I laughed through most of this 4 min clip, as comedian Louis Szekely (Louis C.K) is telling Conan O’brien how ungrateful people are to technology. The monologue (although he’s a guest, but Conan acting smart and letting him speak) is hilarious, and Louis goes over some of the major technological breakthroughs we experienced in the past 50 years. Enjoy!
And thanks to Hillel Fuld for RT Robin Wauters.
Posts Tagged 'CellPhones'
IT’S GOING TO SPACE, GIVE IT A SEC
Published June 9, 2010 internet 2 CommentsTags: airplanes, apple, CellPhones, conan o'brien, iphone, louis c.k, stand-up, stand-up comedy, technology, twitter
Nokia Apps Review – Gravity and SMS Preview
Published April 25, 2010 mobile 2 CommentsTags: android market, app store, apple store, applications, CellPhones, foursquare, gravity, iphone, nokia, ovi store, sms previews, twitter
I’ve been a Nokia fanatic for over 10 years now, and had the chance to review some of the latest cellphones that made it to Israel. Recently, I upgraded my private N95 to an E72 – something I promised to do last June, once the newest E-series will become available.
Nokia App Store, aka OVi Store, is often not mentioned in the same sentence with Google’s Android Market, yet alone Apple’s App Store – both more advanced (UI-wise) and offer a larger variety. Still, there are some cool apps out there, for Nokia, that are worthy a post, or two. This post is the first in a series that will review the apps I’m using on my E72 device, starting with my own favorite Gravity and my first OVi download – SMS Preview. All pictures were taken using another (free) Nokia app, Best Screen Snap.
Gravity [14-day trial, $9.95 buy]
Gravity Homepage
Gravity is the best twitter client available for Symbian today. Although it costs $10 ($9.95 actually), it justifies every cent. First off, Gravity is more than ‘just’ twitter. The latest version (1.30 build 6355) added Foursquare support, which is the best thing @foursquare could have hoped for – without an official Symbian app, Gravity is the only non-web method Nokia users can check-in, add places, see map and shout. Since having Foursquare in Gravity, my check-ins have increased dramatically.
Gravity for Symbian - Browse menu
As a twitter client, it’s a fully-featured piece of software, that allows you to: upload images (twitpic, mobypicture, posterous, twitgoo, yfrog, or img.ly), create/save searches, lookup a user, create groups, favorite tweets and more. Mobile access combined with geo-tagging is not the future, it’s the present – and foursquare should assign Jan Ole (Gravity author) some stock options for helping them tap the largest cellphone audience.
SMS Preview [Free]
SMS Preview for Symbian
Back when I was previewing Google Nexus One (Hebrew) I was looking for an app that will handle SMS in an easier and more fashionable way. SMS Preview does a similar job for Symbian, by showing a full preview of the message you received, regardless of the app you’re currently in, for a defined period (5-60 sec). Double-click any key to dismiss the preview. Easy and simple solution that saves you time and helps you decide which action to take.
Nokia E72 – Day 1
Published January 6, 2010 Uncategorized 5 CommentsTags: blackberry bold, CellPhones, cellular, eurocom-nokia, iphone, israel, nokia e72
Last month I attended Globes Conference at Tel Aviv, and saw Nokia E72 for the first time in Israel, at the Nokia Israel booth. It took just 2.5 weeks (Kudos to Eurocom Nokia) for the E72 to arrive at my door step earlier today, for a review. As I stated before, although it’s easy to get hyped by a phone, one must review it under day-to-day activities, meaning at least 2 weeks, even 3. I will have the Nokia E72 for a month – just hope I won’t fall in love with it during the process.. 😉
It’s predecessor, the E71, is a huge success in Israel, receiving high scores in any review, and the E72 is entering the local market at an interesting time: iPhone was launched last month, Bold is holding its ground, and the E71 is the best selling Smartphone in Israel, second only to the N95 (150,000 units).
- Will E71 users rush for an upgrade?
- Will it take the crown of ‘Best Smartphone in Israel’ from its younger brother, the E71?
- Will N-Series users looking for a business device opt for the E72 over the iPhone or BB Bold?
A full review will be posted early February, both here and over at newsgeek.co.il (Hebrew), but I will post short updates, like this one, as the month progresses.
If you have any questions about the Nokia E72 that you’d like to ask or suggest, drop me a line here or on twitter and I’ll do my best to accommodate.
Back to the future – Nokia N95
Published October 20, 2009 Uncategorized 5 CommentsTags: CellPhones, features, Mobile phone, nokia n95, performance, samsung galaxy
Image via WikipediaIf you’ve been following this blog (and me) for a while you’d know I’m a huge fan of cell phones, very early adopter of new technologies and a massive user. My phone is my laptop away from home, and there are a lot of things I expect my phone to do. No compromises. I’ve been sporting the Nokia N95 since December 2007, shortly after is was introduced in Israel. Since then it has been a loyal companion mainly because of its overall package – it was, and still is, a powerful little gadget, despite its relatively weak CPU (only 332MHz):
3.5G phone with HSDPA, BT 2.0 (A2DP support), Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), 2.6 inches 240×320 pixels 16M colors screen, Symbian OS 9.2, S60, Mini-USB port, 3.5mm headphones jack, internal GPS receiver, TV-out, 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss Optics and 30fps video quality – all packed in a dual slide 120g machine.
