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New Nokia Phone 248

Posted by CmdrTaco from the we-never-get-cool-phones-here dept.
John writes: "infoSync has posted the official information about the two new Nokia phones which is going to be unveiled today. Quote: 'The Nokia 7650 will be the world's first 2.5G Symbian OS mobile phone with advanced messaging and imaging capabilities ...' It looks like ICQ on the mobile phone is closer than ever!" Includes a built-in camera and various comments about this not coming to North America anytime soon.
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New Nokia Phone More

New Nokia Phone

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  • This looks very slick, however it isn't available for 1900mhz (north american gsm) yet. For some darn reason they always do that, North American GSM seems to be low priority for GSM phone builders.
    • there is no per minute charge for local calls in america
      • And your point is?

        • Re:Very slick (Score:2, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward
          I'm not sure. Maybe he means "there are no per minute charges mainly because the North American mobile infastructure sucks"?

          Trust me, I work in the mobile telecoms sector, and the US infastructure sucks. South Africa has a better GSM network than any state in the US could hope to have.
          • Rest of the World vs USA : 1-0
          • the US infrastucture does suck, but I'd like to see you drive 1000 miles in any direction from whereever you are outside the US and still have service. And that's on your "rest of the world" compatible network.

            That ties the score.

            And "there are no per minute charges because american customers will not allow it." I won't say never, but the reason that the service will not be offered in the US is because it doesn't pay. The phone companies have no incentive to offer extra services for a losing proposition. Every time you ICQ from Sweden or South Africa, the phone company makes money -- you pay less because you're not using as much bandwidth. In America, you pay a flat fee for X minutes.

            • Re:Very slick (Score:2, Informative)

              by 10Ghz ( 453478 )
              "the US infrastucture does suck, but I'd like to see you drive 1000 miles in any direction from whereever you are outside the US and still have service. And that's on your "rest of the world" compatible network."

              Europe. I could travel from Helsinki to Madrid and my cell-phone would still work. Distance: about 3000 kilometers.

    • Re:Very slick (Score:2, Insightful)

      by easter1916 ( 452058 )
      Simple answer - number of subscribers to the different standards. "Regular" GSM is used throughout Europe, the Middle East, the Orient, etc. North American GSM has a tiny installed base. Standardize with the rest of us and you can use these goodies too.
    • The deals on phones are not as good in the states, and Nokia/Ericsson makes money on selling the phones, not on few phones with expensive deals. Or rather they do, but that is when they sell basestations etc, which I imagine they don't sell much of in North America.

      GSM is completely superior to CDMA and I would hope people will start buying more GSM1900 phones, then Nokia/Ericsson will sell their newest phones in North America as well. There isn't much of a problem to get it working with 1900 anyways.

    • Re:Very slick (Score:5, Informative)

      by RedX ( 71326 ) <redx@nospam.wideopenwest.com> on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:45AM (#2585182)
      For some darn reason they always do that, North American GSM seems to be low priority for GSM phone builders.

      Perhaps because the marketshare for GSM in the US is so far very low? Because CDMA and TDMA carriers currently offer vastly larger coverage areas than their GSM rivals, and there are plenty of CDMA and TDMA handsets that also offer analog roaming, GSM service is limited to pretty much only people that will be staying in and traveling between large metro areas. This will hopefully start to change once AT&T gets further along with their national GSM roll-out [pdabuzz.com] this should start to change. Of course, we start to get into a chicken vs. egg argument when you consider that more people (definitely me) would jump on the GSM bandwagon if some of these sweet Nokia handsets were available in the US.

    • North American GSM seems to be low priority for GSM phone builders.

      That is because "North American GSM" doesn't follow the standard. GSM is supposed to be running on 900/1800MHz. However, for some reason, the US doesn't like it when they don't get standards set the way the want them.
      Sometimes the rest of the worlds ends up suffering because of this... however... this time it is the US who has to suffer. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the US, it just annoys me that I have to swap my nokia 8210 to a big thing that I can hardly carry just so that I have a phone while I'm in the US.

      Since the really big mobile producers are based in Scandinavia/Europe (Ericsson = Sweden, Nokia = Finland) and some in Japan (Toshiba, Sony etc etc), it is obvious that they will build mobile phones that can be used in their own countries. Also, by doing this, roughly 3 Billion (yes, I made this number up myself ;))people "extra" can use them too... wow, aren't standards great?


      As long as the US doesn't use the standard frequencies for broadcasting, you will never get any GSM phone at launch!
    • Funny, on Wednesday of last week I submitted a story to SlashDot (which was denied) about how VoiceStream [voicestream.com] announced (press release [voicestream.com]) that they've just completed their nationwide upgrade to GSM/GPRS. But I guess since they're not AT&T, noone noticed.

      VoiceStream's new iStream network can run at speeds up to 56 kilobits per second and averages up to 40 kilobits per second, comparable to what customers experience from a home dial-up connection, compared to 9.6 kbps limits on most other wireless networks.

