The hottest concept mobile phone right now doesn't come from Apple, Google, Motorola or HTC. It was developed by a designer in his spare time as part of a Mozilla Labs project.
Seabird is designer Billy May's vision for a phone that aims to address some of the frustrations people have when interacting with small devices.
"While mobile CPUs, connectivity and development platforms begin approaching that of desktops, the lagging ability to efficiently input information has grown ever more pronounced," he wrote in a blog post describing the phone. The post includes videos--one in 3D--with a rendering of the concept phone.
Seabird has two pico projectors. When placed in a dock it uses one of them to project the screen on a nearby wall for easier viewing and the other to project a full-size, virtual keyboard on the table where it sits. A user can then type on the virtual keyboard instead of a tiny on-screen or physical keyboard on the phone.
A small Bluetooth dongle fits into a slot on the back of the phone. It can be popped out and used as an earpiece. Or, users can wave the dongle in space to move a cursor on the phone screen, clicking the dongle to select an item on the screen. May says it lets users "pan and zoom in 3D space."
The dual pico projectors, located on the sides of the phone, could also be used without the dock to project half a keyboard each -- one on each side of the phone. "The Seabird, on just a flat surface, enables netbook-quality interaction by working with the projector's angular distortion to deliver interface, rather than content," May wrote.
Seabird features other standard smartphone components like an 8-megapixel camera, a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and a mini-USB port. May envisions that it can be charged wirelessly.
The concept phone is built on Android and has an unusual shape. With a flat face and no physical buttons, it tapers to just a sliver at the bottom, with a bulge protruding from the top at the back. That bulge elevates the projector lenses enough to project an image onto the surface that the phone sits on.
Can't get enough of the Galaxy Tab? Then Samsung's got you covered with its latest, and possibly most detailed video overview of the tablet yet. Running just over nine minutes, the video doesn't exactly offer a ton in the way of surprises (apart from a rather curious contact listing for someone named "Bill Jobs"), but Samsung's demonstration of the Tab's email client did catch our eye. As you can see above, it shows a Gmail account with what appears to be starred emails. Unfortunately, it's not clear if those stars are actually tied to Gmail, since the client also showed the same stars in a Hotmail account during our first hands-on with the device. So, is a star just a star, or a star? Just one of many things to ponder as you watch the complete video after the break.
We'll freely admit how smitten we are with Dell's concept, the Inspiron Duo. While it's supposedly coming to retail by the end of the year, it's so special that every time we spy new photos or video footage of it, we watch joyfully. Of course, Intel doesn't need to watch from afar, as demonstrated in a new video -- they simply asked Dell's Inspiron Product Marketer, Dave Zavelson to show it off on film. The Duo, in case you've been hiding under a rock since before IDF, is a 10-inch netbook with a swivel screen which enables you to use it as a sort of tablet... you know, those things that everybody's cranking out these days. It also boasts a dual-core Atom N550 CPU and Windows 7 Home Premium. Regardless, we still haven't heard any pricing or definite availability info yet, but the video is below.
The Nokia N8 is Nokia’s first Symbian^3 smartphone and represents Nokia’s fightback against Apple and Android. What you want to know, though, is if it’s worth buying or not. Have Nokia made a smartphone that can compete with the best? Is it a worthy succesor to Nokia’s previous flagship smartphones such as the N95? And what features does this glorious looking chunk of shininess hold for the mobile phone fan? Read on for our complete hands-on Nokia N8 review.
Nokia N8 overview
The Nokia N8 is Nokia’s flagship smartphone for 2010, and comes crammed with so many superb hardware features, it’s difficult to know where to start! If you were a fan of the feature-phone craze a few short years ago, when the mobile manufacturers competed to squeeze as many features into their phones as they possibly could, then you’re going to love the N8! Not only does it come with every feature you can think of, each is pretty much best in class. Take it camera, for example. It’s not just a camera on a phone, it’s the best camera there’s ever been on a phone – and that’s no exaggeration! Video, too, is handled with ease, and with an HDMI output and Dolby 5.1 surround sound, the N8 is genuinely a multimedia computer. So from the outset, the N8 looks extremeley promising. Let’s take a closer look at its features.
