Eyes on…

There are some interesting phones coming out. No, I am not talking about iPhone 4. Not interested. It might be fine for others, but not for me. I have several reasons. First of all, Apple products are too controlled. It is like Apple decides what I need and what I do not need, both in hardware and software. Then there is no Flash support, you cannot change batteries yourself. And it costs a lot, if you want it unlocked. And then there are these reports of lost connections due to antenna design…

I have no preference in brand, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, HTC, Nokia,… just the same, as long as it has the features I need and it works reliably. But I must admit that operating systems I prefer are Android and Maemo/MeeGo. Both use Open Source model which give developers lots of freedom, and ensures that I can find the software I need.

Nokia N900 and Samsung Galaxy S i9000 suit my purposes quit well. Nokia phones have one advantage, navigation. Free, updatable, car-style navigation is a huge bonus. That is why I still use Maemo on N900, even though I have installed Android 2.2 on it (dual-boot). Android has only Google Maps, while Maemo has Nokia Maps.

But it is always good to see what future brings us. Handset and mobile devices evolve at steady and quick pace. What is now cutting edge hitech, seems like stone age next year. Currently I am keeping my eye on following upcoming (except X10 which was released half an year ago) models

• HTC Evo
• HTC Desire Z
• HTC Desire HD
• Nokia N8
• Nokia E7
• Nokia C7
• Nokia N9 (lots of speculation, no hard facts)
• Samsung Galaxy Tab (well, you can make calls with it)

Since Nokia N9 has purely speculative specs, I am really interested in Galaxy Tab which will be released on October. Currently the price seems high, but it has lots of potential. On the other hand, I am quite certain, that there will be several Android based tabs or pads released by all major manufacturers. Prices will surely drop, when there is enough competition.

Having used Galaxy S for couple of months I have seen the advantages of reasonable sized, good quality touch screen. It is actually quite enjoyable to read books, newspapers and other documents on it. It is quite handy when you can immediately pull out a document during meeting, share it with others, make some modifications on it or even show it to others using portable video projector. If 4″ screen feels good, then 7″ should be even better, and still it would fit pocket (ok, big pocket). Pad-like devices are good replacement for netbooks. Netbooks usually have very small form factor which means quite small keyboard anyway. Writing is not that comfortable on netbook, especially with large hands.