And according to Nokia entry on Wikipedia

In 1898, Eduard Polón founded Finnish Rubber Works, manufacturer of galoshes and other rubber products, which later became Nokia’s rubber business. At the beginning of the 20th century, Finnish Rubber Works established its factories near the town of Nokia and began using Nokia as its product brand.

Always a solution if Windows Mobile does not work out.

So let me compare it with the Nokia E71 that I got in January, which is my current phone.

Instead of reviewing it feature by feature, I will share some of the things I would do (or would like to do) on the mobile phone, and how would HTC Dream stack up against Nokia E71 in handling those tasks.

	HTC Dream	Nokia E71
Dimensions and Portability	117.7 x 55.7 x 17.1 mm @ 158g 1150mAh battery	114 x 57 x 10 mm @ 127g 1500mAh battery
	Dream is around 25% heavier than E71, although it is only a tiny bit longer and not much narrower. However, E71 is considerably thinner than HTC Dream — in fact it is probably one of the thinnest smart phones around. A slide out keyboard on Dream is not helping either. Both are quite “portable” in my standard, i.e. I am happy to slip either into my shorts pocket. However as of all mobile phones — smaller & thinner = better. Another aspect of portability is its battery life. On paper — Nokia E71′s 1,500mAh Lion battery is 30% juicier than Dream HTC’s. The reality is also true. I do around 1-2 hours of web surfing a day, and they stay on, connected to 3G and Wifi whole day. I have to recharge almost every single day on Dream, but my E71 could usually last 2-2.5 days. Dream can be recharged over USB though, whereas you need to get Nokia CA-100 cable for E71 to charge over USB power (which they ought to include that in the first place). Winner: Nokia E71
Making Phone Calls	Dial Number Press [Dial] button Select “Dialer” tab Input number on touch screen Press [Dial] button to make call Dial A Contact Press [Dial] button Select “Contacts” tab Slide out keyboard Type in partial name on keyboard Select matched contact Close keyboard Press [Dial] button to make call	Dial Number Press [Home] button Input number from keyboard Press [Dial] button to make call Dial A Contact Press [Contact] button Type in partial name on keyboard Select matched contact Press [Dial] button to make call
	One of the most basic functionality of mobile phones is, guess what, making phone calls! The call quality is “about the same” sucky GSM low pass filter sound, but the “process of calling” is a bit different. Nokia E71, with its permanent keyboard, makes it easier to turn on, type in a number and make phone calls. With HTC Dream however, you get the option of typing in phone number with either the full screen dialer (not as responsive as real keys), or slide out the actual keyboard to use the keys, and then slide back in before making phone calls (very awkward). Same with dialing a contact — dedicated contacts button on E71 makes the process a little bit easier and quicker. If you are buying a phone just to make phone calls, the choice is no brainer… (Which of course would be neither — $40 prepaid dumb phone from supermarket will suffice). Winner: Nokia E71
Email & SMS	Input Method 5 row QWERTY keyboard Application Support Email app with IMAP4/POP3 support Gmail app	Input Method 4 row QWERTY keyboard Predictive/suggestive input Application Support Email app with IMAP4/POP3 support Gmail app in Java Nokia Messaging with push email support
	One reason why I prefer a phone with QWERTY keyboard is because I do quite a bit of emailing when I commute. In this department, HTC Dream’s slide out keyboard is marginally better than Nokia E71′s. There are more spaces between keys, and there is a dedicated numeric row — which is something very useful I found. I have relatively small hands but it’s still quite easy to make mistakes on E71 when I am in a hurry. But I guess that’s where Nokia’s suggestive text input comes in. It will try to complete the words for you, or make a suggestion when you made a typo. It can be annoying sometimes (making wrong suggestions), but in general I found it quite helpful. Email application wise, Dream HTC is street ahead of Nokia E71. Out of factory E71 only comes with a simple email app that supports multiple IMAP4 and POP3 accounts. You can however get Nokia Messaging with IMAP4 IDLE/push email support (a much better client but no guarantee to be free in the future). If you are a Gmail user like me, you can also download Gmail Mobile, which is a J2ME application that feels half finished. On the other hand, HTC Dream has a nice looking email client + a much better Gmail Mobile application out of box, which actually supports HTML email viewing (but not composing, at least I have not found a way to do it). Well, you cannot blame Google for creating a better Gmail client for their own operating system, can you? Not just better Gmail integration — but also contacts/tasks/calendar events sync between the phone and your Google account. It’s so integrated that the only way to use a different Google account is by resetting the phone (doh). Whereas Gmail Mobile app on J2ME allows you to have multiple Gmail account logging in at the same time. Winner: Dream HTC
Web Browsing	Display 480×320 HVGA LCD screen Navigation Trackball or Touch screen Browser Webkit-based Android browser 3rd party browsers (Steel, OperaMini)	Display 320×240 QVGA LCD screen Navigation 4 way directional key Browser Webkit-based Nokia browser 3rd party browsers (OperaMini, Skyfire)
