Posts in Mobile Phones
Nokia Comes With Music launched in Singapore
John Chan | Feb 27, 2009
Nokia's all-you-can-eat music download service called Comes With Music (CWM) is finally available here in Asia. During the launch of the 5800 XpressMusic in Singapore, details of the service were laid out including how you can get on it and the costs involved.
Unlike Apple's iTunes Store where you pay for each track or album separately, CWM is available at a flat yearly rate. The user can download as many songs or albums as he wants and keep all of them even after the end of the subscription period. These digital tracks are protected by DRM (digital rights management) though, so there are restrictions on which computers or devices you can use to listen to them. To find out more about the mechanics of this service, read our detailed review of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.
Currently, a user can only purchase this service together with selected handsets. The 5800 is naturally one of them, at S$798 (US$575.80) for the phone and a one-year subscription. Aside from Nokia's first full-touchscreen S60 device, the company is also bundling a year's worth of CWM with the following devices:
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Phone or mortgage, you decide
Leslie Katz | Feb 27, 2009
(Credit: Unwired View)
In these penny-pinching, market-tumbling times, we audaciously bring you the US$4,400 Skeleton Gold Phone from Russian electronics maker Gresso. Yes, yes, that might sound like a lot to pay for a mobile phone, but 18-carat-gold function keys aren't going to pay for themselves, now are they?
Other features that keep the Windows-powered Skeleton Gold firmly planted in the luxury column are the hand-polished 42k sapphire glass framing the phone's screen and the sapphire glass back panel. The phone opts for additional high-end materials like titanium alloy, African Blackwood, and ceramic. Keys feature Roman numerals. Did we mention it's Bluetooth-enabled and has a 2-megapixel camera?
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Google blocks access to paid Android apps on developer phones
Tom Krazit | Feb 27, 2009
Mobile developers who purchased an unlocked HTC G1 (HTC Dream in Asia) phone from Google discovered this week that they can't run paid applications from the Android Market.
Google is denying those developers access to copy-protected applications sold in the Android Market because developers have a higher level of access to the G1 phone than regular users, and could potentially break the copy protection on those applications, according to IDG News Service. "We aren't distributing copy-protected applications to these phones in order to minimize unauthorized copy of the applications," a Google representative said in a statement sent to CNET.
Developers willing to join the Android developer program for US$25 can buy an unlocked G1 handset for US$399. That version of the device also apparently allows them access to a special folder where paid applications are stored away from the prying eyes of regular customers who may be interested in breaking the copy-protection on those applications.
For that reason, Google has simply blocked those using the unlocked G1 from downloading paid applications from the Android Market. That didn't sit well with some developers on a thread on Google's Android Forums, who felt Google was unfairly portraying them as pirates while also denying them the ability to download their own paid applications on the Android Market.
It doesn't appear that the ban on paid applications extends to those who have unlocked the retail version of the G1, at least not as of yet.
Via CNET News
Fancy a Nokia notebook?
John Chan | Feb 27, 2009
In a few years, instead of making smartphones that look like laptops, Nokia may actually make real notebooks.
Nokia likes to call its high-end smartphones "multimedia computers", a term we've never really taken a liking to. But a few years from now, we may finally see something from the company that will qualify for that title. In a recent interview, Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo confirmed that the mobile phone giant is considering putting the Symbian OS in laptops.
Granted, large technology companies are always looking for new ways to diversify their businesses and there's no telling if Kallasvuo's statement will result in actual notebooks. But given Nokia's strong market position and good track record for well-made products, we will definitely welcome its entrance into the computer market. What about you? Would you buy a Nokia laptop which runs on Symbian? Tell us what you think in the Talkback below.
Via The Register
Wealth-flaunting app arrives on Android phones
Stephen Shankland | Feb 26, 2009
The Android Market now offers the US$200 "I Am Richer" application.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)
An application that did nothing beyond showing a person was willing to spend gobs of money for it didn't last long on Apple's App Store, but now we'll begin to see if Google lives up to its more laissez-faire approach to its rival Android Market.
Apple banned Armin Heinrich's "I Am Rich", which cost US$1,000 and only showed a red ruby, from its App Store last August. Now the conceptually similar "I Am Richer" has arrived on the Android Market from Mike DG.
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