Mobile Phones are better than Computers – Green Computing

Posted by BA on Jul 16, 2010 in Green Computing, Handsets, Internet, Mobile Apps, Nokia, Nokia OVI apps | 0 comments

Mobile Phones consume very low power

What do you use your computer for? Surfing Internet, chat, gaming, social networking, downloading, desktop computing including documents, spreadsheets or presentation making or just watching your photos and videos? Today’s mobile phones are capable of doing it all, rather sometimes more than the traditional phones. They have faster processors, more ram, faster  wireless Internet connectivity and larger memories.

Today I will start another series of posts that will tell you how to use your phones to do things that you usually do with your computers including desktops, laptops and netbooks. This series of posts will include tips, tricks and software that you can use to avoid the use of computers and just use your phone

Why are mobile phones better?

If you have not done so, you can read my earlier articles that prove that laptops are better than desktops, because they take around 60 watts of power as compared to a few hundred watts. Then we also discussed that netbooks are even better than laptops taking half the power as compared to a full sized notebook. Today we will move one step ahead.

To prove my point I used this app called Nokia Energy Profiler. The app is a free download available on Nokia OVI store for almost all Nokia devices. The application gives you exact numbers in terms of power consumption, network bandwidth utilization and a few more important things that you never come to know when using a  mobile phone. Just like any other computing device, Nokia phones consume low power when idle and take more power when performing more computation.

Here are a few screen-shots. As you can see, when the phone is idle, it takes 0.18 watts on average. When navigating the menu and viewing simple content like photos on the phone screen, its consuming 0.23 watts on average. In the third screenshot, the phone is being used for a voice+video call over a wifi network and the battery usage is at it’s top, that is around 2 watts.

Idle State

Phone Menu Use

Skype Video Call - High Power Consumption

Sudden Spike when receiving call

In the last screen shot you can see the sudden rise in battery consumption when there’s an incoming call ringing and picked up.

In any case, this particular cellphone is using less than 2 watts of power which is way less than the other computing devices we listed above.

Conclusion

Use mobile phones for your computing needs whenever and wherever possible. You’ll save power and will contribute your efforts in keeping this planet green. Happy Green Computing!

No Skype on Fring anymore

Posted by BA on Jul 14, 2010 in Mobile Apps, Nokia, Smartphones, Video Communication Apps, Voice Communication Apps | 3 comments

This has been a shock for me. I have been using Fring for voice and video calls for years now and all my Skype calls simply land on my mobile. Skype has suddenly stopped working on Fring and I was wondering what happened? Just a simple search and I find all Fring users ranting all over the web about this latest change.

How Fring describes it is a cowardly act by Skype. This is what a post titled “Skype Cowardly Blocks Fring” on Fring Blog says about the recent development:

we are very disappointed that Skype, who once championed the cause of openness is now trying to muzzle competition, even at the expense of its own users.

I’ve been using Fring on Nokia and then on Android. Why I use Fring+Skype is the lack f the native Skype app on my favorite handsets. Well, Skype has been developing clients for the new platforms but we still have a big gap between supply and demand of this app on different platforms. Skyp is still not available on my BlackBerry 9700 and its not available for another number of handsets running on Android and Symbian while Fring was filling up this gap quite well.

Now this is what you call pulling the plug. I’m an unhappy fring+skype user

p.s: Do you have an alternate app in mind that will let me make and receive Skype voice and video calls over data networks. This is really frustrating

iPhone 4 vs Nokia N8 – And the winner is ..

