Ed Howson of Masabi Comments by Gestalt

Poor bloke. If he thinks that the 7650 is a leap forward he must have not seen any of the DoCoMo phones or J phones . The 7650 is due for release in the second half of this year, it has a colour screen, built in camera, GPRS and Java. Its rumoured to cost around £500 with a contract.

Interesting! Glad to see EG taking a good look at this. As for "it seems unlikely that your mobile is going to be replacing your GameBoy Advance, but the next few years are going to be an interesting time for handheld gaming" - my own view is that mobile gaming is going to take off BIG TIME in the next three or four years. You just have to see the number of people sitting on the metro playing games on their phones. I'm the only one sitting there with a GBA. Seriously, if I were a risk taker (which I'm not) I'd start investing in a few companies that are developing games for Symbian platforms. Forget about consoles, mobile platforms are going to be the real revolution bringing gaming into the mainstream. In five years' time, EVERYONE including your gran will be playing games on their mobiles. And I'll eat my testicles live on streaming 3G handset near you if I'm wrong!

Grrrrreat! Looks like all this Java I've been doing at work hasn't been a waste of time after all - I've now got a ladder into the mobile gaming market! :-)

Any excuse to play Repton say I!

My Nokia phone is old and clunky, when it gets replaced it'll be for something VERY nice. The Samsung one being advertised (colour screen etc) looks pretty swanky.

Nah what you want is a GBA that's also a mobile, rather than a tiny screen mobile that plays games.

Seriously, if any of you get a kick out of the current fanboy transatlantic flamewarz (which of course you don't as fine, balanced and cuddly individuals), just wait until it's M$ versus Nokia, PocketPC versus Symbian, US v. Europe in the fight for mobile gaming dominance! *rubs hands in glee*

I saw a demo yesterday on the Ericsson stand at Internet World in London of the "new" T68i of which there is apparently a Java version either available now or soon - I was really impressed with the quality of the colour graphics on that tiny screen (they had one of those click-on cameras and were demoing that too). If the Nokia 7650 or any of the soon-to-be released Java phones have as good (or better) display as the T68i, then wahey! OK - it's not exactly a 1600x1200 Trinitron display, but it's certainly useable...

I've been waiting for the Nokia 7650 since I saw the release info at work (I work for Nokia). I finally gave up and bought one of those Motorola HypnoMoto shiny ones last week and I'm going to be seriously gutted if the Nokia one is out soon.

While we're on the subject, I know we don't want to encourage European Scum, but his constant harping about their superiority is irritating & I think it's worthwhile to point out how shite their mobile networks are compared to everybody else in the world. I mean. Pagers!!!!

you go girl_gamer! :)

girl_gamer - "I know we don't want to encourage European Scum..."

I couldn't agree more! It's quite scary that Motorola have decided to keep the huge aerials on their phones just to keep the Americans happy (in the States, apparently, if you've got a mobile device that doesn't have an aerial on it, then people think it's a pager...). The V70 (which you called the HypnoMoto shiny one ^_^) would be a lot cooler I think if it didn't have that stupid massive aerial on it...

So what's the new Moto phone like? They're running loads of adverts in London at the moment and, er, it looks *ok* but nothing I'd sell a kidney for.....

The T68i has a 101 x 80 pixel 256 colour display.
The Nokia 7650 has a 176 x 208 pixel display.

The Nokias little camera can take 640x480 pics but you cannot send moving images with it. The camera lense is on the back of the phone - you use the screen as a view finder.

" M$ versus Nokia, PocketPC versus Symbian"

Its MS/TI/Intel vs the Symbian boys (Nokia vs Sony-Ericsson vs Motorola vs etc).

MS/TI/Intel supply the technology to whoever wants it. The idea is that MS/TI/Intel phone manufacturers will just be integrators - like in the PC industry.

ssuellid - "If he thinks that the 7650 is a leap forward he must have not seen any of the DoCoMo phones or J phones"

He does say "over what they have become used to", which in Europe is WAP and SMS. And for the Americans is walkie-talkies.

