As part of the Nokia Rangers program, I received another Nokia phone which is the Nokia C7-00.

The Nokia C7 is powered by Symbian^3 and features a 8 MP camera with dual LED flash and is capable of recording HD video. It has a 3.5″ AMOLED capacitive touch screen of 640 x 360 pixels. Standard connectivity includes WLAN 802.11 b/g/n with Bluetooth 3.0 and HSDPA cat 9 speed of up to 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA cat 5 speed of up to 2.0 Mbps.

It has 8GB of built-in storage space and an additional MicroSD slot for expansion. It uses the same processor as the Nokia N8 which is the ARM 11 680 MHz processor with 3D Graphics hardware accelerator. The RAM is also the same as Nokia N8 which is 256MB. The Nokia C7 has a total ROM of 1GB which is 512MB more than the Nokia N8.

Metal was used extensively for the phone and hence in terms of built, it is as solid as the Nokia N8, but it is thinner and lighter.

I am going to repeat myself again, Nokia makes great hardware but it is the software they need to put in more effort into and when it is time to let the OS go, it is time to let it go. Holding on to it will do you more harm than good! I mean you can continue to support Symbian, but move on with a new OS!

When I setup the phone, it detects my Nokia account automatically (I am amazed) and I just need to enter my password for it. After keying in my password, it sends an SMS (I am guessing it is an activation SMS) back to the phone. But the problem is, I am on MultiSIM and the SMS will never be receive by the Nokia C7 because it is not my primary phone instead I received the SMS on my iPhone 4 instead. Because of this I can’t get my Nokia account to activate on my Nokia C7! I spend like 15 minutes to keep trying but to no avail!

Not a good first experience! But other than that, it is pretty much the same Symbian^3 experience like the Nokia N8.

Box Front

Free Speaker

Box Open

Box Content

Nokia C7 Front

Nokia C7 Back

Nokia C7 With Symbian^3

Bought the Magic Trackpad at iStudio located at Changi Airport Terminal 3 on Friday before I left for Jakarta, Indonesia. On the same day, Apple Singapore is having a Chinese New Year Sale. As there are no 7% tax at the airport, it amounts to about the same price as the CNY sale. Got it for SGD$91.59. In fact, if you are getting more expensive items like MacBook Pro or Air, it is even cheaper at the airport than during the CNY sale.

Box Front

Magic Trackpad

Apple Wireless Keyboard + Magic Trackpad + Magic Mouse

A.C. Ryan has announced new Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2 shortly after I got my Playon! HD back in November 2010! Damn!

I love the new features of the Playon!HD2 especially the upgraded wired networking to 10/100/1000Mbps because on Playon! HD, it is only 10/100Mbps and transfering files to it over LAN is taking forever! My home network is already on 10/100/1000Mbps wired with Cat6 RJ45 cables.

• More format support: Supports BD-ISO and DVD IFO/ISO
• Engage Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Msn, Skype
• Gigabit Wired Networking
• Unique User Interface: Playon! GUI2.0
• Smart Content Management: Autofile Indexing
• USB 3.0 Connection
• Ez Drive Slot: Easy Hard Drive Insertion

Press Release

AC Ryan Unveils Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2 at CES Las Vegas

Las Vegas, USA – January 2011. AC Ryan continues to revolutionise the media player world with its market leading, multi award winning Playon! series of Full HD Media Players and Recorders. The Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2, the first to feature the latest 1185 media player processor from Realtek, takes the original series a class forward.

The Playon!HD2 is the next generation of network media player, taking your digital entertainment to the next level. Store all your media files centrally and securely in the built-in eco friendly, low noise, low power consumption HDD up to 2TB. The Playon!HD Mini2 is the next generation of network media streamer. Stream all your media files from your attached storage or over your network. The Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2 allow you to enjoy your media files directly in the comfort of your living room.

The Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2 make digital entertainment at home easy. Enjoy more interaction with friends through Facebook, Twitter, MSN and Skype. Play or Stream the world into your living room with the WePlayon! portal (coming soon) for the best online content. The unique and intuitive Playon! GUI2.0 allows users to navigate through all the exceptional features with ease.

Building on the success of the original world’s first, Playon!HD and Playon!HD Mini, the Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2 are the first Full HD Network Media Player and Streamer to feature Realtek’s latest 1185 processor. Enjoy the pure performance of Gigabit Wired Networking for the very best in media streaming. Wireless networking is also supported with optional Wireless-N via an external adapter. The Playon!HD2 also includes a USB 3.0 port, supporting the fastest transfer speeds available on USB for your external storage, and an EZ Drive HDD slot, to make the installation of your 3.5″ HDD even easier.

The Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2 will be available at all leading retailers in early February.

Suggested Retail Prices:

• Playon!HD Mini2 – ACR-PV73800 – $/€ 109
• Playon!HD2 – ACR-PV73700 – $/€ 169
• Playon!HD2 500GB – ACR-PV73700-500GB – $/€ 205
• Playon!HD2 1TB – ACR-PV73700-1TB – $/€ 229
• Playon!HD2 1.5TB – ACR-PV73700-1.5TB – $/€ 259
• Playon!HD2 2TB – ACR-PV73700-2TB – $/€ 289

Official Site: A.C. Ryan Playon! HD 2
Official Site: A.C. Ryan Playon! HD Mini 2

Source: AC Ryan Intros Playon! HD2 And Mini2 Full HD Media Streamers

Verizon Wireless announced last night (12am SGT) that they will be selling the iPhone 4 as well in the US. The difference from AT&T and perhaps the rest of the world iPhone 4 is that it will be a CDMA version as opposed to a GSM version.

In terms of physical design, it is more or less the same with only three slight differences with the metal band surrounding the iPhone 4. See top, left and right view comparison.

Because of the extra gap on the left side and the removal of the gap on the top side as compared to the GSM’s iPhone 4, the buttons alignment is off by a few millimeters. I wonder how well will it fit into tight fitting iPhone 4 cases. BTW, Apple will be updating it’s own bumper to fit Verizon’s iPhone 4.

In terms of software, Verizon’s iPhone 4 is running 4.2.5 and currently the GSM’s version is on 4.2.1. I am guessing all iPhone 4 owners will get an update to 4.2.5 on 10th February 2010 as that is the date Verizon’s iPhone 4 will be launching.

Verizon’s iPhone 4 has an interesting Hotspot feature under the Settings that allows up to 5 Wi-Fi devices to use the iPhone 4 as a hotspot making it a mobile 3G modem, which is exactly the same as what my Huawei MiFi E585 does.

There is a rumour stating that the hotspot feature will come to iOS 4.3 for GSM’s iPhones but it is still dependent on whether the carrier supports it. Come on SingTel!

I hope that feature will be available for all iPhone 3GS/4 users, since it doesn’t make much sense to give it to Verizon iPhone 4 owners only. But then again, sometimes when Apple does things, it totally makes no sense.

One thing that we GSM users take for granted is simultaneous Call and Data usage, but unfortunately you can’t do that for the CDMA version of iPhone 4. It is either Call or Data and not both at the same time.

Also there will be a CDMA’s version of iPad coming to Verizon as well.

Official: Verizon’s iPhone 4

Engadget: Verizon iPhone first hands-on!

PS: Links showing the comparison and hotspot features are from Engadget.

Got myself the HTC 7 Mozart as my own Christmas present from Mobile Square. They are selling it for SGD$670 without contact. I traded in my Nokia N82 for SGD$140 and my mom’s iPhone 3G (16GB) for SGD$270. Ended up paying only just SGD$260 for the phone.

Box Front

Box Back – Specifications

Box Contents

HTC 7 Mozart – Front View

HTC 7 Mozart – Back View

Windows Phone 7 OS

Now I have phones from all major mobile OSes (iOS, Android, Symbian^3 & Windows Phone 7) except Blackberry!