	Darn. I love everything about web browsing on HTC Dream. The browser interface is slick. Text is rendered beautifully. Screen is twice the resolution as E71. You can scroll around with either the trackball or by dragging on the touch screen. I don’t have an iPhone, nor Windows Mobile 6 based devices so I cannot compare with them. But browsing experience on HTC Dream is on an entirely different level than E71. Nokia E71 came with Nokia Web Browser that is also Webkit based, although the quality of rendering makes it hard to believe that they actually share the same layout engine. There is no anti-alias fonts (which I think there’s a hack to turn it on). It’s slow. Half the website I visited would kill it. When the sites don’t kill it, they don’t render properly. However there is no way to change the default browser so I am stuck with it. There are other 3rd party browsers available on Nokia E71 though. OperaMini, an J2ME based browser, is my favourite, and it is also available on Android. Good for digesting the content rich site that would otherwise kill the defacto Nokia Browser, and it goes through a proxy that can really cut down the traffic to save cost. However it has no Javascript nor Flash. Yes I have tried Skyfire — it feels heavy and unresponsive to me. Winner: Dream HTC
Watching YouTube	Dedicated YouTube application	Nokia Browser + Flash Lite emTube/MobiTubia
	YouTube is fun. YouTube on your mobile is even useful — when you need to calm the kids and distract them :) On HTC Dream you have a dedicated YouTube application that allows you to search and watch videos on that nice HVGA screen. Just need to make sure you are on Wi-Fi connection so you don’t get a surprising bill at the end of the month. On E71 however, it’s not that straightforward. YouTube for mobile does not work on Nokia Browser, as video gets encoded in 3GP format which is not supported by the Real Player on E71. To watch YouTube video on out-of-box E71 however, you need to browse to the regular YouTube site, search for the video you wish to watch, and then use the built in Flash Lite to watch the content in its small QVGA screen. That’s if YouTube happens to render properly on Nokia Browser (most of the time it doesn’t), haven’t crashed it, and you can find the content you looking for before the browser grinds to a halt. Flash Lite is also a bit under-powered when it plays the content, and will likely skip every 3rd frame… Winner: Dream HTC Update: Apparently Google has just released an YouTube application for S60 platform, and watching YouTube video on my E71 is now just as easy as on HTC Dream :)
Remote Administration	SSH: ConnectBot RDP: Connectoid	SSH: PuTTY for Symbian RDP: Various commercial applications
	One thing I need to do (but have not managed to do it) is to be able to manage my servers remotely from my phone. For example if MySQL crashed, and I can just ssh into my box and restart it. Both ConnectBot on Android and PuTTY on Symbian are pretty good. However with bigger screen + better keyboard, HTC Dream might be sysadmin’s choice over E71. With ConnectBot I can actually fit 80 columns in a screen! It’s actually the first application I installed when I received the HTC Dream. No experience with RDP based administration. Yup I am lucky I know :) Winner: Dream HTC
Making VoIP Calls	Nil	Applications Nokia built in SIP client Fring Nimbuzz
	It’s 2009. There is basically no point paying ridiculous high mobile call rates and everyone should be onto VoIP — provided your phone actually supports it. Unfortunate I have not yet found a SIP client that works well on HTC Dream. Consider mobile carriers’ generally negative response to VoIP, I am not sure how soon will we see a full VoIP application on Android. On the other hand, there are heaps of options on Symbian/S60. SIP stack is built into the OS. The fully integrated client is available on E71, which you can set as the default action when you press [Dial] button. There are other clients integrated with other IM networks. Currently I am using Nimbuzz that also registers my phone onto PennyTel’s SIP service, MSN and Skype. Making VoIP calls on mobile is actually quite clear (when you have good 3G reception) and very economical. Winner: Nokia E71
Connect Computer to the Net	Nil	Modem via USB cable or Bluetooth Joikuspot
	When you are on the road and there is no Wi-Fi hotspot in sight, being able to use the phone as modem to connect to Internet via 3G/HSPA might be the best option. Again, I have not found a way to do it on HTC Dream other then rooting the phone to install tethering application. On the other hand, there are heaps of options for my Nokia. Nokia PC Suite can be used to connect your computer to Internet via a connection to the phone — from either USB cable, infrared or Bluetooth. For me I just need to turn the Bluetooth on, wait for PC Suite to detect the existence of the phone, and then click on a button to make that as a modem. Easy. The same functionality is also available on Mac and Linux, although it can be a bit fiddly (with PPP chat scripts) on Linux. The other possibility would be using a tethering application such as Joiku Spot, which turns your phone into an adhoc Wi-Fi access point, where multiple computers can use to connect to the Internet. Winner: Nokia E71

