Innate (N8) connections

Communication seems to be the hot topic these past weeks, especially with the seemingly complex restructuring of P-Noy’s press office, or whatever it’s called now. Filipinos all over the country, and the whole world, in fact, rely on modern communications to keep in touch. The medium of choice has been the cell phone and the most popular brand of choice has been Nokia.

I was recently in Singapore to attend the Finnish telecom giant’s Nokia Connection event at the posh Conrad Hotel in the Marina district of the Lion City. Looking out my hotel window while checking my texts on Nokia E71 (a great business phone), I noticed how the city’s skyline and waterfront have changed. On one side was a fantastic new tri-tower casino that just opened with a 150-meter infinity pool on the 57th floor. We have a fantastic waterfront ourselves and a wonderful bay. If only we could do what the Singaporeans have done in one lifetime…but I digress.

Most people do not know I’m geeky but you don’t have to be a techie or a geek to appreciate all this new communication technology. Besides, I had been waiting to see what new models Nokia was going to launch.

Nokia’s VP for sales Chris Carr emphasized Nokia’s promise and goal of “connecting people in newer and better ways” before introducing the keynote presentation by Jo Harlow, SVP of Smartphones at Nokia Global. That’s where the future is, of course — smart phones. Gone are the days when all your mobile phone did was to get you connected by voice. Today’s phones do that and more. They entertain you, help you organize your life, take pictures and videos, and provide a tool for creative endeavors as well as social networking.

Harlow announced that Nokia continues to bring its products to a “broad range of customers around the world.” She also highlighted MeeGo as Nokia’s platform for high-end mobile computers, stating that with Nokia’s mobile phones, “we will continue to bring affordable access to mobile communications and services to hundreds of millions of people, connecting them to the Internet for the first time on a Nokia.”

Now, Nokia’s phones are powered by the formidable Symbian system, which has evolved in the last few years to be even more adaptive to the increasing number of applications available on the platform of mobile phones. Harlow explained that especially with the improved Symbian 3 on the new N8 phones “we believe (the N8) is a great device for people who want to create amazing content, connect to their favorite social networks and be entertained with the latest on demand Web TV programs and Ovi Store apps,” added Harlow.

A note on the Ovi maps...they are free with the phones and, more importantly, they work well and will solve the perennial problems of males who do not like to ask for directions. I tried it and the maps for Manila are updated and accurate. Nokia’s Ovi maps are reason enough to switch to their new models.

Speaking of which, I spent the next few hours at the event trying out the new phones. First, I tried the entertainment phones — the X5 and X6 8GB. The two are the much-anticipated music devices that are also very smart smartphones. The new phones have a great QWERTY keyboard tucked inside it, which is great when texting or logging on to Facebook, Twitter, Hi5 and other social networks.

What I liked (given my own inclinations) is the five-megapixel camera with four times digital zoom and Carl Zeiss optics. It also has a useful LED-powered flash. The phone comes with an internal memory of 200MB, and a 2GB card, but this can be expanded with higher-capacity Micro-SD cards, of course, which everyone now has easy access to. I was also told that the phone is more energy-efficient and can play music nonstop for one whole day and go on standby for over two weeks.

The X5 also has a unique form factor. It’s square but it’s super hip. The shape is attractive to teens and young people because it is handy and comes in a slew of bright colors. It also has a number of cool tricks — you can spin the phone on a tabletop to juggle songs on its player. The X6, on the other hand, is slightly more serious in appearance — but not in function as it entertains as well as the X5.

The top model presented at the event was the N8, which millions of Nokia users have been anticipating. As mentioned earlier it uses the new Symbian three-sytem with an ultra fast processor that comes close to laptop speeds and capacities. The N8 is the smartest of the lot because of this and the most attractive in terms of being able to accommodate the millions of applications already out there or being developed for the system (look up Ovi store’s offerings).

I for one drooled over the phone’s best feature (for me), the12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash. I don’t need to carry around another gadget of heavy digital camera to take quality pictures and videos. I tested the picture quality by zooming in on the images — they are crisp and clear with natural color tones. The phone’s camera is also fully articulated in terms of almost all the adjustments even professional photographers need.

I was blown away by the phones’ HD-quality videos, which can even be edited in-phone. I walked into one corner of the event where they were playing a fascinating video on a large LED TV screen. I thought they were just playing something from a DVD player but when I looked at where the cable ended, it was the N8! I honestly can say the image quality was amazing. With a large capacity SD card you can store a dozen full-length movies in one N8. The videos taken with the new phone are also of the quality you get with full video cameras minus the bulk.

Pinoys today need to be connected. Their modern lives are incomplete unless plugged in to social networks, the texting universe and the information resource of cyberspace. Nokia has always been there to connect people’s lives. With these new phones and improved operating platforms, Nokia is poised to create, entertain and connect us well into the next decade.