Over the last few days there haven't been as many posts here as usual. I apologize but this will still be the case for another week at most. It won't be a complete freeze of the blog, but I'll only post really important things that haven't been all over the blogosphere. Everything else will be covered by "Any chance you missed this?" posts.
I am in the process of buying a new computer and transferring everything to it from my current machine. I am also working on some things I can't reveal yet, but only for the better of this blog, I assure you.
Loads of post ideas are piling up in my head so when everything will be sorted out there will be a lot of original content here. Things to look forward to include a few more posts on the Nokia N810, a review of SpinVox, a comparison between Opera Mini 4.1 Beta and TeaShark 0.9 Beta, my take on the different 'ends' of the phone market and why Nokia is 'king' of the high end and low end, but lags in mid-market, and lots more.
So please bear with me for a few more days.
Thank you and thank you for reading S60 Info.
Stay tuned!
Nokia N82 gets a software update
This update brings:
- Flash Lite 3 (read:Flash video support in the browser, a.k.a. YouTube and the likes)
- WRT (Web RunTime, a.k.a. Widgets)
- GPS Location Tagging integrated as an option in the camera interface (don't worry, it's turned off by default)
- camera exposure improvements
- improvements to Bluetooth headset interoperability
- the usual bugfixes and performance improvements
Remember, the N82 has User Data Preservation, however I strongly advise you to back up your data before upgrading, just in case anything goes wrong. You can backup to a memory card or to Nokia PC Suite.
[Source: All About Symbian]
Speaking Freely
"Testing publishing through SpinVox this is a test toast which is publish through SpinVox. I'm just checking this out."
spoken through SpinVox
[EDIT] That wasn't perfect, but I will try again at more decent hours. There really is something wrong with my voice after 11PM, I kid you not. And you have to admit, "test toast" sounds like a million bucks!Next time hopefully I'll be speaking something, not just testing.
And a review of SpinVox is coming.
Any chance you missed this? (1)
Here's the first post in this new section. Although everything in this post is interesting and worth a read, there is a high probability that you've already read some, if not most of these news items.
For good measure, I threw in a few things that were NOT heavily mirrored, so go ahead, read through the links, perhaps you'll find something worth your time...
- The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet WiMax Edition has been officially announced [WOM World]
- Nokia E90 firmware v200.something was released and then pulled off the NSU. Early adopters reported random crashes [All About Symbian]
- New Nokia N81 firmware is apparently on the way, it will bring Flash Lite 3 (Flash video support) and demand paging [Nokia Users]
- New Nokia N95 8GB firmware to bring User Data Preservation? [All About Symbian]
- MosKillto is an interesting accelerometer-based game, like Mirage Money [Symbian Web Blog]
- Text messages will become colorful [Crave]
- White Nokia N96 leaked [Symbian Web Blog]
- Coming soon to Japan: remote control with a wink [Textually]
- Astraware, the top name in PDA gaming, starts releasing games for Symbian OS [All About Symbian]
- EA Mobile games now available for Symbian [Symbian Freak]
- CellAdmin launches Jagango, community portal for mobile Internet websites [IntoMobile]
- SMS and Email pen saves and sends what you write [Textually]
- Wayfinder Active to go head to head with Nokia Sports Tracker [IntoMobile]
- How To: Embed Sports Tracker Data to Your Blog and Make Position Art Like Stavros [The Nokia Blog]
- mConnection shows you the amount of used traffic and the current speed of your connection [Symbian Freak]
- CNN, National Geographic, Wallpaper and Lonely Planet armed with N82 put a twist on journalism [The Nokia Guide]
- New slider version of the N95-1, photo and video proof [Symbian World]
- CarMeter can measure your car's acceleration and display the G force in real time on your phone's display [Symbian Freak]
- AutoThemes lets you schedule themes [Symbian Guru]
- Two of the world's largest environmental organizations, WWF and IUCN, supported by Nokia, are launching connect2earth.org for young people to tell the world what they think about the environment [Nokia PR]
- European Commission gives approval to in-flight calling over Europe [Engadget Mobile]
- Voiceless calling with the Audeo Think N' Spell [Engadget Mobile]
Still nothing on N-Gage
But I was really excited about N-Gage. And still am. Not that I should be, at least not now. It's more about the long-term capability to influence the market, than it's about the present five games. Yes, five. A grand total of five games, that's what the official launch of N-Gage Arena, N-Gage 2.0 or whatever you'd like to call it, brought.
