Digital Rover

I think it is now becoming a habit for HTC to call for a press meet one month before the launch of iPhone and its revisions. It is a pity that they are still relying on Windows Mobile to deliver their goods. While what we saw with the diamond is no doubt impressive, under the hood HTC still has the grand old Windows Mobile running in all its glory. HTC did a clever thing this time around by making the TouchFlO UI feature rich instead of dropping back the user to Windows Mobile UI for doing even basic things. The new Opera browser is a welcome change from the Pocket Internet Explorer we are used to.

But the whole reason why people use Windows Mobile is because of its powerful PIM capabilities and wide variety of third party application availability. Unfortunately, all these applications will still be using the classic Windows Mobile interface which is generations behind that of current favorites like the iPhone or the upcoming Android. This is where the user will be spending most of the time (rather than the weather applet or the today screen).

Unless the new Windows Mobile version (7 or whatever) starts shipping, there is little to rejoice from these kind of shell enhancements which desperate mobile device vendors are making on top of Windows Mobile. Sony Ericsson’s Xperia is another one that is on the pipeline.

HTC Touch Cruise is now available for a you-need-to-loot-a-bank-to-buy-it price of INR 32000 (US$800). The Windows Mobile 6 equipped handset comes with a nice GPS navigation system (the reason behind the “cruise” moniker) and a 400 MHz Qualcomm processor. The phone is an all-rounder in that it has a 3 MP auto focus camera, 3G with Triband HSDPA and the TouchFLO interface for gesture based navigation of applications. If you are a Windows Mobile fan, this is an excellent alternative to Nokia’s N95, the current smartphone gold standard.

According to Business Standard reports, the iPhone is expected to be launched in India in the first week of September. The expected price point for the 8GB model is around INR 28,000 (Approximately $700). The worst part about the launch is that even at this relatively high price point, the iPhone will be sold locked to the Vodafone network.

Locked mobile phones are almost unheard of in India. 99% of the GSM phones sold in India are offically unlocked and there is no such thing called contract too. The iPhone will be the first major smartphone that will be sold in locked state to the user. The HTC Touch, when it was launched in India about a year back, was also sold locked to Airtel, but the current versions are all unlocked.

Given the premium price point, it is highly unlikely that people will flock Apple/Vodafone stores to buy these things. Even the much more advanced Nokia N95 8GB sells at the same price point as the iPhone. In other markets like the USA and UK, Apple gets a share of Voice and Data revenues coming out of iPhone users. If Apple follows the same business model in India, the iPhone is going to be nothing but a disaster here. Instead of contracts, people use what is called a ‘plan’ and these plans are highly flexible and customizable, when compared to contracts in the USA. Apple iPhone plans are likely to be priced high, which will drive away people from this phone. I feel that Apple needs to come out with a innovative plan for the Indian masses, so that they can still get their share of Voice and Data revenues, but at the same time provide less TCO for the end users.

The iPhone grey market will not be going away anytime soon.

Hmmm… So those were some of the rumors. The S60 browser team has posted on their blog that the browser is here to stay with enhancements currently being taken from the Leopard branch. Here is a quote from the post:

We are not backing away from Webkit no matter what you might have read on one of those new-fangled “website” things — I’ll have to get somebody to show me one sometime soon. As I understand it, one of our developers did some housekeeping on the Tiger branch of the webkit project, and some people thought it looked like we were backing away from the whole open-source project. No, no, no — it’s just that we’re focusing on the newer Leopard branch, we have a lot on our plates right now (you might have heard about Nokia’s acquisition of Trolltech, for example) and there’s only so much we can do at once.

Cool. Long live the S60 web browser.

Fring is one indispensible software for people who use VoIP a lot. Previously available only for S60 and Windows Mobile users, Fring now is available for Jailbroken iPhones too!

I tried Skype with a friend of mine. He registered for a new Skype account from his Mac and added me as a buddy, but his name never appeared on my buddy list on Fring. It appears that I have to log on to the Skype desktop client to authenticate him. Another very strange thing both of us noticed was whenever I logged out of Fring from my iPhone, my friend was getting disconnected from his Google Talk account on iChat !! We confirmed this by trying it out several times! This must be one of the bizarre and nasty bugs I have ever encountered on a chat client. Clearly, they mean beta in big bold letters. We could not make a voice call after several attempts and called it a day. Will report back tomorrow if Skype works. Also, voice chat from Google Talk to Fring was also not happening. This was again through iChat that was running on the iMac.

