be on the N900 – shame …

Others were of the opinion that I must be an Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) Fanboi – something I strenuously deny. Oh, BTW, the pictures above were taken using an iPhone 3GS

Ben

Related News from IntoMobile:

• ABI Research: Capacitive touchscreens not the wave of the future for most mobile phones
• Brief: Confirmed: Maemo 6 to bring support for multi touch and capacitive screens
• Apple iPhone – Disappointing LCD Screen?
• Stantum to demo 4.3-inch Multi-Touch Development Kit at Mobile World Congress
• Apple files patent application for pressure-sensitive touchscreen technology

So I just received an N900 in the post today, and one of the things I do like to do with new hardware, is to give it the ‘five-minute fiddle’.

For those of you that are not familiar, the aim of the five-minute fiddle is to spend a very short period getting first impressions of a given handset/service, and then write things up with a summary ‘gut feeling’ about it.

Unpacking

My N900 is a full retail model, and so I got a good feeling for the real end-user experience when opening up the packaging of this little bad boy. It’s an understated box, with a good amount of accessories included – and of course, the device itself. One thing I did ponder as missing was a case for the N900. Now I’m not suggesting some kind o’ freaky faux-leather belt-holster affair (that was SO 90s!), I am talking just about some kinda simple slip case, to protect the decent size screen – and the fact you are carrying a 500 GBP/Euro handset around with you!

Hardware form-factor

Although in my opinion Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has dropped the ball in a big way on software in recent years, their hardware design is usually (I say usually, to exclude things like the N96) pretty good – overall, I think the N900 has good hardware. It IS a chunky monkey, make no mistake, and it’s certainly not ’sleek’ – much more blockish than I was expecting. However, it is clad in various types of black material – now given black is my favourite colour, this is no bad thing!

The Slide mechanism and keys are okay – keys possibly a touch small, but it’s going to take some time typing to find out if emails/texts can be knocked out with ease. For right now, it’s certainly all very satisfactory, and at a push I would say it’s ‘good’. One thing I really wasn’t sure about is the kickstand that surrounds the camera – it seems VERY flimsy indeed – to the point where I wouldn’t want to stand the handset up on it. That’s quite a surprise, since one of the good things (and there weren’t that many) with the N96 was it’s cheeky little kickstand!

The (touch)screen is well-lit, a decent size, and … er … resisitive – darn! I personally cannot stand resistive screens, because it’s difficult in my view to regulate your pressure when scrolling lists etc on screen – and this often means you end up accidentally selecting things – unfortunately it’s the same here, which is a such a shame – this device could potentially have been a killer with capacitive screen (maybe that’ll be the N901 or similar probably….!).

Software / UI

So this is really where it’s at with the N900 – does the UI/software cut the mustard? Well, with my five-minute play, I have to say I’m not convinced one way or the other. It did take me some time to orient myself with the Menus/UI, and try out some things which I thought would work on the device (notably one thing that didn’t work was two-finger pinch/squeeze for zoom in/out. Shame.

So apart from the time needed to get used to the UI, overall I think it’s reasonably clear – the four or so homescreens work out well, and to my mind borrow heavily from the iPhone – but they don’t animate between them as smoothly.

As regards programs that are installed, it would appear that Nokia has included web-links as ‘application icons’-  and in fact you have to download apps once you have pressed the icon  which is simply a link to a website. I can’t help but feel this is a weak approach for building out menus, and also the tedium of waiting for an App to download and install is not good.

Other Apps that work well are the standard ones you would expect – email, calendar, contacts, phone. There’s nothing revolutionary about these, they just do their job well.

Conclusion

I’ve yet to spend some serious quality time with the device – but my initial thoughts are that the hardware (excepting the resistive quality of the screen) is better than the software. Although I’m wary about judging too quickly, my gut feeling is that the software isn’t quite at the level you would expect as a power user of the device. Going forward, it may be that the OS is upgraded and bug-fixed, and that usage improves significantly. For now though, my rating would be somewhere between ‘average’ and ‘quite good’.

Related News from IntoMobile:

• Sony Ericsson Global Announcement – A day after
• HTC Hero: the ‘lite’ review (verdict: GREAT)
• Hands-on with the HTC Tattoo hardware…
• OS 2007 to be ported over to the Nokia 770!
• “Lived-in” review – Skypephone S2

Oh, it’s all going off in the UK at the moment, with the news that thousands of UK subs on the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) network have unknowingly had their data sold on to third parties, for what is apparently substantial sums of money!