Since I'm not a gamer, I wasn't as excited with the games as I was with the social element of N-Gage. Online multiplay and so on. Which is all nice in concept, but in practice the app is slow and setting up a game is a pain. And you have five games to choose from.
Ok, I wrote two paragraphs about N-Gage, wow...but that's it. There's nothing else I can get myself to write. I will post more on N-Gage when a decent number of games will be available. In the mean time, I advise you to read:
- How to replay your N-Gage First Access games [All About Symbian]
- How to install the new N-Gage app to the N73, N93 and N93i, which are not officially supported yet [Symbian Web Blog]
- Why Devin Balentina is not impressed with N-Gage [The Nokia Guide]
- The official Press Release.
Dolby comes to Nokia S60 smartphones
At CTIA Dolby Laboratories showed off Dolby Surround support on the Nokia N95 8GB, dubbed Dolby Mobile.
Wait. What?
What is this, China? Are more-than-two speakers on a phone hitting mainstream?
No. It's an app, developed by Dolby Laboratories, that runs in the background and, I have to quote this, "takes plain, old stereo sound and give it a 3D feel and increased depth" (from IntoMobile).
According to the blogosphere (and especially the guys over at IntoMobile, who got some hands-on time with this at the Mobile World Congress in February), it's really useful and all.
I just can't believe this. An app that 'magically' turns stereo into surround, 3D sound? I remember now, I already have such a thing on my N95! And it's 100% useless! So hopefully the Dolby app will be better.
And now let's put this into perspective. Samsung have been constantly pushing dedicated Digital Sound Processors (developed by Bang & Olufsen) in their recent high end phones, including their S60 lineup. And according to Eldar from Mobile Review, one such Samsung smartphone, the i450, produces the best sound on the market right now.
And this... is... Nokia's... answer?! An app?
[Source and Image source: IntoMobile]
Are the tablets consumer-friendly devices? (Thoughtfix edition)
Don't get me wrong, I love the N810, but I really can not be convinced that the average consumer would. More on my thoughts will follow in a few days, after I decide on what to write that Daniel hasn't already mentioned. Maybe I'll do a post focusing on why I agree with what he wrote, and why I don't, where I don't (there are such parts, but very few).
More posts are coming on the N810, there won't just be one more post.
In the mean time, click here to read Thoughtfix's... thoughts.
Mobilize your site for free with Mowser, FeedM8 or Mippin Maker
So you have your wonderful site or blog and you're proud of it. You're happy with the way it looks on a computer.
But wait. What if your readers want to access it from their mobile phones?
Sure, the S60 Browser for example renders pages more or less exactly like they are seen on a computer. But what if your readers don't own an S60 smartphone? What if they want to view your site on a razr? Or through Internet Explorer mobile?
Luckily, there are many services that help you 'mobilize' content. Few are free, though. Here are my thoughts on what I think are the Top 3 free mobilization services.
Mowser
Mowser mobilizes the web by taking HTML pages normally viewed on a PC and adapting them so they work on a mobile phone. You can use it by going to Mowser.com on your phone and entering the URL of the site you wish to visit. You can even bookmark a certain site you view through Mowser, since the mobilized URLs have permalinks. A service that works in a very similar way is Skweezer.
Nice and useful if you are stuck with a mobile browser that predates the 3rd Millennium.
What if you're a webmaster or blogger?
Well, if you have your own domain you can map the m. subdomain to Mowser. Meaning that your readers can then go to m.yourdomain.com and automatically view the mobilized version of your site. Even better is that any external links in the adapted pages go through Mowser as they normally do, but any links to your own domain stay as m.yourdomain.com. Which means that if a post entitled "Test Post" on your blog normally has the address www.yourdomain.com/something/testpost, its mobile version will be m.yourdomain.com/something/testpost. And again, these are permalinks, they can be bookmarked and the address stays the same.
Click here for instructions on how to map the m. subdomain to point to the mobilized-by-Mowser version of your site. You can also add an additional header to your HTML pages to inform search indexes about your mobile version as described here.
If you have a hosted Wordpress blog there are many mobilization options, I am aware. Mowser also have their own Wordpress plugin, available here.
To get an idea of how a certain web page looks when mobilized by Mowser, just go to the Mowser site on your computer and enter the URL.
