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Technology

Nokia 9290 Finally Available in the US 212

Posted by CmdrTaco from the finally-we-get-some-good-stuff dept.
AmyZ writes "The new Nokia 9290 Communicator has finally become available for US residents. Europe has had the 9210 for over a year now. Its a GSM based phone and well as a PDA that uses Symbian as its OS." I still don't quite feel that the PDA/Cellphone combo has come of age, but its nice to see another entry. That machine does looks to be sufficient for basic web tasks.
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Nokia 9290 Finally Available in the US More

Nokia 9290 Finally Available in the US

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  • Or here, even (Score:5, Informative)

    by FFFish ( 7567 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:17PM (#3618573) Homepage
    The actual URL is http://www.nokiausa.com/communicator/features/1,49 83,,00.html [nokiausa.com]. I hope.

    Symbian rocks.

  • Better Address (Score:2, Informative)

    by sehryan ( 412731 )
    http://www.nokiausa.com/communicator/features/1,49 83,,00.html [nokiausa.com]

    Here is a link to the phone that works.
  • Nokia USA.com

    The page you requested has moved. Click one of the links below to go to the new NokiaUSA Web site.

    Go here: http://www.nokiausa.com/communicator/features/1,49 83,|SRC-P,00.html [nokiausa.com] - if it doesn't work they are detecting via javascript that you came from slashdot or something.

  • With almost every punk kid, and teenager on the continent having a cell phone already, i wonder when people will have had enough. Should upgrading your cell phone really be like upgrading your computer, or will people eventually realize that they're paying for all these extra features on a device they still only have so that mommy and daddy can keep track of them..... As for the rest of the population, i'd like to know, just how many people, actually use all the fancy text messaging systems, that you're getting charged $0.04 per letter, for.

    • Is 64K enough memory for a PC?

      My guess is that the Cell Phone/PDA will become just as important as a personal computer is today, if not more so.

      And people will be upgrading theirs forever. Not only will there be newer and better technologies and applications, but with a Cell Phone/PDA, style will be a big factor as well.

    • Well I nolonger use the Text messenging on my phone due to SPAM see http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=33349&cid=3602 181
      BUT I at one time did use both a PDA and a phone.. I used the PDA for notes, phone numbers and the daytimer features.. but lugging around both a phone and a PDA is a pain if you have them both clipped to your belt.. So now I just use the Phone.. The daytimer features of an average Phone suck (and they usualy charge ALOT for the data cable and software if you want to sync it with your PC), so I would gladly have a PDA/Phone if it had a good form factor and full PDA features.. including a way to sync it with a PC.
    • People won't have enough until their teenagers turn radioactive and sterile.
      • People won't have enough until their teenagers turn radioactive and sterile.

        Cell phones emit non-ionizing radiation (and very low levels at that).

        Standing in the sun for 1 minute is FAR more dangerous than spending your lifetime speaking on a cell phone. Cell phone radiation is non cancer causing.

        There is TONS of evidence of ionizing radiation causing cancers, yet nil evidence for the same from non-ionizing radiation. So you can safely eat your microwaved food, speak on your mobile and cordless phones and use your WiFi cards.

        Watching a CRT based display (capable of emitting small amounts of X rays) can be slightly dangerous, using a cell phone is not.

    • You know,
      As someone who has to use a cell phone for business quite a bit (I travel at least one week a month) having the features of a cell phone combined with my PDA would be a god-send. For me personally, the only reason I don't have one is cost. I can't bring myself to spend $500 on something for 'work.'

      I don't know about 'Mommy and Daddy' giving cell phones to thier kids, and, I don't really care. But, for a business user, more choices lead to lower prices.
    • my text messaging is free!!!

      =p

      and i use it all day long!!

    • Text Messaging (Score:3, Informative)

      by iCharles ( 242580 )
      I presently pay about $5/month for text messaging, and I can send up to 500/month free ($0.10/each thereafter). It can go phone-to-phone, as well as e-mail-to-phone (and phone-to-email).

