New Nokia Tube - iPhone Like Device

[zap2]

I'd assume Nokia can do a decent iPhone knock off with extra features. Hell if they just made the N800 into a phone I'd be pretty tempted.

Yea, the N810 is a great gizmo...not sure why the added WiMax over HSPA

 

[mkrishnan]

And Alltel as well, I believe.

I don't think Alltel is generally considered to be a national carrier. As I understand it, they're a regional with cross-coverage contracts that allow them nationwide functionality. But true.

OK sorry, I thought there were big holes in the 3G coverage though, whereas in Europe 3G coverage is very widespread.

I'm not actually familiar enough with Europe to address this. First, you need to appreciate that much of the US is very low population density. The equivalent of most of the US is not being in the middle of London. If you go to Norway or Poland or Hungary and travel say 150km from a major city in the direction of the countryside, is there generally good 3G reception in a place like that? (Serious question) In the equivalent locals in the US, there is not always. But there is in pretty much all the cities and even most midsize towns.

 

[PMB]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

if it can be ported to verizon, and run the iPhone os, I'm all over that like a fat kid on a cupcake

 

[garybUK]

I don't think Alltel is generally considered to be a national carrier. As I understand it, they're a regional with cross-coverage contracts that allow them nationwide functionality. But true.



I'm not actually familiar enough with Europe to address this. First, you need to appreciate that much of the US is very low population density. The equivalent of most of the US is not being in the middle of London. If you go to Norway or Poland or Hungary and travel say 150km from a major city in the direction of the countryside, is there generally good 3G reception in a place like that? (Serious question) In the equivalent locals in the US, there is not always. But there is in pretty much all the cities and even most midsize towns.

This is very true, you get blackspots with no 3G especially where there is no demand, though now especially in the UK, some of the carriers are merging their cell masts so they can increase each other's coverage and share maintenance.

I'd only expect to see this on GSM type carriers in the US as Nokia typically only makes limited CDMA handsets seeing as the only counties mainly using it are the US and Korea.. (hence the proliferation of LG + Samsung handsets)

I'm seriously looking at the N96 now to replace my iPhone but will make a balanced decision, there's nothing like just plugging your phone into your macbook pro and it syncing everything up perfectly.

 

[0098386]

The N96 is tempting me too, I just doubt the web experience and the MP3 player is anywhere near as good as the iPhone.
It's the TV part of the N96 that interests me. But with 3G and the iPlayer I wouldn't have much use for live TV.

Mega late edit: So mobile TV only exists in Oxford and Cambridge. Back to iPhone...

 

[PowerFullMac]

Nokia Tube - October 2nd - "cheaper than competition"!

Check it out!

 

[karlsilla]

Check it out!

Wasn't it used as a prop in The Dark Knight? Interesting to see to pricing of this one when it comes out.

 

[garybUK]

The N96 is tempting me too, I just doubt the web experience and the MP3 player is anywhere near as good as the iPhone.
It's the TV part of the N96 that interests me. But with 3G and the iPlayer I wouldn't have much use for live TV.

Mega late edit: So mobile TV only exists in Oxford and Cambridge. Back to iPhone...

I've had a iPhone and got a N95 8GB, imo the browsing is better than iPhone and, yes, the music player is more fiddly but works equally as well and supports for formats AND it syncs automatically with iTunes

 

[PowerFullMac]

Wasn't it used as a prop in The Dark Knight? Interesting to see to pricing of this one when it comes out.

Yep!

I really hope its being sold at a decent price around Christmas on Pay As You Go, that makes or breaks to deal for me, really (except the Christmas part).

 

[t0mat0]

The N96 is tempting me too, I just doubt the web experience and the MP3 player is anywhere near as good as the iPhone.
It's the TV part of the N96 that interests me. But with 3G and the iPlayer I wouldn't have much use for live TV.

Mega late edit: So mobile TV only exists in Oxford and Cambridge. Back to iPhone...