FeedM8
FeedM8 has a different approach to mobilization. It grabs your site's RSS feed and creates a mobile site out of it. The mobile site you create using this method will have its own www.feedm8.com/yourchoice URL. You can customize the look and feel of your mobile site and all. I came across one major disadvantage while trying this service: download links simply don't work. As in, they're not shown as links at all. Weird. But this still is a service worth a look, if you don't usually have download links on your blog or site.
A very neat feature of FeedM8 is Text Alerts. For your readers who live in the US or Canada, here is yet another option for staying up-to-date with your content: yes, text messages. Depending on the type of information you're delivering, you can offer your readers all updates, updates for select keywords, or updates based on user specified keywords. If a keyword is selected, the user will only receive an alert if the new content contains the keyword. The deployment of the text messages is free. For you, at least.
Mippin Maker
Mippin Maker is similar to FeedM8, in that it fetches your RSS feed to create the mobile site. The URL of your mobile site will be mippin.com/yourchoice. Customization options are there, and furthermore, if you have an AdMob account, you can tie that to your mobile site, and Mippin Maker will serve ads that you receive the revenue for.
Also noteworthy is that the parent company, Mippin, has a mobile personalized homepage service available at Mippin.com (when accessed on a mobile device) and a mobile site search engine. If you use Mippin Maker to mobilize your site, the mobilized version will show up in Mippin search results. Mippin.com was reviewed by All About Symbian here and here.
Sadly, external links are only available if you choose to view the original (non-mobilized) page. At least you get this option, unlike with FeedM8.
Final thoughts
The fact that I use Mowser for the mobilized version of S60 Info says it all. I tried FeedM8, but its lack of external links was a deal breaker for me. And even if Mippin Maker does give you a "View original page" option at the end of each post, I strongly believe that external links should be shown inside each post, exactly where they are on the 'normal' version of the page.
However. If you haven't yet created a mobile version of your site or blog, I strongly encourage you to. It will make the lives of your readers much easier. And do check out all of these free options, you won't know for sure which best suits you until you try them all (except if, like me, you must have links shown inside your posts).
[UPDATE]
As you can see from the Comments section, Scott from Mippin wrote that they will be enabling external links in a few weeks. Whenever this happens, I will give Mippin Maker another try and will definitely post my experience.
JoikuSpot turns your S60 phone into a WiFi hotspot
Anyway, this is a very interesting idea and it's still under development. Keep in mind that at this time you can only browse on http and https protocols, IMAP and ftp, for example, don't work. Yes there is WEP encryption, but hopefully future versions will also feature WPA (which is a way more advanced encryption standard).
Also with v1.2 came the announcement that in the future there will be two different variations of the software, namely JoikuSpot Light (free) and JoikuSpot Premium (which will not be free and supposedly will have more advanced features).
Click here for more information and to download JoikuSpot Light Beta v1.2
[Source: Symbian Guru]
Two new sections
Two new sections (or categories, whatever you prefer) are set to debut here on S60 Info, Any chance you missed this? and Hot links.
Any chance you missed this? will be the title (and the label) of posts focusing mainly on news that has been reported, mirrored, and then re-reported across the blogosphere. It's the replacement for copy-and-paste posts, which disturbingly are becoming more and more of a trend nowdays. Don't get me wrong, there will still be dedicated news posts, but only when at least one line of such a post will be 100% mine. And this will happen whenever I have a thought, an idea about that piece of news, or when it is something that ranks very high on my interest level.
Other than that, 'news' will probably show up a few times a week in these Any chance you missed this? posts, with several news items covered by each. I myself am getting just a little bit tired of reading the same post, the exact same post, for at least ten times whenever some new app is released (to donators only, of course) or some new firmware version leaks (see? we now have firmware version leaks, I wonder what's next...), so I thought I'd spare you the same ordeal, since you are probably following other related blogs as well.
Hot links will basically be posts containing links to the most interesting original content I come across. Think Google Reader shared items, but without the spam and the useless crap. These posts will definitely be rare, and be warned that the articles they will link to will probably have more than the average length. This label is meant for very well-thought posts, insights, comparisons and so on. They won't be easy reads, but in my opinion they will be worth your time.
N-Gage is finally live!
DOWNLOAD THE N-GAGE APP HERE
Phones supported at this time: N81, N82, N95 and N95 8GB.
Details here, on Symbian Guru.
