Nokia Booklet 3G - Now Available

Back in the distant past (September 2009) we brought you news of the Nokia Booklet 3G.

A few months on we are pleased to announce that the Booklet 3G is available for purchase.

Available in Black or White, the 3G is Nokia’s first attempt at a netbook – and a fine job they have done too.

If you missed all the hype of the Booklet, check out the promo video  below:

Available for shipping, the Nokia Booklet 3G is £580 + VAT.

ORDER THE NOKIA BOOKLET 3G BLACK

ORDER THE NOKIA BOOKLET 3G WHITE

[Via http://blog.clove.co.uk]

Pictures taken with the Sony Ericsson C905a

The Sony Ericsson C905a follows in the footsteps of the excellent Sony Ericsson K850i, but adds WiFi (once debranded), a larger screen (2.4″ vs. 2.2″), and a presumably better camera (8 MP vs. 5 MP)…

As such, it competes with two other great 8 megapixel cameraphones, the Samsung Memoir and the Nokia N86. How does it compare to these known performers? Find out after the break!

It’s clear that the C905a is just an evolution of the K850i in term of both user experience and image quality. The resulting pictures are very good (slide show), but reveal similar camera limitations.

Low-light photography is difficult, especially indoors – exposure times are long, and the auto-focus struggles. The sensor is noisy, more so than expected for this class of device.

The variable aperture on the N86 allows the camera to capture significantly more light before noise becomes a problem, while the sensor in the Memoir is extremely clean for a cameraphone.

Colors on the C905a are a bit muted, which is disappointing. The macro works as expected, but the xenon flash, is often too bright. Shots generally contain enough detail, thanks to quality optics (albeit not Carl Zeiss grade).

The controls are similar to most point-and-shoot cameras, with several dedicated keys (shutter, mode, playback, and zoom). In stills mode, the D-pad controls the flash, macro, timer and exposure settings…

In contrast to the decent interface, the device uses a proprietary audio/USB/power connector (Fast Port), and a proprietary memory card format (Memory Stick) – complete nonsense!

Of course, the C905a also features auto-rotation, geo-tagging, and video recording, which is relegated to a paltry QVGA (320×240 at 30 fps), vs. VGA (640×480 at 30 fps) on the N86 and DVD (720×480 at 30 fps) on the Memoir.

Here is a sample video (download original):

Ultimately, I can’t recommend the C905a. It’s a nice enough cameraphone, but it’s overshadowed by both the competition and sibling devices like the 12 megapixel Satio.

[Via http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com]

Кони Бенсен директор на социални медии & Стратегия на Общността

Онлайн маркетинг блог продължава споделяне, Минесота на социални медии опит с следващата вноска на нашата серия MiNterview.Кони Bensen е ключов глас сред онлайн общността мениджър. Нейният блог е признат като водещ ресурс за култивиране на онлайн общности и осигуряване на най-добрите практики за новата роля. Тя предвижда също наставничество и вдъхновява хората да проучи тази нова кариера. Кони е директор на социалните медии и стратегия на Общността в Alterian, който предвижда водещ продажба на продукти за предприятието.

[Via http://ipotpalex.wordpress.com]

Компаниите имат служители слабо разпространение; продължаващите консултации Search Marketing действа като "по-ръцете на палубата".

Сега, повече от всякога, служителите носят множество шапки в техните организации. Персонал в Мрежата Дружество за развитие, copywriters или друг персонал, маркетинг може да бъде натоварена с оптимизация в допълнение към всички други техни отговорности. Утежняват проблема, лицето, отговорно за текущите оптимизация не може дори да имат предишен опит в търсене на пазара.Като консултант търсене пускането на пазара на борда дава на хората натоварена с оптимизация с полезен ресурс, така че те могат да се съсредоточат повече внимание върху основните си отговорности.

За пример, TopRank действа като партньор с B2B дистрибутор на индустриални продукти за всички свои дейности онлайн маркетинг, включително и за оптимизиране на съдържанието, блогове и НПК управление. С способен екип интернет маркетинг като ресурс, клиентът е в състояние да се съсредоточи своите вътрешни служители, за да направим продажби. В резултат на техните топ 10 класациите за важни ключови фрази увеличава със 125% от началото на годината, търсене трафик също се подобряват значително. По-качествен трафик = по-квалифицирани B2B перспективите за тази компания.

[Via http://ipotpalex.wordpress.com]

The best Apps of the 2009

It has been a time since the launch of the Ovi store and lots of apps have been released for the joy of the Nokia users. Just recently the daily app blog organized an app award, the best of the best apps would receive the honor to be called a must have, a title that every app wishes to be granted with.