For those that don’t live in the UK, we tend to take our data privacy quite seriously indeed – there are plenty of laws that are designed to protect – but what do you do when people on the inside are harvesting your details and selling them on to middlemen? The goal of selling on the data was to allow other companies to call these people before their contracts finished, and move them on to other deals.

Unfortunately the punishment for these offences are purely financial – which is why some are calling for a prison sentence to be introduced. Certainly a fine isn’t going to stop organised criminals from going about their ‘business’.

I do feel sorry for those people that have had their records misappropriated, because they are now the source of multiple calls today from various third parties (since the data has been shared around) apparently – quite apart from the fact that sensitive personal data that could be used to fraud them, is out there on the InterWeb.

Hopefully T-Mobile can get things back on track really quickly, and minimise the problems for people who are currently suffering. I’d think that perhaps decent gestures of goodwill would go a long way to helping, but that’s just me with my consumer hat on

Related News from IntoMobile:

• UK drivers know it’s illegal to use a mobile phone while driving but think penalties are not harsh enough
• Mobile 2.0 Europe: Context panel
• UK: new service launches to find people by their mobile numbers…
• Polish Mobile OpCos working together on Mobile TV?
• All your Internet phone calls and email data trails stored…

Orange is launching People Projects, a new Facebook application that lets people communicate with their social network and create groups online that want to support, or be part of community projects.  This is in line with Orange’s “brand vision” ( which is “Together we can do more”).

The new service encourages web users to discover a number of projects or initiatives where they are based, get in touch with the project owners or other volunteers, and communicate with one another.  It also lets the groups demonstrate their achievements and share them with the world. Starting in the UK and France, People Projects is an application developed for social networks (with Facebook leading the way), as well as its own supporting site:

Facebook app: http://apps.facebook.com/people-projects/

Website: http://www.peopleprojects.orange.com/home

The Facebook application enables web users to manage and fulfill shared projects, whether they are personal or community-focused  (e.g. holding a neighbourhood picnic or organising a charity event).

From today, all web users registered on Facebook are able to download the People Projects by Orange in order to create their own project and invite people to take part. In the future, Orange will offer the application on other community networks in addition to Facebook.  Initially available on the Web, People Projects by Orange will later be released for the mobile.

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Orange today announced a partnership with Twitter, which will enable customers to send and receive Twitter updates directly from their mobile phones using text messaging. It also sees Orange become the first mobile phone operator to enable customers to upload and share photos on Twitter via MMS.

The partnership has been designed to give Orange customers fast and simple access to Twitter without the need to download special software or pay extra for services.  Customers will be able to update their own ’tweets’, send direct messages to other Twitter users and receive alerts on Twitter activity all through text messaging.  Twitter alerts will be available free, with upload text messages either included in customers’ bundles or charged at the usual rate.

Orange customers will have full control over Twitter alerts sent to their mobile phones with customers able to choose to receive text message updates on ‘tweets’ from all people they follow, individual users or direct messages. They’ll also be able to set times for receiving ‘tweets’.

So far, so good you might think – but it actually gets better (and more interesting):

Orange has also become the first mobile phone operator to enable customers to upload and share photos on Twitter via MMS. The Orange service enables customers to post their photos on ‘Snapshot’, a site developed by Orange UK, which automatically posts the link directly to Twitter in a ‘tweet’ and allow followers to add comments.

Finally, Twitter will also join Facebook, MySpace and Bebo on Social Life, a mobile social networking aggregator created by Orange which brings together social networking activity in one central place.  Accessible from Orange World, Orange’s mobile internet portal, Social Life allows customers to view and post updates and get in touch with friends and family across all four social networks at the same time through a single log-in.

So in summary then, Orange has gone large on its partnership with Twitter – but the most interesting thing, from my perspective, is the MMS capability – Twitter strikes me as something that has been crying out for an MMS integration, so it’s good to see it happening. I don’t imagine for a second Orange will be the first and last Operator to do this, watch the floodgates open now!

To find out more about the service, Orange mobile users should visit Orange World from their mobile handset.

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