Eclectic Electronics

Pre-order the Nokia N97 from Nokia USA and get a Bluetooth headset valued at $89 for free!

Posted: 04 May 2009 01:00 PM PDT

The Nokia N97 is now available for pre-order at Nokia USA.

The Nokia N97 features a full QWERTY keyboard along with a resistive touchscreen. The Nokia N97 has a 3.5-inch 360 x 640 resolution screen, 32GB of memory built-in (plus it’s expandable with a microSD slot). It also features a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss optics autofocus camera with dual LED flash. It pretty much looks like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic which has a minimalist front-face design.

The Nokia N97 is priced at $699. Odd enough, it seems to be $6 cheaper than the N96. It is estimated to be released sometime in July 2009. If you pre-order now, Nokia will be throwing in a BH-703 Bluetooth headset valued at $89.95 for free! Head on over to this page to pre-order the Nokia N97.

[via The Symbian Blog and GPS Obsessed]

Windows 7 minimum system requirements announced

Posted: 04 May 2009 12:00 PM PDT

Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 minimum system requirements have just been announced. The requirements don’t stray that much from Windows Vista. I guess they did like so because Vista wasn’t much of a success for Microsoft. Too many people simply just refused to migrate to Windows Vista after having tried it out.

The minimum system requirements for a 32-bit system are the following:

Processor	1.0Ghz
Memory (RAM)	1GB
Graphics Card	DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Hard Disk Space	16GB

The minimum system requirements for a 64-bit system are the following:

Processor	1.0Ghz
Memory (RAM)	2GB
Graphics Card	DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Hard Disk Space	20GB

[via PC Tips Box]

Nokia E71x hits AT&T stores today

Posted: 04 May 2009 09:30 AM PDT

The much-awaited Nokia E71x dressed in full black garb has now arrived at AT&T online and in stores.

Attractively priced at just $99 after $50 main-in rebate, this QWERTY handset from Nokia might very well become a best seller since it has everything you need in a smartphone.

The Nokia E71x runs on Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition with Feature Pack 2 (the non-AT&T general release E71 only runs on Feature Pack 1). It features a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, integrated A-GPS receiver, HSDPA, WiFi and of course, QWERTY keypads to allow you lightning fast texting and instant messaging.

You can read more on Nokia USA’s official press release on the Nokia E71x here.

For now, the Nokie E71x is only slated for US release. There is virtually no difference between the Nokia E71 and E71x, except that the latter runs on Feature Pack 2 of Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that Nokia will make a Feature Pack 2 firmware update available for Nokia E71 owners in other countries.

[via Mobile Roar and MobileCrunch]

PocketPC/Windows Mobile: Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 contest! Three product keys will be given away.

Posted: 04 May 2009 05:30 AM PDT

Contest mechanics:

Contest is open to all bloggers (who have PocketPC/Windows Mobile devices of course).
Complete the statement “I want to win 1 of 3 product keys for Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 because…” in 100 words or less and also link back to this post via anchor text Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 Contest! Three product keys will be given away.
Link back to www.eclecticelectronics.net with the anchor text Technology Blog and to www.spbsoftwarehouse.com with the anchor text Spb Software.
If your trackback doesn’t post correctly, try to resend manually and see if it will appear correctly. As a last resort, if trackback doesn’t work, you may post a comment with a link to your post.
The contest will officially end on May 18, 2009 at 11:59PM PDT.
The contest/giveaway is sponsored by Spb Software.
(Optional) Follow me on Twitter, so you will be reminded from time to time about when the contest is going to end or be informed of how many days are still remaining. Following me on Twitter will not give you valid entries.
(Optional) Please also feel free to use the banner shown above, by downloading it and uploading it to your own hosting, and then linking back to this post.

Drawing of winners:

Entries will be assigned random numbers and drawing will be done via Random.org
1800PocketPC and The Mobile Spoon will be given three entries each since they will be helping me promote the contest. All others will receive one entry each.

A review of the software, Spb Mobile Shell 3.0, can be found here.

PocketPC/Windows Mobile: Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 review

Posted: 04 May 2009 03:15 AM PDT

Windows Mobile has always been known to be a stylus-operated, operating system. Menus and buttons were extremely small, which meant that you had to precisely point to the area you need to activate or toggle. But this has not been the case anymore recently. Windows Mobile device manufacturers (Acer, HTC, Asus, etc) are developing finger-friendly user interfaces that allow you to forego the use of the stylus (at least for some of the functions).

The Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is a precise example of a finger-friendly Windows Mobile interface. Scrolling can be done by flicking your finger upwards or downwards, unlike with Windows Mobile where you need to use the rather narrow scrollbars on the righthand side.

Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 was developed by Spb Software. The company was founded in 1999. Spb released its first best-selling software in 2002. By 2003, the company was named the Developer of the Year by the world’s leading mobile content marketplace. For three years in a row, Spb products were the #1 bestselling Windows Mobile programs in the world. Today, 12 OEMs and five mobile operators ship devices, pre-loaded with Spb software products.

