The delicious Kevin Michaluk of CrackBerry has posted some nicer photos and more details about the all new BlackBerry Bold Slider handset. All the smart money is — as Kevin points out — on the slider being part of the Bold category of devices.

For those burning to find out more, Kevin has helpfully compiled a ’slider-rumour’ frequently asked questions post.

I’m content to let nature take it’s course and for the Slider to be launched as and when RIM decide. I could be tempted. I absolutely adore the BlackBerry keyboard (although I was shocked, last night, to find I can type really fast with both thumbs on an iPhone 3GS). The Slider configuration would give a heck of a lot more screen real estate on the BlackBerry — and I’m a fan of that. Although I’ve never taken to the Storm(s), I always loved the amount of data you could pack into their giant screens.

Kevin reckons the Slider might hit in the summer. Bring it on!

When you take the INQ1 out of the box it feels like a quality device with its solid metal and plastic construction. However that illusion was shattered when I switched it on, as the display looks like a low end device and the icons and menus have a basic appearance. Instead of a user guide in the box there are a series of ‘flash’ cards which explain the principle applications. Although I thought the info was a bit thin it probably reflects the fact that non geeks rarely read user guides and just dive straight in! The full user guide is on the CD along with the PC Suite software for copying contacts, photos etc to your PC. Overall the handset’s performance is sluggish and the software seems fairly buggy as the it rebooted several times when I was trying out applications. Not a good start and may mean it has to go back.

Now to move on to the INQ1 as a social networking device.

The Facebook application looks good when you load it and has icons at the top for the key Facebook features – Profile, Inbox, Friends, Photos. The rest of the screen shows your News Feed. Reading and updating Facebook from the application is very easy, although you have to wait a while when you refresh to get your latest Facebook info or select an item to read. Not surprisingly, this is much slower than on a PC. I’ve also noticed that even when refreshed, the News Feed lags behind my PC. So, Facebook on the INQ1 versus Facebook via my E51 browser? I definitely prefer the browser version – it’s more responsive, up to date and I think easier to read. However, from a usability perspective, as an application that is easily available from the home screen, then Facebook on the INQ1 probably works better for Normobs.

The Skype application is very simple to use and incorporates Skype Out for calling ‘real’ phone numbers. Several times when I tried to use Skype, the handset rebooted. Live Messenger works well, with the long and frequently bizarre user names that some people use fully displayed!

In theory the browser provides web access but more often than not it returns an ‘unable to contact the website’ message! When it does work it’s horribly slow to load pages. I wouldn’t have the patience to use it on a regular basis.

Unfortunately there’s no Twitter application. For me that’s a big miss but as Twitter is still niche compared to Facebook I guess that forgivable!

Next I’ll be letting some Normobs in the family have a play with the INQ1 to see whether easy access to Facebook, Skype and Live Messenger holds appeal or whether they’d prefer to stick with their PC.

One very neat feature is the way Facebook, Live Messenger and Skype contacts are imported into the Contacts application on the handset so you can contact people directly from their and view their status. Effectively the INQ1 has presence enabled the Contacts application – something every handset should have.

This morning I ordered the INQ1 handset from 3. Why, you may ask? Surely it’s just a 3 branded handset from an unknown manufacturer that doesn’t allow you to download extra applications because it isn’t running any of the usual operating systems – S60, Apple, Android etc. And you’d be right. But …

3 claims the INQ1 is optimised for social networking. It comes configured for out-of-the-box access to Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messenger. Plus, the contacts application shows you which of your contacts are online. I want to understand what this means for social networking Normobs. All these applications are available on many other handsets via downloads or web browsers and in some cases ready-to-go on high end smartphones. But the INQ1 delivers this functionality in a low cost device. My experience of many Normobs is that they aren’t interested in looking for and downloading extra apps or paying more for data tariffs to support web browsing. But they use Facebook, Skype, Live Messenger on their laptops and I think would use it on their mobile if it was there and just worked, with no additional charges.

Ewan mentioned yesterday how poor (he used slightly more colourful language!) the S60 download experience is & he’s right. For mobile geeks it’s great fun hunting down cool apps but Normobs just want to use their handsets. The iPhone delivers a simple user experience plus the ability to download new stuff for those that want it but at a price point that is out of reach of many Normobs. I think the INQ1 could be making a reasonable stab at filling this gap. I’ll be testing it out with a selection of Normobs and reporting back shortly.

Meanwhile I’ll get back to my E51 and see what new apps I can find to download to it!