What you’ll love about the Nokia N8
For camera and video enthusiasts, as well as Nokia fanboys, the Nokia N8 is an outstanding piece of kit. The following is just a small list of what you can expect to find on Nokia’s latest and greatest:
Take professional quality photos with the best camera of any phone – ever!
12 megapixel camera, xenon flash, auto-focus, Carl Zeiss optics, mechanical shutter, and an unrivalled amount of settings let you take photos that are better than your average digital camera
Shoot HD videos through the same 12 megapixel camera
Imagine capturing video of your kid’s first school play, or just a night on the town, in glorious widescreen 720p HD that looks flawless on your HDTV – just by pointing your N8 at the scene and pressing record.
Your videos are also recorded with superb sound quality thanks to the N8′s ability to tune out wind noise and control recording levels in harsh audio environments
And don’t worry about capturing your mates’ shenanigans in a dark club – the N8 has settings for low light, white balance an dcolour tone, ensuring you capture the best video wherever you are
Secondary front-facing camera lets you make video calls
Playback true HD-quality films on an HDTV at 720p resolution, thanks to the N8′s huge memory (16GB internal + up to 32GB from a MicroSD card) and its HDMI output
Listen to your movies in superb Dolby 5.1 surround sound
Watch WebTV or YouTube videos on the N8′s stunning 3.5″ touchscreen, which, with its 16 million colours and use of Nokia’s brand new Clear Black Display technology, shows deeper blacks and greater contrast than any other phone on the market
Listen to your tunes in style with the Ovi Music player, Ovi Music Unlimited service, and excellent quality sound
Superb gaming phone thanks to its built-in graphics processor.
Phew! And that’s not even mentioning the usual plethora you get with smartphones, including WiFi, 10Mbps HSDPA, new Web browser, accelerometer, GPS, compass, FM radio, YouTube, Bluetooth 3, and anything else you care to mention!
The Nokia N8′s features in more detail
Some of the N8′s features are simply unique, and so deserve a bit more attention paying to them, so I’ll cover those here.
The N8′s camera
Of course, the most obvious feature is the camera. It is, simply, superb. The specs alone don’t do it justice. Firstly, its 12 megapixels ensure your pics are still nice and sharp when they’re blown up to a decent size. The Carl Zeiss optics add to the clarity of the pictures you take, while the Xenon flash ensures great quality pics even in low light. But great pictures aren’t all about megapixels. The N8 has a larger optical format image sensor than most camera phones (1/1.83″), which allows it effectively to see more light. The Xenon flash has an automatic red-eye removal, while the face detection software automatically keeps the focus on any face in the picture. If you prefer to tweak your camera’s settings, you’ll be pleased to know that with the N8, all the following features are fully adjustable:
white balance
exposure compensation
colour tone
sharpness
contrast
flash control
ISO sensitivity
All of this means you can take great quality pictures wherever you happen to be. Check out the gallery below for superb examples (and they look even better on the N8′s display, as its screen’s contrast and super-black feature makes the colours really stand out).
When photos are taken, they’re automatically geotagged thanks to the N8′s built-in GPS receiver, and the onboard image gallery will let you zoom in and out of your picks using the sam pinch-zoom feature found on the Apple iPhone.
Video
Video on the N8 is the best in class. Sure, other phones can record video at 720p, but not all of them can play it back complete with 5.1 Dolby surround sound over an HDMI cable. The N8 can. At the Nokia World 2010 event, Nokia showed an N8 playing Angels and Demons on a 50″ plasma TV, with the video and music pumped through the N8′s HDMI port to a home theatre box, and the results were superb. True 720p picture and surround sound from a phone. Incredible. Better still, you can record your own videos with the same quality in glorious 16:9 widescreen format. You can even edit them on the phone, as the N8 comes with built-in video-editing software.
Games
The N8 has a built-in graphics processor, which, combined with its accelerometer, means that 3D games don’t just look good, even when shown on a large HDTV, they’re extremely intuitive to play as well. Nokia showed off Angry Birds at Nokia World 2010, the popular puzzle game that’s set the mobile gaming world on fire. On the N8, with its superb screen and fast graphics processor, Angry Birds, plays superbly.
