It’s fair to guess Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will launch a new Internet tablet device later this year. We’ve already posted an article with the rumored specs, but we haven’t said — cause we don’t know — whether the touchscreen used will be capacitive or resistive. The point of this article is to make the case for the use of capacitive touchscreen as well as a chance to add my 2 cents to the table.

First of all, I must say that I’m a big fan of the Maemo platform. Though I haven’t used the original Nokia 770, I relied on the N800 a lot. Coupled with a Bluetooth keyboard, it was my mobile office, and I wrote hundreds (yes hundreds) of articles for IntoMobile on it. Later on, I ordered the N810 from the U.S. — because it was significantly cheaper due to a weak dollar — but it got lost in the transport to Europe. Boy was I pissed…

Anyway, I continued using my N800 until I bought the Dell Mini 9, which is the cornerstone of my current mobile office. This is not to say I’m not using the N800 any more, it’s just that I’m not using it as often as I used to.

As a matter of fact, I brought the Nokia tablet with me to Barcelona. And there’s the part where my plead for the capacitive touchscreen comes in. It was very hard, almost impossible to see anything on the N800’s screen under the Sun in Spain. At the same time I had my iPhone with me, which touchscreen hasn’t bothered me at all. Now you could argue the capacitive touchscreen is no good for some markets in Asia where handwriting recognition is a must have feature, to which I say - fine, make two versions of the device, one with capacitive and the other one with resistive touchscreen. I’m sure, actually quite confident, the capacitive version will outsell the resistive one even if it ends up costing $50 more. And having a choice could prove beneficial to the platform, or at least me thinks so.

To summarize - capacitive touchscreen is a must. Otherwise I don’t see a reason why would someone (mainstream user, not a Linux fan) would go for Maemo rather than Windows Mobile. The rumored specs we’ve seen go in line some of the existing WinMo smartphones such as some HTC and Acer models, which rely on the “classic” resistive touchscreen technology. This is not to say this is the only reason for selecting one platform over another, it’s just something pretty visible/tangible to the end user.

You could argue an AMOLED screen could do the trick, but i don’t buy it.

As for the rest of my wishes, I hope Nokia will use the same or at least very similar keyboard as the one the N810 has. I like the D-pad on the left, but I don’t like the new-look keyboard of the N97. To be fair, the N810’s keyboard could slide a bit more down to leave little more space for the first row of the keys.

Moreover I’m looking forward to see a decent CPU running the show, and from what we’ve heard, that will be the case. Will Intel jump in as a supplier? I think that may happen, though Nokia could opt for some other chip maker for the first Maemo 5 device — some of their existing semiconductor suppliers.

Finally, to further spur the adoption of the Maemo platform, Nokia should offer the new Maemo device(s) to developers either for free or with a significant discount. The same should go for journalists and bloggers. Speaking of latter, have I mentioned I’m a big fan of Maemo?

Hi y’all - I’ve been offline for a few days, dealing with the very recent arrival of our (and by that I mean my wife and I, not the IntoMobile team!) second baby  - a bonnie little boy! Suffice to the say these last days have been quite interesting from an emotional, sleep, and general energy level perspective!

Any of you that were reading my posts shortly after joining IntoMobile will know that I have written some posts on Babies and Mobiles - specifically, the benefits (or not) that having a Mobile device can lend to one of the most important events of your life, should you choose that path! The first post I wrote on this was about the image quality on cameraphones being CACK - it was a smartphone toting a 5MP camera that was the culprit of producing some poor shots of my (then) little ‘un.

18 months on, and with the arrival of our second, things have changed radically - not just in terms of image quality, but general mobile usage. In fact, knowing image quality often isn’t great on Mobiles, I brought with me a 7.2MP dedicated digi-camera, plus an HD video camcorder - oh yes, I was prepared this time. And before I continue, I should caveat the Mobile I had with me - an iPhone 3G, running OS 3.0….

So was it better this time with the arrival of our second? Well yes, I was calmer, plus my tech was chomping at the bit ready to record his first movements! The fact I had image and video on dedicated devices left me some confidence that I could record his first moment in genuinely better quality that for our first. In the event though, I decided to give the 2MP iPhone camera a go too, purely out of interest - and I surprised myself because it did a good job!

Let’s just recap - no flash, no focus as such, and only 2MP - yet perfectly serviceable quality - certainly good enough to email and MMS to people (yes, using the new MMS feature on the iPhone, working nicely!). In fact, in terms of general perceptible quality, I’d say certainly as good as the (unnamed) 5MP smartphone…. hmm….the MP count ain’t always the deciding factor with digital imaging!

The dedicated devices took the heavy lifting duties - HD video and HQ pix are now stored and ready to be added to a growing mountain as time goes on. The little chap is more animated by the day, and I’m sure pix opportunities will abound over the next few months! But what did I think were the key differences now compared to 18 months ago for MY mobile usage:

• the iPhone 3G dropped (and I got one) - made a huge difference to my ease of mobile use - I actually enjoy it’s UI!
• Email-handling better than on previous devices (again the iPhone)
• all devices retaining battery charge well (evidence of high capacity LI-Ion batteries….)
• video capture of ‘mobile’ (portable) devices incrementally better
• device media sync is better - can you say ‘YouTube upload’ - I can, in one click!!!