Thought it was canz'o'beanz & string?

ssuellid, I'm no expert but I gather that the driving force behind the creation of Symbian was the refusal of Nokia & co to do an IBM and roll over for Microsoft. *This* time around, the hardware manufacturers were not going to let the OS get a stranglehold on their profits. That & the fact that EPOC was streets ahead of the competition in terms of quality.

The 7650 is not much of a leap from the T68, which has been available since November, or even Nokias own newer version of the Communicator. The Nokia 7650 just adds java and a built in camera.

Are any of the networks are going to support these new features?

All I can add is...

...beware the imminent invasion of the POLYPHONIC RING TONES!!!!! AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

/edit - to add:

(It's going to make every public place seem like a convention of Yamaha Home Keyboard enthusiasts)

Ahhh, good point on the ringtones. Public Transport is going to become even more unbearable!

I'm getting more and more irritable as I get closer to 30. Sometimes I just want to grab the mobile off of the idiot opposite and scream "LOOK, FECKING *SILENT* PROFILE" for every BEEEEEP BEEEEP time BEEEEP BEEEP a message BEEEP BEEEP comes BEEEP BEEEP in. Replying are we? clickclickclickclickclickclick. I couldn't tell.

/rant over/

Good point. I get very very ANGRY at people sitting on the train playing snake with keypad tones switched on - ARGH! How bloody insensitive can a person be???

If I recall correctly, Symbian pre dates Microsofts entry into the mobile phone market. The main issue was apparently MS license costs, why bother if you have your own OS? Symbian is not used in that many phones as yet. This will change as phones add features that require a more capable OS such as Symbian.

I still have my doubts as to whether or not people are going to want to use mobile phones for all this new multimedia stuff - after having seen O2's XDA I have a feeling that small PDAs with built-in mobile networking (GPRS or better), especially with all the power available with Intel's new Xscale technology (iPaq version here).

I think the Nokia 7650 may be a bit too small. The xda is light and small enough (if they get rid of the aerial, it'd be even better - but reception may suffer?) to stick in your pocket...

Even worse was the old guy the other day who was new to this text thing and was pressing the buttons veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery slooooooooooooooowly and beep and.......beep.........and....................beep..........
...and...............beep.

After an hour I felt like I'd been subjected to chinese water torture. Cmon people, use your profiles so not to disturb those that NEED to sleep on trains because of kids being awake all night and learn how to use pre-emptive text. It's not hard, really it's not.

If I recall correctly, Symbian pre dates Microsofts entry into the mobile phone market

It was always pretty clear that MS were going to try to corner the phone OS market with WinCE, back when Symbian was first launched there were frequent spats between MS & Nokia (plus poaching of various high level suits) - search the Register's archives, it's quite interesting.

Nemesis - That pre-emptive text doesn't support l33t and h4XX0r words yet though does it? o_O

Initially MS just offered an alternative OS. This failed and involved lots of banter with Nokia et al.

Now MS/TI/Intel offer a complete package. Mr Dell or Mr Cheap box shifter signs the deal with the devil, follows the plans to make a phone, slaps a screen and case on it and out pops a phone for very little (comparitively) cost.

Jeex, aye just add it in.

Although, if it ever got repaired, the engineer'd probably take one look, think the dictionary was corrupt and re-image it!

I guess mobile users irritate me no end because they generally interrupt my public transport slumber. Don't even get me started on people who nick all the armrest and footspace.

Merefield - "beware the imminent invasion of the POLYPHONIC RING TONES"

Wahey! That's reason enough for me to buy one, especially if there's an easy way to program your own. My knackered old Nokia currently plays the harmonica man theme from Once Upon A Time In The West. ;)

The beeping and tapping I can handle, it's when you're just about to nod off on the fast train back from Paddington, after battling through the Underground war-zone, and suddenly someone(who's still got their phone on the LOUD profile - useful in the war-zone)'s phone starts ringing, slapping you back into consciousness... Not pleasant.