      VoiceStream's iStream data network is based on GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) technology - an extension of VoiceStream's GSM based wireless network. VoiceStream operates the largest GSM network in the United States, serving over 6,000 cities, and is the first carrier to offer customers access to its high-speed data services while traveling anywhere on its network nationwide.

    • Re:Very slick (Score:2, Interesting)

      by windi ( 231689 )
      Maybe because the US so damn huge that it would be unfeasable to set up a complete GSM network. Europe has a much higher population density, which is why GSM is more feasable there.

      Somehow I couldn't imagine GSM masts all through North Dakota and Montana.

  • Geez (Score:1)

    by WD_40 ( 156877 )
    I remember when my 5120 was the hot shit, now they're giving them away.

  • Oh, you said "Symbian"! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Deagol ( 323173 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:15AM (#2585012) Homepage
    As I skimmed the headline, I first thought it said "sybian". My next thought was, " Great -- I'll by my wife one of these."

    Next, I re-read and thought it said "simian", and I thought, "whoah -- a phone for my spider monkey!"

    Damn, what a boring phone...

  • ICQ -- not new (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheTomcat ( 53158 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:15AM (#2585018) Homepage
    This is not meant as a troll, but:
    I've been able to ICQ to/from my GSM handset (as SMS) for ~1 year now.

    More info here [icq.com].

    Apparently, one of our local CDMA carriers (Tellus) is offering AIM on their phones, as well..

    • ya but. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jon_c ( 100593 )
      What's the point? Trying to type an email on my nokia is impossible, unless these people come up with a better way to input text it really doesn't make since on a cellphone.

      Currently the system is to type each letter by pressing cycling through the number keys, i.e. press '1' for 'A', 'B', 'C' etc.. Nokia does feature a auto-complete feature which might be handy, but I haven't had the motivation to make any use out of it.

      -Jon

      • Re:ya but. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by jandrese ( 485 ) <kensama@vt.edu> on Monday November 19, 2001 @12:05PM (#2585280) Homepage Journal
        Hmm, you both complained about the tediousness of entering text on your phone and your lack of motivation to use the autocomplete in the same sentence. Isn't the autocomplete supposed to make the text entry on the phone less tedious? What am I missing here?
      • Newsflash: this is not going to be solved anytime soon by anything other than a full keyboard, and nobody wants that on their phone.

        The "auto-complete" is called predictive text and it works very well. It almost always gets the right word, and fixing its mistakes (1 in 20 perhaps) just requires you to press * to cycle through the options.

        It works so good, I wonder why we bother with laptop keyboards/pen interfaces etc etc.

      • The point is... (Score:2, Informative)

        by barnaclebarnes ( 85340 )
        That over 1 billion text messages were sent in the UK alone last month. txt'ing is _the_ way to communicate for todays youth culture. Even us oldies in their late 20's send text messages on a regular basis. Looking through my phone I sent 12 messages this weekend. Organising places to meet people, drunken banter from the pub, etc. It is great, no need to talk to the person and it is normally cheaper than calling during peak times.

        Also Bt Cellnet here in the UK has just signed a deal with msn (and soon yahoo!) where there will be seemless IM between phones and msn/yahoo, including full presence detection. (With the current ICQ setup you have to send the message to the phone, not just the persons icq account).

        PS: When will the US just actually understand the importance of text messaging in todays youth culture?????
      • Check out this [nokia.com] phone from Nokia. It has a full keyboard and is small, too :-).

        This might not have been what people have expected, though.. And it misses some other expected features too.

      • Annother option...
        I have a Handspring Visor...
        A cell phone module has been available for it for quite some time now. [Your free module is in the mail.. please wait for the end of the world for it to arive] Between activation, Anthrax and Hanspring running out of units I may never see it..

        ICQ, IRC, and Yahoo messanger are already installed on my PDA.
        (I have a dial up modem for it)

        If I get a keyboard it plugs into the other end (I don't have one yet as the existing system words fine for me) so I can have a keyboard and a cell phone on the same unit.

        Handspring and a number of other companys are offering PalmOs cell phones.. The Handspring version has a keyboard built in. I suspect the others do as well.
        Those units should also run ICQ.

        I've seen one of the older cell phones using Geos as it's base operating system and those had built in keyboards.
        I'm guessing the cycling issue has to do with more basic Nokia phones considering existing Geos, and PalmOs phones have keyboards it seems likely most "powerful enough to run something we could call an operating system" cell phones would have a keyboard of some sort.

  • Drat, no 1900MHz support (Score:4, Interesting)

    by infiniti99 ( 219973 ) <justin@affinix.com> on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:20AM (#2585045) Homepage
    One of the nice things about the GSM network is that the phone is separated from the account. Thus it doesn't matter if the phone is sold here as long as it works here. You could just order it from overseas and assimilate it with your SIM chip. The Nokia 7650 phone seems to be tightly packed with just about everything else, too bad they missed 1900MHz support. That foils everything.

    Btw, I have a theory about the existence of the Nokia 8890. Nokia realized their non-USA customers probably wanted to travel to the USA, not that they wanted to deliver the USA a cool phone. That's probably the only reason we have it.

