Things to love about the N9

I’ve been using the Nokia N9 for a while now and I’m totally awed by the user experience. Now I regularly find myself swiping other touch phones with the intention of dismissing program screens and whatnot. Yeah, I’m surprised at myself too. I’m an old dog that doesn’t like to learn new tricks but this whole swiping thing on MeeGo, it totally got me. Yes, the Nokia N9 grew on me. Big time.

It’s really a sad thing that the N9 might just be the last MeeGo handset and that it comes with this OS that hardly has any developers appeal or even future. If you are not happy about the available out-of-the-box apps on the N9, you can safely call it a day. There’s no “eventually” in the possibility of getting a wider variety. And although Nokia has worked hard to deliver the modern-day basics such as Facebook, Skype and Angry Birds (who plays that anymore?), there are still apps that I do miss from iOS and Android. But I digress.

The most important thing about my experience with the N9 is the positives. That stuff I took from it and the stuff that make it enjoyable to use day after day. And you gotta believe me when I say it, I am a tough customer. I get to play around with all the latest and greatest in mobile software and mobile hardware so it’s easy to get spoiled. It’s so rarely that I see something new that when I get my hands on something truly unique and innovative, I’m all in. But that’s what this job does to you, anyway.

Back to the Nokia N9, it’s so different that any other current mobile OS that it immediately got my attention. I’ve been using it as my main smartphone for more than ten days now even though technically, it’s not my job to have it after we got the review out the door. But I’m hooked. It’s different in so many aspects that it amuses me every day. In the same time, it’s feels surprisingly familiar. MeeGo has borrowed some small neat stuff from the best in business and getting what I expect to see made me feel at home right from the very first day.

For me, it’s clear that we won’t last long. It’s like a fledgling romantic relationship that you start while on vacation and that you both don’t intend on continuing once you’re back home, but still, you enjoy every minute of it.

I knew the Nokia N9 wasn’t really gonna be one of these long-lasting relationships that you commit to. With a price tag of 400+ euro, I didn’t think it was reasonable for anyone with a knack for smartphones to buy it, let alone me. Plus I no longer have the patience to commit to a new OS and a new ecosystem much like I did back in the first days of iOS. These days are all gone. Now it’s either iOS or Android for me and I’m already too deep into those to leave it all for a one-week romantic getaway with some stranger.

So as much as I enjoyed the N9 and its MeeGo OS, we’ll part ways quite soon. But as I went about using the N9 day after day, I made mental notes of all the little things that I’d really miss once I return to the mainstream. Some of those are really minute, but I find them all immensely helpful in delivering a richer user experience.

So here’s my list of the 7 things I love about the N9 (besides the impressive industrial design that deserves an article of its own). Hopefully, one day I’ll see some of the items in this list implemented elsewhere in other mobile OS’s.

1. The always-on clock. This might seem like a really minor thing but I’m one of these guys that got rid of the wristwatch ever since they got their first cellphone. And words are not enough to explain how useful it is to be able to check the time with only a glance on the N9, not having to pick up your phone. And the clock is equally visible both in the dark when the phone’s lying on my bedside (so wrong having it there, I know), as in broad daylight.

2. The double-tap-to-wake gesture. Waking your phone just by double-tapping it seems like the most natural thing to do right from the very first time you try it. I bet that keeps the accelerometer in an always on mode, but I’d have it any day over some of the supposed battery life gains of doing without it.

3. The clock interface when setting up alarms and the time. Now, you gotta give it to MeeGo devs. They’ve come up with a unique way of interacting with the clock, unlike most other manufacturers who simply chose to copy the iOS way. The interface mimics the hands of a analog clock, but it’s as modern as it gets.

4. The amazing touch haptics. Touch the screen and feel a vibration exactly where you touched it. And not only that, but it’s a vibration so finely tuned it feels like the whole screen is clicking under your thumb. I’ll just say this: When it comes to typing usability, the Nokia N9 can eat the two generations of BlackBerry Storm‘s for breakfast and then have some more.

5. Scrolling your contacts. The alphabetical scroll is light years ahead of the competition, working incredibly reliably. I almost never find myself skipping the alphabet letter I’m looking for. It’s super smooth and yet highly precise.

6. The unified message inbox. The Message center houses all your threaded conversations including those from SMS, Facebook and Skype chats, now how cool is that?

Another nice trick is that when you have an email opened, to get to the next one you just swipe across the screen. No need to get back to the Inbox list of emails.

7. The music player auto-generating its album art. The Nokia N9 music player might be somewhat limited regarding extra features such as equalizer presets and repeat options but it makes your music look really great by auto generating Album Art for you. Yup, those text-only icons below, are auto-generated based on the Album’s name.

