The Motorola Milestone was meant to mark Motorola’s triumphant return to the smartphone scene, and it’s certainly a powerful device: it runs the latest version of the Android OS, is a multitasking demon and one of the fastest internet phones available.

But it’s hardly the most stylish of phones – in fact, it looks like an old-fashioned PDA, with the size to match. It’s powerful processing skills are no excuse – the iPhone put paid to the idea that power equals size for good. And with none of the stylish touches that grace recent Android phones like the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and the HTC Bravo, the Milestone may struggle to compete.

Style and handling summary for the Motorola Milestone

If we were being polite, we would describe the Motorola Milestone as old school, but while the look may be dated – a large, angular body with bronze detailing on the back speaker and D-pad – the build quality is excellent. The slide-out QWERTY keyboard has well-placed number and symbol keys to make tying a breeze, a dedicated shift key – a bonus for those who like grammatical texting – and an Alt key. The whole thing is similar to that email giant the BlackBerry. Unfortunately, the Motorola Milestone’s keyboard can’t compare. Sure, it’s tactile, but a D-Pad stuck on the side makes it a little too long, and the keys are quite heavy, making fast typing more difficult than on handsets like the BlackBerry Curve, or the touch-screen keyboards found on the HTC Hero or iPhone.

Connectivity and camera on the Motorola Milestone

The Motorola Milestone has a bumper 16GB of internal memory and, if that’s not enough, you get an 8GB microSD card bundled in. In terms of connectivity, you have a miniUSB port, a 3.5mm audio jack (more important that many manufacturers seem to think), and joining those of the sides of the phone are the camera release button and volume/zoom tabs.

The camera is the best one we’ve seen on an Android phone yet, although that’s hardly a recommendation. The Android 2.0 operating system at least supports a flash, which is new, so you get a five-megapixel cam with dual LED flash and autofocus. Unfortunately, the image sensors are about the same, meaning colours are slightly off even with daytime shots. Lowlight shots are far better, though – the LED flash does a pretty good job here. It won’t replace your dedicated camera, but will suffice for those out-and-about snaps, especially as the shutter release doubles as a launcher, giving you quick access.

Touch-screen on the Motorola Milestone

The capacitive touch-screen measures 3.7 inches and covers most of the Motorola Milestone’s frontage. The only hardware are four buttons along the bottom of the screen for back, menu, home and search. There’s no call or end call key, but a preloaded shortcut takes you through to the dialler. That does mean a couple of extra clicks if you even want to call back your last caller, though. One great little phone feature is a sensitive proximity sensor that that turns of the screen when you put it to your ear and turns it back on when you move it away – this is useful when your are calling voicemail or any other feature that requires you to enter numbers on a virtual keypad.

Internet on the Motorola Milestone

The internet and GPS features are the Milestone’s central features, and rightly so – they are incredibly fast and the best you can get. It’s one of the fastest internet phones we’ve used nad it’s superior processing power meant we could run the internet browser, messaging, Twitter and maps with no reduction in speed at all. There’s no delay between pressing your icon and launching an app, and using the phone is always immediate, intuitive and smooth.

The full HTML browser handles even the most content-heavy web pages with ease, and browsing is made comfortable thanks to that 3.7-inch screen and the multi-touch zoom function. Pictures and fonts are clear and sharp, and the touch-screen allows for accurate hitting of hyperlinks. Other than the lack of tabbed browsing, this is the nearest thing to a perfect mobile internet experience we’ve had.

Of course there’s a catch – there generally is – and in this case it’s the battery life, which is pretty poor. When we ran Facebook and Twitter in the background with frequent use of the browser, the Motorola Milestone switched itself off within a day. For an internet-centred phone, it could really do with a better battery.

GPS on the Motorola Milestone

The Motorola Milestone’s GPS receiver is fast and accurate, and it found our location down to the door number even when we were inside the building. Google Maps is included, although there’s no voice navigation feature (this is reserved for users on the other side of the Atlantic). To make up for this, Motorola has included its own navigation software, MOTONAV. This is a fully-featured package with both car and walking directions which comes with free Europe maps and a 60-trial of the Premium service. But the free stuff is good on its own, offering options to look around cities, find places around a cursor and send maps and directions by SMS or email. You can search for locations including restaurants, petrol stations, accommodation and parking, and when finding a route you can filter motorways, tolls, ferries and unpaved roads.

