Omnia vs Bold vs N96 vs iPhone

The past few months have seen the launch of a surfeit of high-end smart phones beginning with Apple's iPhone, followed by Nokia's N96, HTC Touch Diamond, Blackberry Bold and Samsung Omnia.

All of these handsets cost closer or above Rs 30,000 and claim to provide a big bang for your buck. Welcome to the iPhone generation phones! It is therefore time we considered how they stand against each other on some of the most touted features. Here are some of these key features compared with the rest of the pack.

Storage
Nokia 96: The phone's 24GB of memory consists of 16GB internal memory and an optional 8GB microSD card which can be purchased with the phone. According to Nokia, the phone can store up to 60 hours of video or 20 full-length movies. The 24GB memory of N96 can store up to 18000 songs, up to 20000 images.

Samsung Omnia: The mobile comes in two versions -- with 24 GB memory (internal memory of 8 GB and an extendible memory of 16 GB) and with 32 GB memory (internal memory of 16 GB and an external memory of 16 GB).

iPhone: The Apple iconic device comes in two model memory variants, 8GB and 16GB.

HTC Touch Diamond: HTC Diamond comes with 4 GB of internal storage with 256 MB flash.

BlackBerry Bold: The phone packs 128MB flash memory, 1GB on-board storage memory and has support for microSD/SDHC memory card slot for memory expansion of up to 16GB.

Camera
Nokia N96: N96 boasts of a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, flash and video light. The video camera captures at 30 frames per second. Images can be stored in both JPEG and EXIF format. With the integrated A-GPS, users can geotag their pictures with location data. The dual-slider Nokia N96 supports standard video formats including MPEG-4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video.

iPhone: 3G iPhone comes with a 2 megapixel camera and no video recording option and no flash. The optical zoom is missing too.

Samsung Omnia: The smartphone features a 5 megapixel camera. It support auto focus, image stabliser, geo tagging, auto-panorama shot, wide dynamic range and face detection options. Also, it has option of video recording, video editing, audio dubbing and live dubbing.

HTC Diamond: The smartphone has a 3.2 megapixel camera with an optical auto-focus lens, video calling capability and auto sensor screen pivoting.

BlackBerry Bold: It has a 2 megapixel camera and supports video recording.

Features
Nokia N96: It has media keys, 3.5 mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers. Users can access digital video broadcasting, wireless Internet and Bluetooth. The phone offers music playback time of 14 hours and video playback time of 5 hours. The N96 is loaded with the N-Games application, Asphalt 3: Street Rules. N96 offers Nokia Maps 2.0 with voice directions for India as well.

Samsung Omnia: The Samsung phone features a TV-Out feature to playback content from the phone directly on the television screen. DivX technology enables video content transfer from the PC to the mobile.

Apple iPhone: iPhone lacks regular FM and offers users streaming Internet radio. iPhone offers Google maps, however, it does not offer any voice directions in India.

HTC Diamond: The TouchFLO 3D interface provides animated access to messaging, email, photos, music, weather and other features. Other features include Bluetooth with EDR, minUSB, integrated GPS and Wi-Fi.

BlackBerry Bold: It comes with Roxio Media Manager application that allows users to search media files on their computer, view, organise, create MP3 music files from CDs, add audio tags and album art, create playlists and copy or convert pictures, music and videos for playback. The phone comes with a 3.5 mm jack, dedicated volume controls and dual speakers. It also supports video streaming.

Looks
Nokia N96: No touchscreen. It has a 2.8-inch TFT screen.

iPhone: Offers a large 3.5-inch screen display. The phone's black plastic skin back has been replaced by silver-aluminum back. While the 8GB model comes in black only, the 16GB version is available in both black and white. iPhone boasts of a single Home button placed below the screen.

Samsung Omina: Sporting a platinum look, the phone takes advantage of Samsung's TouchWiz user interface.It has a 3.2-inch LCD touchscreen display.

BlackBerry Bold: It features a black exterior with satin chrome finished frame and leatherette backplate. Bold sports BlackBerry's sharpest display ever -- HVGA (480x320 resolution at 217 ppi) colour LCD display.

HTC Touch Diamond: The smartphone features a new 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. Measuring 102 x 51 x 11.33mm, Touch Diamond comes with a 2.8 inch VGA touchscreen display.

Cost
Nokia N96: Nokia N96 retails at Rs 35,000 for 16GB.

Samsung Omnia: It is priced at Rs 39,999 for 32 GB and Rs 37,999 for 24 GB phone.

iPhone: Apple sells 3G iPhone in India at Rs 31,000 for 8GB model and Rs 36,100 for 16GB model with Airtel or Vodafone.