They put the nominees in 8 different categories: Music, Social Networking, Twitter (so important these days that it needs it own category), City Guides and Mapping, Entertainment, News and Info, Games, and finally, Utilities. And let the users vote for their favorite app, at the end they would count the votes and choose the winners. I should tell you who won.

In the Music Category, the winner of the Must Have App is:  Shazam! I really like this app, so useful for those moments when you hear a song but you cant know the song and the singer/band, and asking a friend later won’t help much. A few minutes ago I just heard a song in a tv commercial and wondering “nice song, I like it, I would like to know the name to buy it on the Music Store later”, but no, I dont have Shazam on my phone, YET!

In the Social Networking the only winner is: Nimbuzz! Today the social networks are a very important part of our daily life, so much that we usually use more than one, and that is when Nimbuzz comes along to help. With a large list of supported social networks and instant messengers, Nimbuzz connects you with the people you care, all in one place. No need to have mutiple clients on your phone, just one: Nimbuzz

The winner of the Twitter category is no surprise: Gravity, with universal acclaim it has been named THE twitter app for your phone. With neat and practical interface it makes easier than ever to tweet on the go. There is a 10 day trial on the Ovi Store, so check it out. I really liked it even when I am not a big tweeter fan.

The winner of the City Guides and Mapping is: World Mate 2009. If you are always traveling around then this is for you. It has free content wich includes, world clock, currency converter, weather forecast and so on. But the real value of this app is the paid upgrade which include realtime flight alerts for 350 airlines. You can not miss a flight with this, unless you really want to.

On the Entertainment Category the winner is: SPB TV. Well I have to admit that I have never tested this app, I just tried downloading it from the Ovi Store but looks like it is not working. Bad luck I guess. Anyways, I saw the demo on the developer site and I think it worths it. You get television off the internet, not sure which channels you can get but I bet that they should entertain you. Also it’s suscription free, you just buy the app and you’re done.

In the News and Info category the winner is Accuweather.com. I’m not really sure on this, I have tested this app since the first day I own my N97. Everything works fine, I like the UI, and the widget works perfectly. The only downside of this is that it is not that accurate. I have seen the app tell me that my city is at 30°C and then I see my local weather forecast tell me we are on 20°C. So maybe they should get the info right and I maybe will put it in my homescreen.

In the Game Category the winner is MicroPool s60. I have to say that I’m not a big player of my phone, I prefer a giant tv with killer sound and real graphics. Also I prefer to save my battery for the whole day. But when I’m bored or waiting in a room or something I usually pull my phone to play some games that keep me distracted. One of the games I really like is pool. And Micro Pool is one of he best games I have ever played on a cellphone, they even call it a ’simulator’ and that means that you get real physics, real sounds and the best graphics you can get.

Finally the winner of the Utilities category we have: Vlingo. The idea behind this app is really good, you talk to your phone and it will do what you want. You can send messages or make notes among other things. And the best thing is that it rarely mishears your words. You talk to it and it will send your voice over internet and then execute your commands. But, sadly, even when you can choose the spanish language, the Vlingo app struggles to understand me when I talk in my native tongue.

So that’s it folks, to get more details visit the App Awards website and get the Must Have Apps of the 2009. Hope we get even better apps for this 2010. Happy New Year .

David Castro

[Via http://carltone65.wordpress.com]

eMarketer: 12 дигитален маркетинг Прогнози за 2010 г.

eMarketer е един от най-цитирани ресурси за интернет маркетинг тенденции, така че когато получих някои вкусно прогнози за 2010 г., мислех, че те са твърде полезно да се придържате към себе си. Тези идеи са бъдещите модели на ипотпал, ефекта на прозрачност по отношение на рекламата, социалните и търсене, мобилни, социална търговия, връзки с обществеността, социална реклама, кикотене, видео и мама / поп използване на интернет. Радвам се!Комбиниране на хибридни план, който абонаментни такси с реклама
Все повече търговци ще приеме за онлайн реклама, видео, подкрепян от побратимени бум на видео потоци и видео рекламни мрежи.

[Via http://ipotpalex.wordpress.com]

maemo.org community council 2009-2010: midterm assessment

Is the current maemo.org community council hitting a sophomore slump?

Before I go further, a disclaimer: I’m on it.

A gauntlet… or mild molotov cocktail… is thrown

The impetus for tonight’s analysis was a thought-provoking discussion on the community council mailing list this morning.  I’m not going to replicate who-said-what or plaster this post with immaterial details– what I am going to do is extract some key points and offer my perspective and suggestions on the subject.