Keeping MOTONAV discrete from Google Maps is an odd decision, as the mapping functions would make more sense together. And you can’t turn on GPS from MOTONAV either, meaning a few extra clicks to accomplish this simple task. You can download on/off auto-GPS switches from Android Market, but plenty of other GPS phones have managed this without difficulty.

Contacts and email on the Motorola Milestone

Being a Google Android device, the Milestone’s Gmail access is an outstanding, desktop-like experience, and the QWERTY keypad makes typing messages easy. Google and Microsoft Exchange accounts offer easy-to-set-up push-email, but we’re surprised that push-email isn’t available for other email clients, even Hotmail. Set the send/receive notifications for the shortest interval possible and you will at least get regular updates, but that’s still only every 15 minutes. Another annoying twist is that even once you’ve cleared the notifications, you have to actually read the email to stop the phone sending you new notifications for the same message. Not fun for spam mails.

Social networking on the Motorola Milestone

As for social networking, you can get free apps for Facebook, Twitter etc via Android Market, but your notifications won’t be pushed to you like they are on phones like the DEXT. This is because the MOTOBLUR interface that made social networking such a breeze on the DEXT isn’t present here. Of course, not everyone is a social networker, and if that’s you, then you won’t mind the omission at all.

The free Facebook app isn’t up to much either, as you can’t even direct-message your friends. You can view the news feed almost exactly like you would on a desktop, but profiles are lacking in information. However, you can link up Facebook to your phone contacts – theoretically at least. It didn’t work for us, but that may have been a glitch in our review model.

You can also sync your contacts over-the-air with Google and Exchange, but moving contacts from a standalone Outlook account and you have to go in a roundabout way, by synching Outlook to Google. And the preloaded Phone Portal software, which can import contacts from Outlook, can’t sync your Outlook contacts to the phone.

What you can do, though, is see everything you’ve done on your phone, from calling and text history to internet browsing.

You can connect the Motorola Milestone to your PC via Wi-Fi, which is useful if you can’t lay your hands on your USB cable.

The verdict on the Motorola Milestone

The Milestone is impressively powerful, and its internet and GPS features are second to none. It’s bulky and lacks the usability of some other phones, but is a multitasking marvel, albeit one with a low batter life. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if email and internet are your thing, it’s a great performer.

Labels: Motorola Mobile

The HTC Smart is a compact touch-screen smartphone that differs from HTCs usual offering because it runs on the Qualcomm Brew operating system, although there will be a version running on HTC Sense.

The HTC Smart aims to meet HTC’s core goals for its phones which are Make It Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected. The HTC Smart enables users to customize the phone to suit their own needs, is constantly in touch with social networks and has full email functionality.

The Qualcomm Brew is an operating system that enables phones to launch at a lower price point, suggesting that the HTC Smart is aimed at a slightly different market to the premium sector they usually target.

The HTC Smart has a 2.8 inch QVGA touchscreen, a 3 mega-pixel camera, 3.5 mm headset jack and 256MB internal memory. It's powered by a 300 MHz processor and its dimensions are 104 * 55 * 12.8 mm and it weights 108 grams.

The HTC Smart will be launching across Europe this spring !

Labels: HTC Mobile Phones

Labels: Samsung Mobile

The 2010 telecom predictions are likely to affect businesses and consumers and identify the latest telecom trends for applications, 3G mobile devices, 3G networks and emerging business.

The 2010 Telecom predictions are :

1. Wireless Operators Push Netbooks, but They Prove a Mixed Bag

Netbooks continue to gain momentum in helping wireless operators sell incremental data-centric plans, even to existing customers. Consumers in developed markets are more likely to use netbooks in addition to, rather than as replacements for, cell phones and laptops, so operators can boost penetration with multiple connections per customer. However, heavy data usage by netbook users could place more strain on already-loaded data networks. Operators view netbooks purely as another type of connectivity, like a data card. However, consumers see operator-provided netbooks as full computing devices requiring laptop-type support. They expect seamless synchronization among features such as contact lists for all their wireless devices. Operators will either need to spend significantly to develop these capabilities or outsource them to prevent consumer backlash.