Posted by BA on Jul 13, 2010 in Apple, iPhone 4, Nokia, Nokia N8, Smartphones, Technology, Telecommunication | 23 comments

This has been a long awaited post and a few of my readers have been requesting for it repeatedly. I’ve finally decided to write on this topic. Some of my readers will call it a redundant post as so many has been said about these two phones and then some of them will call it biased due to Nokia being my all time favorite but I will still not be reluctant writing the post as it is totally based on facts and figures and I have not been unjust.

iPhone 4 by Apple and Nokia N8 have been put into a side by side table below. Thanks to GSM Arena, I did not have to type in all this data. What I’ve done is, I’ve colored this table green wherever I found a superior feature in one of the two phones. Quite interestingly iPhone is a winner in launching the phone first, it is smaller in volume, it’s got a gyro sensor, higher resolution screen, greater internal memory, better CPU clock and a larger battery capacity.

That makes around 8 features better than Nokia’s N8. Am I praising Apple’s marvel too much? Well, let’s look at Nokia’s features where Nokia is a winner against iPhone. The list is endlessly long and Nokia has around 19 features that are significantly better than that of iPhone including a 12 megapixel stunning still camera with a Carl Zeiss lens, Micro SD Slot which will let you plug in upto 32 GB of a memory card, USB on the go that will allow you to plug in your USB flash drives and hard disks as an additional storage space to  your phone, 720p HDMI TV out, Flash support in browser, faster class 33 edge and much more. See the table below yourself, I’m not biased

Hence the winner is … Nokia N8 without any doubt.

While my favorite of all the features will be the Nokia logo on the device that looks much better to me as compared to that of a metallic apple . Where Nokia has lost it is; the delayed release that is causing additional curiosity and unrest among the fans who cannot take it anymore. Just release it Nokia!

While iPhone 4 is not available unlocked without a voice/data contract in US, we can compare UK prices of iPhone 4 and Nokia N8.Right now, the approximate price of unlocked 16GB iPhone 4 in UK is GBP 499 that is around USD 760. Same 16 GB iPhone 4 is available for Eur 629 in France for example.

On the other hand, Nokia N8 is expected to be available for around Eur 450 on launch. Even if it sells for Eur 500, its pretty economical, isn’t it?

ROFL @Apple – How do you hold your Nokia?

Posted by BA on Jun 29, 2010 in Competition, Handsets, iPhone, Nokia, Smartphones, Technology, Telecommunication | 4 comments

There have been news and posts all around that Apple has advised iPhone 4 owners not to hold it in a specific way to avoid any signal dropping issues. I’ve not tried the new iPhone (nor am looking forward to) but Nokia has posted a comprehensive post on “How to hold  your Nokia” and they make the point absolutely clear that you won’t lose any signal, no matter how you hold the phone. Sarcasm at it’s best!

Following is the number of ways in which you can hold a Nokia phone :p

Win a Free Nokia E73 – Nokia Scavenger Hunt

Posted by BA on Jun 11, 2010 in Competition, Nokia, Smartphones | 23 comments

Nokia E73 Mode

Win a newly launched E73 querty phone with a Symbian Series 60 OS, Qwerty keyboard, 5 Megapixel camera and a host of standard features you’ll expect in a Nokia Smartphone. The phone is scheduled to start shipping on 16th of June in US on T-Mobile. If you want to buy it in US, it will cost you just $69.99 with a two years contract and if you want to get it for free, you should head to the Nokia scavenger hunt that is giving away a free Nokia -E73 in US. The competition is not limited to USA. If you are outside US, you can win a good phone (identity not revealed yet) by playing this hunt.

To win the phone you have to give answer to 10 simple quesionts and email them to NokiaE73Mode@ovi.com . Make sure you send it from your ovi account, or  you will disqualify. Here’s the list of the questions you have to answer.

Best  of Luck!

Do let us know if you win this phone. Nokia is good at giving away free phones. I remember winning a Nokia N82 in a competition a couple of years ago.

***Update ***

This has been confirmed. Those who take part in this competition outside US have a chance to win E72. That’s a decent device to win for free

I carry an LED TV in my pocket

Posted by BA on Jun 10, 2010 in Nokia, Samsung, Smartphones | 0 comments

Remember Samsung Wave I mentioned a couple of posts ago? The biggest wow factor of the phone is the AMOLED screen. It gives me the feel as if I’m carrying a full fledged LED TV in my pocket. With amazing video player and DivX capability, the phone plays great videos and the colors are so crisp.

