Nokia N9 Information

Nokia has unveiled what comes next in its Linux and Qt fronts. Here you have links to the sources and a summary of the implications for the MeeGo and open source communities:

N9
The Nokia N9 is the ultimate Qt-powered mobile device. I find it a pleasure to watch and play with. Its polymer unibody chassis complemented by a strong and scratch-resistant curved glass makes it both solid and smooth in the hand. Multitasking is pushed forward with a combination of open tasks, events and apps. You navigate through these views with a simple gesture, a swipe of a finger.
N950
While the N9 becomes publicly available, Nokia has produced a limited edition of N950 devices for the most devoted Qt and MeeGo developers with apps in the works. We are offering 250 devices to open source community developers through theMeeGo Community Device Program. Nokia Developer has more for champions, partners and other professional developers.
MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan
Nokia’s implementation of the MeeGo platform has been released. It combines a playful multitasking UX with an efficient OS that shares the same API and architecture pillars of MeeGo upstream. It’s a great demonstration of what can be done with the MeeGo platform on a mobile device.
Qt updates
The Qt SDK has been updated with a Harmattan target including the Qt Quick UI Components. The way for Qt developers to target MeeGo, Symbian and other platforms is being paved. Nokia is also making Qt core to its strategy to take the Internet to the ‘next billion’. Qt is a star in the OSS stack and is at the backbone of all these announcements. The Qt5 governance plans becoming reality as we speak make it even brighter.
MeeGo Community Edition
The community team that has brought usable MeeGo upstream releases to the Nokia N900 will add now the new devices in its scope. The planning and work will happen in the open, just like the rest of the Community Edition activities. Remember that these are not Nokia official releases, but fun R&D experimentation open to all community contributors.

HTC Amaze 4G Phone Review

The HTC Amaze ships with the Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread operating system and the HTC Sense 3.0 user interface. First appearing on the HTC Sensation 4G, the latest version of Sense offers a number of enhancements, many of which can be found on the lock screen. Aside from a display of the date, time, and other vital statistics, you now get shortcuts to four of your favorite applications. By default, the shortcuts are set to phone, mail, camera, and messages, but you can change them in the phone's Personalize menu. To open a specific app, you can simply drag the icon to the ring at the bottom of the screen, instead of having to unlock the phone first.

In addition to the shortcuts, HTC wanted the lock screen to showcase more user content, so now you can personalize the screen with your photo gallery, friend stream, favorite stocks, or weather. The content then floats by or flies by (depending on which option you choose) onscreen.
Once you unlock the phone, you'll find even more improvements. For example, the home screen features a 3D carousel so you can more quickly flip through the seven home screens, rather than swiping through each panel. (Of course, you can also use the Leap screen function.) The pull-down notification tray has a second tab called Quick Settings where you can manage your wireless connections and access other settings. The mail app and widget now give you a preview of each message, and the photo gallery widget features a flip-board effect.
It would be nice if there were the capability to remove some of the home screen panels as on the HTC Rhyme, but it's not a big deal.
Weighing in at 6.1 ounces and measuring 5.12 inches tall by 2.58 inches wide by 0.46 inch thick, the HTC Amaze 4G is a good chunk of hardware. In fact, the first thing we noticed when we picked up the device was its weight. It's one of the heftier handsets we've seen in a while, but as with most things, we got used to it with time. Plus, with its metal construction and soft-touch finishes, the Amaze is definitely one sturdy handset.
The second thing we noticed is the Amaze 4G's display. The 4.3-inch qHD (960x540-pixel resolution) Super LCD touch screen is quite eye-catching. Text and images looked crisp and sharp on the bright screen. The screen's large size also makes it great for viewing Web pages and video. The Samsung Galaxy S II's Super AMOLED Plus display shows off more saturated colors and has slightly better contrast, but we were still very happy with the Amaze's display. The touch screen was responsive and features a built-in accelerometer, pinch-to-zoom support, and a proximity sensor. Note that it only comes preloaded with HTC's virtual keyboard, but it does offer Swype-like functionality (HTC calls it Trace) so you can drag your finger from key to key for quicker input.
Below the screen, you get your usual Android controls: home, menu, back, and search. On top, you'll find a power/lock button, while the Micro-USB port is located on the left spine. The right side features a volume rocker, a camera button, and a dedicated video button. Holding down the video button activates the camera in video mode. You can also launch the camera right from the lock screen by either doing a long press on the camera button or dragging the camera shortcut to the center ring (see the user interface section below for more). In addition to the 8-megapixel camera and dual-LED flash on back, there is a front-facing 2-megapixel camera just above the display in the upper right-hand corner.
The HTC Amaze 4G comes packaged with just the basics: an AC adapter, a USB cable, and reference material.