Web browsing and Email
Nokia were one of the first companies to use the WebKit browser (the browser that Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome are both based on), and this continues to be the case with the N8. The browser is extremely rich, and although it doesn’t support Adobe’s Flash, it does at least support Flash Lite. The browser isn’t quite as good as the browsers found on the iPhone and Android phones, it has to be said, simply because moving the page with your finger around isn’t quite as fluid as its competitors. It seems Nokia still hasnt quite got its head around the competition! However, as you can see from the screenshots below, the colours are truly superb, and the overall browsing experience is extremely good. As far as email is concerned, the N8 excels, supporting just about every email application and protocol that exists. including:
Yahoo! Mail
Gmail
Windows Live
Hotmail
POP/IMAP services
Mail for Exchange (i.e. Outlook)
IBM Lotus traveler
All of these email protocols are supported and can be accessed from the one unified email client.
Navigation
Finally, the N8′s maps are also pretty good. Nokia pioneered the use of GPS in phones, and after buying Navteq, one of the world’s largest mapping companies, a few years ago, its Ovi Maps app is now right at the head of the curve. Better still, with Ovi Maps, all of the maps that you need can be stored on the N8 itself, so you don’t need to worry about losing your mobile connection, or getting stung for a horrendous amount of money if you use maps when on holiday abroad. Ovi Maps also provides free car and pedestrian navigation, giving you turn-by-turn directins to your destination.
What you won’t like about the N8
The N8 has come out in a giant wave of hype, and it is an extremely impressive device. It does, however, come with a big drawback. Its hardware is superb, in places leaps ahead of its rivals, and the camera is genuinely better than any other mobile phone’s before it. Its software, and in particular its user interface, though, really lets it down. The N8 is the first phone to use Symbian^3, Nokia’s latest redesign of its venerable Symbian mobile OS. Unfortunately, despite Nokia’s claims about how much better the new Symbian is, and the fact that it can multi-task 25 apps simultaneously (just try that on an iPhone!), it still looks old, dated and clunky. If you remember how Windows Mobile 6.5 felt, you’ll know what I mean. Symbian^3 is good when looked at alone, but compared with the competition, it’s staid, with little or no nice touches that we expect from smartphones these days. For example, the new Windows Phone 7 mobile OS is beautifully responsive, with lovely animated transitions when you move from screen to screen, and a neat kinetic scroll feature that causes lists to bounce slightly when you reach their end. The N8 has none of that. Lists simply scroll down. No fuss, no drama. Just scroll. Likewise, screens swipe from one to the next. No animation. No transition. Just slide. Perhaps it’s the Finnish way?! The result is a phone that’s perfectly good when looked at on its own, and certainly worthy of a flagship phone. But one that, ultimately, is still not as good as the competition, at least in terms of its user interface. And for Nokia, that’s disappointing.
Videos of the Nokia N8 in action
Here are some videos I took of the Nokia N8 in action at Nokia World 2010.
What do you get when you combine the N8's HDMI output, its 12 megapixel camera, and your trusty old TV set? As Anssi Vanjoki might say, you get a big new smartphone. Nokia's research labs have thrown up a neat little "prototype" app called Plug and Touch, which enhances the N8's already famed HDTV friendliness with the ability to recognize touch input. This is done by positioning your aluminum-clad Nokia about five feet away from the display and letting its camera pick up your hand's gestures and touches, essentially resulting in a massively enlarged Symbian^3 handset device. Naturally, it's not terribly precise at this stage and there are no plans for an actual release, but it sure is a tantalizing glimpse of what may be coming down the pipe. Video after the break.
10:54AM "The main job of our network today isn't voice, it's to entertain our customers." In other words, data.
10:52AM Vittorio's talking up the Vodafone network and how it can help developers. Privacy, security, and network speed / quality of service. He's droning on and on about "important activities." Hey Vitto, just provide us a fast pipe and we'll be fine, mkay?
10:42AM "In my own personal market research, what I have seen is normal people booking cars from the beach on their personal mobile devices. People booking tables at a restaurant, normal people at normal restaurants." Checking maps, reading news, wind forcasts for wind surfing. "We're not talking anymore about the high end, we're talking about real life." You can see where this is heading -- right into Nokia's strength in the middle of the market.