Another nifty feature is that clicking on the More… button while you are playing a track from the album takes you to a screen that automatically suggests music for you based on the artist.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Almost every part of the Nokia N9 interface has its own character. It’s often unlike anything you’ve seen and it’s surprisingly easy to use and get used to. I certainly wish the platform had more future ahead – both in hardware and software aspects. It’s always refreshing to try out a new OS for a size, but eventually we all get back to the mainstream. Pleasure meeting you Nokia N9, I hope we bump into each other some day again.

Qualcomm GameCommand

Qualcomm planning to launch GameCommand for Android devices at CES 2012

Last year Nvidia unleashed their Tegra Zone app on the Android Market to steer users towards games optimized for their Tegra-powered Android devices.

This year, Qualcomm look to be joining the fray, with their own Android app dubbed GameCommand, set to launch on the opening day of CES this year.

GameCommand will feature links to more than 100 titles for Snapdragon-endowed Android smartphones and tablets, including Fight Game Heroes, Bunny Maze 3D, The Reem and Desert Winds.

Check out the press release below for full details:

SAN DIEGO – January 05, 2012 – Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) today announced that Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. (QuIC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, is expected to launch the Snapdragon GameCommand™ application to the Android Market on January 10, 2012, the opening day of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). At its heart, Snapdragon GameCommand will give mobile users a way to quickly discover, organize and access the latest Snapdragon optimized, featured and exclusive games. It will also provide feeds from top gaming news sites to help consumers stay up to date with the latest gaming news.

Snapdragon GameCommand will enable users to easily access and play many of the over 100 Snapdragon™ GamePack featured games on a wide range of mobile phones and tablets. The Snapdragon GamePack includes several titles exclusively available on Snapdragon devices running on Android for a limited time, including “Fight Game Heroes” from Khaeon Gamestudio. “Fight Game Heroes” features head-to-head battles with real MMA fighters, including multiple combat champion and UFC fighter Alistair “The Reem” Overeem. Visitors to CES will have the chance to meet the 6′-5″, 265-pound Overeem in-person and watch as he takes on Qualcomm executives in live rounds of “Fight Game Heroes” at the Qualcomm Booth in the LVCC South Hall, Upper Level, Booth #30313.

Other exclusive games that are accessible to consumers with Snapdragon GameCommand include titles such as “Bunny Maze 3D” from Eyelead Software and “Desert Winds™” from Southend Interactive. In “Bunny Maze 3D”, players help the adventurous Bunny get back his stolen carrots, in a cheerful journey through a magical world. In the “Desert Winds” mini-game players take on the persona of princess Amira as she battles gruesome creatures of the desert to save her people.

“With mobile gaming proliferating at a blistering pace, apps like Snapdragon GameCommand make it easy for consumers to discover and access the most advanced Snapdragon optimized games,” says Dave Durnil, director of advanced gaming at Qualcomm. “With exclusive and highly-anticipated games like ‘Fight Game Heroes’ and ‘The Reem’ Snapdragon mobile gaming is really starting to heat up.”

Snapdragon GameCommand is expected to be available in North America at launch and will be available in other markets at a later date.

Nikon D4

Nikon D4 first still and video

Shortly after it announced its new monster of a camera, Nikon published the first sample photos and a video captured with the D4. We only got a handful of samples, but at these early stages we should be happy that we got anything at all.

We got three base ISO sample photos to demonstrate the kind of sharpness and dynamic range that the big fella offers and an ISO 6400 image, which should give us an idea of its high ISO performance.

Sadly, Nikon chose not to publish a sample captured at the D4 highest setting – ISO 204,800, so we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see that in action.

But let’s waste no more time and cut to the main event. Ladies and gentlemen, the Nikon D4 first still samples:

Nikon D4 ISO 100 sample photos

Nikon D4 ISO 6400 sample photo

Untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iPad2

Untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iPad2 development hits a roadblock, might be delayed

It appears that the promised untethered jailbreak tool for A5-touting devices isn’t as close to public availability as we all hoped. A couple of days ago the popular indie developer pod2g said that if we are lucky enough we might get it in a week, but maybe our luck just ran out.

It turns out that the jailbreaking tool for the newest iDevices – the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S that pod2g developed relies on the user having a developers account. And since most iPhone and iPad users don’t have such account (and it costs $100 a year to create one) it’s impossible to release the tool for public consumption.

In short, what the developer now has is an exploit that can be used for jailbreaking a device, but cannot be distributed. And it appears that there’s no workaround to that, as pod2g says that another exploit needs to be found.

We’ll see how long this will take, but we wouldn’t hold our breath if we were you. It’s much easier to live with the idea that it will happen when it happens.

