[..] A QWERTY smartphone is all about communication. The three killer apps/features are in my opinion voice, corporate email and SMS (to some extent IM). Make it easy, really easy and *intuitive* to access these features from the phone book [..]

Interesting post from Ed following a request from Tommi at s60.com on how to improve the phone book.

In principle I like this approach from Nokia leveraging the user experience which is clearly out there but only if you are willing to listen. Personally I have always felt that esp in the “old days” the menu structure of Nokia relative to the Motorolas and Sumsungs in this world actually was quite intuitive. With the integration towards smart phones they have somehow lost it although trying to catch up.

For me intuitive is defined over 2 axis:
1) defaults - can be more than one
2) simply assume in your OS that intuitive for different users means different things

Note.1) take for example the below menu: 1) default when green - start dialing, 2) default when ok - give menu options, 3) default when just starting keying in text on the qwerty keyboard - simply open the SMS appl and start an SMS

Note.2) simply allow users to change the defaults and views - “skin-it”

read more | digg story

[…] The Vertu Ascent Ferrari 1947 Limited Edition is inspired by the dynamic and stylish Ferrari cars. Echoing this latest edition to the Ferrari GT stable, the phone is encased in red and black Ferrari leather with black lacquer stripes running at the sides. Carefully crafted with the same precision and attention to detail given […]

Nice looking phone - take a look over at ringnokia.com - guess you have to bring some money on the table recognizing the price of the current Vertus. Adding the Ferrari logo will not reduce the price.

read more | digg story

Rafe at all about Symbian gives some more insight in the upcoming Nokia e61i and Nokia e65. Although, no real news other than that the expectation is that both devices will not run S60 3rd Edition FP1. A direction if Nokia chooses so is difficult to understand. For the Nokia e61i this basically means it is not a lot more than a basic hardware upgrade and an addition of a camera compared to the current Nokia e61 (and Nokia e62).

Continue reading [Nokia e61i - a further update]

Let me before I submit more posts, introduce my Nokia e61 to you. I bought it in the Netherlands (type RM-89) and taking a good look at the production tag it was made in Finland, Nokia’s home country. How this is relevant I will explain in a later post. The phone came with the first firmware installed (upgraded in the meantime) and came with the choice of the English or Dutch language (you also have to select this for text typing in settings - still do not understand why this is relevant - can see the relevance for Asian languages).

Currently I have installed the Theme “Blue Orange Light” after using s60 (white) for quite some time. Problem with the s60 theme is (and I only found out too late - I killed a few programs because I presumed these were not working) that it is not optimized for the e61 and as such sometimes you cannot see a text box and / or text because it disappears in the theme itself. For the ring tones I use one of the standards that comes with the e61, however, for SMSs I use the “Anybody There” tone inherited from a SonyEricsson mobile in the past. As you can see I am still on holiday (operator = INDOSAT). Main applications in standby (other than standard) are : ProfiMail, Morange, and Handy Weather.