So Nokia demonstrated a proof-of-concept video a Nokia media gala called “Go:Play.” I watched the video yesterday, but did not report on it; it’s not a surprise that other mobile companies would brazenly copy the Apple interface. When something good happens, everyone copies it. That’s why Apple out-innovates itself; they want to ensure that they are their own best competition. And, I have to say that I’m glad I didn’t report on it yesterday: it turns out that Nokia’s concept is far from delivery. Quoth Gizmodo:
“Nokia has confirmed that this demo is strictly for the UI, not the device: the hardware is not real and the LCD’s images are overlaid. Yes, it’s not even a working prototype”
The end of the ad mentions that elegance and simplicity is what Nokia has, and always will, deliver. You can either believe the words or believe the faked picture. It sounds like vaporware to me; it will probably take Nokia a lot of time to copy the iPhone interface well.
I think you can see a bunch of posturing between the two companies that are ‘poised’ to release the iPhone unlock, but both of them have law-talkin’ work to do before they can.
Anyway, here’s a wee bit of posturing from the iPhone Unlocking blog. The unlock video isn’t a good quality video; it’s all done with his Nokia N95; the video is chunky, as shaky as anything could really hope to be. The Windows command-line text that proves the connection and unlock process is all a big blur. Once it’s all said and done, he puts in his sim card, and it appears to work just fine. But if you need to watch it, it’s here. Bonus points for him exposing his friend Liz’s phone number in her voice mail when she doesn’t answer his call.
Erling Ellingsen figured out how to get the iPhone to report data from its accelerometers at a faster rate, which opens the doors to all sorts of fun apps that use the accelerometer. You can see the apps that Ellingsen is thinking about developing on his survey, for example. He gives some proofs of concept on his iPhone in the very brief video above. And he’s posted the source code to it all too. Brilliant! [via]
Some of the Finnish folks of F-Secure decided to freeze an iPhone. Why? To see what would happen, and nothing really did. If you want proof, there’s a dull YouTube video.
YouTube junkies looking for an easy way to transfer and view Flash video to your iPhone, in place of Apple’s ill-equipped streaming client, can now breath a sigh of relief. TubeTV makes saving and converting any Flash video content to iPhone/iPod format quick and easy, just the way we like it.
Download this free application now so you watch all those wonderful videos of cats wearing hats and sweater vests.
Hello? Barnes? Ah, good, I reached you. Listen old chap, I’ve just been glancing over the newswire coming across my teletype and apparently this so called iPhone thing seems to be causing quite a stir. Yes, quite.
This website claims that some commoners may even watch video on the bloody thing. Yes, rubbish…that’s what I thought as well, but apparently it’s quite true. What? No, no I don’t want one. I still don’t believe there is anything to this whole notion of mobile communications. It’s a mere fad, nothing too it really. Give me a good landline connection and a Padilla cigar any day. Must run along now. Ta!
Dieter Bohn of WMExperts recorded a longish video of comparisons between the HTC Touch and the Apple iPhone. He spent about a week with the iPhone before the Touch came in, so the iPhone gets a pretty fair shake in terms of how its stacked up. I’ll spoil the ending, the HTC Touch wins. So why link the video? Well, it does a fine job of showing why I gave the iPhone a 7/10 for smartphone users and a 9/10 for featurephone users in my review: the iPhone is a monster in media and browsing, but a bit of a laggard for 3rd party apps and PIM. The iPhone looms heavily in his mind, though. Witness his closing sentence:
“Man… Microsoft, you gotta get that browser fixed… Like, right now.”
It has to be said that this video compares “Windows Mobile version 6″ to “iPhone version 1.” As I said in my review, I have no plans to return to any of my previous Palm OS or Windows Mobile smartphones. Many of these shortcomings will be fixed with software updates. The big question is pretty much “when?”
Dieter Bohn (yeah, his name is so French) of WM Experts does a nice walk through comparison between the HTC Touch and iPhone, stacking up each device’s feature set and functionality. I agree with Dieter’s overall assessment and conclusions, except for his assertion the Touch’s onscreen keyboard comes out ahead of iPhone through third party software.
Windows Mobile offers greater flexibility and productivity, but overall it’s an inferior platform compared to OSX. That said I still prefer WinMob to Blackberry or Symbian.
Apple has posted another video. Today, it’s an instructional video for the Apple iPhone keyboard. The magnifying glass is a nice effect for cursor placement. We also now have confirmation that contact names are added to the dictionary.