BlackBerry Bold: Priced at Rs 34,990, BlackBerry Bold will be available by September end on Airtel and Vodafone network.

HTC Touch Diamond: HTC Touch Diamond is available for Rs 27,500 at all authorised HTC resellers.

Operator lock
Nokia N96: No operator lock, you can use it on any service provider's network.

iPhone: Available only on Airtel and Vodafone network.

Samsung Omina: Omia too is service provider-agnostic. Users can run it on any service provider's network.

BlackBerry Bold: Blackberry Bold would be sold at an identical price by Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance. While Airtel and Vodafone will be launching Bold towards September end, Reliance Communications will launch it a month later in October.

HTC Touch Diamond: Available only on Airtel network.

Miscellaneous
Nokia N96: N96 comes preloaded with Wave Secure, a S60 security application that allows consumers to track their handset in the event it is lost or stolen. It also allows them to backup their phone data over the Internet. N96 comes bundled with a full-length Hindi feature film -- Om Shanti Om, 50 music videos, and a mix of 100 Hindi and 100 English songs.

iPhone: iPhone 3G gives users faster access to the Internet and email over their cellular network with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds. iPhone 3G includes the new App Store, providing iPhone users with native applications in a variety of categories including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Samsung Omnia: Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, the phone comes with MS Office. An optical mouse has also been included for easy navigation.

HTC Touch Diamond: The Touch Diamond offers a customised, HTC-developed YouTube application for viewing a variety of user-generated videos as also Google Maps for mapping data.

BlackBerry Bold: BlackBerry too has joined the 3G bandwagon. Wi-Fi support, missing in the earlier Blackberry models, has been added. Bold supports WiFi (802.11 a/b/g) network with enterprise-grade security. The phone comes with a new "Push Button Setup" for faster connection to protected wireless network that requires a sign on process.

Source: India Times Network

Little-known facts about Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, the revered CEO of Apple is credited of helping make Personal Computers as easy to use as telephones, changed the way animated films are made, persuaded consumers to tune in to digital music and refashioned the mobile phone.

In November 2007, Fortune magazine named him the most influential businessman on earth for his role in the computer, music, animation and phone industries. Here are some little-known facts about the tech czar.



College dropout

Not many know that Steve Jobs is actually a college dropout. In 1972, Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon. One semester later he had dropped out.

He started Apple with a fellow college dropout Steve Wozniak in the Jobs’ family garage in Los Altos, California on April 1, 1976. Jobs, then 21, was the pitchman, Wozniak the engineer.

Wozniak said about Jobs at an Intel Corp conference in August 2008, "Everytime I designed something great from when we were very young, he would say, "let's sell it." "It was always his idea to sell it."

Born to an Arab father!

Born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco to then unmarried graduate student Joanne Carole Schieble and a Syrian father Abdulfattah Jandali, Steven Paul Jobs was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs, a middle-class American couple who struggled to make ends meet.

Fan list includes Bill Gates

"In terms of an inspirational leader, Steve Jobs is really the best I have ever met," said former Microsoft Chairman and Chief Architect, Bill Gates, in January 1998 when asked to name the CEO he most admired.

"He's got a belief in the excellence of products. He's able to communicate that."

Sought ‘enlightenment’ in India

The Big boss of Apple came to Indian in the summer of 1974 in search of spiritual enlightenment. Jobs left to India with one of his best friends from Reed College, Dan Kottke.

Deeply philosophical, Jobs wanted to study and experience, spiritualism and existentialism. In India, he wanted to visit the NeemKaroli Baba at his Kainchi ashram. Unfortunately, when they arrived they learnt that Baba had died.


Takes home $1 salary

One of the most admired CEOs, Jobs draws a $1 salary. His compensation came into spotlight when the company gifted him a Gulfstream airplane in 2001. He was awarded 10 million shares of restricted stock in 2003.

Interestingly, Jobs has a personal fortune worth $5.4 billion according to Forbes annual survey of the world's richest people in March 2008.


Got `Pinkslip' in the company he co-founded

In 1985, Jobs was ousted from Apple by John Sculley, whom he brought from Pepsi in 2003, after disagreement on how to run the company. The August 5, 1985 issue of Fortune magazine with the cover story "The Fall Of Steve Jobs" dwelled on the exit Jobs from the company he founded: Here's an excerpt:

"From the end of May to the middle of June, Apple reorganised in a rush, fired 20 per cent of its workforce, announced that will record its first-ever quarterly loss, saw its stock hit a three-year low of $14.25 per share, and stripped Steve P Jobs, Apple's 30-year-old co-founder and Chairman of all operating authority."