For many other things I do, they are pretty much on-par. HTC Dream almost always have flashy UI and Nokia E71 usually have good established commercial software support. One thing I like about HTC Dream and Android though, is its active developer community and the momentum behind it. When you open up Market Place in Android (another great piece, compare to Nokia’s pathetic “Download!”), you can easily search for new and popular applications — and they are usually free (whereas most apps on Nokia’s “Download!” cost). It’s easy to find new apps to review and install. Whereas with my Nokia, I hit Google search first, and then have to go through many banner-ad-filled web pages before I can find a download link.

And when you have the developer mind share — you are winning the game. Just ask Apple. From what I can see, although for the existing pool of software packages, there are more available on Symbian than on Android. Give it a year and two, and it will be very different I think. Nokia with its aging Symbian and S60 interface will have to fight very hard to win back the developers. Maybe Qt could help? Who knows…

Conclusion

HTC Dream verses Nokia E71 — who wins? It’s a draw for me. I love my Nokia E71 for its small form factor and ease of use, but envy the arguably better operating system that’s Android on HTC Dream. The deal breaker for me would be making VoIP calls and the ability to tether, which neither are available on HTC Dream yet. I believe they might not be something that are difficult to develop, but pressure from mobile carriers might prevent them to be included in the Android Market Place.

So for now, it’s Nokia E71 for me. My next phone in 2 years? Who knows. There is a big OS war out there — Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Blackberry. Do we have big enough market for so many mobile operating systems? Who will survive and who will wither? Time will tell.

I have recently bought a Nokia S60 smart phone, and have migrated my email to Google Apps. I am now using the Gmail interface to access my emails when I am on my desktop, but I am wondering how I can send/receive emails on my mobile phone.

Solution(s)

Well. It is complicated and so far I have no found a perfect solution in my case. There are a few good alternatives, but none works perfectly for me.

Gmail for Mobile

The most natural solution would be Gmail for Mobile from Google. It is a J2ME based application (so it is not native on Nokia S60), however it has probably the best Google integration currently.

What I like about it:

• It works well — just like Gmail inside the browser. Sent and received emails are linked together (just like on Gmail). You get your full contact list just like how it works on Gmail. There are lots of very convenient short-cut keys — just like Gmail!
• It supports multiple Google accounts. Not a big deal for me but I think it would be for those having a dozen Gmail accounts that need constant monitoring.
• Good off-line support. You can still read/compose email when you don’t have data connection.

What I don’t like about it:

• Slow. J2ME-kinda-slow. With Google’s focus now on Android, I doubt a native Symbian/S60 executable will be released.
• Buggy. Crashed on me a few times. There are also some bugs that prevent me from sending/replying emails. Currently I have two domains associated with my Google Apps account, and in Gmail I sent up to receive from both. However I cannot reply emails if it’s sent to my additional domain — it will say something about the connection problem.

Currently I have Gmail for Mobile bound to my “Message Key” on my Nokia E71.

Nokia Messaging

Nokia Messaging is a push-email-like service provided by Nokia, and currently they are offering free trial and it allows you to manage up to 10 email addresses/accounts.

What I like about Nokia Messaging:

• Pretty responsive due to being a native executable. Good message listing view. Very concise message view.
• Very flexible sync options to provide you a push-email like experience.
• Good integration with the rest of the system. For example home screen notifications. Contacts. Etc.

What I don’t like about Nokia Messaging:

• Sync chews battery. A lot. It also chews through your data usage, which can be costly.
• Not Gmail-enough. While it claims full Gmail support, I don’t get conversation view between sender and receivers. Label obviously does not work.
• Delete emails from Nokia Messaging actually does not delete that email from Gmail, but move to “All Mails” instead. It should have used IMAP command to move it to the Trash for deletion. So I ended up have to go back to the desktop version to delete all the unwanted emails.

Another issue — who knows how much Nokia is going to charge this?

Others

There are of course other free solutions. Default Nokia email client? Use mobile browser version of Gmail? I don’t think either have provided me the functionality of either Nokia Messaging or Gmail for Mobile.