    Anxiously awaiting the 9290 [nokia.com].
    • Unfortunatly if you buy the phone from your service provider it's often locked to that service provider. At least that's the case with Fido in Canada. (An actual GSM network)
    • I havent yet read any specs yet so i cannot really speculate about this topic BUT. If the main market for this phone is Europe, 1900MHz aint what people want. Hell, i havent even heard of that kind of frequency.

      Afaik, only 900MHz and 1800MHz are used in europe. 900MHz which works pretty much everywhere and dualband 1800MHz in bigger cities & suburbians (and with w/ lesser money ofcourse)

      And to the other reply in this thread, no, phones arent tied to certain operators (atleast, not in Finland). I do know thought that this is widely used marketing scheme in other countries (and imho, it sucks big time. There's no real deal why certain phone should be tied to certain operator)
      • 1900 mhz is the US PCS range. You guys are 900 and 1800, we're 800 and 1900. What the original guy was saying is that he would like to get one of these phones in the U.S. but can't because the freqs. are all wrong. Damn those global conspiracies.

  • Well if you are looking for IM on phones, then there is nothing like using Yahoo IM over WAP.

    Coupled with my free WAP tarrif... gives me somebody to talk to when I am taking the bus into work.....

  • Sigh... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Asahi Super Dry ( 531752 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:24AM (#2585066)
    I know there are restrictions on cell phone design here in the US (eg sparser grid-->more powerful transmitter needed-->bulky phones), but I still get jealous when I see the new European and Japanese phones that are coming out. And for god's sake why doesn't anyone use text messaging here? Once you get some practice typing on the keypad it's not as big a hassle as you might think, and quite convenient.
    • Especially with T9 [t9.com]...
    • Nokia came out with an even cooler phone for SMS a few weeks ago, the 5510. It has a full char set keyboard... and an MP3 player... no dig cam though... info here: http://www.nokia.com/phones/5510/index.html
    • You might want to check out [samsungusa.com]
      samsung's palm phone. Yeah, grafitti entry sucks, but having a true pda (not like the handspring one) act as a phone is awesome, and its available in the US now (for those interested). I saw one the other day at Circuit City and it is quite compact - much smaller and thinner than those Kyocera bricks.

    • Re:Sigh... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by reo_kingu ( 536791 )
      Here in Japan you can get a super-light tiny little phone with a 200 hour battery life and a digital camera built in for free with your subscription. And I get an extra 50% off of that because I'm a student.
      I love it here.
      Did I mention that even the middle school students in Japan have cell phones?
      • >Did I mention that even the middle school students in Japan have cell phones?

        so? maybe you should go to scandinavia if you want to see mobile phone penetration.. ;-)
        FInland have had more mobiles than landline phones for quite some time now...

  • Arghhhhh! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by uslinux.net ( 152591 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:25AM (#2585075) Homepage
    Does everything in the world need to be "internet accessible" or "web-enabled"?!?!?

    How long before phones start getting hacked or spread MS LookOut worms? How long before phone spamming becomes the norm?

    *Sigh* I want the web for convenience. I want to web to make my life easier. I don't need the "cool" factor of every internet-capable device. I don't need my refrigerator ordering food for me, and I certainly don't need IRC on my phone. Frankly, I find it easier to CALL someone rather than attempt to type on a frickin' phone (or follow an IRC session with 50 people on one of those little phone LCDs). But I digress...

    Am I the *only* person who feels this way?

    • Re:Arghhhhh! (Score:4, Funny)

      by yatest5 ( 455123 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:31AM (#2585111) Homepage
      I heard a rumour that you don't actually *have* to buy these new internet devices - there's a recent law passed that means you can just spend your own money on what you want.

      Surely your refrigerator ordering food for you does make your life easier - not that geeks need food - *real* geeks live off of nicotine and caffeine ;-)!!
      • I'm surprised you guys don't have the 92xx yet. Its been out here for a loong time now.

        Watch out though they are much more cool than they are terribly useful. Thery are too big and heavy and i get conscious that i'm carrying around (another?) 600+ quid (that's a thousand bucks to those who can't count :-) device in my pocket to bump into table corners with.

        It sometimes annoys me i spent all this money on one, but to be at the bar with a pint when i get a support call or my whinging boss telling me that something has stopped running or needs to be brought up, and just simply open the phone, telnet in on a qwerty keyboard, run a quick nohup job, shut the phone.. "yeah, it's fixed now", RULES.

        • Re:Arghhhhh! (Score:2, Funny)

          by yatest5 ( 455123 )
          but to be at the bar with a pint when i get a support call or my whinging boss telling me that something has stopped running or needs to be brought up, and just simply open the phone, telnet in on a qwerty keyboard, run a quick nohup job, shut the phone.. "yeah, it's fixed now", RULES.

          nah, saying 'I only have a Motorola Timeport, so I'm staying here and getting drunk - suck my cheesy boner' RULES...
          • Yeah, on a (slightly) more serious note - Nokia advertise the 9210 with 'you can be at work before you're there' - personally, that's the last thing I want!!