Full photo set here

The initial temptation is to dismiss this handset as ‘just a plastic E71′ – it certainly shares much of the E71’s design and is intended to be sold at a lower price point, but I’m not convinced that’s fair:

The main differences appear to be:

• The E63 has a coloured plastic shell versus the E71’s metal one.  The front is a metallic-finish, whilst the back cover is a soft-touch finish – both attract far few fingerprints than the E71’s.
• The E63 is nearly identical in dimensions to the E71 except for the depth – the E63 is around 1.5 times the depth of the E71.
• The E63 has a 3.5mm jack on top versus the E71’s 2.5mm jack on the side.  This appears to be the first E-series to have a standard headphone socket – something normally saved for N-series.
• The E63 has no side buttons for volume or voice recording.  It’s also missing the E71’s IR window.
• The E63 has a revised keyboard layout, adding a ‘/’ button on the lower row, shortening the space bar.
• The E63 appears to have a slightly smaller dimension screen although it is the same 320 by 240 pixels as the E71.
• The E63 lacks internal GPS.
• The E63 does not support HSDPA data.
• The E63 has the same 110 meg internal memory, but is shipped without an additional memory card (although a slot to add one is present).
• The E63 has a 2MP camera versus the E71’s 3.2MP and has a fixed focus.
• The E63 adds a flashlight function that allows the camera’s LED flash to be used as a torch.
• The E63 lacks the E71’s faux-leather slip case.

And whilst it is clearly a cut-down model – I don’t find any of these differences make the E63 a bad device.  The camera particularly is little sacrifice as the E71’s unit, regardless of resolution, was dire and the E63’s one appears no worse for its lower res.  I’d even take the slight size increase and plastic case without too many complaints – in use a smudged and smeary E71 doesn’t look that much better than the E63.

But lets be clear – consumers aren’t the target market here – businesses are… and the key business features are all still here:

• WiFi
• 3G (there had been some rumours this was 2G only)
• Microsoft Exchange sync via MailForExchange
• Expandable memory
• Fast operation and stable S60 3rd Edition FP1 OS
• Pre-installed QuickOffice
• E-series security and encryption functions
• Huge 1500mAh battery

…and now all of these things can be obtained from Nokia without also incurring the cost of high-end cases and GPS.  The executives may still have the E71s but the rest of us will get the E63s… Looking at the popularity of the lower-spec Blackberry devices around the large corporates I know (where they’re deployed in the hundreds or thousands) this is a smart move.

What Nokia have to do now is price this correctly relative to the E71 – nothing’s been announced so far… Watch this space, but I’d guess (and it is just a guess) at pricing around 60% of the E71. (see below for update)

I’ll be testing the device out over the next few days and we’ll have it on the show early next week.

As ever – post your questions below and I’ll do my best to answer them.

–

Update: It will be available in blue as well as the red pictured above for €199 pre-tax SIM-free (which will typically equate to £199 in the UK once taxes are included).  Full press release here.

3, Toshiba and Amnesty International first clients for product personalisation company skins4things.

skins4things provides custom-made ‘skins’ for laptops, iPods, games
consoles and mobile phones. You just stick on the vinyl and woosh, you’ve now got a Union Jack coloured iPod. Or N95. And so on. Nice!

If you’d like your own white labeled store for your brand, talk to the co-founder, Alex Meisl (Or email me and I’ll connect you). Their 3 branded store (http://www.threeskins.com) has been hugely successful.

Skins start from just under a fiver. I wonder if they can change my Nokia E90 into a Mobile Industry Review branded handset? I think that might be a custom job as the company has wisely focused on providing skins for the most popular handsets in the country.

This RAZR doesn’t look that bad now

Here’s another vid for you to feast your eyes on:

I’m asking, what has been your favourite mobile phone, you have owned, ever!

I’ll start with mine. Now for me, this is an incredibly tough choice, it’s between the Nokia 3310, and the Nokia 3200! (Not exactly high-fliers, but allow me to explain).

The 3310 was my second mobile (2003), a replacement for my Sagem MC3000 that died on New Year (at twelve o’clock, which was a little scary). I hopped off down to Woolworths, and invested I think £60/£80 (I forget exactly) on the 3310.

Not only has this phone got to be the most difficult to break (I’ve thrown, sat on, dropped, spilt drinks over, run over mine quite a few times), but it also came with some of the most majestic ringtones ever (which I played whilst having dinner in Croydon Park Hotel once, not a good idea mind you), and the best game ever… Snake!

