Is your heart racing? E71 and E66 officially launched!

Its been a while since my heart's been racing... for a mobile. So, when it does skip a beat, you KNOW its the ONE.

Imagine my moment of love-at-first-sight when I clicked here, here and here! Its official! The rumours we've seen are true. Its shipping out together with the other ultimate-do-it-all, the Nokia N96.

I've been watching the E71 product presentation on the Nokia Europe site over and over. My heart races for sure.

Images courtesy of GSMarena.com

Some (other) official details:

• Both the E66 and E71 will retail at EUR350 (USD538) roughly. Not a bad price at all.
• Both will come in white and grey steel colour variations with materials similar to the Nokia E51 already in the markets today.
  
• Both come with 3.2megapixel (autofocus!!) cameras, HSDPA, GPS, Wifi connectivity and microSD card support.
  
• E66 - Also features a sport built-in accelerator which allows auto screen rotation AND, as introduced on the Nokia 8800 Arte, the silencing of incoming calls when the device is turned over.
• E71 - Has calendar features that auto scroll and there is also predictive text now, a Nokia-first for this QWERTY device.

Ok, now the other difficult part. The wait.

Funny - E90 gathering

Read this on a friend's blog and thought it was hilarious. I am always amused by our friends in the Land of the Rising Sun. They do the best in everything... cars, gadgets... phones....

Repeating what Eninety asked in his post, "Any translators?"

Post and video here.

Kinda makes you want to get an E90 now doesn't it? Maybe we should have "mobile gatherings" too, since we have so many "car clubs" around nowadays.
Now THAT, would be funny....

Apple iPhone now on 3G!

Its finally come, the long long LONG awaited news of the 3G version of the iPhone. Strange though, considering in Brunei, the original non-3G one didn't even make the "official" list. And here we have the 3G edition already. Go figure right.

Launched on contract in the US first (where else), it is pretty much an upgraded version of the iPhone we all love (or hate), except with slightly better specs. (We reviewed the iPhone when it first came out here).

Details/Specs:

• Official launch on 11JUL08.
  
• Estimated price of the 8Gb version is 499Euro and the 16Gb version at 569Euro. Not a bad pricing, quite similar to the prices we get locally here. Unless the money-hungry get greedy and charge exorbitant prices for being the first in Brunei to launch iPhone 3G.
  
• Same 3.5" with 480 x 320 pixel display
  
• Grown 1mm (!?) in width, height and thickness.
• HSDPA support
  
• Same 2mp camera as the original iPhone but (get this) NO secondary video camera (on a 3G phone?!)
• According to the news release from GSMArena, on 11JUL08, "Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US - and availability will be further expanded to cover up to 70 countries worldwide before the end of the year". Well, I'm sure we'll see it here in Brunei somehow.
  

There you have it, a teaser on the coming 3G iPhone. I have a sneaking feeling there will be numerous sales on 2nd hand original iPhones soon.

For me, I'm still sticking to my aim of getting this baby, the E71. (E66 images just fyi)
Its been a while since I've found myself refreshing and refreshing websites on a daily basis trying to read about the official launch of it. I'm so going to run to Incomm to get one as soon as my sources tell me its here. I aim to be the first to own one!

But, its not in sight yet. So, back to waiting... and refreshing. In the meantime, this video here really wets my appetite!

Hurry up Nokia!

I first mentioned about the this wonder phone here then again here. Its coming closer! I just read this here but it hasn't appeared here yet!!

C'mon Nokia!! Speed it up a bit, there are people waiting.

Buzzing this June 08

Its been a busy past few weeks for me. I STILL haven't even swapped my DST SIM card. Just no time to shoot off down to the local DST counters although, from what I hear, people have complained about unstable connections at certain areas. I guess I could wait a while more.

What I have done though is change phones (yet again). No more P1, then I had a brief encounter with the Nokia 3120 classic. Not a bad model I have to admit. Just BND2++ for a model that "does everything" WITH a front facing camera too. I HIGHLY recommend it if you are looking for a cheap 3G phone. (Ok, in the looks department, it doesn't impress but buyers probably won't be worried about how they "look" using this model anyway)


But alas, that didn't last long either. Now, I'm using a Nokia N70, a "spare" phone a good friend has loaned to me, till my target E71 is released/announced. I hope I can hang on.

Anyway, the latest models from all brands is keeping this month a buzzing. Beginning with...

HTC has launched a model called HTC Diamond.

Specs

• 4GB of storage memory (no memory card slot though).
  
• FM radio
  
• A proprietary HTC mini-USB port
• The highlight of the new HTC Touch 3D user interface will be the web capabilities - smart desktop-like rendering and superb touch navigation through web pages and hyperlinks.
• Wi-Fi capabilities
• Dual-band UMTS support plus HSDPA 7.2 Mbps.

Then comes our famous friends from Nokia, up to their usual antics as usual. Their latest offerings are the Nokia N78, the unofficial upgrade to the N73. (They sure look similar)


Specs

• Candy bar form factor (sort of like a fusion between the N81 and N82)
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• The usual connectivity features - Wifi, bluetooth, HSDPA connectivity
• 2.4" QVGA display
• S60 3rd edition feature pack 2 OS - What is feature pack 2? Let's just say that the "Active standby" screen we are all familiar with? Its now gone through a revamp. You can choose how you want to see your "Active Standby"(!!). Don't believe me? Read here.
  

Then, there's the cool Sony Ericsson folk, releasing uber-cool models like these two below:
Sony Ericsson C902
Specs

• The new look of their Cybershot series phones. This means, the days of the K-series (K800, K810, K850) are numbered. Move aside for the new Cybershot gang. (C = Cybershot)
  
• Spec wise, typical of Sony Ericsson, with some tweaks in their user interface.
• Read here for a more in depth review.
  

Sony Ericsson C702
Specs

• A mid-range release similar to the C902. A better review here.
  

And last but not least, the fast evolving Samsung group has released a kicker of a PDA phone, the Samsung i780.
Specs

• HSDPA, Wifi
  
• FULL QWERTY keys
• Large 2.55" 320x 320 pixel display
• 2 mega pixel camera
• Good preloaded software
  

I don't know about you but I can't wait to get my hands on these models! Will do a review as soon as I grab hold of one...