The video recorder adds to the feeling as it’s a 720p HD video recorder too. You can even watch the videos you recorded if you don’t have any movies loaded up in the phone as yet. BTW, Samsung wave has started shipping in Europe already. You can simply google a store that can ship you that?

I’m pretty excited to know that Nokia N8 that is also launching in next couple of months will have an AMOLED screen as well.

Nokia N8 – My next love

Posted by BA on Jun 10, 2010 in Nokia, Smartphones | 5 comments

Nokia N8

At iPhone 4′s launch, I will not be talking about Apple here. What I’m after is a Nokia N8 now. I’m anxiously waiting for its launch. Since its announcement on 28th May, I’ve been counting every moment till I can get hold of this device. I’m not going to make it a long discussion but at this point in time, Nokia N8 is going to be the best feature set device. I know I’m a bit biased here but I can’t help supporting Nokia

Here are a few things that make me crave for Nokia N8

• A 12 mega pixel camera
• A lovely Xenon flash to support the camera
• 720p HD video recording at 25 FPS
• 3D Graphics hardware accelerator with OpenGL ES 2.0 support
• HDMI TV out
• Huge set of programming options in form of supported APIs
• Dual microphone for stereo audio recording
• 16GB onboard memory and a slot for more. You can add a Micro SD card
• Thats not it, you can use ANY USB storage media, external hard drive etc to add storage capability
• DivX video playback support
• Amazing web browser
• And other usual stuff – that is not that ordinary by the way

You can read the full set of features of the phone here.

Cant say Good bye to my N82

Posted by BA on May 2, 2010 in Nokia, Smartphones | 2 comments

Nokia n82

N82 by Nokia, just a little over two years I was so excited to receive my new handset. An amazing dual processor phone with dedicated graphics processing unit, an amazing five mega pixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash…… Series 60 3rd edition and a mono block, unlike N95.

It happens that after six months, you start feeling that your phone is too old for some of the features that you’d love to use but after a couple of years in case of N82, I don’t tend let go my phone. I have always been a Nokia fan but Nokia has unfortunately been slightly quiet in past couple of years. They have not released a phone that could make me thing of switching my handset. Just as a convention, I thought I’d rather change my handset now anyways.

My eyes got glittered and deceived by the Blackberries and Androids and I decided to say farewell to my beloved Nokia N82. Now I have an android based HTC G1 as well as the top of the line BlackBerry Bold 9700. No offense with these amazing handsets, but two weeks away from my N82, I am actually handicapped due to  two main reasons.

My very ordinary looking Nokia N82 has a set of features that are still unmatched by the latest smartphones today. In addition, the wide range of software that I keep using, well at least so far, has not been available on other platforms. The problem of the software can be solved gradually as the software becomes available for the new handsets, but the feature set has no match.

The Xenon flash, that usually comes in point and shoot digital cameras only has kept me enjoying night time photography with an accompanying Carl Zeiss lens, five mega pixel camera and a great camera software to support. Even the most recent phones don’t have such flash and all of them only depend on LED based flash, if a flash at all is there.

Unmatched multi-tasking all the time on N82, chatting on favorite IM services, surfing the web using at least 4 different browsers, downloading a few torrents over wifi, listening to Mp3 music all at the same time and a few more software standing by is a normal way how I use this phone. And this doesn’t happen that great on other handsets.

Showing off the photos and videos I took over the weekend to friends and family on the TV is another great feature I miss in my beloved N82. Dont BlackBerry owners need a presentation mechanism in their business phones? Come on, you could give a TV out for heaven’s sake.

I have a feeling, I may have to come back to my Nokia N82 till another phone comes out with such great features. Thank God I haven’t sold it out yet