            However, they also advertise it with suits on half-pipes, so there you go...
            • For real. I hate all that. The last place I wanna be when I'm not at work is at work.

              I've talked about this with some of the product guys at companies such as Nokia and Ericsson and the like, and the problem is that the only people (of any significant number) that can afford to buy these phones is businesses who will give them to their reps, so they need to push them to the people who buy them, not the people who use them.

              I involved in mobile gaming and entertainment and this really pisses us off. These guys want your content but are almost scared to have it as they may not be seen to have a "serious" enough product.

              One of the bug hardware guys was thinking about putting out a "business" version of their new whizzy phone so that companies would be happy to buy them and then flood the market with details on how to flash it back to the "fun" version. The point being that the device had been bought so now they can sell content to the big reps who want games to play when they are sat on trains and planes for hours at a time.

              Fantastico. Made Me Laugh.

    • Re:Arghhhhh! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GauteL ( 29207 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:40AM (#2585158)
      Not at all... but why are you complaining like this? This isn't even insightful, it is just a typical ranting.

      You can actually buy a completely different phone if you want to, you know that right?

      People have different usage-patterns, and thus there are lots and lots of different phones on the market. If you feel you belong to a group that are not covered, I suggest you write a letter to the phone-makers and argue why you think it would be benificial to both you and them to create "your dream phone".

    • Re:Arghhhhh! (Score:3, Informative)

      by voop ( 33465 )

      How long before phones start getting hacked or spread MS LookOut worms? How long before phone spamming becomes the norm?

      Actually, this is happening allready. In France, Bouyges Telecom (a large tele operator) were frequently spamming my mobile with adds from different companies (e.g. Pizza Hut). It turned out to be an "opt-out" thing that they do to all new customers. After calling their customer service (and waiting a periode of 3 weeks "for technical reasons" - yeah, right!) the spamming stopped.

      What, in reality, was more annoying was that they also spammed my voice mail in the same way: the phone would indicate a message, I'd dial (and pay the per minute charge) to listen, only to find that it was yet another piece of spam ("This week at Pizza Hut, you can get...."). Again, it was possible to "opt out".

      It's worth noticing, that this was not on some "you get it cheap if you accept spam" subscription, but rather on their "pro" subscription....

    • I don't want the web on my mobile phone... but I do want it to be of use with a modem for my laptop.
  • I didn't see when if and it would be available in the US. It certainly seems like the integration of services I've really been holding out for in a device. Now if they could only shrink it down to wristwatch size....

  • ICQ on mobile (Score:2, Informative)

    by jawtheshark ( 198669 )
    Considering how *unreliable* ICQ has become, I frankly doubt that this would have any use. Honestly since some time it has become impossible to communicate with people running newer versions of ICQ (still using 99b-Rev A here, or LICQ).
    Besides, I know it's possible to do ICQ on handhelds for a long time. I have a Psion and there is an ICQ client available. It is paying so I never bothered. (Use google to find it) I've used Opera on my Psion for the sake of it and that works great, if this is some kind of integrated Phone/Psion I could get interesed (including speadsheet, Contacts, Word, Jotter,...) I always have looked down on Palm owners, because the Psion in it's many incarnations is really superior IMHO. Too bad Psion stopped making hardware.
    As for Nokia hardware, I alway found them "feeling" cheap, more like toys...Give me a good Siemens anyday.
    • I'm morning the demise of Psion hardware too. I think we should set up a support group...

      The Nokia 91XX and 7650 are EPOC^W Symbian based devices[1], so is there nearst your going to get to a Psion for a while... :(

      Also Ericsson have a device based on Symbain, the Ericsson R380e.

      [1] I'm sure you know this, but I bet there are plent of people on this forum that don't, EPOC is the OS that powers the Psion based device. EPOC has now been renamed to Symbian, targeted at phones and no longer a part of Psion (thou. Psion are it's begest share holders, others inc. Nokia, Ericsson, Intel, Kenwood, Motorola, Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony and Siemens[2].

      [2] I think, you can check it on there web site.

      http://www.symbian.com
      http://www.psion.com
      http://www.sonyericssonmobile.com/
    • So what you're saying is that the ICQ network has become unreliable when you're running a version that is two years old, and when you're running a non-official version?

      Sorry but ICQ is still (and will probably always be) beta software, which means standards can (and will) change. Nowadays newer clients only use TCP to communicate (or only UDP, can't remember which), whereas older clients supported both. They've switched to TCP to make the clients safer, thus breaking backwards compatibility.

  • Includes a built-in camera? (Score:5, Funny)

    by iBod ( 534920 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:34AM (#2585125)
    How the hell am I supposed to lie to my wife about my whereabouts now?

    It was bad enough having to do 'busy office', 'stuck in traffic' and 'on the train' sound effects - and now this!

    • How the hell am I supposed to lie to my wife about my whereabouts now?

      It was bad enough having to do 'busy office', 'stuck in traffic' and 'on the train' sound effects - and now this!