I have downloaded and installed the new N-Gage app and will update this post later with my thoughts.
Opera Mini 4.1 Beta available
The well known Java-based web browser that is compatible with almost any phone on the planet just got an update, and the world of proxy-based web browsing from your phone just got even more interesting.
Opera Software were the first to release a Java-based web browser for mobile phones that worked through a proxy server. Essentially what that means is that before the site you want to view hits your phone, it first goes through an Opera server, where it is converted so that it will use less of your bandwidth. A lot less, in most cases. This goes up (or down, one might say) to 10% of the original site's size. Which makes such solutions ideal for people on very tight bandwidth limits.
Improvements brought by Opera Mini 4.1 Beta:
- speed - it is now up to 50% faster than 4.0
- autocomplete URLs (now where have I heard that before?)
- immediately find content in page
- save pages
- download and upload is now possible from within Opera Mini (before it would bring up your phone's default browser for such tasks)
Here is the video tour of Opera Mini 4.1 Beta:
DOWNLOAD OPERA MINI 4.1 BETA
Opera Mini 4.1 beta will install next to any existing version of Opera Mini on your device and will not overwrite any of your data.
TeaShark, a similar proxy-based Java browser that runs on top of the Webkit core (Opera's solutions use their own, in-house developed core) has also been recently announced. I was planning to do a review of TeaShark Beta, and now it seems that it will turn into a comparison post on the two.
Security concerns
The following is taken from the Opera Mini FAQ page, and it also applies to TeaShark (since the idea of proxy-based browsing is the same):
Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank?
No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full web browser such as Opera Mobile.
Opera Mini uses a transcoder server to translate HTML/CSS/JavaScript into a more compact format. It will also shrink any images to fit the screen of your handset. This translation step makes Opera Mini fast, small, and also very cheap to use. To be able to do this translation, the Opera Mini server needs to have access to the unencrypted version of the web page. Therefore no end-to-end encryption between the client and the remote web server is possible.
Can Opera Software see my passwords and credit card numbers in clear text? What is the encryption good for then?The encryption is introduced to protect the communication from any third party between the client (the browser on your handset) and the Opera Mini transcoder server. If you do not trust Opera Software, make sure you do not use our application to enter any kind of sensitive information.
[UPDATE for S60v3 users]
To turn off the annoying Allow application to connect? prompts, go to App. Manager->Opera Mini 4.1, click on it, then click on Open (or Suite settings, the option depends on your firmware version), then click on Network access and select Always allowed. Press OK (left soft key), then Back (right soft key).
At this time, this seems to be the only Java app for which such a setting is possible. In N95-1 firmware v.20, at least.
[Update source: Daily Mobile]
Nokia N810: Customizing the appearance
Themes
The default OS2008 theme is nice, but there are at least two alternatives: the Nuvo Pearl theme and the LCARS PADD (Star Trek) themes. You can find them here. In case you want to install the Star Trek themes, be sure to read the detailed instructions first.
You can always switch between installed themes by clicking on Home->Set theme on the standby screen.
Wallpapers
Interfacelift is one of the best known wallpaper sites. Recently (after Ricky Cadden of Tablet Guru suggested this), they have added support for the N800/N810 (and Asus EEE PC) resolution of 800x480.
Click here for Interfacelift's wallpaper collection.
To change the wallpaper, while at the standby screen, click on Home->Set background image. Then click "Browse" to locate the folder where you have downloaded the wallpaper(s).
Note:
Needless to say, all these themes and wallpapers are free.
Nokia N810: Video, part 2. Solutions
This is a first for me. Having to contradict what I've written in a previous post. Well, not all of it. Still somehow I don't feel bad about this, I'm happy I found a few solutions for the things I had issues with.
Now, I'll say this again, I normally can't be bothered to convert anything into anything else. Especially not video. My reasoning is quite simple, conversion usually takes more or less the same amount of time it would take to actually watch what I'm converting. And since my computer is not exactly top-notch, multitasking while a conversion is in progress is painful.
So the whole point of my N810 review(s) was to look at it from an 'average consumer' perspective. I have to tell you that I've never done this before, so hopefully my take on the Video capabilities of the tablet from this perspective was accurate.
Problem is, I couldn't let it go. I turned back into the usual me after writing that piece on Video. So I began digging, and digging. This post details my findings. Since it's clearly off the 'consumer perspective' path, there won't be any silly question answered at the end of it.