Anyone that has a baby on the way, and loves their tech - have a real think about capturing your loved one’s first moments - you don’t want a grainy image or stuttery video as the first recorded memories you have - get that device strategy in place!

Ben

Interestingly, looking across both tariff prices or one-off device purchase costs, the difference between iPhone 3GS 16GB and 32GB versions appears to be pretty much fixed at £90 (ish).

Now, I was pondering whether there was anything else I was missing, in terms of differences between the two variants of the 3GS, but it appears not - it’s just the extra memory you are getting - and so here’s my question: is the extra 16GB worth £90?

The reason I ask this is (a) because I noticed there is literally no variance in that £90 price differential, no matter if you buy the device outright or in contract; but also (b) because I noticed the 16GB models were selling more/faster than the 32GB models. If £90 is just too much extra (as an amount) on top of what is already an expensive device, and it’s just for extra memory, it’s no great surprise that people are going for the 16GB model.

I suspect, for people that have had 8GB devices before now, 16GB seems like quite a step up - but oddly, on updating my current iPhone 3G device the other day, I found I had less than 0.5GB remaining on the device - and I’m not a super-heavy user on the music/video front!

So on the one hand we have the thought that 16GB maybe isn’t all that big, but then on the other hand that people are actively discouraged from going for the larger capacity 32GB model, because that extra memory is a big chunk of money, on top of an existing larger amount of money! Or I suppose another way to say it is: is the iPhone 3GS 32GB just a bit too dear?

Your thoughts, are most certainly welcome, IntoMobile-readership!

I’ve been reading the InterWebs of within the last week or so, and there’s been ‘quite a bit’ (wow, that’s the understatement of the year) of negative feedback on the costs of both the tethering (using the iPhone 3GS as a wireless modem), and also the cost of the new iPhone 3GS itself.

I can definitely see the arguments from the consumer side - Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) announces a desired new feature and just says “tethering” - great, everyone thinks, now I have a wireless modem too - but they don’t give any detail on the service cost. Likewise, they announce the device, but focus on features. Of course, when reality strikes, suddenly the costs of ownership/usage hit home!

But lets look at this reasonably - that is one fairly expensive device, so was it ever going to be (close to) free to upgrade? No. Does the tethering feature cannibalise the Operators’ USB modem strategy, removing what would have been potential customers? Yes. So you can see from the Operator side of things, they need to cover both the cost of the device, and the fact they now have extra traffic (generated by tethered iPhones) using the data access on their networks heavily.

The sting in the tail for the tethering issue is that most iPhone owners have some form of unlimited web access added to their contracts, so in theory you would think that it might include the tethering too - wrong. Unfortunately Laptop browsing (via the tethered iPhone) would occur at an entirely different usage rate that people just browsing on-device - and hence the Operators need to charge for this in order to cover costs.

But the biggest issues that I can see are really those of consistency and context - last time, with the 2G to 3G device, there was an upgrade path, and it was offered to customers - this time round, people have to bite the bullet. That’s just not consistent. Likewise, with the tethering, no real context was given when it was announced - and people get the wrong idea (about it being effectively free).

Ultimately it’s all about how the powers that be communicate their product and service offerings - if you aren’t clear or you don’t offer explanations, then you end up with a whole series of issues, and potentially LOTS of disgruntled customers. I can’t help think that with consistency and context on-point, a lot of this could have been avoided.

Having said that, it doesn’t matter does it - Apple will still sell loads of iPhone 3GSs!

Walls, bricks, mobile devices, and WiFi networks - a good mixture of stuff, not all of which plays nice together….

I’ve recently been re-architecting my home network, so that all of my mobile devices (and in those include laptop and netbook, since they are portable) can access a network easily, no matter where I am in the house. Now, I don’t have the largest of house by any means, but the surprising effects of a few decent walls are that a WiFi signal for example becomes extremely erratic.

To counter this problem, I have encrypted powerline networking running, allowing the re-hubbing of the wireless signal - since mobile device don’t have the greatest WiFi aerials, it is a case of needing to put a wireless signal in proximity of them.

Then the other day a though occurred to me - how many lots of wireless overlap do I have running? Well I reckon it’s at least 4 lots:

• Wireless network 1 
• Wireless network 2 (created because the first doesn’t reach to certain areas of the house)
• Baby Monitor type 1 
• Baby (Video) Monitor type 2

All of these operate in the 2.4GHz band, right in that sweetspot of WiFi - and then on top of that you can add another 6 networks (at least) from neighbours in the near vicinity. That’s a LOT of crossover, yet everything seems to work - for now.

So I think that’s a decent amount of overlap wirelessly, going on at home - question is, can you beat it? C’mon, post up a comment and let us know - including whether you get any interference issues….