Mobile TV for iPhone, either v3 or v4...perhaps - AT&T and O2 have both talked to a certain mobile tv company, that basically uses a broadcast system, which means there aren't so many bandwidth issues, just reception ones. If they can crank out a signal of a decent enough size, it could come to the iPhone. (I forget the name of the company right now, but I got a friendly smile from an engineer working on the technology when I asked if they were working on an iPhone version).

If you're in the UK, you've got iPlayer on wifi already, and potentially ITV and C4 might get their act together (it took BBC long enough) and make something compatible. Heck, they're allowed to have adverts...

 

[nplima]

I think this may be the iPhone killer, and I think this for the following reasons:[...]
4) Most of their phones are not exclusive to a single network/carrier, you can just get them on whatever network you want, or even get them SIM free

The first thing that happened after Apple and ATT closed that exclusivity vs. kick-back deal was that Nokia and all other relevant manufacturers wanted the same. Let's not think that Nokia is by definition a better deal than any other manufacturer, because if they could they would gladly sell their products the same way Apple did for the iPhone.

So, don't be surprised if Nokia/Motorola/SonyEricsson/Samsung/LG/... keep selling some handsets in all types of distributors and leave some high end products for some exclusive channels - they already do!

 

[PowerFullMac]

The first thing that happened after Apple and ATT closed that exclusivity vs. kick-back deal was that Nokia and all other relevant manufacturers wanted the same. Let's not think that Nokia is by definition a better deal than any other manufacturer, because if they could they would gladly sell their products the same way Apple did for the iPhone.

So, don't be surprised if Nokia/Motorola/SonyEricsson/Samsung/LG/... keep selling some handsets in all types of distributors and leave some high end products for some exclusive channels - they already do!

As long as I can get software to unlock them (and I can get them on Pay As You Go) I dont really care

 

[PowerFullMac]

Its out!!!!

Take a look!

 

[elppa]

Well it's out and it turns out cloning the iPhone's slick UI isn't easy, even if it is 18 months after you first saw it.

Lowlights from the Engadget Preview:

Nokia's done "just enough" to turn the traditional interface into a touchable one with version 5.0, sizing up icons, adding finger-friendly buttons in lieu of traditional menu items and so forth. What Nokia hasn't quite figured out is consistency, requiring double taps in some places, single taps in others. Scrolling through most lists requires dragging a scroll bar, pulling down as the list flies up, but the browser has touch and drag scrolling. Nothing's too frustrating or unreasonable, but this is no seamless experience.

We're not convinced the touchable browser is a step up over existing WebKit implementations on Nokia's other handsets, since the tap to zoom function is slow and unreliable. Panning around the page is also jittery, perhaps a tad worse than the G1 -- nobody has managed to pull off iPhone smooth yet in this department.

this is no iPhone when it comes to to solid media integration or full-featured media player apps. On the communication side, we're sad to see Nokia almost burying some of its S60 advantages. Everything's still there, but Nokia didn't put the gruntwork in necessary to really take advantage a next-gen interface

Obviously there are highlights, but as some people are so keen to pick apart the flaws of the iPhone in the most minute of detail in the interests of balance I thought it was only fair to highlight some flaws in other phones for a change.

 

[PowerFullMac]

Well it's out and it turns out cloning the iPhone's slick UI isn't easy, even if it is 18 months after you first saw it.

Lowlights from the Engadget Preview:






Obviously there are highlights, but as some people are so keen to pick apart the flaws of the iPhone in the most minute of detail in the interests of balance I thought it was only fair to highlight some flaws in other phones for a change.

Dont forget, though, Engadget played with a pre-release model, and all the problems are small software bugs, also as this is a smartphone, Nokia can do extra patches through a app if they miss something out.

I cant wait to get this!

 

[lugesm]

Nokia might or might-not have gotten it right. It's too early to tell, but it would be dangerous for Apple to underestimate Nokia.