10:37AM Vittorio Colao, Chief Exec Vodafone, taking the stage.
10:32AM Angry Birds will be installed on all Symbian^3 phones starting with the N8.
10:32AM Angry Birds "Mighty Eagle" is an in-app Ovi Store purhcase that can instantly clearly any single level. This is the end of games as a commodity and the beginning of games as a service.
10:27AM Mikael Hed of Rovio (developer behind Angry Birds) is on stage. Describing how it works. "Angry birds puts you in charge of some very angry birds..." Is this really necessary? "Using a slingshot, you send the birds through the air to smash the pigs..."
10:25AM Ovi Store update. 190+ countries, 120+ nokia devices, and supports credit card and operator billing. "Given a choice, consumers choose operator billing 2 out of 3 times."
10:18AM New Nokia browser. WebKit enabled. Renders web page "as good as any other browser on competing platforms." Also updated for touch, natch.
10:16AM More dev talk. Not really our bag. Talking about Qt for native development and Web SDK for web apps.
10:11AM "Nokia is offering the Java SDK to series 40 touch and type devices -- the industry's first SDK for featurephones."
10:09AM "Silicon Valley remains the center of the development universe. Our developers, all of you, can reach the largest number of users via feature phones. Last year Nokia shipped 364 million phones."
10:05AM When I travel the world as a representative of Nokia, "I feel like a rock star. When I return home to Silicon Valley, not so much." That got a chuckle given Nokia's poor performance in the US. Purnima is now addressing developers directly, given them reason why they should stick with Nokia including development platform and milllions of customers.
10:02AM Purnima Kochikar, Vice President, Forum Nokia & Developer Community, took the stage.
10:01AM Anssi thanked everyone for the last 20 years. He's off to loud applause. End of an era there.
10:00AM "There you have it. Smartphones for smart people!" Anssi is running down the foursome one more time. "It's not technology, it's what you do with it."
9:59AM Anssi talking about Nokia's green iniatives now. "We have the greenest portfolio in the industry." We'll see if Greenpeace agrees.
9:57AM "It's the best business class device ever produced by Nokia or anyone else. Hands down. It's no problem to have many apps running. At the moment, I have 25 apps at the same time on my N8. That's what we call real multitasking."
9:56AM Today we get the followup to the E90. It's out, Nokia E7! "It's big!" He says with a smile. "But it's also beautiful and thin this time." 4-inch display. "Nothing beats a real keyboard because we're not just consumers, we're also producers." Tilting touchscreen display. Again, "It's biiiig." An office on the go with the ability to create PowerPoint slides. "Working with Microsoft is somehow easier now." A nod to their new CEO. Chuckle.
9:53AM Here we go, a followup to the Communicator first introduced in 1996 (the 9000). Takes us back. Video of product placement The Saint. Oh Val.
9:50AM Anssi going on about Ovi maps and social networking capabilities of C7 and C6. "C7 and C6 will make it more fun to stay connected. Both shipping Q4 of 2010."
9:48AM C7 is the sleeklest slimest device in the world "No doubt about it."
9:47AM C7, the thin cousin of the C6. Built for social networking on the go. Same camera but larger 3.5-inch display and more memory and stainless steel body.
9:46AM First up, C6. 8 megapixel camera, free walk and drive navigation. The C6 has something no other device has, "CBD." Nokia Clear Black Display. The background is "blacker than black." Okkkkk, Anssi.
9:44AM New devices! We see the QWERTY version of the N8, the E7? We'll see.
9:44AM "N8 is not about the MHz or GHz." A comment directly related to the ARM 11 processor criticism the N8 has received.
9:43AM Demo time. Tron trailer playing from N8 onto the big screen over standard HDMI. 5.1 surround is impressive in this auditorium. That got applause.
9:41AM Touting the N8's camera now. 12 megapixels, mechanical shutter, Carl Zeiss optics, "the result is photography that is absolutely amazing." The N8 features the "largest sensor ever used in a phone-like device." Anssi calls the N8 the best "entertainment smartphone ever." Anssi's being really emphatic with his delivery. He knows this is his last Nokia World and he's not going out without a fight.