One of these days, someone is going to come up with a decent ‘mobilised’ solution for babies - I reckon I could write a functional spec within a couple of days - after all, I’ve got the mobile experience, and I’m the proud owner of one baby - with another on the way (eeeeeeeeeeek!)…

However, for the moment I have to put up with what is one the market for baby monitoring. Of course, if you don’t have a little ‘un, this might not be of immediate interest - however, I recommend you read on, as you never know, one day you might have one!!!

If you have read posts I’ve written before on babies and monitor (audio and video),  you’ll know I am no fan - the tech in them is 10+ yrs old, and yet is charged at a stupid cost (often £100+) - because manufacturers prey on parents’ insecurities about what might happen to their precious ones….

So the other day the wife and I invested in a video monitor - it’s *new* tech (yay!) in that it sets up a wireless connection automatically (THANK GOD no manual pairing…..), and streams video over a bespoke, secured, wireless interface. It even manages around wireless (WiFi) networks

The video codec in use is H.264, and it sports night-vision, digital zoom (that actually isn’t crap), and good batteries - the parent unit is even in a mobile phone form factor!

Awesome you think… well it has omitted/not delivered on on some critical features IMHO:

* too small screen on the parent unit

* flashing light on the camera (baby) unit - why why why! 

* no temperature monitoring

* no night light

You might think these trivial, but these are the killer features you would expect on a video monitor - yet they are missed out or not delivered right. There’s a supposed additional function to have more than one camera too - except they don’t sell cameras on their own either! Sigh….

Overall though a giant leap forward in the mobile space for monitoring babies… now if only some manufacturer of baby monitors were to read this post…..

What with the advent of the supposed new iPhone, with its supposed rubber case, I thought it might be interesting to consider a selection of back cases (or mouldings) of various devices - with a view to ID-ing the best and worst in terms of medium-term wear. So readers, here are my best(s) and worst(s)

BEST: contender: BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold - the faux-leather effect back case actually betrays what is a very nice idea for masking the effects of scratches etc

BEST: contender: Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95-8GB - a thin covering of rubber-like material meant that the back-case didn’t easily scratch

WORST: contender: Nokia 8800 Scirocco - the removable back case of various Sciroccos that I saw in use scratched just by putting them in and out of the ‘protective leather sheath case’ that came with the device - to be accurate, the paint job on the devices wore away very easily…. why why why?

WORST: contender: iPhone 3G - a very shiny case, that is contoured so that only the middle will sit on a flat surface, means many shallow scratches occur quickly. The bezel on my device also scratched very easily

Conclusion: is it too much to expect your device to remain reasonably scratch-free if you don’t have it in a special case? Well maybe, depends on how whether any engineering thought has gone in to the case design, as regards its wear - certainly it seems to vary between devices.

What do you think readers? Do you try and keep your devices nice? Do you use a special case for your device? Has your device scratched easily? Let us know!

My fave tech-lingo site, NetLingo, has come along with another classic phrase:

digital native

as opposed to a digital immigrant

A “digital native” refers to a person who is born after 1984 and uses computers. As opposed to a “digital immigrant” –one who had to learn their way around the Internet– digital natives have always been surrounded by the culture of online technology.

Crumbs! That means I am a digital immigrant - and in fact when I think about it, there were walkmans when I grew up, PCs ran on Command Line Interface, and Mobiles ran on an analogue network - getting older is a terrible thing

[Via: NetLingo]

Now I might be going slightly mad, but I could swear that my BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold battery lasts longer when charger through the Laptop/USB cable, than it does when charged via the mains…. go figure! 

In an entirely unscientific set of tests, I have been charging the Bold via the mains, and also via the Laptop/USB cable, and then seeing how fast the battery gets thrashed, assuming average use between each charge.

(Related points to note at this juncture are that I have my Bold set to 2G only, because it preserves the battery generally. Also, making voice calls on the Bold for extended periods drains the battery way faster than if just used for Email…..)

Anyhow, charging through the Laptop/USB seems to take hours – hence the reason I call it a “trickle” charging – because the battery is filled up at what seems like a trickle. Mains charging is usually quite a bit faster. But then running the device for periods with normal usage, it would appear that the trickle charge makes the battery last much longer!

What have the IntoMobile readers founds? Anything similar? Or am I off my rocker?!

So what does my fave tech-lingo site have to offer today? Well, howzabout a marginally scary concept of the digital trail you leave whenever you choose to interact in today’s uber-connected world: 

data shadow

Every time you use a credit card, send an e-mail, browse the Web, or use a cell phone, small traces of digital information are left behind. This is referred to as a “data shadow”.

The concern in UK newspapers (perhaps some scaremongering, perhaps not….) is that certain Internet entities are gathering information (such as email, web activity, etc) about us, and it won’t be long before they correlate these axes of information to get a very accurate multi-dimensional picture of us. Even more worryingly, if criminal minds are also piecing information together, they have better means with which to commit illegal acts – be they fraud, ID theft, or other.

[Via: NetLingo]