 

[elppa]

Dont forget, though, Engadget played with a pre-release model, and all the problems are small software bugs

No, they are not. It sounds like this is a first effort, falls a long way short of the iPhone and is therefore priced accordingly.


As far as I know you can't turn a resistive single touch phone into a capacitive multi touch phone with a small software update.

And if it was so easy to replicate the smooth as butter feel of mobile Safari with a small software fix, then maybe after two years someone would have done it.

 

[wako]

Well it's out and it turns out cloning the iPhone's slick UI isn't easy, even if it is 18 months after you first saw it.

lol what?


Nokia didnt clone the iPhone... they simply made the S60 UI into a touch interface... they kept their same exact UI from their other phones pretty much

 

[elppa]

lol what?


Nokia didnt clone the iPhone... they simply made the S60 UI into a touch interface... they kept their same exact UI from their other phones pretty much

Anyone who viewed their preview video nearly a year 6 months ago now saw what their intentions were. They just couldn't get it done in the time. I am sure more is coming though.

 

[PowerFullMac]

What is it with Apple fanboys thinking Apple is so all-mighty and amazing that every touch-screen phone except the iPhone has to be a clone of the iPhone, because Apple invented the touch-screen, didnt they?

I mean, seriously, I like the iPhone and Apple and all (which is why I am on here) but I dont think all phones are iPhone clones... Thats just wayyyy over the top.

Why is the 5800 a iPhone clone? Because its black? Because it has a touch-screen?

Seriously, explain.

Also, the UI looks NOTHING like the iPhone UI, anyone who has used a Symbian S60 phone before will see the resemblance.

 

[Tom B.]

One big problem: It only has a resistive touch screen.

What is it with Apple fanboys thinking Apple is so all-mighty and amazing that every touch-screen phone except the iPhone has to be a clone of the iPhone, because Apple invented the touch-screen, didnt they?

I mean, seriously, I like the iPhone and Apple and all (which is why I am on here) but I dont think all phones are iPhone clones... Thats just wayyyy over the top.

Why is the 5800 a iPhone clone? Because its black? Because it has a touch-screen?

Seriously, explain.

The iPhone was the first phone to make good use of a touch screen, and I'm fairly sure Nokia wouldn't have released the 5800 if it wasn't for the iPhone. Nokia just want to emulate the iPhone and stop their existing customers from moving to the iPhone.

 

[PowerFullMac]

One big problem: It only has a resistive touch screen.

So what? I cant do flashy finger tricks on the screen? I can still zoom by tapping the thing, I can even use my finger.

 

[elppa]

Seriously, explain.

This is the culmination of the Tube project. The initial scope of the project looked much more ambitious and at the time it was widely compared to the iPhone with good reason.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/08/nokia-readies-iphone-ish-tube-disses-apples-sales/
http://gizmodo.com/377171/nokia-to-apple-blah-blah-iphone-killer-blah-blah-you-suck
http://www.gadgettastic.com/2007/08/30/nokias-iphone-clone/

It looks like the scope got scaled back a fair bit since then.

A NOKIA VP, when asked about the similarities stated:

“If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride.”

See the relevant press conference here Around 2:50 minutes in to the end.

NOKIA said they were copying the iPhone, not “Apple Fanboys” as you so kindly branded some of the respondents to this thread.

I was just drawing attention to initial reviews of NOKIA's self proclaimed copy.

As a small suggestion, maybe turn down the rhetoric about Apple fanboys. Name calling is immature and does very little to add to the debate.

 

[PowerFullMac]

Meh, I take it back for this incident, but I still hold my point.

I actually think the 5800 is better than the iPhone, its cheaper, more open, does video, has 3.2 megapixel camera, flash, video recording, video calling... Much better!

 

[MacTraveller]

Every 2 days, someone introduces another iPhone wanna-be. This shiite is getting really old.