Nokia's entry to the netbook market is an interesting development from the world's largest phone maker, seeing the Finnish company enter an already crowded space. So, is the Booklet 3G a good debut product from Nokia? We got hands-on with the new netbook at the Nokia World 2009 event to give you an idea of what can be expected from the new device.

The highlights, over products in the same category, are HD capabilities, the Windows 7 operating system (rather than XP which almost all mainstream competitors offer) and 12 hours battery life.

Sadly, that bold claim is in fact not what you can expect from the battery life. Nokia, as all the other PC manufacturers do, quotes the 12 hour from lab tests. In reality, a Nokia exec told Pocket-lint, you're looking at 8-hours - enough for a proper working day.

Looks-wise - and this obviously a matter of opinion - the Booklet 3G is a good-looking netbook. It has smooth lines, a glossy (predictably finger-print accumulating) cover, an aluminium underside and is light and thin. Even the packaging - a matt blue cardboard box with an embossed outline of the Booklet 3G is good looking.

So how does it fare in use? Pretty well is the answer. Like many netbooks the screen is surrounded by a fairly large black outline which may look a little odd to those more used to full-fat laptops, but it's a decent display.

The keyboard's keys are small and spaced far apart. Obviously the keyboard is small as it's a netbook, but the actual keys feel smaller than average, so those with big hands thinking of getting the device might be wise to try and get hands-on themselves before committing.

The touchpad is fine, while the click buttons - certainly on several models we played with - seemed particularly stiff. Whether this is because the devices we saw were brand, brand new, only time will tell.

There's no moans about the layout - the ports all seem logically placed with two USBs, the headphone port, HDMI and speaker on one side and one USB, the power button and the card slot on the other.

The card slot is the one thing hardware-wise that seems to let the netbook down. There is a plastic flap, a flange if you will, that pulls out and down to let users insert memory cards and SIM cards. It seems really flimsy, and the type of thing that will instantly break. We could be dead wrong, and it might be super-strong flimsy plastic, but it looks like a weak point on what's otherwise a nice bit of hardware.

From what we saw Windows 7 runs nicely on the machine and the whole experience of using it was glitch-free.

There is no confirmed UK launch for the Booklet 3G, and no timescale from Nokia as to when it might debut, although a Nokia staffer on the show floor at the Nokia event told us it was going to launch in October, when the Windows 7 operating system arrives.

Tags: Hardware Netbooks Nokia Nokia Booklet 3G Laptops

Nokia Booklet 3G - First Look originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:49:31 +0100

Although classed as an Nseries device, the N900 is a new category of device for Nokia, combining the internet tablet with a smaller, more pocket-able mobile phone.

With some impressive tech under the hood, it could be argued that the N900 needs to impress in order for Nokia to finally make a splash in the now overcrowded high-end touch-phone market. So does it?

Simply, yes. Our hands-on with the N900, staff supervised at the Nokia World event where the device has first been shown to the world's media, left a positive impression of this new handset.

At first glance the phone is chunky but once the high-resolution, glossy screen (that is clear, crisp and very vivid) springs into life you can forgive the larger dimensions.

Nokia promises a desktop-like experience from the new handset, thanks to the ARM processor, OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration, the 1GB of applications memory and the Maemo 5 operating system. In our brief hands-on we don't think this boast is too bold.

Starting with the homescreen, and where Apple has made its icon-based home screen for the iPhone arguably a modern design classic, Nokia is going in the opposite direction and offering users the chance to create their own design.

Although perhaps not as effective from a brand recognition point of view, discerning consumers may appreciate the fact that, aside from a small menu button in the top right of the phone's screen, everything else that appears on the display is entirely customisable by the user.

In fact, the Nokia N900 offers not just one, but four homescreens that users can scroll between at the flick of a finger against the phone's display.

Items that can be placed on the device's homescreen(s) as clickable thumbnails are the likes of app shortcuts, contacts, web bookmarks - the last of which actually update realtime with the teeny thumbnails animated where applicable. This is thanks to the full Flash support the phone offers.