The Design Of LG Encore

The LG Encore's design is rather humdrum. Measuring 4.17 inches long by 2.10 inches wide by 0.47 inch thick, the Encore appears to be a run-of-the-mill touch-screen phone with an ultraslim profile and rounded corners. It does have a minimalist appeal, however, with a mirror-finish trim that surrounds the display and a back plate that is designed to look like brushed metal. The Encore has an overall plastic build with a cheap feel in the hand at 3.7 ounces.

On the front is the 3-inch 260,000 color display that is the only way to interact with the phone. It supports 400x240-pixel resolution and looks colorful and bright for the most part. Colors look vibrant and rich, though the text isn't as crisp as we would like. You can adjust the font color and size, brightness, backlight timer, menu style, and themes.
You get up to three home screens, all of which are customizable. One screen is for widgets, which you can customize with a pop-up widget tray in the bottom row. You only get up to seven widgets to choose from, though. Another screen is for your favorite shortcuts, and the third screen is for your favorite contacts. You can only have nine of each on the home screen.
At the top of each home screen is a pull-down menu that provides quick access to the music player, the Bluetooth toggle, the sound profile, all the messaging options, the calendar, and the alarm clock. In the bottom row are four shortcut keys to the phone dialer, the address book, the messaging inbox, and the main menu.
The display is a resistive plastic screen, which makes for an annoying user experience. It took quite a bit of pressure for the screen to recognize our taps, and even then we needed to be a little more deliberate when swiping a finger so that we didn't accidentally launch something. We eventually got used to it, but we don't think it's a pleasant experience.
The phone dialer is pretty self-explanatory. It has a nice roomy keypad and quick access to the speakerphone, and you can create a new text message from there as well. You can enter text via the alphanumeric keypad--for ABC or T9 input methods--or you can turn it sideways for the accelerometer to kick in and the virtual QWERTY keyboard will show up. Though the keyboard is roomy enough, the finicky touch display did mean that we had to slow down quite a bit when typing. Otherwise, there would be too many errors.
Underneath the display are three touch-sensitive keys for Talk, Clear/Back, and End functions. They are flat to the surface, and you need to wake the phone in order to use them. We would prefer them to be physical keys, but they do provide vibration feedback when pressed.
On the top of the phone are the 3.5-millimeter headset jack and the Power/Screen lock key. On the left spine are the volume rocker and Micro-USB charging port, while the camera key and task manager key are on the right. The camera lens is on the back and the microSD card slot is located behind the battery cover.

The Design Of HTC Titan

The HTC Titan is aptly named. Measuring 5.2 inches tall by 2.7 inches wide by 0.39 inch thick, it has a very large footprint and seems quite massive in my small hands. It is also quite a hefty phone at 5.6 ounces, though that contributes to the phone's premium feel. Yet, it is relatively thin, and the tapered edges along the back let it cradle comfortably in the hand. In fact, the back and sides of the Titan make up the phone's entire shell. When you remove the casing to access the battery, you're essentially separating out the display and the phone's innards from their metal housing. The result is a streamlined head-to-toe design that looks and feels luxurious.