Double the data usage for Siri users

Double the data usage for Siri users could be costly for iPhone 4S owners everywhere

It was effectively impossible to miss hearing about Siri, the ‘virtual assistant’, at the launch of the iPhone 4S and since it was unleashed on the world we’ve seen some impressive practical demonstrations and a far larger proportion of comedic ones.

But what if we told you that using Siri could potentially double your data usage compared to that of the humble iPhone 4 user, something you might not notice until your next nasty bill.

Following analysis undertaken by network firm Arieso, analysis of their report showed that using Siri results in data usage that’s twice as fast as typical usage from an iPhone 4.

It’s important to bear in mind here that there are a number of factors contributing to the heavy data drain. For starters the iPhone 4S is still the newest iPhone from Apple, still making sales and flaunting its features as “the most amazing iPhone yet”. As such it’s most popular features, namely Siri are seeing particularly heavy use right now. Once the novelty of voice recognition wears off (as it undoubtedly will), the usage statistics will presumably quieten down.

Be that as it may, Siri’s present thirst for data could catch you and your wallet by surprise, especially if you don’t have an all-you-can-eat unlimited data plan, and with the way carriers are going, chances are, unlimited data will become a thing of the past, perhaps before the end of 2012.

Apple iPad 3 & 2(8GB)

Apple iPad 3 will feature Retina Display and an 8 MP snapper, the iPad 2 to get an 8GB version

The announcement of the Apple iPad 3 is just a few months away now, so naturally the rumor train is starting to pick up speed. In today’s scoop we are talking display, camera and the fate of the current iPad after the release of its successor.

Once again, we are hearing that the iPad 3 will have four times the resolution of the iPad 2, which will reportedly be marketed as Retina display. Quadrupling the iPad 2 resolution on the same screen estate will give you pixel density of 264 ppi, which on a screen this big should feel as good as the 326ppi of the last two iPhones.

The camera rumors have it that the next iPad will share its primary camera module with one of the last two iPhones – the iPhone 4 or the iPhone 4S. This means that it will either have a 5 megapixel or an 8 megapixel snapper and if you ask us this sounds believable – it will probably cost next to nothing for Apple to include those modules, given that it already has them developed and it will make quite good PR material.

The front camera is said to get its own update too – it will be able to record HD video, which will be put to good use in the new Facetime HD video-chat app.

The minimal price that needs to be paid for all this goodness is the 1mm of extra thickness that the iPad 3 will have compared to the iPad 2. The new slate is said to release in March and cost as much as the iPad 2 currently does (well, duh!).

The final rumor for today concerns the iPad 2. Apparently, Apple will try and apply the iPhone model with its slates as well and will keep it available, reducing its price by $100. This means that the 16GB iPad 2 will go for $399 and there’s an outside chance of a $299 8GB version coming to life. That last bit sounds really hard to believe, but knowing Apple and their ways it’s certainly not impossible.

Well, that’s that with the Apple rumors for today. Expect plenty more in the following months as the iPad craze gains momentum.

Canon PowerShot G1 X 14MP

Canon PowerShot G1 X is a 14MP compact with a DSLR-sized 4:3 image sensor

Canon has brought out the big (but compact) guns in the Canon PowerShot G1 X. While it may look like a point-and-shoot camera it nonetheless packs a real punch under the hood. Its huge sensor measures 18.7x14mm, which is larger then the Micro Four-Thirds sensor and nearly as big as the APS-C sensors found in some DSLRs (22.3 x 14.9 mm for Canon).

What sets the G1 X apart from those types of cameras is that it doesn’t have an interchangeable lens – you get the 4x built in lens, covering the 28mm-112mm range in 35mm equivalent with a maximum aperture of F/2.8-F/5.6 and that’s that.

This does have the upside of making the camera more compact – the camera measures 116.7 x 80.5 x 64.7 mm and weighs 534g.

Anyway, other salient specs on the PowerShot G1 X that camera geeks will enjoy are the 14.3MP resolution, ISO that goes up to 12800 and 14-bit RAW images. There’s a built-in ND filter and an HDR shooting mode, too. You also get a Mode Dial and a Front Dial for better control of the shooting process.

The G1 X is compatible with hot-shoe accessories like the Speedlite, Macro Twin Lite or the Macro Ring Light flashes.

For setting up the shot, you can rely on the swivel 3″ LCD display with 922K dot resolution.

The Canon PowerShot G1 X is good for videos too, not just still shots – it can shoot 1080p@24fps videos too.

A quick note on the sensor – DP Review have prepared a handy illustration that shows the size of the G1 X sensor relative to other sensors.

The Canon PowerShot G1 X will sell for $800 starting next month.

