If there’s one company that can go toe to toe with Apple in the smart phone space, it’s not RIM, and it’s certainly isn’t Microsoft.   That’s right, it’s Nokia.  With the impending release of their 5800 XPressMusic phone, complete with touch screen and a one-year-free all-you-can-eat music download service, it certainly deserves a look by potential iPhone buyers.   But the question is whether or not this 5800 is the revolutionary advance Nokia needs to compete with the iPhone, or if it offers an over-engineered, offputting user experience like many previous Nokia products.

On paper, this thing is killer, though:

• GPRS/3G data network support
• Bluetooth
• WiFi (802.11g)
• 8  or 16 GB SD storage card (an option I sincerely wish Apple had included in the 3G iPhone)
• Video out (cool!)
• Touch screen interface. Not sure if it’s going to do gestures or multi-touch.  It does claim tactile feedback, probably by means of vibration, etc.
• 3.2″ display (iPhone has 3.5″)
• 3.2 mpixel Zeiss camera, like those in the N-Series (this will likely spank the iPhone’s camera, which is 2.0 megapixel and pretty piss poor)
• A self-facing VGA camera for video calls
• Maps application with GPS and voice-guided navigation. (Also an iPhone spanking feature)
• Headphones
• Symbian S60 version 5 operating environment (an upgrade to the OE used on the E-Series and N-Series phones)
• Free unlimited music downloads (not rentals) for one year (Windows Media, DRM’d)

Tags: 5800, camera, hardware, music, nokia

But there were some bright spots. Mainly, the addition of high definition television content to iTunes, which paves the way for more Apple TV sales, and of course, the addition of NBC-originated content to iTunes. But the new iPods, while cool, weren’t quite the leap forward many were expecting.  They did add some nifty apps, like a workout tool co-branded with Nike.

Maybe the most significant addition to Apple’s music empire is this new Genius List feature, which takes a feather out of Pandora’s cap, creating playlists that suggest music based on the preferences of the user.  Nearly lost in all that hype was the detail that a new bug fix for iPhone firmware should be hitting the Net on September 13, according to Steve Jobs.

Here’s hoping the new firmware has a video camera and media messaging.

Tags: apple, apple tv, camera, firmware, ipod, ipod touch, steve jobs

I’m all for improving the iPhone’s relatively poor camera.  But friends shouldn’t let friends ruin their iPhones with dorky-looking attachments. Listen, if I have to make my iPhone look this horrible in order to get a telephoto picture, then just forget it. Not for $19.99, not for free. Not going there. It’s like putting a monster truck tire on a tricycle.

Tags: accessories, camera, hardware, iphone

The great thing about the Nokia N-Series of cell phones is that it offers so many choices.  The N-Series offers a media-savvy phone with a killer 5 megapixel camera (the N95), an NGage-equipped phone with a built-in gamepad on the earpiece (the N81 8GB, above), and even a phone with a built-in digital TV tuner (the N96).  The stuff Nokia is throwing at us with the N-Series is undeniably cool.

But how does the N-Series stack up against Apple’s latest offering and current King of Cool, the second-generation iPhone 3G? Read on to find out.

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Tags: at&t, camera, hardware, iphone, n-series, nokia, review, rogers, service, software

How’s it done exactly?  Well, if you’re fed up with not being able to send those beautiful 2 megapixel photos from your iPhone to your peeps, then you should download SwirlyMMS, a utility that adds media messaging functionality to the iPhone.  Why Apple didn’t see fit to include this in either the first or second-generation iPhones with MMS support out of the box (or video recording for that matter) is beyond us, but hey–Apple’s a quirky bunch.

Oh, don’t bother with the App store on this one. It’s not available there yet.

Tags: apple, appstore, camera, mms, software