The reason behind the Titan's impressive size is the large 4.7-inch Super LCD display. It has a WVGA (800x480-pixel) resolution, which is the same resolution as on the HTC Radar 4G. However, because the Titan has a much larger screen, the pixels are a bit more visible, especially so with text. When I browsed Web pages in zoomed-out view, for example, letters were noticeably blocky. Yet, the Titan's screen shines in almost every other respect. The display is visible even at an angle, and the bold graphics of Windows Phone really come to life with the screen's capacity for showing off vivid colors and deep blacks. It's certainly not as rich as the Super AMOLED screens we've seen, but I found it more than satisfactory for most tasks.
The touch screen was really responsive. I swiped and scrolled with ease through Windows Phone's fluid interface, and launching applications took less than a second. The virtual keyboard on the Windows Phone felt intuitive as well--each tap of the finger hit precisely the right key and I didn't find myself relying on autocorrect too often. You also get a proximity sensor and an accelerometer, which appears to kick in quite quickly to shift the view from portrait to landscape and vice versa.
Beneath the display are the standard Windows Phone touch sensor keys for the back, start, and search functions. Along the right are the volume rocker and a camera shortcut key, while the Micro-USB port sits on the left spine. On the top are a 3.5mm headset jack and a power/screen lock key. On the back of the phone are the 8-megapixel camera lens along with a dual-LED flash, while the 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera perches above the display on the upper-right corner.
The HTC Titan comes packaged with an AC adapter, a USB cable, and reference material.

The Amazing Design Of Motorola Droid Razr

Motorola claims that the Droid Razr is the thinnest phone in the world, and while we can't prove that, we're inclined to believe it's true. Measuring 5.14 inches long by 2.71 inches wide by 0.28 inch thick and weighing only 4.5 ounces, we were immediately struck by how slim and lightweight it felt, despite its large footprint. There's no denying the wow factor of the Razr's ultralight body, and it does indeed fit perfectly into our pants pocket. Yet, we felt it was a bit too large for our small hands (no thanks to the rather wide bezel surrounding the display), and the squared edges resulted in slight discomfort when held. It's also a tiny bit top heavy because of the hump in the back that houses the camera lens.

In order to accommodate such a skinny profile, Motorola sought innovative ways to construct the phone, resulting in quite the marvel of industrial design. Motorola claims the chassis is built out of diamond-cut aluminum, and the thin sheet of glass dominating the front is sculpted around the edges to fit just so. Instead of a regular battery cover, Motorola simply coated the back in Kevlar, which has a surprisingly smooth and soft texture. Of course, that means the battery is not removable, which is a trade-off that many might not appreciate. Motorola did develop a Smart Actions app to help conserve battery life, but we'll get to that later.
The Kevlar backing won't make the phone bullet-resistant, but Motorola did seek to make the Droid Razr as durable as it could. It has a "nanotechnology coating" that guards the phone against the occasional splash. We placed the Droid Razr under running water for a few seconds, and the water did seem to bead and roll off it, like on a freshly waxed car. It's not water-resistant however, so we wouldn't go swimming with it. The Corning Gorilla Glass display is also said to be scratch-resistant.
While its slim profile is certainly stunning, the Droid Razr's 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced display is nothing to sneeze at, either. It's simply gorgeous, with vibrant and rich colors plus tack-sharp details; it reminds us a lot of the AMOLED screens we've seen on Samsung handsets. The Droid Razr does use a Pentile matrix display, so images are not as smooth as on those same Samsung phones. Text in particular has a very slight graininess to it. The qHD 960-by-540-pixel resolution reduces that effect considerably, but it's not quite as vibrant as the display on the iPhone 4S or the Samsung Galaxy S II By itself, however, we maintain that the display is excellent.