Spb Software was kind enough to give me a free product key for their latest Mobile Shell 3.0. This review is solely going to be based on Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 since I haven’t gotten the chance to use the 2.0 version. I used Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 running on a Palm Treo 750 which only has a 300Mhz processor. It handled the software well and without any hiccups, so rest assured that more advanced devices will not have problems running this program.

Professional Home:

A fixed-layout panel that contains the following: weather, time, e-mail/SMS/call notifications, profile settings, and a calendar which includes a short list of upcoming appointments/events you’ve inputted on the calendar.

The professional home has all the information you need for when you will be using your PDA phone while at work. If you want tons of customization options, you better head to the lifestyle layout instead.

The goal of the professional layout, I believe, is to see everything conveniently all in one place. You don’t have to flick through programs or settings.

I personally like how the professional home panel is layed out, even though I’m only using Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 on a Palm Tre0 750 (which has a non-standard 240 x 240 screen), everything fits really well.

Lifestyle Home:

The Lifestyle Home are what I would call “personalizable” panels. You can pretty much put anything and everything on these panels and set the appearance to suit your tastes. It consists of three panels which you can customize to your needs. Customizing panel components can be done by adding widgets. Spb has some preset widgets for Mobile Shell 3.0 and of course, they’ve also made it possible to access everything else on your Windows Mobile device.

Buttons on the lower left and lower right corners:

On the lower left corner of the Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is a button which activates the 3D carousel/tiled view of all Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 panels. On the lower right corner is a button which you can use to customize the current panel or screen you’re at, I would call it the “Option” button/corner.

Launcher:

The Launcher or simply what I would call the Programs panel, I honestly don’t get the difference between Simple and Advanced Mode for the Launcher because it simply removes some text labels from the icons on the top part of the panel (Programs, Settings, Task Manager). This panel is partnered with the Spb Menu, meaning you can flick left and right, to alternate between the Launcher and the Spb Menu.

Spb Menu:

The Spb Menu is pretty much like pressing the Start button on the top left corner of the screen and then seeing Programs, Settings, plus a whole lot more. You can basically think of it as a finger-friendly Start menu.

Call Log:

Spb’s finger-friendly version of the call log.

Favorite Contacts:

A custom list of your favorite contacts, in tile view. You can choose whether a particular box size is big, medium or small. You have the option to set ringtones for each individual along with setting an appropriate photo.

Edit Profile:

Large sliders and menus for editing your current profile’s ringers. Unlike Windows Mobile Sound Settings, the Edit Profile panel only tinkers with the ringtone of the current profile being used by Spb Mobile Shell 3.0

Time:

The Time panel is composed of a digital and analog clock. It also functions sort of like a World Clock since you can add additional cities where you also want to monitor the time. A date alongside with the non-local cities would have been extremely helpful, but is not included. Upcoming alarms are also seen on this panel.

Spb Contacts:

Essentially the same as Windows Mobile Contacts except that this one is navigatable through fingers. Nothing really special except that you can add a photo for easy idenfication.

Contacts Carousel:

The Contacts Carousel is essentially the same as the Favorite Contacts panel, except that this one uses a finger-flickable 3D carousel view. You have the option to set ringtones for each individual along with setting an appropriate photo for easier identification.

Weather:

The Weather section of Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 shows an overview of the weather conditions for today, and also includes forecasts for the next three days. Since the Treo 750 doesn’t have WiFi, I wasn’t able to test whether updating weather information can be done via WiFi instead of the carrier’s GPRS connection.

Agenda (or Calendar):

The 240 x 240 screen is too small to be used with the default layout of the Agenda panel. I had to change the “Weeks to show in calendar” to 1 for the thing to be usable since it takes up so much space. You have the option to hide and show the calendar below the screen.

Panel layouts:

Tile view or carousel view:

The 3D carousel shows all the panels in a circular carousel view, you have to flick your fingers left and right in order to see the next panels. For the tile view, panels are tiled across the screen. I highly prefer the tile view over the carousel view. Sure, carousel view was fun at first, but it gets old easily. You see a whole lot more with tile view.

Overall, the Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 is well presented and appears to be cleanly implemented. I did not notice any signs of slowdowns while using the UI. Something that may very well attract Windows Mobile users to get this software would be the fact that it works on an old device such as the Palm Treo 750.

Pros:

+ Finger-friendly navigation for Windows Mobile devices
+ Very eye-pleasing alternative to the Today screen
+ Works well without hiccups even with an old advice such as the Palm Treo 750
+ Windows Mobile 6.5 compatibility

Cons:

- Repetitive panels (Favorite Contacts is the same Contacts Carousel, one is just in 3D carousel view, one is tiled view; Simple and advanced mode of the Launcher is pretty much the same, except one has text labels;)
- Takes some getting used to, in order to navigate without a hitch
- Some may find HTC’s TouchFLO to be aesthetically more pleasing
- Only 3 profiles available, normal, silent and vibrate. Would have liked the option to customize my own profiles.
- Battery indicator bug (this might only be with the Treo 750 I am using), sometimes when I soft reset, the battery indicator says that there is less than 5% left (the second time, it was 21%) and I need to charge it. Upon plugging the charger cable in, the battery jumps up to the actual remaining charge (66%).

You can download the trial version of Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 here. It retails for $29.95.