2. The FCC: Stuck in Neutral with the Net

The significant debate on net neutrality rules continues, and FCC efforts to reach a compromise bog down for many months. The potential imposition of net neutrality in wireless already has had a chilling effect on spectrum auctions and rural broadband stimulus participation. Ultimately, the FCC will reach a compromise between network reliability and innovation that is satisfying to no one. The Commission allows limitations on certain traffic that may be detrimental to overall network usage, providing the limits are not overtly directed at particular types of service or specific service providers. Operators will need to find ways to gain traction in an environment encouraging more over-the-top services.

3. Wireless Operators Play Whack-a-Mole with Data Issues

Verizon has begun its aggressive deployment of LTE, and AT&T is continuing with HSPA. Other operators are following suit, finally giving wireless users the promise of wireline-type throughput. However, as the RF bottleneck is removed, other equally challenging issues move to the forefront. Operators focus on new backhaul solutions that can cost-effectively handle increased traffic. Additionally, device battery life rears its head further because high-speed data applications and always-on connections drain battery life quickly. Battery innovations have lagged behind RF technology advances, and the severity of the gap increases. Operator coverage—especially in-building coverage—is strained as customers use wireless as a replacement for wireline capabilities. Much time, effort, and capital spending will be directed to finding solutions for these capacity issues.

4. When All Devices are Smart, What Becomes Genius?

Once upon a time, smartphones were high-end devices. However, broad adoption of these models has increased volume shipments. In addition, airtime pricing has become more competitive. These factors are turning smartphone features into table stakes for mid-tier devices. Mobile phones above entry level pricing tiers morph into computing platforms so smartphones as a distinction between tiers ceases to exist by the end of 2010. Today’s smartphone—a device with an open OS, a big display, and full Internet browser—won’t be a standout because all devices are smart. New levels of distinction emerge with high-end units becoming powerful Internet devices with voice calling as a secondary function.

5. Wireless Data Pricing Looks More Like the Airlines

Having provided customers with unlimited usage plans, operators find it very difficult to increase pricing or start usage-based charging. Much like airlines that couldn’t increase basic rates, wireless operators increasingly turn to charging for incremental features and capabilities beyond basic transport. This is most evident in wireless data services and leads to quality of service pricing. Applications such as VoIP or video streaming that require more guaranteed service are priced higher than just best-effort connectivity. Total cost of service for customers increases, but in many cases not from basic transport fee hikes.

6. M2M Leads Operators into New Acquisition Area

The machine-to-machine (M2M) application space has generated significant interest in 2009. AT&T and Jasper forged a strategic partnership, and Verizon and Qualcomm formed a joint venture called nPhase. Operators previously reticent to dive into M2M now recognize the profit-boosting characteristics of this business: low churn, low cost per gross add, and an increase in non-peak traffic. However, many operators possess limited competencies in the support and management requirements associated with M2M enterprise solutions. At least one operator makes a significant acquisition of a major M2M player to jumpstart its capabilities in this market.

7. A Look at Clouds from Both Sides Now

Beam up my data, Scottie! Operators embrace cloud computing for applications delivery because it places more value on the core network and increases customer “stickiness.� Operators should be on the lookout for gray skies, however. Challenges of response time and coverage can affect utility of usage. Plus, network security and vulnerability issues make customers hesitate. Other players won’t sit still and watch operators occupy this space. Unwilling to assume “dumb terminal� status, device suppliers set up a classic technology battle between capabilities in the cloud versus at the edge. Other cloud companies, such as Amazon and Google, provide these services across wireless and fixed in an “over the top� way, relegating operators to “transport pipe� status. During 2010 expect storm fronts to collide, with heat and lightning generated but no greater clarity on winners.

8. A Device OS Bites the Dust

A recession is still on, and there isn’t enough device revenue to support seven (count ’em) different operating systems: BlackBerry, OS X, Windows Mobile, Web OS, Android, Symbian, and Linux Mobile. While the “Open� oasis attracts much support for Google and Android, expect that one OS drops in the desert. Application storefronts and developer ecosystem traction are critical to device OS adoption by OEMs. Bigger device share attracts additional developers, resulting in more uptake by OEMs. Those OS platforms with extensive developer support, streamlined certification processes, and integration of Web 2.0 features establish early leads. Consolidation rather than continued fragmentation is the probable result since the industry typically drives longer term toward standardization.