      Easy: sure, it's got MMS (like SMS, only with an M!) - but you can save the requisite bits of multimedia, and use them to strengthen your excuse. Even better, with WAP, you can download them as needed! Just imagine it - an online, WAP- (and other buzzword)-enabled database of excuses for spouses on the road... You could even bookmark your favourites: "Sorry, honey I'm <bip beep bip> stuck in traffic - see?"

      ...gee, I'm glad my s.o. doesn't read slashdot. (=

      • Yeah, that would be handy, but I fear modile phone technology is bound to thwart all errant spouses in the end.

        The next thing you know, phones will come with built-in GPS and will report your exact position to your significant other in real-time.

  • one more step towards total integration (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ariehk ( 215517 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:35AM (#2585133) Homepage
    In the last 2-3 years or so, all our lines are becoming blurred, and it't useful just to stop and look at how much has changed so quickly.

    Just 7 years ago very few people had a moblie phone, they were huge bricks with a battery life of 20 minutes. The digital camera was unheard of, the internet was just entering the mainstream (everyone said it would never catch on), and nobody had a CD writer.

    Now we all have our digicam-watches, TiVos, DVD/TV/sound system players/recorders, Internet fridges (order food online as you use it), and miblie phones that can do pretty much enything you want except act as a sextoy [watch this space!].

    The boundries between different technologies are becoming nonexistent. Different technologies are more cross-compatible. We are rapidly acheiving a situation where everything can talk to everything else.

    As this trend increases, the total personal device (phone/pc/watch/camera/whatever) will evolve. It will do everything, go everywhere with you. It will interact with all the other devices in your life, making things easier and more personal. The electronic walls will change shade as you go into a public buliding, billboards will only advertise things you want. It'll be a better world.

    These phones are a step in that direction. Which is, IMHO, very cool.
    • ...pretty much enything you want except act as a sextoy

      Too late [theregister.co.uk]
    • Just 7 years ago very few people had a moblie phone, they were huge bricks with a battery life of 20 minutes.
      Err.. I think you mean 17 years ago. I actually still have my Dad's first cell-phone. A car-mounted behemoth about the size of a metal Aladdin lunchbox (the kind with the thermos inside). You could open up the trunk and disconnect it from the car and haul it around with you if you wanted, but the built-in antenna wasn't so good. Back when Cellular One was the only carrier around, and there was no such thing as "free minutes".
      Now we all have our digicam-watches, TiVos, DVD/TV/sound system players/recorders, Internet fridges (order food online as you use it), and miblie
      [sic] phones that can do pretty much enything you want except act as a sextoy [watch this space!].Err... I don't know anyone with a TiVo, DVD/TV/sound system player/recorder, or internet fridge. Where do you live, Dot-Com-Boom-Fantasyland?
      As this trend increases, the total personal device (phone/pc/watch/camera/whatever) will evolve. It will do everything, go everywhere with you. It will interact with all the other devices in your life, making things easier and more personal. The electronic walls will change shade as you go into a public buliding, billboards will only advertise things you want. It'll be a better world
      So, to you, a world where your every taste, preference, and spending habit, not to mention exact location, is recorded, tracked, and sold to every street-corner spammer is a "better world"? Okay, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume you're not a wanted felon, you're not into any "subversive" pastimes, and you'll never do anything the PTB will consider dangerous to the public morality. You're a good little subject, but such invasion of privacy can still be extremely inconvenient or dangerous. Imagine walking to a lunch interview with your prospective new employer when the side of the restaurant lights up with an ad for your favorite head shop. Imagine what your mom would think when you're [insert non-offensive holiday here] shopping with her and an ad pops up with your name on it, touting your favorite foot-fetish porn rag. You're out with your buds getting sauced, and your secret Pokemon or Britney Spears addiction is blasted across the billboards. You're angling for a raise, but your boss reconsiders when he sees not a budget motel ad on your office wall, but directed advertising telling you that Pergo now makes laminate flooring for your 100m yacht (hers is only 75m). Do you think the advertisers would let you "turn off" such a service?

      No, I'd rather not live in such a world, thank you.
    • "As this trend increases, the total personal device (phone/pc/watch/camera/whatever) will evolve. It will do everything, go everywhere with you. It will interact with all the other devices in your life, making things easier and more personal. The electronic walls will change shade as you go into a public buliding, billboards will only advertise things you want. It'll be a better world."

      Darn it, I want a *life* not a *lifestyle*. Why do the proponents of these gadgets say it will make my life easier? All it does is invade my personal space even more. Personalized ads don't help me, I want an ad-free space for crying out loud.

      Now if I had a portable Library of Congress with all of its contents freely available (no advetising please) and I could carry it around in a legal size container, then I'd be happy.

      To make this topical, I still won't willingly buy a portable phone. Having people SMS me doesn't seem a benefit that would change my mind.
      • I find having a mobile phone one of the greatest benefits of technology ever. SMS is part of the story, but being able to contact anyone, and be contacted by anyone, wherever you are, is for me a hugely liberating experience. I can still maintain friendships and relationships without having to worry about "coming back home" all the time. And I can do things without having to worry about being caught in a tight spot, with no way to reach people to get help.