What I loved most about this phone was not only it’s simplicity, highly annoying but brilliant ringtones, and the game we all got addicted too, but just the pure awesomeness it had. It was revolutionary at the time, and its fascia customisability was brilliant. I bought quite a few myself, and new buttons (although the originals were the best).

Then in 2005 (January the eleventh to be exact), I bought my fifth or sixth mobile; the Nokia 3200. Now I was stepping into the world; my first camera phone and my first phone that had “Polyphonic Ringtones”.  This set me back, £80 with £10 free “airtime” as Virgin called it.

From what I remember many people hated the device, the buttons were odd (which I loved, and can text better on today, than on any other device), the camera was rubbish (but what did I care), and I was able to ruin the look of my phone by making paper templates to stick in the clear cover.

The 3200 had the features that the 3310 couldn’t aspire to yet; a Radio, a torch, the camera, voice recording, and a colour screen!

Nokia proved them-selves on durability with this phone, more so than any other. At this time in my life I spent the majority of my time falling off of my BMX, being completely clumsy, and still throwing things about. And it still worked perfectly (despite the aging battery) until September 2007.

It’s not only the devices I love, but the memories associated with them. The voice-recording feature on the 3200 was brilliant for recording dodgy singing or peoples snoring; and the 3310 – day long battles with friends, competing to get the highest score on Snake. (Mind you, I was eleven!)

I could ramble on endlessly about the brilliance of both of these devices (which I would be more than happy to use today). Which brings me to you!

What is your favourite mobile device you have ever owned? It can be one you have now, or one you had ten years ago; whatever it is, tell me what it is. I wonder how many of us consider our current devices our absolute favourites!

Any questions, or anything send me an e-mail at Samantha@mobileindustryreview.com and I’ll get back to you!

Let the memories commence!

Woosh.

It’s arriving across Vodafone Europe in late September. I just got the release from them.

It’s obviously got built-in HSDPA broadband. You’ll be able to get it directly from Dell or from a Vodafone store (or Vodafone Online).

Weighing in at only 1.035 kg, the Inspiron Mini 9 is the perfect Internet companion, delivering maximum connectivity in a slim, sleek, piano black design. Its features, including sealed keyboard and reliable solid state disc (SSD) memory storage, bright 8.9-inch glossy LED display (1024×600), and built-in webcam, are designed to offer the customer easy, convenient Internet browsing, instant messaging, and rapid music and video downloads.

Let’s hear from Andrew at Vodafone:

Andrew Sangster, Director of PC Connectivity, Vodafone commented “The recent acceleration in the take up of mobile broadband has demonstrated just how hungry consumers are for Internet access. Building on our long relationship with Dell, the availability of the Inspiron Mini 9 will further enhance what a customer can achieve with mobile broadband whilst on the move. Today’s announcement marks the next step in the evolution of mobile broadband services bringing mobile broadband into the hands of many more customers.”

And from Michael at Dell:

Michael Lombardo, VP & General Manager, Consumer, Dell Europe said “Technology has become an essential part of how people connect with one another – whether it’s surfing the Web, chatting with friends, keeping updated on the latest news, sharing photos or social networking. Dell is committed to providing consumers with technology that allows them to connect any place, any time with mobile broadband.”

Country availability and pricing is coming soon. If Vodafone subsidise it and make it 20 or 30 quid a month on, say, a 24-month contract, I’ll have one. Definitely.

And so will you, right?

Almost every operator has got in on the laptops-for-30-quid-a-month thing — and they’ll thrown in a USB data dongle.

Well.

If my reader is right — and he’s highly placed within the mobile operator circles so I do credit his tip — a UK operator is preparing the launch of the Mini Inspiron.

It’s not just a gorgeous ultra-light notebook. Oh no. It’ll have HSDPA built-in.

Built right in. I’ll take two please. If this tip is half-way accurate, these things will be flying off the shelves. FLYING.

And what network?

Well it’d be rather convenient if I could simply add one of these to my Vodafone account.

- – - – -

First of all hello everyone from me on my first guest post and thanks to Ewan for the chance to post on the site I have been following since the start. My name is Dan Carter and I run www.worldofnokia.co.uk.

Now onto the exciting news, and today Nokia announced the long awaited N85 and N79 devices onto the world and best of all are due to go on sale next month!. So here is a little more detail on what you can expect to see from these 2 new devices.

Nokia N85
The N85 is the update to the music based N81 slider which was only announced less than a year ago but with only a few networks taking it into their range it did not sell as hoped. The N85 features a 2.6 inch QVGA screen packing 16 million colours, a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash (also supports geotagging), HSDPA for 3.6mb/s data connection. Also on the data front is WiFi and Bluetooth so you have a wide range of ways to get online.