Don't your trains have a mobile free carriage? All the Virgin and Midland Mainline intercity trains seem to have one.

Don't your trains have a mobile free carriage?
Dunno about trains but the Government have got to do something to have mobile free roads! I was nearly run off the road again last night because someone was more interested in their phonecall than the fact they were on a roundabout.
Driving while using a mobile should be a capital offence, no appeal, instant justice.

Driving while using a mobile should be a capital offence, no appeal, instant justice.

A delivery guy was complaining to me the other day because he'd just had three points taken off his licence for driving whilst using a mobile phone... A bit daft for doing it while the police were next to him in the almost static traffic, but still.

Evidently the brighter end of the gene pool then .....

Yeah I got told off by the police for using the mobile in (wait for it) a traffic jam...that hadn't moved for about 20 minutes. Engines were being switched off and all sorts.

Like, who am I a danger to? Other people's reception? Personally I think they were bored.

I just sit there and imagine the reaction if I grabbed their mobile and threw it right on out the window. Makes the train journey home bearable, but only just.

Oh and thanks for putting the heaters on guys...smaaaaaaaaaaaaaart.

"Wahey! That's reason enough for me to buy one, especially if there's an easy way to program your own." - Gestalt

Yep, I think they are going to support MIDI files and perhaps the General Midi standard...hehe, can u imagine...not only annoying tunes...but people's own compositions you don't even recognise!!

'Course, as an amateur musician myself I'm hardly one to want to suppress people's creativity, but... ;)

Haha, a cool preview of MIDI ringtones on the Nokia site...enjoy!!!

A year or so ago the Belgians adopted a law against using mobiles in cars. Since that day, you will not see a *single* car on the Belgian roads without the driver yacking to his/her mobile. You see, the legislators forgot one thing: Belgian police do not GIVE A FUCK.

*snip* (edit - don't want to give FeZZ a heart attack)

It's the BMW mobile brigade I personally loathe, so close to the back end of my little car I can see the make of golf clubs on his back seat.

My solution? Window washers on for a bit. It whooses straight over and onto his screen. Or slow down a bit. Or a lot. Sometimes I feel like the Rain God. Without the broken cassette player though.

It's the BMW mobile brigade I personally loathe, so close to the back end of my little car I can see the make of golf clubs on his back seat.

LOL. Indeed!


Otto...

I swear I *will* nuke this country when they give me the button.

As some clearly wise people once pointed out, each year an area of rainforest the size of Belgium is destroyed... why not just destroy Belgium?

Death to Java! :)

"As some clearly wise people once pointed out, each year an area of rainforest the size of Belgium is destroyed... why not just destroy Belgium?"

Wise words, o Stu, wise words. I'll see that we table this as a potential Type II outcome for the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. Surely even the Americans can agree to such an eminently sensible move for the planet?

Just when you've got the hang of filtering out all the new ringtones, they bring in WAV and Midi rings. There's a few guys in the office now with them, and I can tell you it gives me the willies every time one of them plays the first four bars of Bach's famous Toccata and Fuge on a proper sounding church organ. I keep expecting to see Christopher Lee pop up as Dracula.

lol

Just move the international court to Belgium and the US will do the job for you.

that's true. We'll catch all the fallout from when they bomb the Hague, so that's OK.

It's the BMW mobile brigade I personally loathe...

As a wise person once said: "The difference between a hedgehog and a BMW is that with a hedgehog the pricks are on the outside." ^_^

Nokia... isn't that a Finland corporation?

Yep - Finland being part of Europe of course.

In my mum's part of Germany they call a BMW a Bayerische Mist Wagen. Bavarian Shit Cart. Reasonable description of the average BMW's contents.

In parts of the UK they call it Black Mans Wi11y. You can figure out the rest yerself.

er steady on Nem, let's not go there

That's why I didn't go there.

yeah but you *did* go there

(cue Vic'n'Bob style dialogue)