Here goes.
First, the Internet Tablet Video Converter. I was harsh, yes. Then I tested it some more. Got the conversion time (at "Better" quality setting) down to an hour for a ~700 MB .avi XviD file. Just conversion time, copying is a different story. An hour for converting what presumably is an hour-and-a-half video. Not exactly good enough for me. It might be good enough for everyone else, though. And one more thing. I achieved this conversion time by only running the ITVC, and turning off all background processes that aren't needed by the system. Which was good for testing purposes, although I don't think I'd ever use it like this in 'real life'.
Do keep in mind what I needed to constantly remind myself of: this is a beta product. It will certainly be improved in time.
Now for feedback for the ITVC team (I will also post this here, where I strongly encourage you to give feedback too):
- I'd like more 'Advanced' settings. The main Settings menu is fine for a 'normal' user, because it is so easy to use. The 'Advanced' tab, however should have customizable bitrates, customizable audio quality independent of video quality and so on.
- I'd also like the ITVC to support decoding for more codecs and containers (Matroska, for example, is not recognized, even if I have the necessary codecs installed).
- There's something wrong with copying speed. I connected a card reader with the MiniSD card in it, and copying was still as slow as if I had connected the tablet directly, even if it should have been around 4MB/s.
MPlayer has just received an update. Which, for me at least, has managed to make this the single most useful Video app for the tablet. Version 1.0rc1-maemo.26 handles .avi XviD encoded files a lot better than I expected. Audio and video are almost always in sync, and even when they aren't, the sync is regained shortly. The only obvious downside is that frames do get dropped from time to time, but that really is normal given the device's hardware. It plays a lot smoother than Core Player does on my N95, so I'm finally happy. I can finally throw unconverted XviDs at the tablet and they play just fine.
It's not all wonderful, though. MPlayer does have its disadvantages. One is the fact that it doesn't have a touch-enabled on screen display (OSD). And while it does have keyboard shortcuts, they are not easy to find unless you try pressing every single key to find out what it does. Until now, I found that the 'Menu' key on the keyboard opens the OSD. Spacebar pauses and resumes playback. Left or right D-pad keys skip backward or forward a few seconds, while Up and Down skip backward or forward more. If you can't get rid of the OSD, press the hardware 'Back' key.
(Yet another) Rundown of the video players for the N810:
- MPlayer has been explained above
- Canola has the best UI, in my opinion. It will play everything the default player can, and rather smoothly. Since this is a beta app, there are unexpected hangs from time to time. One very nice feature is that the folders where you store your (different types of) media are fully configurable. This ensures that you only get what you want in the Media Library. Also of note is its YouTube plugin, which works wonderfully, however I would have appreciated having the ability to choose aspect ratio. Right now it doesn't have that, and automatically transforms YouTube videos, which are all in 4:3 format, into 16:9. Now that creates a rather disturbing stretch effect. What is nice about it is that "full screen" means almost full screen, there are only tiny horizontal letterboxes. Viewing them in 4:3 aspect ratio would create bigger and more nasty vertical letterboxes. Anyway, choice would be wonderful. Another good standalone YouTube player is mYTube. This does leave the aspect ratio unchanged, however it works rather differently. What it does is it downloads the video to your device, and uses the default Media Player to start playback whenever a sufficient part of the video has been transferred. Works very good, if you remember to delete the downloaded videos from time to time (otherwise it can use up a lot of space).
- The default Media Player will work very well for most people. It plays videos that have been converted using the ITVC better than any other player (which is surprising, to some extent).
- Video Center is the best choice for podcasts, both video and audio, believe it or not! To add a new podcast, just go to Tools->Services->Add, and enter the URL of the podcast feed. It will then show you the list of episodes, which you can download and view or listen to in the default Media Player. More on audio podcasts in a few days in the dedicated post about the Audio capabilities of the tablet.
- It has been my personal experience that all the other Video players for the tablets are not worthwhile. However, I strongly encourage you to try them all, so as to find out which suits you best.
If possible, insert your miniSD (or SD, in the case of the N800) card into a card reader whenever you have to copy large files. If you connect the tablet directly, the best speed you'll get will be around 900 KB/s, whereas with a Class 4 card in a card reader you get about 4 MB/s (Class 6 cards reach speeds of up to 6 MB/s). Until copying speed is fixed in the ITVC (see my feedback above), try not using it for copying the converted videos to the tablet. Instead, in the ITVC, go to Settings, click on the Advanced tab and see where exactly it stores the converted files (the path can be changed, if you want to). Then manually copy from there to the card, either by using Windows Explorer ("My Computer") or software such as Total Commander.