The essential compliant posed was that some or all members of the current council are not fulfilling their roles and/or campaign promises.  That perhaps they/we got in over our heads.

I’m going to take issue first with the original complaint, and then cover the known gaps.

Ideally, this would not be an issue

It’s true that there were broad and lofty goals targeted by candidates during the last campaign (if one can actually call it that) but I’m not going to equate them with political promises.  I think such a comparison is, sorry, naive.  Some could in turn counter that it was equally naive for candidates to be so idealistic, but on the other hand, those running did so with a positive, proactive mindset and a true desire to improve maemo.org.  I would rather see 5 idealists run than 5 cynics any day.

And I’ll pre-emptively concede that idealism naturally leads to disillusionment–particularly if too much of that energy is unfulfilled.  And that gets to the core of where I see our current challenges.  More on that shortly.

Backfilling the Grand Canyon

There are a lot of known potholes in the maemo.org ecosystem, and several came up in the discussion.  I’ll summarize my take on key points/questions as follows:

1. is the council the right body to lead sprint meetings?
2. what exactly IS the council’s role?  Has it changed from body to body?
3. what can be done to smooth council transitions post election?
4. what can be done to maintain council member interest, focus and energy?
5. when is the best time to meet?
6. what can be done to improve communication?
7. are the right people being elected?

Points for potholes

I’ll try to keep this short and not too sour.

1. I don’t think the council should be chairing sprint meetings.  Now that the maemo.org crew has a team lead, and a sharp one at that, I think it makes sense for us to hand over those reins.  The council should still stay involved, but as a stakeholding body and facilitator of certain solutions.
2. This is the big question, and there’s disagreement on it.  I’ll sum up my sentiments by saying I think our role should be more on the community side than maemo.org infrastructure side.  I think we need to be much, much closer to the pulse of the people.  In my biased opinion the community outreach program I’ve started is exactly the sort of venture we should drive.  In a nut shell, I see us as the “water-carriers” for the community.
3. Since we are still relatively new at this, council transitions have been rough.  I have been told by previous office holders that they did not want to interfere.  While I’m not looking for interference, mentoring would be great.  I would like there to be more of a formal process, especially the first month.  In fact I would go so far as to suggest the previous chair act as a co-chair for the incoming council chairperson.  At the very least, there should be some handoff meetings.  We meant to hold one in Amsterdam at Maemo Summit 2009 and it didn’t really happen.  Pity.
4. The current council stalled a bit in December.  No surprise: holidays and server issues were a big impact.  But beyond that, there are times when I have personally felt frustrated at hitting a wall… especially ones that looked easy to overcome but required a little engagement from certain individuals or the community at large.  One person proposed periodic council meetings and I second the suggestion.  I would also see value in Nokia gathering the council together for a face-to-face midterm meeting to reinvigorate weary members.  The maemo.org team could participate as well.  Granted there would be an expense, but I believe the council provides value that merits whatever travel costs would be incurred.  Finally, we need more help from Nokia when projects stall– especially since that tends to occur when our legwork is done and we have identified Nokia as the solution provider.
5. Sprint meetings have been held on weekdays which is not good for the volunteers… although it may work well for maemo.org.  I would like to see more Saturday or Sunday meetimgs, sprint or otherwise.
6. There have been comments made suggesting one promised fix to ongoing issues was more communication.  I don’t think increasing the amount of verbiage is a solution for anything other than a sports game cheering section.  Rather, we need more effective communications.  Part of that means recognizing that one size does not fit all.  Sometimes a forum is the best place, sometimes it’s IRC, sometimes it’s email or other… but the need should be met with its particular appropriate venue rather than participants getting religious over their preferred milieu.  We also need to get smarter about “write once read many” and I think we’re making slow progress there.  Along those lines: there was a complaint about few blog postings at the official maemo.org council blog page.  I see more value in driving feeds from our individual blogs (like this one) there, much like is currently done on Planet Maemo.
7. This is a tough one.  I’ve seen some people claim we’re not qualified.  Okay, who is?  Should there be official criteria beyond current eligibility requirements?  What do people want?  IQ tests?  Doctorates?  10 page resumés?  I’m being a bit hyperbolic but my underlying intent is serious.  My opinion: people skills are the most important.  Everything else is icing.

I’m hoping this piece provokes some spirited but civil discussion of the points I brought up here.  There was more to the original discussion but, again, these were what I wanted to personally highlight.

I appreciate the patience and support we’ve been shown, though, and look forward to further guidance from the community.  Thanks, and by all means comment!

[Via http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com]