That Flash support comes into its own with web browsing powered by Mozilla. The Nokia CEO claims the N900 is the best browsing device he's seen and from our brief hands-on we think it will certainly get favourable comparisons to the iPhone's full-fat Safari browser.

Pages are rendered as they would be on a computer, albeit on a much smaller screen. Flash animations, graphics and content again, look as if they would on your PC and by using the cursor effect, rolling hyperlinked content - or anything with Flash graphics - comes up automatically, quite an impressive feat for a handheld device.

When browsing, dragging your finger from the left of the screen creates a cursor effect, whereas doing it from the right brings up your browsing history.

The touchscreen is responsive, and from our hands-on with the phone, looks capable. Depending on what you are using the phone for, different gestures against the screen have different effects. For example, to zoom in you can double tap, or if you're looking for a more gradual zoom, moving your finger in a circular motion zooms you in more slowly.

The N900 boasts "PC-like multitasking" with the 1GB memory meaning you can do several things at one time. In the hands-on we had, we have no reason to suggest that will not be the case - the phone coped well with the several-things-at-once, faltering only once not wanting to launch the camera when in a media menu.

Video - selected for the demo device by Nokia - was faultless and looked good on the screen, gaming - a version of the Bounce ball game, using the accelerometer - was equally smooth and again, looked great on the screen. The speakers sounded a little tinny as you might expect, but our hands-on was in a busy hall, so might not have done them justice.

The 5-megapixel camera (complete with lens cover) appears fine with the usual Nokia delay after hitting the shutter. Images can be geo-tagged and topic tagged straight after snapping, which is a nice touch although nothing revolutionary.

Hardware-wise, and, as mentioned the device is chunky. With a black finish, it's got typical Nokia looks. The front of the phone is taken up by the screen and there is a front-facing camera. The right side offers a camera shortcut button, power button and volume buttons. The bottom gets key lock, speaker and a 3.5mm jack whereas at the top there's Micro-USB port and speaker. The back offers a flip-out stand.

The slide-out QWERTY keypad gets buttons in three rows, and in an immediate comparison to the N97 mini, comes off better.

Related links:

• Photos - Nokia N900

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Nokia N900 Internet tablets Maemo

Nokia N900 - First Look originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:20:58 +0100

Nokia has finally unveiled its Nokia N97 Mini - first leaked by a Vodafone Ireland forum moderator back in June - but does it look any good?

The N97 Mini is essentially (and the name might have already given this away) the mini-me version of the already available Nokia N97, the Finnish phone company's flagship, touchscreen phone.

It shares the same design language as the N97 with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and large, landscape touchscreen. What the Mini also boasts looks-wise is a stainless edging and metallic back which go quite some way to making it feel like a high-end handset.

And high-end it is, compared to many of the mid-range touchscreens that have flooded the market of late - giving it a price tag of the slightly surprising 450 euros (around £369) although obviously, when launched, it will be offered for free through various operator's price plans.

It's due in October in that dubious brown shade (actually "garnet") as well as black and white, a colour variant which seems to boast a particularly glossy finish.

The touchscreen - resistive touch with a little haptic feedback so you know you've hit the right bit - is bright and clear and responded well in our brief, Nokia staff supervised hands-on with the device.

On the front of the phone there's that 3.2-inch display, a raised silver menu button, green and red call/end call buttons, the accelerometer sensor and the front facing camera.

On the back is the device's camera, with dual LED flash, that's in a slightly different position to the N97's and gets no lens cover. One side of the phone boasts a microSD port and a key lock slider button while the other side gets buttons for the camera and volume control. The top of the phone gets a 3.5mm headphone jack, welcome news for music lovers, and the small power button.

The slide-out QWERTY keypad has had a slight redesign from that of the N97. There are arrow keys and an enter button on the right hand side but the space bar remains really small.

