racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

Google Android has now overtaken Nokia Symbian on the top spot among smartphone platforms beating Apple iPhone on its way up, according to a research company that showed the end of the 10-year reign of Nokia.

Research company Canalys unleashed Monday that the 32.9 million handsets with Google platform (Android, Tapas, and OMS) that were sold last quarter were sufficient to overtake Nokia Symbian with 31 million handsets sold, Reuters reported.

Despite the fact that Nokia still shows great lead as the world’s biggest handset maker, it has proven its weak spots in the realm of smartphone during the past few years.

[via Engadget]

Social networking website Facebook revealed Facebook for Feature Phones, a new mobile application that is specifically intended for lower-end cell phones.

It can be noted that features phones take the majority of mobile users. Because of this, the largest social networking site partnered with Snaptu to launch an app for feature phones tagged as Facebook for Feature Phones.

Even if the mobile app for Facebook is the most downloaded free application for smartphones such as the iPhone, the users it targets merely represent a small fraction of the overall mobile users in the world.

Facebook for Feature Phones will be available for download on thousands of devices from the leading manufacturers of the world including Nokia, LG, and Sony Ericsson among others.

There are also plans of making this new app available in many countries without the need for data fees.

[via The Atlantic]

When LG launched its KU250 three years ago, their marketing mantra was 3G for the masses. True enough, 3G-enabled phones were quite expensive back then. The KU250 phone aimed to break this barrier by offering a phone that could be used for mobile browsing and also computer-tethering (connecting the phone as a 3G modem) for just above PhP 6,000.

Fast forward to 2010, mobile manufacturers have realized that social networking applications are the killer apps for mobile, and that WiFi has become commonplace, even in developing countries. And so, Nokia has come up with the C3, somewhat a lesser-featured sibling of the E72 and E63.

The Nokia C3‘s biggest highlights are the QWERTY keyboard and WiFi connectivity. An additional feature would be the built-in social media applications, which enable mobile use of FaceBook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Google Talk and Yahoo! IM, among others. This makes it easier (and cheaper) for mobile netizens to manage their online presence and communicate.

Perhaps the best feature of the Nokia C3 is its price. Nokia announced it at about 90 Euros in February, 2010. Locally, it’s available at official retailers at PhP 7,290. Nokia ran a one-day promo that gave buyers a PhP1,000 discount last July 31. At PhP 6,290 for a WiFi-enabled Nokia phone with QWERTY, the promo sent people lining up for their C3 at retailers, even up to closing time. The promo seems to be a success.

My only gripe with the Nokia C3 is that it runs on the Symbian Series 40 (or S40) platform, instead of my favorite S60 platform. This means that the installable applications will be a bit more limited than if it were running S60 or even S90.

Still, with a price like that, the C3 gives more users the opportunity to stay connected through more means, in this case WiFi. Dubbed “Blackberry for kids,” The Nokia C30 is sure to be a hit with mobile phone users who want a shift from the usual candybard with numeric-keypad form factor, or those who prefer a physical QWERTY keyboard to a soft on-screen keyboard like those on the iPhone and Android phones.

Find more of the latest mobile phone reviews at the Dialaphone website.

I’ve been using my Nokia E51′s browser extensively since I acquired the phone a few months back. It lets me check emails, post blog entries, and even read my feeds while mobile. I can do this both thru WiFi hotspots or even via 3G/GPRS. My old LG had a browser, too, but the phone was simply too, well, simple for my growing needs. I installed Opera Mini on the LG and it made a big difference in terms of functionality.

And so having grown quite bored of the same old Nokia browser I use everyday, I decided to install Opera Mini. The diminuitive browser is well-praised for its speed and ability to render pages nicely on small screens.

However, I do have issues with speed. I don’t know if it’s a limitation on the part of my phone, or the software itself. Frankly, I find that Nokia’s built-in browser is just faster in most cases. From startup, to loading pages, to the general responsiveness of the interface.

I guess this is how it is with built-in software vs. add-ons.

Am I alone here?

Posting from my Smartphone using Scribe.