9. MVNOs Get New Lease on Life in a Very Different Form

Here comes the MVNO 2.0 business model. In North America, MVNOs have struggled, and the few that found success eventually were acquired by network operators. Competing with operators that ultimately controlled supply just didn’t work. The resurgence of MVNOs is based on a new business model emphasizing delivery of total solutions with wireless as part of the package. An example is the free Amazon Whispernet content service accessed with a Kindle reading device. The risks are lower for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), since they are not enhancing a competitive brand, and they can penetrate markets previously not easy to access directly.

10. Game Console Video Kills the PC Star, at Least for Internet Video

Internet video primarily has been consumed directly on the PC as streaming bite-sized clips. Only early adopters viewed streamed or stored Internet video on their TV. The amount of Internet video viewed on TV doubles in 2010, and the gaming console serves as the primary gateway, accounting for almost half of usage. Developments supporting the console device, such as content availability, existing revenue model, and higher definition programming, are the enablers. While PCs and other devices—such as Internet-connected TVs and over-the-top, set-top boxes—are expected to emerge after 2010, the gaming console will be the preferred device for now.

Bonus Prediction: You Can Track the Players Without a Scorecard

Due to major industry changes, traditional wireless operational measurements are fast becoming obsolete. Here are a few examples:

Penetration. This isn’t a helpful figure when the numbers of devices and subscriptions reach 200 percent, 300 percent, and more per customer.
ARPU. Multiple devices and services per user, each with differing cost profiles, determine real customer revenue.
Churn. An increase in the number of “disposable,� “situational,� and “substitution� devices challenges the traditional definition.
A new set of customer-focused metrics emerge and borrow criteria, such as share of wallet, from other industries.

Labels: News, Three Network

Operator extends music service to Symbian platform

3 has announced that it is extending its Spotify offering and the service will be available on phones operating on the Symbian platform as well as Android.

The operator announced in November a Spotify tariff available on the HTC Hero. However, existing contract customers will be able to download the Spotify for Symbian application.

Customers will be able to use the application at a cost of £9.99 a month for six months and will be available on a range of Nokia handsets and the Sony Ericsson Satio.

A 3 spokesman said: 'We are excited to announce the launch the Spotify for Symbian application for a number of phones available on 3. Existing contract customers will be able to download the Spotify for Symbian application via Planet3.

'This application will give even more of our customers access to Spotify's vast music catalogue of 6 millions plus tracks via their 3 mobile. All this music for £9.99 per month over 6 months.

'Bringing the Spotify for Symbian application to 3, extends the partnership signed in November. Spotify Mobile is a compelling music service that gives consumers the ability to share and enjoy music on their phone. Yet again, this award winning music service is being brought to 3UK customers in an affordable package.'

The application is available for the following handsets:

• Nokia 5800
• Nokia E63
• Nokia E71
• Nokia N86
• Nokia N95
• Nokia N95 8GB
• Nokia N96
• Nokia N97
• Sony Ericsson Satio
• Nokia 6220 classic

Spotify is an online music streaming service and is available on the iPhone and Android as an application.

Labels: Nokia Mobile, Sony Mobile, Three Network

Labels: Sony Mobile

The mobile phones from Nokia are known for their flexibility, durability and functionality. Among those one of the sleek and navigation-friendly mobile phone is the Nokia 6080 that comes in black and gold colours to fascinate the mobile users. It has dimensions of 105.4 x 44.3 x 18.6 mm and has a lightweight of 91 grams that allows its users to access the options with ease. This highly durable phone comes with a TFT display with 65K colours that has a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. To share text and picture messages with your friends continuously, it has messaging options like SMS, MMS, Email and Instant Messaging and the WAP 2.0/xHTML browser helps for high-speed Internet connectivity. For data transmission, it is preloaded with GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE, Infrared port and USB port. The VGA camera of this mobile phone comes with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and video (subQCIF) that allows its users to capture the clear images. Apart from these features, it also comes with Java MIDP 2.0, FM stereo radio, Video player, Voice memo, reliable battery, Polyphonic and MP3 ringtones.

Labels: Mobile Phone, Nokia Mobile