Nerdy heaven from Finland
Physically, the N900 has a QWERTY side-slide design, a little on the chubby side but still manageable in a pocket. It has a 3.5″ screen and is very definitely an internet tablet with phone capabilities, in that order.
Archive for January, 2010
Nokia N900 review
Moto China embrace Baidu
Google getting controversial, Motorola swaps browsers
After broadly adopting Android, Motorola’s Rocky-style bounce back is dependent on the platform being a success. Investors have been alarmed by Google’s dispute with the Chinese powers-that-be over censorship and cyber-hacking, so Moto has said ‘Hello’ to Baidu, and will provide access to the rival as an alternative search engine, on its Chinese launches.
New T-Mobile tariffs
Clean slate approach
T-Mobile will be launching a new, simplified contract range on Monday, 1 February. It looks like its existing Flext, Combi and U-Fix ranges will all be ringfenced (unavailable to buy, but existing customers can continue on them), and that Solo ‘SIM only’ plans will be replaced with new rolling and 12-month offers from early March.
Complaints to the ITC
Guardian of free trade and fair play kept busy
The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) is an independent federal agency tasked to ensure that foreign trade imports do not unfairly impact domestic industries. The Commission also adjudicates cases involving the alleged infringement of intellectual property rights. One of the ITCs key powers is the ability to hold goods at the port of entry while an investigation takes place. Its services have certainly been called upon regularly by players in our sector over last month or so.
Ericsson slash 1500 more jobs
92% fall in quarterly profits
Swedish network infrastructure supplier Ericsson has said it will cut an extra 1,500 jobs on top of 2009 targets, as it reported another massive quarterly drop in profits. The company’s planned 5000 head-count reduction for 2009 was exceeded, and is now expected to top 6500.
iPhone successful for Vodafone
One week and 100,000 sales
It’s being reported that Vodafone has shifted 100,000 iPhone units in its first week of sales. Including pre-orders for both networks, Vodafone has topped Orange’s 30,000 launch day sales by an additional 20,000 and then gone on to sell the next 50,000 about twice as fast.
Beyond the second dimension
3+D=£2
The success of Avatar, the second highest grossing movie of all time has virtually every industry salivating and attempting to jump on the 3D bandwagon. 3D TVs and monitors are ultra cool but will have a price-tag to scare away all but the most fat-wallet laden innovators for a year or two yet. And we haven’t even gone through the pain of competing platforms, you know it will happen.
Apple event 27 January
Start taking the tablets
Apple has a mystery press event next Wednesday, having sent invitations that lead with ‘Come see our latest creation’. The shindig is widely tipped to be the launchpad for a 10 inch+ screen tablet going by the speculative name iSlate (because Fujitsu filed the name iPad back in 2003).
Androids being replicated
Multiple Android phones shipping in 2010
Standing tall with no iPhones is becoming harder for a network to do, so credit to both 3 and T-Mobile for not following the fanboys. As alternatives to carrying Apples ubiquitous devices, both networks are expected to unleash a veritable clangor* of Android devices throughout 2010. Here’s a quick look at a few that may walk among us shortly.