        When I went travelling in Europe earlier this year, the mobile phone was the number one item to bring. As long as I had a credit card and my phone, nothing was a problem.

        If I got lost, no problem, called my hotel or a friend, asked them to help. If I had to meet people, no problem, get their number, call them when I arrive.

        My mother loved it because she could call me any time, day or night, anywhere I was. I never had to tell anyone where I was going or what I was doing or how to contact me. I just gave them one number and said to call if they wanted me.

        I have been travelling in the USA many times too, and it is always a problem that mobiles are less common and accepted there (and that mine doesn't work there). You have to ask people to meet you in the hotel lobby and get them to call you in your room. You have to wait for hours for people who are running late because they cannot contact you if you are not both near a land-line. Often arrangements fall through because you cannot call people. Even if people have phones they rarely turn them on. Generally this meant that when I was in America I would do less things, and I would visit less people. I also spent a great deal of my time organizing things with people, or waiting for people to arrive.

        I didn't take my phone to India, and regretted it just for the convenience of being able to use a phone without looking for coins. Being able to call ahead to hotels while in a taxi or on a train station would have been very useful. Next time I will bring it, I was quite amazed at how good the coverage seemed to be in India, and it is still improving.

        I also find it useful at home, when not travelling, to be able to take calls from people to arrange Friday and Saturday nights in a completely spontaneous manner. Due to the noise of most night-spots, SMS is a great way to tell people where you are, ask them quick questions, etc. And if you meet someone interesting, put their number into your phone right there and then.
        (I do the same with notes -- names of interesting places to go or eat).

  • Nokia and Symbian (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:38AM (#2585149)

    Nokia 7650 Home Page [nokia.com] (with specs, etc.)

    Symbian Press Release [symbian.com]

  • ICQ? (Score:5, Funny)

    by saintlupus ( 227599 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:43AM (#2585169)
    It looks like ICQ on the mobile phone is closer than ever!

    Great! Now I can use my mobile phone to get in touch with people!

    Uh...

    --saint
    • Great! Now I can use my mobile phone to get in touch with people!

      Uh...

      You beat me to it :) Really. If I even *had* a mobile phone (I don't) and really wanted to get in touch with somebody, I'd, uh, call them?

      I see cute little games on all of these things these days. Make them networkable games, and that *might* be a very cool addition. Wireless chess with the person I went to a movie with while waiting for the show to start would be pretty spiffy. Checking my home mail account would be ok too...but only if there is an open standard to do this. My vision is I'd probably just use a wireless pager and have my server forward just the headers to me.

      So far, I still have no compelling reason to even own any of these devices, so it's a moot point for me for now anyway. Any time I'd really need one (calling 911 b/c I busted my damned leg out on the trail somewhere), cell phones don't work in that area anyway.

    • I know this is supposed to be a +1, Funny but this is probably the same thing that people said about AIM on the computer. "Why not just pick up the phone and call?". The answer, as with most things that are popular amongst college students, is that it's cheaper (or free) to message someone than it is to call.
  • 2001-11-19 14:42:03 Nokia: the killer phone! (articles,news) (rejected)

    i posted this article just as the infosync.no webmaster told me about the story - only to have it rejected (still pissed about my anti-quake comment)? :P however, that aside.. this is about ONE phone.. not TWO.. the 7650 is being announced yes, but, its just so natural for nokia to release a USA varient to, but, this was not announced on infosync's website. i dunno, reject a valid article and then reword it incorrectly. my submission was written and then verified via the infosync.no author (i dont like posting lies).

    so much for kharma ;)
    • guess John posted it before me and mis-read the article :) oh well.. until next time *g* it happens :) maybe CmdrTaco should have verified the info by actually reading the article :)

  • Java and next gen (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MosesJones ( 55544 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:49AM (#2585200) Homepage

    The 9210 communicator, runs the Symbian OS, Java and is generally absolutely brilliant. The only issue with it is size, which this phone addresses.

    These next generation mobile devices are based around common standards and architectures, SymbianOS , Java & GSM. No Redmond anywhere to be found. Symbian is a solid proper RTOS unlike the PalmOS or WinCE. Consumer devices need to be reliable, robust and pre-emptible.

    • Re:Java and next gen (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      SymbianOS is not an RTOS, sorry. Nor is it especially solid. Download the SDKs and find out on your own...
  • Hmmm, ICQ PLUS video imaging...? Sounds kind of like "some sort of new-fangled video Instant Messaging product that it calls an Advanced IM-based High-Speed Service, or 'AIHS'", don't it?

    THAT came from Michael Powell, son of Colin, then a commissioner (now the Bush-appointed Chairman) of the FCC, not recused from the AOLTW merger vote even though dad was on the AOL board with $13million in stock options. It's from Powell Jr's pre-release statement after the merger went through. AIHS? Read on...

    "Despite the Majority's analysis [of AOL's IM] that purports to show a competitive problem in need of a remedy, the Majority (perhaps to its credit) does not mandate interoperability for current iterations of IM. ... When a regulatory agency has to make up its own acronym to describe a product or service it intends to regulate, one should be concerned. ("Behold the Wizard of AIHS.")

