Nokia E71

The E71's sleek design and multitude of useful features make it suitable for both business and personal use.

As Nokia's very first 3G phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, the $500 E71 is an all-around improvement on its predecessor, the E61. It not only has a sleeker and more sophisticated curved design, but it packs a multitude of features ideal for both business and personal use.
This candy-bar phone is remarkably slim at 0.4 inch thick and fits as easily in your hand as it does in your pocket. And at a light 4.4 ounces, it won't weigh you down. Call quality on my end was generally very good, but some callers on the other end reported that my voice sounded tinny. I also noticed an echo in some calls. In the PC World Test Center's trials, the battery lasted 4 hours, 50 minutes--on a par with other 3G smart phones.

The E71's keyboard is smaller than the E61's, but a colleague with larger hands had no trouble using it. The raised, tactile keys enable quick and easy typing.

Nokia has made the sometimes confusing Symbian S60 platform more user-friendly by including customizable shortcut keys and a standby screen. You can access your home page, calendar, address book, and e-mail from the dedicated shortcut keys on the keyboard. These keys can be customized to launch another application of your choice. And holding down a shortcut key for a few seconds triggers a different action. For example, holding down the calendar key lets you enter a new appointment. You can add up to 15 shortcuts on the E71's standby screen. A new Switch mode allows you to create two separate standby screens to accommodate the business and personal sectors of your life. And finding a contact in your phone is as simple as typing the first few letters of their name.

The Web browser loads quickly, and pages look sharp on the E71's 2.3-inch QVGA screen. The d-pad offers easy mouse maneuvering, and Nokia's Mini Map feature, which zooms out to a full screen view of the entire page, is helpful for speedy navigation. Just find the section you want and zoom in.

Setting up personal e-mail is a snap, but business e-mail requires your IT department's assistance. The free Nokia Exchange client synchronizes your phone with push e-mail, contacts, and calendar appointments from Microsoft Exchange, but you cannot access e-mail subfolders--something I find baffling in a business phone. The E71 supports e-mail accounts from over a thousand ISPs as well as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail.

Many of the E71's applications, such as the Music Store and Push-to-Talk, are not available to American users. The inclusion of Nokia Maps 2.0 is a real gem, however. Turn-by-turn pedestrian and car navigation, voice guidance, satellite maps, and multimedia city guides are just a few of the features of Nokia Maps.

You can also share photos and videos via the preinstalled Ovi and Flickr applications, but given the camera quality, you might not want to. Pictures I took with the E71's 3.2-megapixel camera came out grainy and dark, particularly in bright environments.

The music players' audio quality is good, and it offers features such as an equalizer and balance control. Videos stored in the device's memory or on a card play smoothly in RealPlayer; however, flash videos in YouTube tend to skip frequently.

Unfortunately, the E71 comes at a steep price, as it is not currently offered by any U.S. carriers. You'll have to drop around $500 for it, so it is important to evaluate exactly what you want out of it. But overall, the E71 shines as a stylish device that does more than the average business phone.

Reported photos, video of Microsoft tablet seen

Images leaked to Web site show dual-screen device using touch and stylus

Photos and video of a prototype tablet reportedly being worked on by Microsoft were leaked Tuesday to Gizmodo.com, and if the prototype becomes a reality, it could be quite an impressive device. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

The tablet shown on the site has dual, multi-touch 7-inch screens that use both touch as well as a stylus for input and writing, and resembles an e-reader more than a computer. Microsoft could not be reached for comment about the photos or the device, which reportedly is called "Courier."

Several Web sites noted that if the Microsoft tablet is indeed a near reality, the software giant may beat Apple to the finish line for releasing such a device.

Apple, with its highly successful line of notebook computers, has been loathe to enter the netbook arena of smaller laptops, but indications are the company is working on a tablet.

The Courier, said Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo.com contributing editor, is more of a booklet than a tablet in appearance. "Instead of pages, there are screens and it folds up like a booklet," he said in an interview.

The reported prototype appears to have the kind of sleekness and ease of use that "people have been waiting for."

"Microsoft is working on the user interface now; it's in the early phase of development," he said. "There's definitely been a lot of thought that's gone into the user interface. This isn't something that was hastily thrown together."

The video, shared on Gizmodo's site, shows that the tablet's "interface is really fluid and really fast," said Buchanan. He said he does not know whether it uses the Windows 7 operating system, due out Oct. 22, or Windows Mobile for smartphones — or either.

Nokia N900 Maemo tablet phone - photos and hands on video

Since the news of Nokia’s new N900 Maemo phone became official late last week, there’s been a huge influx of different images, photos and hands on videos onto the internet so we thought it was probably time to gather all of these to create one nice collection. For those who missed the news, the crucial part in our view is less so about the new phone but rather a new mobile operating system known as the Maemo by Nokia.

With every phonemaker trying to gain the edge with their own brand of phone OS, the Finns’ punch line for the Maemo is simple, the internet. The Maemo is very internet centred, in fact, behind the Maemo internet browser is a very familiar fast Mozilla’s engine. Other features of the Maemo includes multitasking, desktop personalisation, and a range of apps (Skype is already available) and functions for staying connected which every smartphone user these days will be inspecting.

To be available from October for a reasonable €500, the new N900 internet tablet phone comes with 32GB of internal memory, which can be boast by up to 16GB of external SD card memory.

The N900 will be equipped with an ARM processor, giving the N900 PC–like multitasking powers. Connectivity wise, there is support for 10.2Mbps HSDPA and Wi–Fi. To make the N900 an even more complete iPhone-killer package, the Finns have given it full Adobe Flash support and also a five megapixel camera. Check out the two latest live images which have just been spotted on the blogosphere (via DailyMobile)…

Dell to buy IT services company Perot Systems

Dell has announced that it will buy IT services company Perot Systems for about US$3.9 billion, as it looks to expand beyond the PC business.

Dell said this week that it will offer US$30 per share in cash for Perot, which is based in Plano, Texas, 200 miles away. The company said it expects to close the deal in the November-January quarter.

Dell said Perot, founded by former presidential candidate Ross Perot, will expand the company's IT services offerings and widen the pool of potential customers for its computers.

Dell said Perot would help it provide a broader range of IT services and solutions and optimize how they are delivered. It also expects the acquisition to extend the reach of Perot Systems' capabilities around the world and supply leading Dell computer systems to even more Perot Systems customers.

Dell said the two companies share "complementary" characteristics, including "relationship-based business cultures".

Perot Systems is known for offering services for applications, technology, infrastructure, business processes and consulting. It has clients in healthcare, government and other commercial segments, from SMEs to large global institutions; it also has a large and growing base of customers and service-delivery capabilities in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

In the past year, Dell and Perot had a combined US$16 billion in enterprise-hardware and IT-services revenue, with about US$8 billion from enhanced services and support, the companies said.

Once the acquisition is complete, Perot will become Dell's services unit and be led from Plano by Peter Altabef, the current Perot Systems chief executive.

Dell directors are expected to consider Ross Perot Jr, Perot Systems' chairman of the board, for appointment to the Dell board.