Mojo Evolution

(Photo: Nokia)

Today Nokia launched their iPhone competitor on the Nokia World 08 in Spain. The Nokia N97 features a big tilting touch screen, sliding QWERTY keyboard and a 32 GB onboard memory.

Nokia calls the N97 the world most advanced mobile computer. It’s clearly aimed at people producing for and viewing content on social platforms.
The N97 comes with a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. Like N96 it comes with two LEDs, not the flash known from N82. The screen can show content in 16:9, but it seems like it only record in 640*480.
Nokia brags about the video recording quality, calling it DVD quality. I don’t believe it until I see it. The Nokia N96 was supposed to be better than N95 and N82, but in my opinion it’s really bad. It will be exciting to see if they have upped the video recording quality on N97. If they can’t produce better video quality, several years after the launched the N95, it will be really disappointing. From N95/N82 to N96, they among other things changed the recording codec, producing bigger files, but not better video quality.

The on-board memory is increased to 32 GB. You can even expand it with a 16 GB microSD card. The phone runs Symbian 60 5th edition. You will se a lot of iPhone like features with flipping and flopping in the menus.

According to Robert Scoble, the N97 is a much better phone than iPhone . Scoble has tested the phone and thinks this is the perfect phone for Facebook.

Besides a 5 megapixel camera, the phone of course have WIFI, HSDPA and GPS. The battery is a lot bigger than on N82 and N96.

As usual, you will have to wait a bit for the N97. It’s supposed to hit the market in the first half of 2009. That probably means in June next year.

Tags: Cell phone, Uncategorized by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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The last couple of days I’ve been testing the new Nokia N96. It hit the streets in Norway a week ago. So far I’m pretty disappointed when it comes to video and still image quality. Since a part of my job is to educate journalist in mobile journalism, I spend a lot of time testing new phones. I will not dig into all sorts of technical specifications about the new model from Nokia, but I have made a little comparison with Nokia N82.

I put the two phones side by side on tripods. The lightning conditions were not the best, and I had some sharp light coming from behind. These are not unusual conditions and represent working conditions for MOJOs.

You can check out the difference between the two cameras for yourself.  One thing to make a note of is that the video files from N96 are much larger than the files from N82. They actually use different codecs. The original file from N82 was 17 MB and the file from N96 was 36 MB. They both where 640×480 pixels with 30 FPS.

Video N82

Video N96

The sound recording on the N96 is also not as good as the one on the N82. When it comes to still images, I think the N82 is much better than the N96.

The biggest advantage with the N96 is the two LED lamps. You can actually use them in a completely dark room, and they will help you record a video that is usable. The N96 also comes with a 16GB storage built in. You can even choose to expand with a Micro SD. This is a very good solution if you use a sound recorder or video recorder on the side with SD card. You can then use the N96 as a modem without having to shut down programs on the memory card.

In my opinion Nokia has produced the N96 for playing music and watching videos. Not so much producing stilling images and videos, witch in my opinion is a pity. It’s been about a year since N82 hit the street, I find it very odd that Nokia isn’t able to up the quality of the video recording. It’s actually lower quality than before. I would not recommend buying the Nokia N96 if you intend using it as a mobile journalist. You get a much better result with the Nokia N82 or N95 8GB.

Tags: Cell phone, Gadgets, Hardware by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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A lot of times when you’re working with your mobile phone as the main recorder, some accessories may come in handy. I’ve tried to summarize how I have accessorized my phone.

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Tags: Cell phone, Hardware, Uncategorized by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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Flixwagon is a contender to Bambuser and Qik. Recently they set a new record in partnership with MTV’s Jonas Brothers. With more than six million streams in 36 hours and amazing 90.000 comments making it one of the more successful mobile streaming events this far.

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Tags: Cell phone, Streaming by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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The newspaper The Star Ledger in New Jersey has started a live, daily noon broadcast from the newsroom. It’s not supposed to look like local TV and is supposed to bring the latest story’s from the newsroom and the interactive sphere of web. They got help from Michael Rosenblum. The show seems perfect for mobile journalism, bringing news fast back from the streets of New Jersey.  You can watch the show on The Star Ledger and read more about it at Buzzmachine.

Tags: Cell phone, Storytelling by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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Have you ever wondered about what your phones bar code scanner can do? More and more mobile phones can read bar codes and QR codes. This is a quick and easy way to read URLs, text messages and phone numbers. Can you read my message? On the right hand you also can find a QR code with the URL for this blog. Check it out.  You can make your own QR codes at KAYWA.

Tags: Cell phone, Hacks by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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Live steaming from mobile phones is getting better and better. More and more newsrooms are looking into this possibility. In this post I’ll try to give you some pointers on which providers you can use. I’ve also included some streaming samples at the end of the post.

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Tags: Cell phone, Software, Streaming by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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Mogulus offers an amazing service for producing live and recorded streams. They’re virtual TV studio ables you to produce your own TV shows on the web. You can import videos from YouTube or other sites in a couple of clicks or upload your own files. You can even use webcams or streaming cell phones to produce content.

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Tags: Cell phone, Streaming by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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Found this page about live streaming on services like qik.com and Mogulus.

Live Broadcasting Over Mobile and Wi-Fi Networks Session at Streaming Media East 2008

Tags: Cell phone, Contribution, Streaming by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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The major drawback for MOJOs working for broadcasters are that they often have to carry heaps of equipment. What if you could manage without your laptop, simply using your cell phone to send all sorts of files home. Memory cards and adapters are the solution.

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Tags: Cell phone, Contribution, Hacks by Frank Barth-Nilsen
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