      Other than receiving headlines e-mailed to me, I honestly don't use it everyday. However, it has helped me on a few occasions:

      • We were on vacation, and were supposed to meet someone in Chicago. We wanted to find out something about our meeting, but wasn't sure what number she would be at, but knew she was checking a HotMail-type account. So, we e-mailed her, and got our answer.
      • My team has pagers with alpha capaiblity (yes, the phone could fill in, but there are other requirements for the pager). I frequently send a text-page from my phone this way, regardless of where I might be.
      • When I'm out of town on business, my wife and I exchanged a series of e-mails. Nice to be in touch on the road randomly.
      I admit that I probably could cancel it and only occasionally notice, however, it is providing enough value to be worth it to me.

      My provider has indicated that they are likely to provide chatting with AOL IM users. Bridging the phone-to-IM gap will be nice.

    • I don't use text messages because AT&T only let you send messages to other AT&T customers and email. What's the point? But I see my friends in Norway sending messages back and forth to everybody, and I would love to do something similar (instead of calling, just type something like "meet me at Joe's @ 10") The receiver can read anytime, and I don't have to wait to they get free to get my message.

  • Looks like.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by mrgrey ( 319015 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:18PM (#3618585) Homepage Journal
    your talking into your car stereos removable face. Other than that it looks pretty sweet.

    • I saw the 9210 at Comdex. It's bigger and heavier than most phones. Almost as heavy as a small phone and Palm V combined. The processing power and complexity seem about the same as a PocketPC. It has a viewer for MS Office documents and even runs (bleh) Realplayer.

      Personally I'd rather have a simpler PDA like the Palm and a thumb keyboard for typing emails and text messages. The 5510 [nokia.com] fits the bill for that, but if you think talking into a stereo faceplate is wierd, forget about this. Also, the screen's pretty small because it's not a flip phone.
      • Yikes - I avoid products that are billed as being available in "groovy red and melody blue." I'll steak to teal and maroon, thanks.
          • As a complete aside, I've been making more and more mistakes (miss steaks! ha ha) like that lately. I keep typing homonyms or near-homonyms instead of the appropriate word. It doesn't happen with difficult or unusual words, either: it happens with words like steak and stick. I'm a good writer and have been for a while - I don't really know what's going on. It's almost like some kind of aphasia.

            There are connectionist models to explain it: poor lateral inhibition for phonetically similar words, or the such. Still, it's weird. Maybe Oliver Sacks can show up and explain it to us.

          • I made the same mistake a little bit ago. I misstyped college with collage and got totally flamed. It's all this over ANALysis of quick typing that can drive a person mad.

  • I have bouight one over a year ago, and its running windows CE on it,. IT has been very good , and i must reccomend it.

  • One thing I just don't get.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by L. VeGas ( 580015 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:19PM (#3618592) Homepage Journal
    About the mobile phone/pda combo. Unless you're using an external headset or something similar, how can you take notes while you're on the phone? That's one of the things I use my pda for all the time.

  • pda/cell urks me... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by edrugtrader ( 442064 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:20PM (#3618597) Homepage
    a coworker just got a treo and i played with it for a while, and can't say that i like it at all.

    contrary to what i've read here many times, you can talk on the phone using and ear piece and go through your schedule at the same time, and yes that could be useful. but combining them takes away from both products and the only advantage is carrying around 1 less gadget.

    all you end up with is a tiny PDA and a huge cell phone.

    i remember seeing a tiny concept pda a while ago with flip out screens that merge to make 1 big screen... if they could do that and keep the size to a standard (small) cell phone, that might be useful, but until then, a visor prism + cell serves my need much better.

    • Re:pda/cell urks me... (Score:4, Funny)

      by marick ( 144920 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:50PM (#3618827)
      "the only advantage is carrying around 1 less gadget"

      Heathen! Carrying around 1 less gadget is nirvana. Or maybe it only seems like nirvana when I'm carrying around:

      Cell-phone, organizer, pager, fold-up-keyboard, bad of dice, slide-rule, and Gameboy Advance...

