Category Archives: Handsets

Feature vs. Smartphone

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Feature vs. the Smart-phone. That is the question. There is no straight answer; the lines are blurring too fast. At the end, your definition might be different from mine:

Both Feature and Smartphones support voice and data capabilities, including multimedia audio and video, camera, gaming, high-speed networks, GPS and advanced user interfaces. Both are programmable. And both are updatable on the field. While the line that separates Feature vs. Smartphones is become thinner over time, Smartphones are considered more advanced and are more like a portable Internet computer with voice capabilities, as opposed to the Feature phone which is seen as a programmable cell-phone device with data capabilities. Compared against Smartphones, the Feature phone is typically Java or BREW-based, while the Smartphone has an advanced operating system and corresponding development environments.

ceo

Reverse Engineering the iPhone

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I read at Mika's blog about a video from Semiconductor insights, which is a company that reverse engineers electronic products, that shows the iPhone being dismantled to learn about the electronic components being used — see below:


–Disclaimer: Bill, you may not want to watch this video — might make you want to cry!–

Towards the end of the video, the guy (the engineer) says something along the following lines “there is nothing here that makes the iPhone special”…

…but of course there is! …it is the   S o f t w a r e!

ceo

[Via Mika's blog]

Nokia 6131 NFC

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I (finally) got my hands on a Nokia 6131 NFC handset with which I have been playing with. This handset is to be released later this year (summer) here in the U.S.

The 6131 NFC is a Series 40 3rd Edition (FP1) handset with support for the following Java APIs:

  • MIDP 2.0 / CLDC 1.1
  • Advanced Multimedia Supplements
  • Bluetooth API
  • File Connection and PIM API
  • JTWI clarifications
  • MMAPI
  • Mobile 3D Graphics API
  • Mobile Internationalization API
  • Scalable 2D Vector Graphics API
  • WMA 2.0, 1.0
  • Web Services Specification
  • Contactless Communication API

…a pretty good list of supported APIs, and support for WAP 2.0
.

It's primary display has a resolution of 240 x 320 with a color depth of 24 bits, and a secondary display with a resolution of 128 x 160 with a color depth of 18 bits. The handset's display is crisp; very clear.

Memory storage holds 11 MB, with JAR files up to 1MB. It has a Micro SD slot.

Connectivity-wise the handset supports EGPRS, GPRS, HSCSD, CSD (GSM 850 900, 1800, 1900), Bluetooth, Infrared, USB, and well as NFC.

The handset supports the following video formats: 3GPP formats (H.263), H.264/AVC, MPEG-4. The following audio formats are supported: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, WMA, Mobile XMF, SP-MIDI, AMR (NB-AMR), MIDI Tones (poly 64), True tones (WB-AMR), and it comes with an AAC/MP3 player and FM radio.

But the real treat for me is its support for NFC, or Near Field Communication, which I believe will totally take off, and will be pervasive on all handsets, as pervasive as Bluetooth is today; but we are a couple of years away from the “NFC sweet spot”. But to get there, we must start today. The Nokia 6131 NFC SDK 1.0 is available from Forum Nokia. The Forum Nokia Wiki has a Nokia 6131 NFC FAQ and other very good information.

Of interest is the handset's support for the Contactless Communication API (JSR-257), which is the enabler for NFC “smartcard” I/O from Java; exciting – more on this later on…

The 6131 NFC SDK

6131 NFC SDK

Overall, I like the handset; its form factor, weight, its crisp display, and its overall features, oh and of course, its support for NFC… And Nokia has done a good job with documentation, resources and tools.

ceo

Betting on the All-in-One Handset

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Gaming, on-line gaming, seamless voice, push-to-talk, VoIP, video sharing and streaming, entertainment, access to work, email, music, IM, payments, SMS, mobile web, etc, etc, etc. The All-in-One handset.

BussinessWeek reports that DoCoMo is betting on the All-in-One Gizmo. Mike Elgan from The Raw Feed writes Why the BlackBerry Pearl Is the Future of Phones.

While handset convergence is the way of the future, I still feel that power-users, such as power-gamers, or power-music-listeners, and so on will rely on specialized handsets for such. Functionality convergence I see it to be more about “casual usage convenience”, meaning that successful converged handsets is about being “good enough” on many aspects, but not terribly good on a given one, well, except for voice, and data. The other factor is that not everyone (if you are reading this blog, you probably are the “exception”) cares about a heavily converged device; this of course varies with the region/country. That said, it would be awesome to have an All-in-One handset; I want one…

What do you think?

ceo