Smartphones and phone accessories, from carrier price plans to screen protectors and the newest launches.
Nokia has announced the N79 today, arriving in the first quarter of next year. It will be the first Nseries touch device and Nokia's second touchscreen overall, after the XpressMusic 5800, running S60 5th Edition on WCDMA with HSDPA.
It's now 1am Singapore time and my NDA has ended, so I can finally talk about the Nokia XpressMusic 5800, aka The Tube. Thanks to Text 100, and Supriya, I attended the Nokia Remix 2008 pre-media briefing at Marina Mandarin.
T-Mobile has announced the world's first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, also known as the HTC Dream. It packs a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM and a preinstalled 1GB MicroSD card supporting up to 8GB.
I had an informal gathering with Nokia, Text 100 and several bloggers at The Straits, 31 Pekin Street, Far East Square. At first I confused it with The Straits Kitchen at Hyatt Hotel; luckily the full address was given.
Nokia held a media event at House @ 8D Dempsey Road at 2pm to officially launch the N79, N85 and N96. Sadly I had my first tutorial then. The N79 succeeds the N78 and the N85 succeeds the N81.
I was at the Singapore iPhone 3G launch at SingTel ComCentre at midnight on 22nd August 2008. Arriving around 9.15pm to queue, I was 43rd according to the sticker on my application form. There were two parts to the queue.
SingTel has released its iPhone 3G prices for the iFlexi plans. This post also links to my pricing write-ups for the later iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5c/5s, 6/6 Plus and 6s/6s Plus on SingTel, for easy comparison.
Singapore Telecommunications will start selling Apple's third-generation iPhone in Singapore on 22nd August. SingTel's Singapore CEO Allen Lew said there are tens of thousands on its reservation lists, with those who registered online getting priority for the phone at launch.
My dad's 10am Singapore Airlines flight to Vietnam departs today; he'll be there six months, returning around 17th December 2008, though he may pop back briefly after three. We reached the airport at 8am to see him off.
It looks exactly like the old iPhone, but it's much cheaper: US$199 for 8GB and US$299 for 16GB, around S$272 and S$408 respectively, though both require a two-year contract. The key difference is the addition of 3G.
As you may know, Tube is the codename for Nokia's next S60 touchscreen, an iPhone killer running the fifth generation of S60. It has a respectable feature list, starting with a great high-resolution 16:9 touchscreen larger than three inches.
Nokia announced the N-Gage platform last August at its Go Play event, held in London and Singapore. Some may recognise N-Gage from the older gaming phones, the N-Gage Classic and QD, but this is a new software platform.
Nseries WOM World has chosen me to help Nokia beta-test N-Gage, even sending a Nokia N81 8GB from the UK to Singapore by DHL. Per the agreement the phone's on loan for two weeks; hopefully they extend it.
Nokia has made the N78 and N96 official. There are now official sites, press photo galleries, full specifications and press releases for both the N78 and N96. Plenty of fresh material to pore over.
Nokia N96 specifications have leaked: HSDPA and quad-band GSM, measuring 103 by 55 by 18-20mm and weighing 125g. It packs WLAN with UPnP/DLNA, 16GB internal flash plus microSD, 256MB memory and a 2.8-inch QVGA display.
Product information for the Nokia N82 in black, courtesy of Engadget. A sleek dark take on Nokia's photography-focused Nseries flagship, pairing its 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss camera and Xenon flash with an understated, fingerprint-prone finish that suits the device rather nicely.
Some shots of the Nokia N96 leaked yesterday on a Chinese forum and were reposted on the Mobile Review forums. The form factor is exactly like the N81, but it runs S60 Feature Pack 2 and carries a 5-megapixel camera.
The Nokia N82 is now out in Singapore. Mobile Square is selling it for S$988 and iPOSH for S$968, while the telcos aren't carrying it yet. More details are over on the Nokia Asia site for anyone keen.
Nokia has unveiled the N82, billed as what cameras have become: a leading-edge connected camera, navigation device and multimedia computer in one. Announced 14th November 2007 from Espoo, it's optimised for photography, navigation and internet connectivity in a single handset.
These official Nokia N82 press photos definitely look better than the earlier leaked shots. You can see them here, with the official announcement now just 18 more hours away from the time of this post. The wait is nearly over.
The Nokia N82 goes on sale around January 2008, with the announcement expected next Tuesday or Wednesday and a recommended retail price of S$998. To recap the specs: 112 by 50.2 by 17.3mm, 120g, and a 2.4-inch QVGA 16-million-colour display.
Live shots of the Nokia N82 have surfaced. Rumoured specs include quad-band GSM, UMTS and HSDPA, a 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera with real Xenon flash, VGA video capture, a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, built-in GPS, FM radio, TV-out and Wi-Fi.