SpareOne mobile phone up to 15 years

In case of emergency: The new SpareOne mobile phone promises to hold its charge for up to 15 years

You read correctly, not 15 days, weeks or months but years. Xpal Power, makers of other power savvy mobile kit, designed to prolong the life of your smartphone, have just announced the SpareOne.

Powered by a single AA battery, its makers say that the SpareOne will be capable of holding its charge for an unbelievable 15 years and what’s more, it’s intended to be super cheap to buy too.

Think of those situations where, for instance your car breaks down, smartphone batteries aren’t exactly known for their longevity versus your typical feature phone and in a tight spot, you want the best chance of being reachable.

What the SpareOne aims to offer is a worry free solution, by keeping costs down, keep the device simple and as we’ve already mentioned, extending battery life beyond that of your average bear phone.

The SpareOne is a dual-band GSM device and takes a not-so-typical microSIM. As well as a call ID, the device also transmits its location, so if you’ve have made it your emergency phone, it helps in more ways than one.

Creators Xpal Power also suggest that the SpareOne could serve as a short-term loan phone for corporate events, as much as its role in emergencies. Interested? Picking one up will set you back one cent shy of $50, but that seems pretty reasonable for a phone with more stamina than Forest Gump.

XPal intend to show off the SpareOne along with some of their other projects once CES officially kicks off tomorrow, but in the meantime, read on for the press release and follow the source link to see the SpareOne’s very own micro site.

SpareOne Debuts the Only Cell Phone in the World That Runs on a Single AA Battery and Maintains Its Charge Up to 15 Years

Ideal for emergencies, worldwide travel and situations when accessing power is not an option, SpareOne is the only cell phone that provides true reliability

Las Vegas, NV – January 9, 2012 – XPAL Power, patented battery technology giant behind leading portable power manufacturers PowerSkin® and Energizer® Energi to Go®, will debut its newest innovation – SpareOne – at CES 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 10th-13th. SpareOne is the only cellular phone in the world that runs on a single AA battery, providing a constant line of communication even in the absence of electricity as well as the ability to pre- program important phone numbers for easy access to visitor, travel and emergency services.

“SpareOne’s breakthrough technology provides an unprecedented lifeline during dire situations that require an emergency response,” said Alan Cymberknoh, SpareOne Project Director at XPAL Power. “By operating on a single AA battery, SpareOne solves so many daily issues, serving as a simple back-up phone you can carry without worrying whether it’s charged or not. It can be left in a car for emergencies, used by hotels who want to pre-program concierge numbers for guests, passed to your children or parents to maintain an open line of communication – it’s essentially designed to make and receive the most important calls, no matter what.”

SpareOne is a dual band GSM cell phone featuring patented technology enabling it to be powered using the most common and widely available battery, an AA (Alkaline, NiMH or Lithium). It boasts an incredible talk time of up to 10 hours* and can keep its charge for up to 15 years*1 if unused, making it the only cell phone that provides true reliability. SpareOne recommends Energizer® Ultimate Lithium, as it is the longest-lasting AA battery designed for high-tech devices, holding a charge longer than any other AA battery chemistry.

SpareOne was designed for a myriad of possible applications, including:
• Emergencies: With a built in emergency flashlight and the ability to automatically transmit its location via the cell ID, SpareOne is the only reliable tool for urgent response during a crisis or natural disaster when AA batteries become the only source of power.
• Travel: Travel agents, hotels, airplane attendants and other professionals in the tourism industry will be able to customize SpareOne to cater to their customer base, including programming SpareOne with minutes that can be used by travelers to make calls at local rates, or pre-loading them with convenient numbers to taxis, restaurants, airline ticketing and other localized concierge services.
• Bundling & Corporate Partnerships: Corporations can customize bundle packages for employees, such as encouraging employees to buy a smartphone and receive a SpareOne for free.
• Special Events: Moving forward, SpareOne will offer options to brand and customize designs and colors to correspond with special events.
• Families: SpareOne provides peace of mind to families with three re-settable speed dial buttons to keep the lines of communication open with children, seniors and other loved ones.
• Outdoor Enthusiasts: SpareOne is an ideal safety companion for people who frequently practice outdoor activities such as yachting, skiing, canoeing and any other activity in the wilderness. As long as there is cell phone coverage, SpareOne will always maintain its ability to make and receive calls, regardless of whether electric infrastructure is present or not.

“SpareOne has limitless potential and we’re excited to first announce it at CES 2012,” said Alan Cymberknoh.

SpareOne, equipped with an Energizer® Ultimate Lithium AA battery and a Micro SIM card, will be available nationwide in Q1 2012 for $49.99 on www.Power-Skin.com and the official site – www.SpareOnePhone.com. Different versions – for the Unites States, Europe and Asia – will be available with WCDMA frequency options for selected regions.