Russell Beattie

Nothing like hanging out on #mobitopia in the middle of the night, watching Nokia launch new devices and services. JimH actually works across the river from where they're holding the press conference, but the rest of us are spread around the world watching the stream, which is fun. The sun never sets in #mobitopia! I mooshed everything on one screen for the screenshot above, but I've got both monitors on full alert, IRC chat in one window, the screencast open in another, and I'm looking stuff up in my browser as well... it makes it quite the event.

Nokia just, ahem, opened the door on "Ovi", their new umbrella brand for their various Internet based services and games. I'm not sure if Nokia needs another sub-brand, but I love the see-through, multi-texture quality of the logo... very cool. I also like the new N-Gage logo, it looks cute and casual. I really wonder if Nokia is going to be able get more traction in gaming this time... it's hard for me to imagine anyone taking on Nintendo in the handheld gaming space any time soon. The DS is just so fantastic, and more than that, Nintendo just knows games hands down. Nokia seems to be copying the Qualcomm Brew model, which is a probably the best plan, but why use the same brand name? They did just say that all the games will be free to try via the N-Gage Arena, which is pretty cool.

Earlier there was a video with a glimpse of an a new model with an iPhone-like touch interface... that should be interesting to see more of, but I have to admit, it looked totally canned, and it won't be available until "next year" so it looks like they're just getting started on that GUI right now. :-) On the other normal style phones, they are, of course, CHANGING THE S60 GUI AGAIN. Not that S60's interface doesn't need a massive overhaul, but it looks pretty haphazard.

Well, regardless, these phones are pretty bad-ass. I didn't think I'd be buying a Symbian device again any time soon, but all these new N95-era phones are pretty slick. Huge screens, lots of memory, insanely nice camera resolution, GPS, etc. If they can actually get an American 3G model in stock at my local Cingular store, I might have to sell my kidney or something and pick one up.

-Russ