Please note:
I honestly doubt that I would have found out what is described in this post had I continued to go on the 'average consumer' path. To give you an example, Gerry Moth made me aware of the update to MPlayer via Jaiku. And so on. The consumer-oriented review will however continue in future posts, this was hopefully a one-time thing.
Stavros Q&A Session
Stavros is at it again! The 'Position Art Genius' has been interviewed by his fans! Here is the Q&A Session video:
Don't forget to check out Stavros' wonderful site and bloggy, The World is my Canvas.
I wish someone had told me about this, so I could have asked the 'Master of Position Art' a question of my own.
[Source: Symbian Guru]
Concluded the search for the perfect phone. It's here. (Warning: iPhone killer!)
Among its features are:
- the ability to make calls
- send and receive SMS
- integrated flashlight (or should I have written Flash Lite?)
- the ability to pre-set call times
- MP3-grade ringtones with adjustable volume
- One Touch shortcut keys for SMS messaging, calendar, contacts, loudspeaker, and flashlight
- Analog/digital clock, alarm clock
- countdown timer, and stopwatch (S60 phones do not have these features, I kid you not)
- Reminders for important meetings and appointments
- Calculator
- Converter
- Made from robust, durable materials with a non-slip backing to keep your phone firmly in your hand.
So next time you say "I only need a phone for calling and texting", remember that THIS is the perfect device for that. Or wake up.
Happy April Foolishness day everyone!
Ease of use is THE thing
Right?
My bet is that you've heard this at least once in the past year. Since Apple 'revolutionized' the mobile industry, with their 500-years-ahead-of-the-competition product. It is understandable that Apple would want you to believe this. The main thing that makes the iPhone stand out (except from the absurd pricing) is its ease of use.
Fine. They can use any buzzwords they want. Marketing is like that. And if you have incredibly clever marketing (like Apple), then you come up with such catchy words.
But the problem is this: even those that usually don't get fooled by marketing stunts fell hard for this one. It now seems like this is THE focus that the whole industry should have. Which is good in principle. Yeah, there's no point to loads of features if they can't be easily accessed and/or used. Anyway, let's not get ahead of ourselves here, shall we?
WHO exactly is ease of use for?
I have not heard/read ONE good answer to this question. Nobody seems to care. "It has to be done". And that's it. Believe and do not doubt, that's what this is.
I for one DO doubt. Again, generally speaking, you know, "good is good" and "bad is bad". So ease of use is good as a principle.
But focusing the whole industry on this? Why?
Ease of use, the way the average Joe understands this concept, comes with lack of features. Always. The more features, the more the average Joe will be confused.
So the iPhone is easy to use. Good. Is a Nokia 1200 not easy to use?
Not to be misunderstood. The iPhone browser is the most easy to use browser out there. Which is nice, since that will push normobs to use mobile data more. Which is good for everyone. Operators obviously, but the rest of us as well, since presumably prices for data will keep going down.
But UI? Give me a break. The way Apple sees things, they know what you want better than you do. I know, this may be true, if you're a normob. But if you aren't, the last thing you should do is preach an Apple-like 'vision' of UIs. They have created a phone that is good for nothing else than calling, texting (in light of recent firmware updates only) and browsing. So it should be 'better' than the aforementioned 1200 because it also features that wonderful browser. THAT'S IT, ladies and gentlemen.
If Nokia came up with a UI similar to Apple's, I would not buy a Nokia smartphone. Period.
People might argue that this is only valid for so-called "power users". Exactly. It is. And what power users should do instead of constantly whining that the iPhone UI is not replicated by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and all others is actually SHOW a normob how to use those other, oh-so-complicated UIs. Which would make normobs either not want an iPhone or anything else overly simplistic, or make them suddenly realize that all they actually need is a Nokia 1200. Any other conclusion would solely be based on the desire to show off. Which I don't care for. I've seen way too many people that use N95s only for calling. I wonder what's worse: a holstered Blackberry or an N95 used for nothing else than calling? I haven't made up my mind yet, but at least the Blackberries are presumably given to such, erm, users, by their companies.