Anyhow, this is an interesting development for Jailbroken iPhones. So far, the applications available through installer where either ports of popular open source software or some basic freeware applications. The scenario has not been very different from what we saw with the PSP homebrew scene for the last few years. But a major application like the Fring being available through the unofficial SDK route is an important breakhrough and establishes credibility for the jailbreak community. I think there will be lot more such applications in the future given the limitations of the official SDK.

You can download the Fring client for your jailbroken iPhone from the installer. More information on the official site.

An email over at the webkit mailing lists suggest that Nokia/S60 developers have not checked in any source modifications in the last 8 months!! This could mean anyone of these two things: Either Nokia has switched to another rendering engine, like the Gecko or they are waiting for a new release to be out to the public so that they can do a massive check-in.

The first option is interesting considering that Nokia started using a Gecko based browser for the Linux based N810 tablet. Having a single web engine could make life a lot easier for Nokia. At this moment, only the second option seems to be a possibility considering the number of new deployments of S60 browsers that will come in once FP2 based devices are launched.

The webkit based S60 browser was the first widely adopted mobile browser which brought true web browsing to mobile devices. Lets hope that Nokia improves on it by taking in the new changes that were brought to the browser rather than abandoning it and switching to a different platform altogether.

[via Boy Genius Report]

Yep. I too have the world’s most desired gadget now. I purchased it from one of my online acquaintances. The phone came unactivated with an AT&T sim card. I unlocked it using iPlus 2.0 for Windows and later synced with my Mac.

In my short usage time of about an hour, I am impressed and at the same time disappointed. You can expect a series of articles on this blog about my experiences and comparison of the Apple iPhone 8 GB with my current favorite, the Nokia N95 8GB. I will start off with the browser in the weekend. Stay tuned.

I received the S60 Ambassador merchandise today. The kit consisted of a cool T-Shirt, 2 notepads, a nice pen and a tag. Too bad, that T Shirt was a little small for me. Interestingly, I am selected as an ambassador for the Ovi program, which is not yet available for India users on the Share Online client. Probably, I will spread the word for the S60 openness till the time we get Ovi on Share Online.

By the way, if you live in a country where Ovi is not yet available, check out this post by Darla, where she provides a link for the configuration for your Share Online client.

Hmmm… I was a Windows Mobile fan in a previous birth. I think I have come a long way to be an S60 ambassador today!!

Image copyright: www.S60.com

The admin panel went through a major revamp in Wordpress 2.5. While most of the changes are welcome, IMHO, I think they made a mess of the widget management system. Gone is the ease of the drag and drop  widget changing on the fly. Lets say if you want to move a widget from sidebar A to B, you have to first select sidebar A, remove the gadget by clicking on Edit and then Remove , then select Sidebar 2, click Show and then add the sidebar from the list of unused gadgets. Sounds like a lot of work, isn’t it? It is. I don’t understand the logic behind this.

Why change something that is easy and is working very well?

If you are like me, probably you are not a fan of the new iMovie ‘08 editor. While it is a great tool for beginneers, users accustomed with editing on iMovie HD will be missing a lot of bells and whistles. Apple even offers the iMovie HD as a free download if you have purchased iLife 08. This is to satisfy the users who were disappointed with the latest version.

Coming to the point, the only feature I miss in iMovie 08 is the ability to import video from the modern DVD and HD based camcorders. So how do you edit the videos you have captured with these devices on iMovie HD? The solution is simple. Use iMovie 08 to import your videos from your HD or DVD based camcorder. Once you have imported, you will be able to see the video clips at your ‘iMovie Events’ folder. The import process simply converts your DVD vob files into quicktime video clips. When you want to edit a movie, close iMovie 08 and fire up iMovie HD. Drag and drop your clips into the edit window and create your masterpiece from here!

Image credits: Apple Inc.,