      • "Please don't hurt me, Techno-Marick!"

        I personally only have my Nokia 9110, Palm m100, wallet, CD player with case that holds 40 CDs, GBA in separate case, ...a SLR... and in bag a pocket camera, film rolls, sketch book, pencil case, calculator, a bad Leathermanoid, Mini Maglite, bunch of batteries...

        I'm no match in front of your technological superiority! You're able to beat my PDA typing speed with that keyboard... *drool*

        There's always a weakness...

    • all you end up with is a tiny PDA and a huge cell phone.
      I'm personally waiting for the Taelons to invade so I can get a global link [jjambproductions.com] with it's large roll up screen.
    • A cell phone is all I really need (and even that is somewhat questionable; more like a cell phone is all I really want). If I need to take notes, I carry around a small notebook (about 3" x 5") and a pencil. Smaller than most PDAs, and I can write faster on it (especially using an informal sort of shorthand) than most people can enter data into PDAs. And I can flip through pages a lot faster than you can scroll on a PDA.
      • If I need to take notes, I carry around a small notebook (about 3" x 5") and a pencil
        That's blasphemy. As a nerd one must forsake the evil simplicity of pen and paper and learn how to embrace the more complicated, yet technologically superior ways of doing things.

        • bah (Score:2)

          by Trepidity ( 597 )
          As a lazy person, I can't be bothered.

          In reality, I rarely even carry around a small notebook. I do carry around a pencil, but when I want to write things down, I do it on the back of receipts or napkins.
    • and the only advantage is carrying around 1 less gadget. all you end up with is a tiny PDA and a huge cell phone.

      The integration of cellphones with PDAs also brings another downside which I haven't seen discussed anywhere: suddenly, your personal data is in a device that has an OS that you don't control, and which has the hardware capable of allowing remote access. I think this is a serious issue. The device makers may be playing nice now because they're trying to achieve market penetration, but once they're entrenched what's to stop them from gradually introducing terms of service regarding automatic OS upgrades, data transfers, etc? Tivo is an example of a company that played nice at first, but increasingly is doing disruptive things like spamming consumers with contests and shows they didn't want. You heard it here first: even in the emerging phone/PDA combo market, non-Free OS + remote communication hardare = tremendous possibility for abuse.

      .

  • Try this URL (Score:2, Informative)

    by soybean ( 1120 )
    http://www.nokiausa.com/communicator/

  • features (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Jucius Maximus ( 229128 )
    From the product's page: "Browse the Web wirelessly and see it in full color."

    Do you detect the strong possibility of pr0n sites aimed at wireless device browsers? I wonder if this thing has 16 or 8 bit colour. (teehee!)

  • Yikes... (Score:3, Funny)

    by jhaberman ( 246905 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:21PM (#3618613)
    Did anyone else read that as the "90210" model phone? I nearly had a wicked high school flashback of epic bad TV show proportions... So long as this phone doesn't just operate in Beverly Hills, everything is cool...

    Jason

  • I'm waiting for the 92-90210 (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's made from pure gold, and it has Jennie Garth's home number pre-programmed.

  • Uses Symbian (Score:2, Funny)

    by glrotate ( 300695 )
    Oh I bet this thing will be a hit with the ladies.

  • Phones (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Gingko ( 195226 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:25PM (#3618640)
    I was actually at Symbian [symbian.com] on Wednesday night at their Cambridge office. One of the things that struck me about the new things they are talking about is that application installation will be a lot easier on the newer phones they are working with. This will help with the PDA / cellphone merge, since the behaviour of the phone is no longer "hard-baked" with the release. If nothing else, it may mean that bug-fixes may become available without having to send off your phone.