We were very impressed by the responsiveness of the display. Overall navigation felt seamless and snappy thanks to the phone's 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor. There was virtually no lag when multitasking between different apps.
Beneath the display are four touch sensor keys for the Menu, Home, Back, and Search functions. On the right spine are two skinny volume controls plus a silver power/screen lock key. The volume keys click satisfyingly into place, but the power key is disappointingly squishy. On the left spine are the microSD card port and a slot for a Micro-SIM card. As the Droid Razr is for Verizon, the Micro-SIM card is purely for LTE; international GSM versions will likely use it for voice as well as data.
On the top of the phone are the 3.5mm headset port and the Micro-USB and Micro-HDMI ports. A camera lens sits on the back along with an LED flash and an external speaker. Sitting above the display is a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera with 720p HD video capability.
User interface
The Motorola Droid Razr ships with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and a refined and lightweight version of MotoBlur that we've already seen in other Motorola handsets like the Atrix 2 and the Droid Bionic. It has up to five customizable home screens, and at the bottom row of the home screen are shortcuts to the phone dialer, the messaging inbox, the camera app, and the main menu. When you tap the Home button in standby mode, you will see a zoomed-out view of all the home screens, similar to HTC's Sense UI.
You navigate the main menu by swiping side to side, and the apps can be organized into groups. There is a very slight flicker animation that occurs when you swipe screens. The default lock screen has the usual swipe-to-unlock control, a vibrate/sound toggle, plus a camera app shortcut in case you need to get to the camera quickly from the lock screen. As for the virtual keyboard, you have the choice of either the default multitouch Android keyboard or Swype.

The Design Of The Lumia 800

The Lumia 800, like the Meego-based Nokia N9 it's modeled on, is one interesting-looking phone. Worked from a solid piece of colored polycarbonate (a specific type of plastic), the smooth magenta, cyan, or black Lumia 800 reminds me of a fat stick of chewing gum (I reviewed it in black). It has a tabletop head and tail and rounded sides. The material, whose properties include resisting heat damage and denting, feels solid and durable in the hand, if a little bit slippery. It measures 4.59 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.47 inch thick. Thanks, in part, to its uniform shape, the handset doesn't take up too much room in closer-fitting pockets.

On the right spine you'll find the slim metal volume rocker, the power button, and the camera shutter button. A push-in door covers the Micro-USB charging port. Once you open that, you can slide out the Micro-SIM card holder, but this combo is an inelegant, unintuitive action that requires some patience until you get used to it. There's also a 3.5mm headset jack up top.

The back is home to the 8-megapixel camera lens with dual-LED flash. There's no battery cover on the back of this phone, so prepare to press and hold the power button to perform a hard reset should things go wrong (just like on iOS devices) instead of a battery pull, should things go wrong.

Let's move on to one of my favorite parts of this phone: the screen. For starters, it's fitted into the Lumia's body to form a pretty tight seal. The screen material itself is curved and slightly bubbles out (about 2.5mm), which gives you a smooth, almost spherical feel as you swipe left and right across the screen. (It actually feels pretty awesome.)

Also awesome is the look of the screen itself. Its WVGA resolution (800x480 pixels) on 3.7 inches of AMOLED material just pops. It doesn't hurt that Nokia has applied its ClearBlack display, a polarizing filter that helps improve visibility in direct sunlight, and indeed, it did as promised. Unfortunately, direct sunlight also makes finger smears stand out. With Gorilla Glass incorporated into the final product, you're looking at a smooth, vibrant, and touchable screen that shows off black blacks and saturated color. The screen size could be larger overall, but some people will prefer the more petite size. Navigation is just fine with Windows Phone's relatively larger live tiles, but composing e-mail messages and reading content online is easier with a 4-inch screen.

I Love Nokia N9 Very Much

Nokia has announced the latest in its line of smartphones, the Nokia N9 – a unique new design that does away with any home keys in favour of an all-touchscreen interface.
Nokia has come under fire of late for a lack of innovation, but the Nokia N9 does have one rather striking difference to most other smartphones on the market – no buttons on the front at all.

Even the iPhone has to have a single Home button to get you back to its app launcher but the designers of the N9 reckon a simple swipe gesture will do the job just as well. Dragging a finger to the edge of the screen in any app will pop you back to the main launcher interface and any widgets you might have placed there.

The phone is one of the first to run run the Linux-derived MeeGo 1.2 operating system and Nokia has added its own ‘Harmattan’ UI on top, based around 3 home screens that can be switched between with a flick gesture. There are still a couple of buttons on the device – a volume rocker, power switch and a camera shutter key for that nice Carl Zeiss lensed 8MP camera.

Its a bit of an experiment for Nokia and we are certainly more interested in this than we have been for the last few Symbian-powered devices. How Nokia will square producing MeeGo devices with its plans for Windows Phone 7 is still to be revealed.