Nokia maps benifits from the internal GPS and this will ship with the latest Nokia Maps 2.0 software which is very handy for anyone who likes traveling and needs to find their way.

Completing the specs are a 3.5mm headset jack so you can connect a wide range of headsets not just what you get in the box, 8GB of memory via a MicroSD card and like the N78 you also get the FM Transmmitter built in so you can stream music to your car stereo or home system which I have tried on the N78 and was very impressed with.

The Nokia music store is also built into the phone (using a data connection) and as muisic is in the heart of this phone Nokia did their best to get the best battery life possible stating 28 hours of music playback before needing a charge.

This phone also supports N-Gage platform and is due to come shipped with 10 demo games with the person buying the phone being able to choose 1 of them free to make a full title.

Nokia N79
The N79 is pretty much a candybar with most of the same specs listed for the N85 but coming with a 4GB card instead, and giving 24 hours of music playback instead of the 28 stated for the N85.

For those of you who are put off by the green back in the photo don’t worry, Nokia are shipping 3 covers with every phone so you can change your colour depending on your mood or just which ever takes your fancy. This is the update to the N78 which has only just gone on sale with Vodafone in the UK.

Both handsets are due to go on sale in September and fingers crossed I will be able to get hands on review units from Nokia to be able to review for everyone.

My personal favourite has to be the N85 because of the slider feature and having the N-Gage buttons with 10 games installed out of the box but will this sell with the N96 just around the corner? O nly time will tell but it looks like Nokia are setting the standard at 5 megapixels with their new phones what with the N82, N85, N79, N96, N95 and 6220 all having the 5 megapixel option.

- – - – -

Thanks for this Dan. Which will you be buying?

“Would you like to try out one of our new handsets?” asked the chap.

“Sure!” I said. I’m always interested to see what’s coming next.

The chap wouldn’t be drawn on the identity of the handset. Quite a good idea, if you want to get us pondering. Speculation abounded around the Mobile Industry Review offices.

Blackberry, maybe?

Surely not the Sony Ericsson Xperia?

N96?

It’s gotta be the Blackberry, right?

Wrong.

It arrived laden with strict EMBARGO notices all over it, reminiscent of a document from X-Files marked REALLY TOP SECRET. We always respect embargoes here at Mobile Industry Review. I don’t hold with the ‘publish it anyway’ viewpoint when other people are trusting you with their products and services.

And respect it we did.

Here then is a first look at what I’ve been playing with:

As Rolf Harris is fond of saying, “Can you guess-wot-it-is-yet?”

No cheating. No clicking on the image to magnify it. No skipping through the Flickr feed. See if you can guess, just from that picture.

It’s obviously still too early to see what if any affect the decision to split off the handset division from the rest of the company will have, but it looks like it’s going to be a hard slog if Motorola is going to recapture the glory days. Despite its repeated promises of sleek new handsets due out soon to help fill the gap left by the decline of the Razr, this quarter’s device highlights – the Z9, the Q 9c and some W series phones – suggest that Motorola is still not on top of consumers current tastes in mobile phones.

And while Moto has promised to tackle touch interfaces and messaging mobiles according to according to Xchangemag, which shows at least some enthusiasm for bring its handsets up to date, it’s still going to be years before these devices turn up – by which time, like their predecessors, they could already be outdated.

NTT Com’s engineers look like they might have a bit too much time on their hands: the company has revealed its planned to test its ‘Mobile Fragrance Communication (Kaori Tsushin Mobile)’ service for 10 days this month. Users taking part in the trial will be treated to smell emanating from their mobiles to accompany the content they’re viewing on the device.

The service will let users download Fragrance Playlists from i-mode, or files of recipes for specific fragrances together with visual and audio content, according to NTT. Using the phone’s infrared port, the fragrance data is transferred to a device that has been loaded with a selection of fragrances, with the device then mixes up to the right recipe and then emits them.

I can see the advertising appeal – the phone pumps out the smell of fresh bread when you see an ad for your local supermarket – but beyond that? But beyond that, the question remains what sort of content needs a smell to accompany it? The mind boggles.

I can’t tell you how exciting it was, a few months ago, flicking through the zzzPhone order form and choosing the specification of my new handset. GPS or no? How much memory? Size of camera? Did you say 7 megapixel? Heh. It was brilliant.

I ended up just buying a standard handset at $149 (70 odd quid) just to begin with.

And it arrived. I had it shipped to my US address despite the fact that this version wasn’t meant to work in the States.

