[General Topics] Menneisyys:
This is one of Nokia’s models that are compatible with their DVB-H Bluetooth transcoder, which was showcased this year too.

The DVB-H Bluetooth transcoder

As with last year, no one could provide me any information on exactly which models the transcoder is and will be compatible with. I assume it’s only the (outdated and slow) N71 (as was last year) and the E75 – and nothing else. There are no plans of making it compatible with DVB-T either. Sure I know Nokia is probably the biggest driving force behind DVB-H and (also) providing DVB-T would result in decreasing the pressure on both traditional broadcasting companies and mobile phone operators to implement DVB-H as everyone would just stick with DVB-T, even with the traditional disadvantages of it (considerably lower battery life). However, now that DVB-H is still supported in very few countries (even in Finland, the home country of Nokia, only about 40% of the total population is covered, while the coverage of DVB-T is 100%) and there doesn’t seem to be a breakthrough in the near future, I do think Nokia could also come out with a DVB-T transmitter to please existing customers and to draw new ones to the platform. Why, you may ask? Don’t forget no such transcoders exist for Windows Mobile and it has only been recently that PacketVideo announced the same for the iPhone. And, the case is the same of the DVB-H equivalent in the U.S. and some other countries, MediaFLO – it’s only Qualcomm that offers a chipset (and a reference design) compatible with real smartphone OS’es (I don’t talk about feature phones, the ones that currently are only compatible with MediaFLO). Nevertheless, according to the Qualcomm reps I’ve talked to at MWC, there still isn’t any real manufacturer using the MediaFLO chipset to build a transcoder usable with the iPhone, Windows Mobile or any other smartphone OS. This means you’ll need to wait for at least half a year for such things to become existing. Until then, you will need to rely on traditional, IP-based (non-broadcast) transmissions, which can be pretty pricey if you don’t have an unlimited data plan and, of course, don’t cover all the DVB-T/H (Europe etc.), MediaFLO / ATSC (U.S.) etc. broadcasts available at your area. After all, some TV companies are pretty reluctant to provide a live Internet stream of their programs (they prefer broadcasting them instead); and, if they do, you still need an extensive data plan to watch them. If your operating system is compatible, that is – WMV, the most widely used format used for Internet streaming, isn’t at all supported in most popular Symbian E/N-series devices (I only know of the “flop” N96 as capable of playing them) and, before of PacketVideo’s announcement, on the iPhone.

This (the lack of DVB-T and much wider device support) is certainly bad news; I really hope Nokia acts very soon and.

New A2DP headphones

The Nokia folks have also come out with a new pair of A2DP in-ear headphones, the BH-214. I haven’t tested its audio quality and compatibility (my very thorough tests – see THIS – require at least a day of testing – this was simply impossible at MWC) – I’ll try to do this as soon as possible.

Nokia N86

Nokia’s just-launched N86 sports an 8-Mpixel camera (along with some other goodies like an OLED screen). It’s, as with most (more) recent N8x/N9x-series phones, a dual slider. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t allowed to transfer the test shots I’ve taken to my notebook for a more thorough comparison with the image quality of the N95. I have been continuously referred to the “official” demo photos on Nokia’s pages. Of course, this wasn’t sufficient for me – I would have preferred some real comparisons to see whether for example the low-light performance has indeed been improved (as was explained by the Nokia rep I talked to).