    Some of the new phones look very cool indeed. Japan is a good indicator, as it tends to be about 1.5 years ahead of Britain (and, ooh, a decade or so ahead of the U.S. :)

    Henry

    • Re:Phones (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gol64738 ( 225528 )
      Japan is a good indicator, as it tends to be about 1.5 years ahead of Britain (and, ooh, a decade or so ahead of the U.S. :)

      you're right about japan, but dead wrong about Britain. I just got back from London, where you see most peeps running around with a brick next to their ear...

      it was like a 90's flashback...

      • I just got back from London, where you see most peeps running around with a brick next to their ear...

        Big is the new small.

        (Mad props if you get the reference.)

  • excellent (Score:3, Informative)

    by tps12 ( 105590 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:28PM (#3618663) Homepage Journal
    The Nokia 9290 combines crystal clear sound with text and voice messaging, "browsing," and the best technical support this side of the Atlantic.

    My company recently switched from the old Motorola 362z to the 9290 for all of our inter-office and transcontinental communication, and the results have so far been superlative. These babies integrate seamlessly with Windows, Mac, and even Linux productivity apps, and transition costs were minimal.

    Another strong point of these phones is data management. In that sense they function as PDAs. In our business we must gather and keep track of thousands of valid email addresses, and the 9290 offers best-of-breed features that make my life a breeze.

    Another home run, Nokia...keep up the great work!
    • The number one killer aplication, why the Communicator is a must buy:

      A totally working version of DOOM in your mobile phone and even in color!

      (actually there's even two versions, Hannu Viitala's CDoom [mbnet.fi] (open source) and a commercial version by Wildpalm [my-communicator.com])

      It has also other great games like Terra Force [my-communicator.com]

      But wait, this is not all :-) Communicator can also run games from ZX Spectrum [my-communicator.com] (freeware)! If this is not the ultimate gaming phone, I don't know what is.

      I'm still waiting for the first games, which support multiplayer-modes. Unfortunately this may require the GPRS version of Comminicator, which hopefully is out quite soon..

      Ville

      ps. I'm no way connected to Nokia or Wildpalm..

    • These babies integrate seamlessly with Windows, Mac ...

      With Mac? How did you do this? I called them, and they said they don't support it. I'm hoping to setup a very non-technical user to sync contact info, calendar, and documents with OSX. Thanks in advance for any tips ...

  • Sony P800 [symbian.com]

  • symbian? (Score:3, Funny)

    by drik00 ( 526104 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:29PM (#3618673) Homepage
    Symbian?

    I thought that was one of those vibrator machines those chicks sit on in those movies i found on Kazaa.

  • The keyboard. The keyboard. The useless feeping keyboard. It's available in many different layouts, including QWERTY, QWERTY and QWERTY. This product is useless to me.

    I type Dvorak as a preventative measure against RSI. I don't actually have RSI, and I like it that way. I can't even type QWERTY anymore. (Try installing Windows, and entering the CD key in this state; you'll feel like you've locked your keys in the car.)

    They should really offer alternate keyboard layouts for nitpicking bastards like me, but more importantly, for those who have injuries that a Dvorak layout helps with.

    • You are insane, you realize that, no? How will a qwerty keyboard the size of a large candy bar give you RSI in a way that a dvorak one wouldn't? We're talking hunt-and-peck all the way.

    • Re:Oooh this bugs me... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Do you seriously believe that the dvorak layout helps with a keyboard
      you use with your thumbs?
  • I use the Kyocera QCP-6035 [kyocera-wireless.com], and find that it does everything I want it to. It's basically just a Palm 3 with cell phone capability. Sprint has them for like $150 right now, and I hear they can be had for cheaper.
  • i work for a large software company that makes, among other things, video software. (it shall remain nameless.) we started going around the world early last year, showing off how we could make video appear anywhere. the guy who does our demos pulled me aside before the first keynote we did to show me 'something new that nokia was working on.'

    my reaction at the time was: um, it's a phone that opens up and has a little computer. fine.

    i excitedly open the slashdot link, and see a familiar phone. my reaction now is: um, that's an old phone that opens up and has a little computer.

    i've played with this thing a little, and (in case you hadn't picked up on it) it doesn't do much for me. and i love gadgets, yo. i track where i go with a gps device just to draw little maps. but as for this -- i'll stick with my ibook and cell, thanks.