And what, ho, Brabantio? It’s arrived.

I got back to the hotel room, switched off everything and took a deep breath. Right, then. Let’s open it up.

First, let’s be clear: zzzPhone isn’t a fraud, it isn’t make believe. They’re a team of committed people and I’ve been talking with Jesse, their US representative, regularly. So if you’ve any questions about the device, go ahead and post them below and I’ll get answers pronto.

Thank you to the custom chappies who saw fit to rip open the package and resealing it with an elastic band:

And the box, let’s have a look at that:

There’s a bit too much of that spongey fat font for my liking. I’d like to see something a little bit more ‘branded’. Still.

Dual SIM? I forgot! And it’s got a touch screen. Forgot about that too. Replete with stylus, I might add. I won’t be using that myself.

And the specifications on the side? Let’s have a look:

And a closer look at the device picture:

Always time for a bit of an arty shot:

And now, let’s open the box!

Woosh. A manual! I wasn’t really expecting a manual — your average purchaser of a zzzPhone, I reckon, could probably get by without one. I suppose it’s a necessary addition.

Under the manual? Here’s the phone itself:

Closer:

Yes those are chinesey looking characters — or are they Arabic? — on each of the keys. Interesting.

And two batteries:

Smart. They’re big mothers too.

Speaking of big — that’s the zzzPhone too. It’s a big device. It fits lightly in your hand, but it’s a little bigger than your average Nokia.

It’s actually Sony Ericsson P990 sized. That’ll be your camera there:

3.2 mega pixel, Carl Zeiss?

This zzzPhone would definitely double as a useful anti-mugger device too:

Here it is next to my Blackberry Curve:

I opened up the back. There’s the two sim card slots:

Plus a 256mb (supplied) SD card:

The stylus is bottom right…

It’s a non-standard (at least, to me, anyway) port. I was hoping for standard mini-USB so that I only need to continue to carry one lead. Slightly different with the zzzPhone:

You get a USB cable and charger in the box.

And I got this handy ‘cell phone flash light’ that you tape/glue to the back of your phone:

A wee gift!

The battery is a huge mother. I’m pleased you get two. Here it is pictured next to the Samsung BlackJack II battery:

Let’s switch it on, eh? I spoke to Jesse earlier wondering why the device was able to operate even when I’d taken the battery out. That really confused me. “It’s got a 20 minute integrated backup battery,” he replies, “Although the newer version we’re about to launch doesn’t,”. That’s a brilliant offering, a 20-min bit of extra juice to rely on, he goes on, “I was watching a movie on that little battery alone.”

Smart.

I’m liking the idea of having two ‘call’ buttons to press — button 1 calls, I imagine, with your primary sim card and vice versa:

If the device itself is big, then so is the screen. Massive. Bright. Nice:

I set up the clock:

It’s running an operating system by the name of Nucleus (website). I haven’t come across that myself. The next version of the device (available soon) will work everywhere (including America) and it’ll be running Windows Mobile 6.0 (no word on 6.1 upgrade as yet).

It doesn’t, alas, work in the States yet so I’m getting SIM Access Error messages together with ‘activating’ messages. I’ll try it properly when I hit the UK later this week.

So. Well, it’s definitely real. For quite a while a lot of readers have been emailing and commenting on the site wondering when the device was going to arrive. You can go ahead and place orders now via www.zzzphone.com for the next version of the device. I’ll see if I can get hold of one of those to look at shortly.

It’d be inappropriate to comment on the day to day usability of the device at this stage. I’ve not really had much of an opportunity to use the device as yet since it’s not US compatible. But I will definitely be giving it a run-through this week and I will report back.

The expected growth in smartphone numbers is “a product of a number of complex factors including carriers’ drives to grow data revenues from advanced services and the general trend to pushing ’smart” operating systems down into middle tier devices,” the company says.

What’s really exciting about this is not that there are more smartphones out there but that more and more mid-range devices can now be classed as smartphones – good news for operators, as users are likely to consume more data, and good news for users, as they can get access to more and better content.

The site reports that “many leading Asian telecommunications equipment and device manufacturers” who have previously denied interest in taking over the unit but have since been “expressing interest in discussing some form of partnership”, quoting a source. It also said that any deal might be a complex one, following in the footsteps of joint ventures like Sony Ericsson or Nokia-Siemens Networks.

It’s a fascinating development, if it proves to be correct. Apparently ZTE and Sony Ericsson have already denied they’re interested and realistically, I can’t see Motorola’s handset unit really fitting in with either business. So who else could be courting Moto? All suggestions welcome.