9:39AM Anssi is waving the N8 on stage now. "World class hardware with new user experience. It's the start of something truly big." "Preorders for N8 have been strongest for any device we've ever brought out." That's good news for Nokia.
9:37AM "The new Symbian is faster and easier to use while maintaining the logic, the familiarity of the new, that Symbian users love." Talking about Qt SDK now for developers. "We have greater platform consistency."
9:36AM "I'd like to get something off my chest. Some critics have looked at the first screenshots and said, 'It's the same old Symbian!'" Adding, "They have to look under the hood to see what it can do!" Anssi is fired up.
9:34AM Anssi: "Yes we have taken a few knocks in the past few years but we have positioned Nokia for the future. Some are deserved, but we're here to look to the future."
9:33AM "We will not make any MeeGo product launches today. More on that before the year is out. Today is about the here and now, it's about three words. Nokia. Is. Back." Applause. Here comes Anssi!
9:33AM "By 2013 800million people will be using GPS-enabled devices. Soon, everything on the Internet will have a location coordinate. This is a space we intend to own."
9:31AM "Nokia, not Google, leads in navigation services." Niklas is spending a lot of time comparing Nokia to the competition. They are clearly tired of the criticism. Nokia Maps now avaiable in 78 countries and 48 languages.
9:28AM "100 operators in dozens of countries have signed up to offer the Nokia N8. The N8 offers style, innovation, good value, and performane. They perform day in and day out no matter how you hold them." That got a chuckle.
9:26AM "Today we shift into high gear in the fight for smartphone leadership." Ooohh, do tell Niklas.
9:25AM "We will continue to offer a variety of devices to meet different needs and budgets. Nokia users expect nothing else." Niklas "One more thing." Smiles. "In the last quarter, people bought a lot more smartphones than iOS and Android combined." People buy 260k new Nokia smartphones everyday. "That's more smartphone sales than any other company by far."
9:23AM "Yes, Nokia is undergoing a tough, challanging mission. We're not going to apologize that we're not Apple or Google or Samsung. We are Nokia and we are unique!" Silence.
9:22AM "Recently, one of our competitors had a launch where one executive had this to say." Showing Scott Forstall "it's all about connecting people." Applause. "Connecting People is more than a tagline at Nokia, it's our mission."
9:21AM "Nokia people are participants in life, not spectators. What we really do at Nokia is help people grab life's experiences." Nokia World is sold-out. 3,000 people in the house, analysts, press, developers. Our greatest fans and harshest critics. "This is what makes this event so valuable."
9:19AM Booming base showing people in all stages of life, everyday people, every moment. "This is the new world, this is Nokia World. Nokia Connecting People."
9:17AM Stephen Elop will not be here today but he "looks forward to leading this great company. Nokia owes a great deal to OPK for his contributions over a 30-year career. With that said, on with the show!" Video time.
9:16AM Niklas Savander takes the stage. "Thank you and welcome to Nokia World 2010."
9:15AM "Please take your seats." Looks like we're about to start.
9:10AM "We will be starting in 5 minutes." A lot of people still getting registered outside the keynote area, apparently.
9:05AM Announcement: "we'll be starting a little later." In the mean time, why not play name your favorite Nokia executive. It's more fun than a bag full of Salmiakki.
8:52AM Anssi Vanjoki's here regardless of his "short-timer disease." Maybe Stephen Elop will make a surprise appearance to rally the troops. They could use it. Many we've spoken to feel "gutted" by Anssi's unexpected announcement to leave Nokia.
8:46AM Room is starting to buzz. Press is seated and the doors have opened to developers. Soothing whale song fills the air.
8:42AM Excel London is huge. Nokia tells us to expect a few thousand developers. Let's see if they can fill the room.
Got an itch that only Symbian can scratch? Then pull up a chair and get ready for a deep tissue rub down and Espoo mud pack, we're coming at you live from Nokia World 2010 in London, ready to bring you anything that Nokia chooses to dish up with the launch of its Symbian^3 OS. Question is, will we see any MeeGo devices or will this be an S^3 only event? Stay tuned, it all gets going at 0900 London time.