    "The concern is the implication for Internet regulation. This Order makes clear that the FCC has jurisdiction to regulate virtually every Internet product, or service that facilitates communications under Title I of the Communications Act. But, imposing IM conditions under that authority ignores the fact that the Commission, for decades now, has expressly declined to regulate similar computer, data processing and information services for the very reason that such interference would undermine the energy and drive toward innovation that characterizes these highly competitive markets. Based on the letter of the statute, this may be correct and FCC involvement in Internet communications services may be inevitable. Yet, the implications of that step are not fully considered here and that is why I am most hesitant (indeed unwilling) to make such a substantial leap in the context of an adjudicatory proceeding, without greater notice and a fuller and broader opportunity to comment that would result from an inquiry or rulemaking proceeding."

    So AOL's IM near monopoly was left intact through the merger, to protect the open innovation of the Net, UNTIL a new-fangled video Instant Messaging product arrived. Then, perhaps, it would be time to get with the Net regulations... Goodie!

    (See Michael's scrapbook photos, read his statements: click The Chairman [fcc.gov].}

  • You can write your own programmes (Score:5, Insightful)

    by streetmentioner ( 28936 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @11:53AM (#2585224) Homepage
    I think the most important thing is that you can write your own programmes (in C++ or Java) for it. You can download the SDK from www.nokia.com [nokia.com].

    (Bias: I work for Symbian)

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • ...their music!
      • Dude, Sibelius r00lz! (and we have a some other good music too, some of it has even been succesfully exported)

        About the snow tires, they're probably made by "Nokian tyres" (used to be the same company,
        separate now. They're not allowed to use "Nokia" by itself in their name nowadays). The history of Nokia is actually quite interesting, they were a rubber factory, which made cables, which had a small electronics department, which... sort of became pretty big :)
  • Can anybody tell me what ICQ will provide that a GSM hasn't already ? SMS should ne enough for the majority, and Nokia has already a chat system, as on the 3310 model [nokia.com].
    I don't see the point of having ICQ on it. ( to draw nice lines and curves ?? :))
    I have to admit I haven't tried theit chat service ( which depends of the provider I suppose ), but I don't see why they need ICQ, if it's not for a marketing reason.
  • I've been using GPRS (2.5 G) with my Motorola Timeport 260 for almost a year now here in Germany. I must say that it has really developed itself to something great. My WAP goes faster, I only pay for what I send/receive, and I can use IRDA to link with my Palm to check e-mail wirelessly, surf the net (using Palm web browsers...to an extent), and of course message.

    Now this new Nokia really makes this whole process much easier, because using IRDA becomes a pain especially when your on the go and it is hard to keep Palm and phone pointing at each other.
  • The phone looks great, and the features sound impressive. I know I love my 8810 phone, but this 7650 looks like its going to smack everything down. The only thing I'm concerned about is the data transfer for the Video Phone. If its going to be a smooth transfer or if its going to be "the good 'ol slide show presentation" full of lag. Also, if its going to be a sperate service that you will need to suscribe to much like text messaging or email. All the extra features in the phones are really nice, but can easily cost a lot if you want all the "new toys" to work.

  • ICQ on mobile phones? (Score:4, Funny)

    by bribecka ( 176328 ) on Monday November 19, 2001 @12:15PM (#2585337) Homepage
    Wow, I really can't wait to have the newest beta of ICQ on my phone? Maybe they should wait until there is actually an official version...in say, 5-10 years?
  • If I had ICQ on my cell phone, I'd just have to smash it. They are annoying and intrusive enough as it is. Might as well just chain me to my desk at work.
  • This phone is a TriBand phone, which means it operates on GSM900, GSM1800 and GSM1900. I have a TriBand Motorola and it works like a charm. One would have to get a subscription with a GSM provider in the U.S but that's not a big issue.

    I see the big issue being the expensiveness of GSM in the U.S for being one reason why the phones don't see marketing time here before anywhere else. In several European countries you can buy a pre-paid SIM card, which you can refill every so often - as needed. You don't pay for incoming calls, so they last for a long time. VoiceStream in the U.S has pre-paid cards as well, however the minutes you buy are very expensive and they EXPIRE after two months as if your money isn't good anymore.

    If GSM phones are supposed to go mainstream, something like this needs to happen. The main problem is that the public has the idea that a cell phone costs at least $49/mo with 400 minutes. It doesn't have to.

    But anyway, yes you can buy one in Europe and have it shipped here and it would work. It does have GSM1900 support.
    • So once again I make the mistake of reading things with a tired mind. Been up all night. It says that it DOESN'T have GSM1900 support. I am sorry for any confusion I may have caused.
  • That's just fine, I submited a link [infosync.no] to the same site about the new Linux Telepong phone which is far more revolutionary, and my story got rejected.
  • All of this cell phone text messaging technology is aburdly stupid. It's useless, in my opinion.