  • Get your software here (Score:3, Informative)

    by Subcarrier ( 262294 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:32PM (#3618707)
    Here's a great site for finding software for your 9210 or 9290:

    http://www.my-communicator.com/

    Try playing DOOM or boot Linux/Elks on the IBM XT emulator. Cool stuff!

  • Not much phone for the money (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bsa3 ( 200 ) <brad&facefault,org> on Friday May 31, 2002 @01:34PM (#3618716) Homepage

    For $600, you don't get:

    • Bluetooth
    • GPRS
    • 900/1800 MHz
    • A reasonable amount of RAM

    So you've paid a lot of money for a PDA/phone, and then you've still got to fork out more for additional memory, yet another phone to cover the other two bands, and (if applicable) a Mac OS sync program (which isn't even compatible with Mac OS X). And what's with the non-standard units of measurement on the specification page? Nokia are probably trying to disguise the fact that this sucker is 16 cm long and weighs 250 g.

  • Mmmm... Tarantella support (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I know there is a Tarantella [tarantella.com] client for the 9210. I assume it will work on the 9290. Anyone know for sure?
  • Odd, a week ago I had to decide on a new cellphone and the 9210 (as it's called in Europe) was a clear candidate.

    I skipped and got the 6510 instead, which is a damn finde phone which appears to agree very much with how I use a cell.

    The killer criteria was size. And being an ascii kind guy and not really seeing a need to browse /. on the road I skipped, reluctantly.

    It's a damn fine phone and has cult status herearound nevertheless.

  • They mention VoiceStream. However, it *should* work on Cingular's Calif. network with a little SIM card surgery, right?

    I currently use a Nokia 8890 [nokiausa.com] in combination with a Palm V. They look great and cost about the same as the 9290. (My 8890 weights a lot less and gets "compliments" from chicks, but that's OT.)

    Is the browsing experience better for the 9290 than it is on a Palm V using my 8890 as a wireless modem ? (Enough to justify spending $600?)

  • This awesome phone from Sprint lets you have a lot of that PDA functionality without all of that bulk: here. [sprintpcs.com]

    In general, eventually all phones will come heavy with PDA features, as discussed on Cnet here [com.com].

  • The full specifications page [nokiausa.com] for the 9290 mentions that the phone has "GSM phase 2 signaling," but this doesn't tell me much. It must work on 1900 MHz because VoiceStream is selling it, but will it work on 900/1800 MHz too?
  • It seems like a great phone, but can it sync with my Linux workstation?
  • It's still a GSM phone, and as we all know GSM phones stink as far as service goes. [slashdot.org]

    As James Earl Jones says, "The phone is only as good as the network it's on" and in this case, the networks all suck.
  • The guys at PDA Buzz covered the release [pdabuzz.net] of the Communicator. It looks like the transfer rate of the device is more likely to be 9600bps here in the US rather than the stated 14.4Kbps (due to cell network differences).

    The two things that I wished that the communicator had are: tri-band GSM for better roaming and GPRS for faster data transfers (which would provide better web page load times and possibly more audio or other data to be transferred.

  • I wonder how well the Handspring [handspring.com] Treo [handspring.com] compares to the Nokia 9290. They both seem fairly versatile, and I'll be interested to see which one becomes more popular.

  • I beta tested two a few months ago (Score:5, Informative)

    by scubacuda ( 411898 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <aducabucs>> on Friday May 31, 2002 @02:19PM (#3618999)
    My employer gave me two for testing earlier this year. (We're an integrator; Nokia was talking to us about selling them, and we were talking to other companies [such as IBM] about developing/selling applications for our end users.)