Any other suggestion?

That Nokia 6150 wasn’t my first Nokia — I had a Nokia 101 back in 1995/1996 with Optus when it started selling digital mobile phones. Vivian actually bought the phone from Orange in Hong Kong, and I then bought a Optus SIM to use it here in Australia. With its built in infrared port, I could actually use my Psion 5mx to talk to it to send SMS — how cool was that?!

It’s Real World Haskell by Bryan O’Sullivan, Don Stewart, and John Goerzen. It was released in November 2008 by O’Reilly, which you can actually read the soft copy online. I actually have been waiting for this book to come out for a while, and would much prefer to sit down reading the dead tree version than reading on the flashy screen. I ordered it from The Book Depository from UK, which is the cheapest price I can find. For cheap books, give Booko a try — best book price comparison engine for the Aussies.

Last time I touched Haskell must have been over 10 years ago when I was still at uni. For the last 2 years I have been learning OCaml and was a little bit put off by its syntax. One new year resolution for me in 2009 is — pick up Haskell again and make something useful from it.

My second pressie is delivered from not that far away actually — Parramatta.

It’s a Nokia E71, which I ordered from MobileCiti. My 3 Skypephone is going to retire soon, and looks like Android based Kogan Agora just won’t cut it.

I have just taken it out for a full recharge on my desk. More reviews coming soon.

• Kogan Agora for AUD$299, and
• Kogan Agora Pro for AUD$399

Postage will be around $30+ to Sydney Australia.

Looks a bit like, hmm, Samsung Blackjack? Pretty impressive specification for a $399 phone though.

• 2.5-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen.
• Integrated QWERTY keyboard.
• High-speed 3G network connection.
• One-Touch Google Search.
• Easy Web Browsing.
• Easy-to-use email with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents.
• Customisable Home Screen with instant Email, text message and IM notifications.
• Instant access to mobile Internet services (Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Maps).
• Music Player.
• Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
• microSD. expansion slot for all your storage needs.
• Wi-Fi network access.
• GPS navigation capability.
• 2.0 megapixel camera.

The $100-less non-Pro version will not get Wi-Fi and GPS. Network will be triband UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100MHz) + GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz). Oh, did I mention Android, Google-backed Linux-based mobile operating system?

I guess the reason why I am posting this is — I have actually been thinking about getting a new phone. Yes I know I’ve got a 3 Skypephone, but over one year of usage I found it is very much under-powered for what I want to use the phone for. Well, it is 2008 — not 1998. I actually don’t spend at of time talking on the phone. What I really want is a small portable computer that can fit into my pocket, and is well connected to the Internet. You happen to be able to dial a number to talk to someone as well, but talking on the phone is just so last century.

So I have been contemplating to get a Nokia E71 — the kind of portable computer phone that I think will fit my usage pattern very well. HSDPA connectivity for fast 3.5G mobile network. Wi-Fi when I am at home. GPS + AGPS to get you around the town. QWERTY keyboard for editing odd files in SSH (very important). Combined with Exetel HSPA plans at $5/month + $0.015/MB will get you online in most Australian cities in no time. Still want to make phone calls? Fring or Nimbuzz + cheap VoIP providers like PennyTel would have that covered — at a small fraction of cost that a mobile operator would normally charge you. You can get a Nokia E71 outright for around $499 at the moment. I’ll be buying this for my “business” against my ABN so hopefully will be tax deductible.

… and now this?! A pretty much spec-wise equivalent phone, at slightly lower price ($430+ delivered), but with Google Android! That certainly has made the decision harder.

Well. Spec-wise they do look similar. HSDPA? Check. GPS? Check. Wi-Fi? Check. QWERTY keyboard + QVGA screen? Check. Kogan Agora does have a less-impressive camera, but it does not bother me. What will be really against Agora would be its build quality. It does not look as metal-cladded as the Nokia. It’s probably contracted out to some cheap Chinese factory (like my 3Skypephone, which has some build quality issue).

The real competition is probably on the software. Symbian S60 or Google Android? Yes I would love to have Linux on my phone, and it does seem to have good looking interface. But what about the applications? Most of those on the market are probably categorised as “fun” rather than “useful”. I can’t even find a proper VoIP app that supports SIP! It’s tight integration with Google services can be worry as well. Maybe the app market will be different in 12 months time, but apps on S60 feel just so much more mature.

So. Nokia E71 (which has been available for 6 months) or Kogan Agora (won’t be available for another 2 months)? By the way, don’t suggest an iPhone.