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The Tube Debuts

I remember how the Nokia execs at the World Mobile Conference press conferences would hem and haw about touch becoming the central metaphor of phone user experience, based on the cataclysmic design of iPhone. But Nokia is a fairly inventive company, and the much anticipated Tube, or 5800 XpressMusic, has been officially launched, as has been noted, elsewhere.

Tube, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

While it is being positioned as a music phone -- extra loud volume, for example, allows use as a boom box -- the device is designed as an all-media monster. In the photo above the user is watching a video on the screen in landscape.

Nokia is launching a new music service, Comes With Music, which is an all you can eat plan, but uses a (Microsoft?) DRM scheme. Hmmm. I guess I will have to figure out how to get my own mp3s on there: hopefully thay make that easy.

I will be watching to see if mighty Nokia can take a slice of the iPhone/iTunes market space away: while it bears watching, I think its a very tough hill to climb

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• Nokia To Launch 'Comes With Music' in UK
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• Nokia 5800 gets touched in the wild -- again

Nokia Pilots: Handedness

Nokia Pilots Client Portal, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

Wow. Handedness in a profile form is a first for me, although I think Ambithumbstrous should be an option.

This appears in the sign-up form at Nokia Pilots, where we can participate in steering the design direction for Nokia. A survey there revealed that I am a 'Technology Leader' sort of beast. Amazing! They figured that out with just seven or eight questions!

Phweet: VOIP Via Twitter

My old pal Stuart Henshall showed me a new app he has developed called Phweet. Phweet tees up a VOIP call between you and other users of Twitter.

Here's the Tweet I got from Stuart inviting me to Phweet:

Phweet Tweet, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

And once we connected:

Phweet - Public Alpha, originally uploaded by Stowe Boyd.

We had a nice chat -- about Phweet -- via VOIP.

So a simple -- free -- VOIP service that builds on top of the Twitter ecosystem.

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• Phweet - Ruthlessly Simplified Disintermediation
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Europe To Cap Roaming Fees

Looks like the EU is going to finally address the mess that is European cell phone roaming:

[from Europe Weighs Caps on Roaming Fees for Text Messages - NYTimes.com by Kevin O'Brien]

The European Union’s telecommunications minister will propose price controls that would substantially reduce the roaming fees that individuals are charged to send text messages and limits that could reduce the cost of using the Internet.

Details of the proposal, obtained Wednesday by The International Herald Tribune, show that the minister, Viviane Reding, will seek to cap retail roaming fees for short text messages, or S.M.S., within the European Union at 11 euro cents, or 16 American cents, a message.

That would be a 62 percent reduction from the current average of 29 cents, according to the European Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union.

Ms. Reding also intends to recommend a cap on the wholesale cost of using cellphones to gain access to the Internet — the fees operators charge each other — that would halve the average cost to one euro a megabyte.

Roaming prices range from 6 cents in Estonia to 80 cents in Belgium, according to the European Regulators Group, a panel of the European Union’s 27 national telecommunications regulators.

This move is coming none too soon, and represents a great weight lifted for many people: not just globe trotting business people, but the very common person in Europe who frequently moves across the very porous borders there.

The Evolution of Mobile Phones

Great video with lots of phones in it. From the first 'mobile' phone up too the Nokia N95 and iPhone. At the end there is also a glance at the future of your connection with the world.

Via Robin Good