The keys, laid out in three rows, are slightly raised from the phone - and are tiny which should be a consideration for any big fingered folk out there. Typing is one of those things you'll likely get used to, but it's a slow, two-thumbed job on first try.

The slide-out mechanism, protected at the back with a kind of hood, is nice. The phone opens with a nice "snap" and closes in an equally pleasing manner.

The mini offers what Nokia calls "flick scrolling" that, for long lists such as music, contacts, etc, will move up or down the screen at the flick of a finger against the display. During our hands-on this worked really well, with no lag and seemed really fast and smooth.

Overall the phone's firmware did seem in decent shape for its October launch - as we've mentioned our hands-on was of the supervised variety, but there are no horrors (apart from minor online delays likely due to the overcrowded network) to report.

Software-wise the mini offers new features such as Nokia's "Lifecasting" slash Facebook services, a new Ovi Maps experience and a completely customisable homescreen.

Related links:

• PHOTOS - Nokia N97 Mini

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Nokia Nokia N97 Mini

Nokia N97 Mini - First Look originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:37:30 +0100

With the credit crunch tightening purse strings nationwide, the prospect of shelling out hundreds of pounds for a new PC or laptop might not appeal to that many right now. It may be the case that many of you out there will try and hang on to older PC equipment rather then reaching for the credit card and hitting the online shops.

One major reason for upgrading an old PC or laptop is an older computer's lack of Wi-Fi connectivity, especially considering that surfing and emailing are the two main home computing activities. So how can you easily upgrade your old PC to get it onto your home network? With a Wi-Fi adapter – a dongle type device that offers networking functionality for your PC or laptop.

Faced with exactly that - not wanting to shell out for a new PC, but wanting to get a second PC - an old Dell dinosaur - online, we opted to try out Netgear's latest and greatest Wi-Fi adapter – the Netgear RangeMax NEXT wireless N WN111 USB 2.0 adapter. Costing from around £45, depending where you shop, the WN111 ain't cheap, but it is cheaper than a new PC. So, what do you get for your money?

In the box is the actual adapter, which looks like a chunky white flash drive, the installation CD and a USB cable. The computer we wanted to get online was a Dell Pentium 4 running Windows XP.

Netgear says the WN111 will work with any desktop or notebook PC with Pentium 300MHz-compatible processor or higher that has an available USB 1.1 or USB 2.0 slot running Windows Vista, XP or 2000 SP4.

Set-up was super-simple – it really could not have been easier. Literally stick the installation CD into the drive and follow the set-up wizard's easy on-screen instructions that even tell you at what point to plug the adapter into the USB port.

When up and running – which took less than 10 minutes - the WN111 is completely unobtrusive – apart from the fact that it takes up one of your USB ports. The PC we used the WN111 on is upstairs in a Victorian house, around 8 metres from the downstairs Wi-Fi router – a BT Home Hub 2.0 – and performance was decent for webmail and surfing.

Speeds are fine, coverage is solid and all-in-all we didn't notice the difference from any other connected, or Wi-Fi-enabled PCs or laptops in the house (a MacBook, a ThinkPad, a Dell Dimension PC and an Asus Eee).

Netgear promises speeds of up to 300Mbps, when all conditions are perfect. In real life, at peak time, on a piddling BT 1.5MB broadband connection, the (admittedly aging) computer took on average around 10 seconds to load up Pocket-lint's homepage and around one minute eight seconds to download a 4MB music file – so considering the conditions, decent speeds.

Netgear obviously recommends that the adapter will work best (in their words, for "maximum performance") with one of its own "RangeMax" wireless-N routers, but it's backwards-compatible so should be fine with wireless-G routers, as well as other brand N, and draft-N devices, although more info is available on compatibility on Netgear's site before you splash the cash.

When hitting those "maximum performance" peaks, Netgear claims the WN111 will cover you for multiplayer gaming, simultaneous downloads, streaming HD video and large file sharing. Security-wise, the WN111 supports WEP, WPA-PSK, or WPA2-PSK wireless encryption standards, with the set-up wizard asking you for your current network's pass key during the process.