    Instead of wasting time on this useless capability, we should really be investing in new voice recognition technologies.

    What a crazy idea!
    I say "Remember to pick up kids" into my cell.
    On the screen, a note is saved reading "Remember to pick up kids"

    Just like when I speak to my Power Mac: "Empty trash" -- WHOA, my trash is emptied! I know it's complex technology, but believe me, headway can be made I am sure.

    Only THEN will I buy these phones.
    • All of this cell phone text messaging technology is aburdly stupid. It's useless, in my opinion.


      My god! Has someone told the millions of European and Japanese messaging users how much time they're wasting yet!?

    • All of this cell phone text messaging technology is aburdly stupid. It's useless, in my opinion.

      Opinions are good things, until there is reality and experience, which is a better guide than opinion. After which time, opinion is worthless.

      SMS has proved to be a killer app. Like it or hate it (and I reluctantly grew to like it despite the shortcomings of the interface), it is here, it is popular (the US just hasn't caught up with the rest of us yet), and you are wrong.

  • ICQ (Score:2)

    by MSG ( 12810 )
    It looks like ICQ on the mobile phone is closer than ever!

    Great, now I can lose important messages where ever I am!

    Thanks, but I'll wait for a Java capable phone that'll run a Jabber IM client.
    • This phone supports MID-P

      I guess it'd be pretty easy to port a native Jabber client to symbian OS too...

      that said, I don't really see the benefit in IM on a GSM phone - how does it differ from SMS exactly?
  • It looks like ICQ on the mobile phone is closer than ever!

    Why would anyone want this? Why would I ICQ when I can talk to someone?
    • Messaging != Talking!

      Think about it. The people designing these phones a few years ago couldn't anticipate the SMS craze.

      But people actually want it so much they're ready to tap text messages on the hugely uncomfortable numeric keypad - not bleeding edge early adopters, but even grandmas and grandpas. It's a billion business here, and the threshold is soooo much lower than 1) get PC, 2) get ICQ, 3) sit around PC waiting for something to happen.

      So there must be something to it. Messaging is closer to email in form, than telephony.

      I believe the cultures of email and messaging will merge, become mobile and omnipresent, and just like cell phones, perfectly culturally acceptable to keep turned off when you prefer some privacy. (Busy, away, leave a message... same thing.)

      J
  • Looking at this photo [yahoo.com] of the new phone, it seems like they took the basic form straight out of The Matrix... the back of the phone looks like it pops down for off-hook mode.

    -----
  • Over 4 years ago Nokia released the 9000 phone with a telnet client. At 9600 baud (which is pretty good) you could sit on a shell account using whatever UNIX clients you wanted to. IRC or a free ICQ client. You could also get VNC for it. so you had 640x200 res 8grayscale connection to any graphical unix client. Since then the 9110 provided 14,400 connectivity, 16greyscale and MUCH smaller size (roughly normal phone size and weight). Then earlier this year Nokia released the 9210 which has a 12bit colour 640x200 display (note that VGA is only 640x480 and that's pretty good). Battery life like 6 hours talk time and 80hours standby. EPOC6 (god knows what the reviewer of the linked article is on about boasting about first use of EPOC?) and 8meg SDRAM.
    Yes Nokia arsed up by making it have Word Compatibility instead of a telnet client, but in the last few months a company has written a good ssh client making this (at last) almost as good as the 9110 and basically THE device for admins to use in a pub in a country village. In the UK we have almost 100% coverage all over the place, be it in the middle of fields and lakes or right in the middle of a City. ICQ? That's **cked up too. It's just a combination of about 5 other 20year old standards, like mixing talk, finger, ping, email, wall/write together.. all things that already existed. Why do I feel like nothing is progressing?

  • As long as you have a phone that runs PalmOS. Admittedly, GSM lends itself far better to this than CDMA.

    Of course, there's something ironic about using a phone to chat with someone via text. Someone suggested a videophone that translates sign language into Braille was somewhere along the same line of ironic stupidity.

  • I was away in Asia for a year and during that time I got to see lots and lots of people using cell phones, all the time. In Thailand everyone had these cool slick phones, very small, text messaging, the works. Everyone uses them, and most people 150% more quiet than the American users of cell phones.

    My point is though, once we got to Japan on our trip, I became blown away by the phones there. I have never really wanted to get one, but after seeing those I thought, crap can't wait to go back to the states to get a cell phone!

    Once back, there were no cellphones that would even compare to what I saw there.

    Here is a few things:

    65k color screens in ultra thin phone.

    Downloadable Javabased Nintendo games. Download and play, whenever you want.

    People stand around in train stations doing email on their phones or surfing the web instead of telling everyone in the train about their sexual expliots of the last weekend.

    We were in Shinjuku on a side street and there was a film crew filming some celebs. People grabbed their cell phones and took digital pics of the goings on and emailed their friends right from the side street.

    Point is: Japanese cell phones are cool. I wish we had the services that they had.

    some links:

    http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011116S0107

    http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9909/20/bandai.c ell.phone.idg/

    http://foma.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/terminals/inde x.html

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