In July I participated in Nokia Israel’s campaign to launch the Nokia N97, during which I received a device for a 2 month period. My bottom-line of the N97 was ‘Big Leap, Small Step‘ – expressed my disappointment around Nokia’s ‘much-anticipated-iphone-killer’ device. Shortly after, in September, I deprived myself of sleep for 48 hours, ‘courtesy’ of Samsung Galaxy challenge – and I’ve been using the Android-based phone since early September.
Last Saturday, I decided to return to the N95, after over a month of massive Galaxy usage, that have left me both happy and pissed – not at the same time of course. The main reason for this ‘up/down-grade’ lies in the very definition of PDA – the device which most cellphones aspire to be nowadays: I use my phone’s messaging capabilities – typing SMS/emails/twitter, browsing – blogs and websites, multimedia – pictures and streaming video and navigation, among other things (like making calls). I also sync my contacts, to-dos and calendar with my laptop. The Galaxy, although very hip and cool (Hebrew link) – delayed me in some of these tasks rather than assisting me. Plus, Nokia PC-Suite is – hands down – THE BEST Mobile to PC software available today. Without it, I’d still be editing the CSV file of my 700+ contacts to import back to the N95.
I’ve learned 2 important things from this experience:
- When reviewing a device that is crucial to your daily work (cellphone, laptop are the examples jumping to mind) – own them at least a month before making a decision.
- Cellphone vendors (Nokia, SE, Samsung, LG, HTC, Apple, Palm, etc): Battery life and CPU. Those are the (new) important properties (for me at least) when making a decision. Android Market is amazing – too bad the Galaxy CPU can’t handle all that potential.
Bottom-line, the Nokia N95 that was released March 2007 may be a step backwards compared to the current stock, but for me – it’s more of ‘Back to the Future’.
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Samsung Galaxy Preview
Published August 24, 2009 Uncategorized 9 CommentsTags: Android, CellPhones, google, iphone, samsung galaxy, social media, גוגל אנדרואיד, סמסונג גלקסי, קמפיין
Yesterday at 7pm the Samsung Galaxy campaign was launched, with Nitzan Brumer and myself as the first 2 participants. The goal is simple: updating twitter/facebook/both status for 48 hours, at intervals of 30min tops, using the #samsungalaxy tag. The prize: We get to keep the Samsung Galaxy, first Android based phone in Israel. The ‘X-Factor’: various treats to keep us awake and updating. Which means I can sleep, but only for 25min at a time. OR, build a Rubi program that will twit for me…
Either way, I need to find some ‘time-fillers’, so instead of sharing with you how I feel about ‘The 2009 Fall Season‘ or ‘the situation‘, I decided to give a short preview of Samsung’s latest device, that at a first glance has a very good chance of becoming my ‘iPhone Killer‘, unlike Nokia’s N97, which I reviewed only 2 weeks ago.
The good
- Android is more like iPhone than anything else I’ve seen. It starts with the homepage (3 of them actually), drag-and-drop and device speed (Qualcomm CPU @ 528MHz). There’s definitely a ‘cool-ness effect’ to this phone.
- Cellcom and Samsung Israel did a great work on the Hebrew interface of the Galaxy. Menus appear as they should, no Bidi mistakes, keyboard layout is also great, very similar to you laptop/pc.
- Google integration is super – as one should expect from a device running Google OS. Enter your username and password and every piece of data you stored at the G-cloud comes to your phone: Calendar, Contacts, Emails, GTalk, YouTube (you can define the Auto-Sync options). On the other hand – I feel a bit exposed knowing all that data is just ‘sitting’ there…
- Android Market cannot match Apple’s 65,000 apps, but it’s getting there. Easy to search and navigate, includes ‘My Downloads’ to keep track of your installs and some very cool apps!
The bad
- The chassis of the Galaxy doesn’t match the iPhone or even N97 standards. It looks cheaper, not as ‘flashy’. The 6 keys at the bottom have no back-light, which makes it somewhat difficult to operate in the dark.
- I haven’t found a way to ‘Close’ an app. Clicking on ‘Back’ takes you one step back, but the app stays open in the background – consuming battery and 3G/Wi-Fi/GPS.
- Battery life. Although the device is not small (115x56x11.9mm), and packs an impressive specification, the battery is small. And coupled with the last bullet, working on 3G (wifi is less consuming for some reason) results in about 5 hours – not enough, and quite disappointing.
- Single ‘notification’ alarm – for anything other than an incoming call. When you enable Twitter/Email/SMS notifications there’s no way of telling the difference – you must check.
- No front camera for Video-Calls.
- Camera is ok (5MP, Auto Focus, LED flash), but doesn’t match the N95/97 – in both picture and video quality. Also, I couldn’t find any ‘Zoom’ option when capturing, which is a bit annoying. There’s ‘Crop’ in ‘Gallery’, but why disable ‘Zoom’ to begin with?
Summary
The Samsung Galaxy seems like an excellent answer for people looking for a non-iPhone Touchscreen device, that has roughly the same specs, in a less-expensive-Google-packaging. My fiancee liked it better than the N97, not to mention the various apps. The Android Market is definitely the ‘wild-card’ of this phone, and is the ultimate testiment to the power of the community – the variety is huge, and you can find applications to satisfy (almost) any wish.
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