Tags: Hardware Wireless Networking Wi-Fi Wi-Fi adapters Netgear Netgear RangeMax Wireless-N WN111

Netgear RangeMax NEXT wireless-N WN111 USB adapter originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Virgin Media has jumped onto the mobile broadband bandwagon with the launch of its own Virgin Mobile dongle and service into what's arguably a fairly crowded market. It seems the company hopes to distinguish itself on price, and offers pretty good value deals - to existing Virgin Media customers at least.

Existing cable customers who are on Virgin Media's XL or L broadband packages, or Virgin Media's ADSL "Bundle 1" are being offered mobile broadband - with 1GB data allowance - for £5 a month, possibly the cheapest contract deal currently in the UK.

But, for those who do opt for the 1GB bundle, it's worth noting that Virgin charges each GB over a user's limit at £15. Non-Virgin consumers can sign up to 18-month contracts for £15 per month that gives them 3GB data allowance. So is it any good?

The hardware itself is a Huawei E160 stock capable of HSDPA connectivity. It's black with a tactile finish and aside from the Virgin Mobile logo, is indistinguishable from a flash drive.

Although it looks the part, the stick does not offer any memory capacity - although a nice touch is the microSD card slot on the side that's capable of taking memory cards so that you can store data on the device.

Aside from the card slot, the other notable features of the stick itself is an external antenna jack and a "hidden" LED light that's worth noting as it will offer clues as to the connectivity status of the device.

The stick flashes different colours, and at different speeds, depending on whether there is a 3G, GSM/GPRS connection for at a glance reference.

There are six different flashing options that mean one thing or another and although memorising this list did not appeal, we think after prolonged use, users would get used to the meaning of the different flashes and it might prove a quick way to check status.

Although by no means bulky, the drive, measuring 13 x 83 x 45mm is supplied with a USB cable adapter, that might prove useful for those with USB ports are close together but also claims to offer a better signal.

Set-up is what you would expect, just insert the SIM card into the stick through a slide-out tray next to the USB connector and plug the USB modem into your PC or laptop.

We installed the device to a laptop running Windows XP. The device is compatible with PCs running Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.4.5 and above.

All the set-up software required is on the stick itself, so from then on in, it's really just a matter of following the simple on-screen prompts to get the system sorted. When set-up is complete, a Virgin icon will appear on the computer's homescreen, or can be launched by clicking the relevant drive via My Computer.

The Virgin software is easy to use and although basic, fairly inoffensive. The home page you see gives you the option to connect/disconnect and shows a full set of stats for your usage including up- and downloading info and connection speeds.

Of interest to those with multiple laptops, or for people who want to share the stick, owners can use the USB modem across multiple computers, and Virgin offers an option to keep track of usage by a "Your Account" service at virginmobile.co.uk.

Maximum speeds possible are up to 3.6Mb per second so the device is not as fast as some offerings from Vodafone - although it's worth considering Voda's claimed 7.2Mbps speeds are very limited geographically.

As well as using the stick for mobile broadband connectivity, users can send texts and store contacts to the stick's SIM card. Texting, with messages written and sent within the Virgin software, works for up to 20 people and costs 10p per message, while up to 200 contacts can be stored in the phone book and saved to the SIM.

Tags: Phones Mobile broadband USB modems Virgin Media Virgin Mobile Huawei Virgin Media Mobile Broadband

Virgin Media Mobile Broadband originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Vodafone has expanded its range of high-speed USB Modems with a new "Stick" design that as well as being super small and lightweight, is capable of connection speeds of up to 7.2Mbps.

But, it's worth noting that these impressive speeds - up to 22 times faster than that of "normal" mobile broadband - are currently only available in a few locations throughout the UK.

Coverage is continuing to be rolled out in the London districts of E1, E1W, E14, EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4, NW1, SW1, W1, W2, W8, W9, W10, W11, W14, WC1 and WC2.