    As phones, they rock. The best feature (by far) is the speakerphone. I could set it on my monitor, lean back in my chair, and talk to customers without them ever knowing that I was using a speaker phone (when I called my mom, she said it sounded no worse than a regular cell phone call). Setting it up with Outlook contacts is a cinch (I didn't try synching it with any other contact management prorams). The nice wide screen is nice for HTTP: browing (compared to, say, the iPaq, where you have to scroll over to the right to see the rest of the page). I had several movie clips (Spider-man, Episode II, Jurassic Park, etc.) that I would use to show customers just how awesome that little screen was...

    As organizers, however, they SUCK ASS. There is NO stylus, and you can't touch the screen like you can on a Palm. You change one contact's info, and it takes fucking forever to replicate those new changes over (an eternity compared to Palm's Hotsynch). While a few features are cool (they've got programs in there open up Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents), overall it is very unimpressive compared to the many other PDAs out there (Palm, iPaq, etc.).

    I'm not sure why the transfer rate is so bad. It takes an eternity to backup over a serial cable (the prototype NFS unit I had, at least, didn't come with any sort of firewire, USB, etc. cable). When you back it up for the first time (everything on the little hard drive to your desktop), you might as well do something else for the next several hours.

    I had all sorts of weird bugs on my prototype. The first software version that they gave us was very buggy (I couldn't even synch it with Outlook). Finally I got in touch with a Nokia engineer who FedExed me a copy of their latest one. While that fixed my Outlook problems, I still had all sorts of weird synching problems under Windows 98 and 2000. (For example, my computer would all of a sudden stop seeing my Communicator. I would have to reboot just to see the Communicator again.) This was like 3 months ago, so hopefully they fixed all that in their latest release.

    All in all, I've spent hundreds of hours testing them. (Setting them up for sales reps to show customers, recording bugs, installing all sorts of programs [yes, even DOOM!], racking up 5000 minutes on my long commutes each month...etc.). All this testing, and I still can't say that I'd recommend this for the average PDA user. (There are, however, certain niche markets that could definitely benefits from this sorta gadget.)

    The sales manager in our company wanted me to set it up so that sales reps could access a 5000 record ACT! database on a Citrix server via these communicators. Because of other more important projects, I put that on the back burner. Has anyone else done anything similar with them?

    • I have just one question: can you run an SSH session with them? (For a system administrator or programmer who gets a call about the webserver/application being down and wants to securely login to one over his cell phone...)

      --LP

    • Re:I beta tested two a few months ago (Score:4, Informative)

      by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Friday May 31, 2002 @04:23PM (#3619689) Journal
      Your experience was obviously biased for whatever reason.

      I can't stress enough that it's soooo much more than a cell phone with a web browser!
      Symbian's office applications are absolutely tops in the handheld world.

      Several font styles, same range of font sizes you get on a desktop, Bold, Italicise, Underline, subscript, superscript, Align left/right/center/justify. Password protection, print preview, templates, zoom, wrap, outline... Seting indents, tab breaks, line spacing, borders, bullet-styles. And the ability to insert objects into documents. You can easilly insert a drawing (image), spreadsheet cells, or a graph, into a text document. And that doesn,t bring up the fact that it starts up incredbly quickly, and is incredibly more stable than anything I've used on a desktop computer.

      That's only the Word Processor! It's got an Agenda program that is the best I've ever seen and gets rave reviws from every review I've read. And this doesn't cover the non-bundled software like a subnet calc., fully-feature RPN calculator, telnet/SSH, PGP, PDF viewer (based on XPDF), mp3 player, all free. The slightly less free, full featured, Opera web browser is available for it.

      I'm done ranting. It's full-featured, it's got all the features you could want if you actually do work on your handheld, and many fun things in case you don't. It makes Palms look like glorified wrist watches, and WinCE devices look... horrible. There's software available for natively syncing it to a Linux machine, and a FTP/NFS/self-contained Backup software if you want to sync over the internet, infrared to another device, etc.
      • Your experience was obviously biased for whatever reason.

        Agreed. Didn't claim otherwise, and I prefaced it with "I was using an demo prototype unit".

        From a development point of view, it looks like a lot of good apps are in the works [handango.com]. I also agree that the Symbian Office apps are top notch also.

        It's full-featured, it's got all the features you could want if you actually do work on your handheld, and many fun things in case you don't.

        I consider the stylus an important feature if I want to do work on my handheld.

        It makes Palms look like glorified wrist watches, and WinCE devices look... horrible.

        Palms may be glorified wrist watches, but I find them to synch a lot better than the Communicators. That, in my opinion, is an inexcusable flaw. If you're going go synch tons of data (I had a 64 MB card in there that I put various demo files on), at use a cable that synchs faster than a serial.)

        The battery, however, really took a beating. I would leave that thing on for (what seemed like) forever...and very rarely would have any problems.
        • Palms may be glorified wrist watches, but I find them to synch a lot better than the Communicators.

          The diagreement over the interface has existed for quite some time. Serial may be slow, but it is cheap, standard on every computer you could want to connect up to, the circitry is needed for the IR port anyhow, and it allows you to use the handheld as a serial terminal.

          USB has it's down-sides as well.

          Not that I disagree that it is a problem, just on the extent of it. With the syncronization software, the first sync takes a great deal of time, and the subsiquent backups are faster because they ony copy what has been added or changed. Very few people change the entire 64MB of data. And syncronizing more often will make the times much more tolerable.

          As for the stylus... It speeds things up, but is by no means necessary. It takes some getting used to symbian's keyboard navigation, but it's far quicker than Windows or Mac without a mouse. I find myself rarely using the stylus on my Psion. Considering the price, I am surprised it was left out. Anyhow, my 5mx seems nearly as good as the communicator, so I'll wait for the next model.
  • This thing looks soooo much like the phone used by Val Kilmer in The Saint. Very cool. Don't know if I'll ever get one, but it's still cool.
  • The reason why we're finally seeing the Nokia 9290 and the Handspring Treo shipping in the USA is the fact both AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless are doing large-scale rollouts of GSM digital cellular systems here in the USA, and the 9290 and Treo were designed for GSM operation.

    Given that AT&T and Cingular are huge cellular companies, that at once provides a large enough user base for these types of advanced cellphones here in the USA. That means the USA could be riding the wave of 3GSM third-generation cellphones almost as fast as folks in Europe and Japan, since everyone will be using roughly the same digital cellular standard.

  • I have seen this phone (Score:2, Informative)

    by bowb69 ( 323720 )
    and compared to other cell phones it simply outdoes them. The company that I worked for some time ago was asked to redo the pim applications for the phone and it was going to run (you guessed it) linux. I probably can't say much about it because of NDA's but all in all the development group was wondering when this phone would hit the US market. For what you got it didn't seem all that bulky and had a ton of features.
  • You don't feel the PDA/Cellphone combo has come of age because the cellular coverage in the US is not ubiquitous enough to make it really useful?

    The ability to be anywhere in europe & have datacomm for your pda & voice etc..... is a huge plus when it comes to this.
  • I saw this thing when I was in Beijing. Ugly as sin, not to mention you have to hold the phone upside down to talk out of it, so the dialpad is on the other side. What happens if you have to enter an extension or something, after you connect?

    I dunno about the functionality of it tho.. I couldn't read any of the hanzi characters on the LCD screen.

  • Moved from a 9000 to a 9290 yesterday (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Tugrik ( 158279 ) <tugrik@gma i l . c om> on Friday May 31, 2002 @06:19PM (#3620332)
    I've used the 9000 for a few years. It was a great remote terminal (telnet/ssh) for a lot of sysadmin tasks; it saved me more than once while working at various startups around the south SF bay area. When the 8890 came out, I took to carrying that instead due to it's immensely small size and good IrDA-modem capabilities (just set it beside the laptop and rock on)... as I finally had a tiny Sony VAIO laptop I could keep with me.