In addition to the capital's coverage, 7.2Mbps can also be enjoyed at major airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, London City, Southampton, East Midlands, Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast City and Belfast International.

The new USB Modem Stick is Vodafone's smallest and slimmest yet and is no larger than a standard USB flash drive.

It really is tiny and lightweight and to say that it offers you full-fat internet connectivity anywhere there is mobile phone coverage makes you marvel at the wonders of tech today.

With the claim that it will work out the box, the Stick is compatible with both Windows - Vista and XP - and Mac OS X so we were interested to see just how quickly we could be up and running online.

Installing the software is refreshingly easy - we used a 2GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook running Mac OS 10.4.8 to test the E172. Simply insert the CD and follow the instructions. That's really all there is to it.

It uses your default web browser to take you through the steps then places the installed software within your "Applications" folder.

To activate the device, just go to "Internet Connect", again within the "Applications" folder and select "Vodafone E172" and click on the connect button.

By all accounts, it would be even easier on a PC as you don't even need the install CD to get going.

This is a great device, that enables fast access to the internet. Possibly our only complaint, and even this is slight, is that the device itself is a little wide, so if your machine has two USB ports side by side, unless you have a USB extension cable, you won't be able to plug anything else in, as it takes up a bit of space. But, said USB extension cable is included in the pack, so just remember to take it with you.

If you're worried about someone accessing unsuitable content, Vodafone has it's own set of filters in place that restrict access to adult sites for example.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones 3G Mobile broadband Vodafone Biz Vodafone USB Stick Modem

Vodafone 7.2 USB "Stick" Modem originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:12:10 +0000

The much anticipated BBC iPlayer has gone live as a public Beta and Pocket-lint got an early peek ahead of the official launch.

In a nutshell, the BBC iPlayer lets you catch up with all the BBC programmes you've missed (or want to watch again) during the last 7 days, by downloading them to your computer and then watching them when it suits you.

The pink and black-themed BBC iPlayer pages are super-easy to navigate through, and anyone who has even the most minimal web knowledge, or experience of other VOD offerings, is going to find this site easy to use.

The BBC iPlayer Library is the software that you need to download, manage and watch the programmes, and this is a simple click-and-it's-done download that initiates the first time you try and download a programme.

The downloads themselves are managed through a peer-to-peer networking system (Kontiki from Verisign) which also manages the DRM.

Your downloads are only on a rental-type basis and will be deleted from your system after a set amount of time (usually 7 days).

The home page gives hot links to popular programmes, and the options to explore via "Last 7 Days", "Categories" and "A to Z", as well as by BBC channel or the usual key-word search functionality.

Categories gives you the options of: Children's, Drama, Factual, Music, News & Weather, Entertainment & Drama - and - Religion & Ethics.

Once you click through to a category the nine programmes are displayed per screen, each as a clear thumbnail visual helping you make an at-a-glance selection.

If you rollover the programme with your mouse, it will tell you how many days you have left to download that option.

Clicking on to a particular programme gives you a brief synopsis of that option and the choice to download.

We chose to download a 45-minute episode of Doctor Who, which (a 151MB file) took around 15 minutes to complete.

Once downloaded the episode appears in the library along with info on how long you have to watch it before it is erased.

In another Windows-based move, to play your selections, you must have Windows Media Player 10 or above. You can watch your chosen TV in the iPlayer Library software, or launch it in WMP.

We don't want to be overly harsh at this stage as we did get early access to a Beta product, but there were times the iPlayer seemed a bit buggy, not letting us click through to download programmes choices and throwing up an error message about incorrect licence when trying to play some choices.

Content wise at the moment with the catch-up angle, there are some BBC obvious, rather than any classic choices from the archive, but clearly this will improve as the service is expanded.

Tags: Software Websites Online BBC iPlayer Video on demand

BBC iPlayer - EXCLUSIVE originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:06:09 +0100