    The VAIO is long gone, replaced by a meaty Dell 8200. The 9290 finally made it here after 8 months of waiting. The battery life is 8-10x that of the 9000 communicator, the screen is actually useable, the MMC additional memory comes in very handy, and the keyboard is no worse than before. It's a lot faster than the 9000 too.

    Things Palmies will hate:
    1. No touchscreen
    2. Thumboarding-only
    3. Most of the good software is from the UK market, and overall there's a lot less of it

    It drives my ex-roomie (the Visor freak) nuts, but my friends who are WinCE users took to it pretty quickly. We're playing with the SDK now, trying to get some of our more favored clients to work on the device.

    #1 "Geek Factor" the phone has: The ability to play .WAV (or with extra software, .MP3) files for ringtones, coupled with the possibility of assigning a ring-tone to every contact entry in the phone, memory permitting. Having one's phone ring like a Daft Punk song or a friend's call announced by a good Pulp Fiction quote is just _way_ too much fun.

    NOTE: For you California types, poor ol' behind-the-times Cingular has no clue this phone exists, and if you tell them you're using it on their network they tend to freak at you. It takes some serious arguing to get the SIM set up right (for 3 numbers, data/fax/voice) but they will eventually do it... and none of their tech group knows how to configure the WAP browser to work with their network. Their half-assed "my wireless web" product just doesn't cope well. Within a month or two they will hopefully come up to speed on it. I had the advantage of having gone through the 3-number setup for the older 9000, so I got off pretty easy. Once configured properly, it'll forward data calls to an attached laptop or receive faxes in the background, no user intervention required.

    For those who asked earlier... yes, you can flip it open and keep working while you talk. You have your choice of speakerphone or ear-piece (depending on how public you want your convo to be). While the phone will intially default to a display showing the calling parties (up to 5 can be in a conference call at once, depending on your network), you can swap to whatever app you wish, for taking notes or reading from a spreadsheet, etc. The 'sound recorder' app will also operate during a call, and will capture both sides of the phone conversation very nicely.

    It's not the 'uber PDA'. It's pretty big for a phone. As a combo-device, however, it does very well. The apps integrate with the GSM functions nicely. All my basic PDA needs are met: note taking, contact management, SMS management, faxing, email and simple web browsing. All the phone needs are there too, with the same features as most any Nokia phone, with nice GUI add-ons if you desire... with a battery lifespan that'll compete with any modern phone. These basic needs are quite well met by a device that still fits on the hip and only has to be charged at the end of the work-week, letting me leave the bulky laptop on the desk most of the time. If I really need to do more, I'll be sure to pack up the laptop and bring it along -- and even then, I can use the 9290 as a GSM-modem.
    • poor ol' behind-the-times Cingular

      So true. All they ever heavily promote is voice, although you have to give them credit for starting this "thousands of minutes" stuff. GSM Data was never promoted, only "My Wireless Window" (lame). It's like they didn't even know what they had.

      I heard a radio ad this week, and was shocked when they were talking about GSM and roaming. That's the first time I've ever heard them refer to their technology as GSM. Wow, maybe Cingular is finally getting with the times? Of course, I think AT&T's move to GSM has something to do with it. Wake up call for Cingular!

      FYI, I'm a bit like you :) I had a 9000il, but the battery life was so low and I thought the cell+PDA combo idea was too bulky (99% of the time you aren't using data, so you just have a big phone). So I moved on to the 8890 and a Psion Revo (which is like a 9000 minus the phone part). I also used this with my VAIO. Infrared was cool, but absolutely useless in a moving vehicle. Also, the Psion had no backlight, unlike the 9000..

      Anyhow, I think I've finally found the perfect combo for me: 6310i and Sharp Zaurus, connected via Bluetooth. Covers all the bases, and then some.

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