"Jobs fate aroused intense speculation. Not just another young entrepreneur, he is Johnny Appleseed of personal computing. Many insiders are shocked at his removal; they fear Apple has lost the spirit, and vision that made it into a business phenomenon. No players in the drama have explained publicly why Jobs come to grief. But several of them, promised anonymity, have revealed essential details to Fortune."

"What emerges from Apple sources is a tale of adversity -- a general slump in the PC business and disappointing sales at Mac division -- driving a wedge between Sculley and Jobs. Apple's board of directors played an important role in Job's downfall. On several occasions, beginning December, the board goaded Sculley to assert his authority over the company. Even then, Sculley put off acting partly from innate caution about organisational change and partly out of concern for Jobs’ feelings."


Beatles' Apple

According to Jim Carlton, author of 'Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders', Steve Jobs chose the name Apple for his company because he admired the Beatles' Apple Records. The Beatles first began using an image of a Green Granny Smith apple on their recordings in the late 1960s. Apple's logo shows an image of the fruit with abite taken out of it.

The choice led to a legal battle with the Beatle's Apple Corp over the use of Apple's iTunes music store. Apple Corps is owned by Beatle band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono. The two sides settled the dispute in February 2007.

Jobs and Wozniak got a share of 45 per cent each, while the remaining 10 per cent went to Ron Wayne, an Atari engineer who had given hand to the duo.


Millionaire at 25

Apple had their first big success with Apple II, a machine that helped popularlise the idea of computers at home. Apple sales rose from $7.8 million in 1978 to $117 million in 1980, the year Apple went public. By age 25, Job's was a millionaire.

Mac surpassed the success of Apple II. Mac was the first successful PC built around graphic user interface. Mac used icons and a mouse to allow users to pint-and click programmes. It was later adopted by Microsoft in its rival Windows.

Mac became a fashion statement among graphic artists and students.

Steve's NeXT

Out from Apple, Jobs, then 30, started NeXT Computer Inc. The company developed a computer rival to Mac and the PCs powered by Intel chips and Microsoft's Windows software.

Though NeXT computer won admiration for its technology prowess, the company failed to create a ripple in the market when it came to product sales. The NeXT's machines kept losing money and in 1993, Steve was forced to abandon NeXT's hardware operations.


Animation dreams

In 1986, he bought the computer division of film director George Lucas' Lucasfilm Ltd for $10 million. He named the computer animation studio Pixar, and signed a distribution deal with Walt Disney.

As the CEO of Pixar animation studios, Jobs promoted computer-generated story telling with movies including Toy Story, Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life and Monster Inc. The movies were a huge success and Jobs decide to take the company Public in 1995. He was back in business.

In 2006, Disney bought Pixar for $8.06 billion. Job was Disney's largest shareholder and held a seat on their board.


Second stint at Apple!

In 1995, Apple Computer was at its lowest point in history. The company was facing tough competition from Microsoft. Apple's CEO, Gil Amelio, was desperately looking for a way to save the company. In December 1996, Amelio, bought NeXT for $400 million and had welcomed back the company's founder as 'informal adviser'.

Within eight months of the acquisition, Amelio was out and Steve Jobs became Apple's interim CEO. He made the title permanent in January 2000. Jobs returned to the company after Apple had losses totaling $1.86 billion in a two-year period. As part of the turnaround, Jobs unveiled an unprecedented partnership with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in August 1997, who invested $150 million in Apple. Apple on its part included Internet Explorer browser on the Mac.

However, Jobs' biggest coup came in May 1998, when he unveiled iMac. iMac combined computer and monitor into a single unit. A stunning success, iMac helped revive Apple sales and remains one of the biggest money makers. In 2007, Mac accounted for 43 per cent of the company's revenue.

In October 2001, Apple unveiled its first iPod, the digital music players further galvanised the company's position in the market. The portable music players continue to dominate the global market.


A Buddhist and vegetarian

Few know that Steve Jobs is a Buddhist and a vegetarian. Jobs has never named a successor. He told shareholders in March 2008 that the board would have a variety of executives to choose from when he steps down due to any reason. He singled out two potential leaders: COO Timothy Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer. Cook stood in for Jobs during his leave in 2004.


`Shuns' computer!

In January 2007, Steve Jobs introduced iPhone, Apple's state-of-the-art mobile phone. With iPod and its accessories, Apple TV and the iPhone, it became clear that Apple is not a mere computer company anymore. Hence, went the term `Computer' from its official name. On January 7th, 2007, Jobs announced that Apple Computer Inc has become Apple Inc.

Apple iPhone hit the market in June 2007. The device got updated this year and has been introduced in 22 countries across the globe. The second-generation iPhone runs on 3G network and supports business email system.


Read his obituary!

The tech czar is also probably the only corporate honcho to have read his own obituary, which was fired by financial newswire Bloomberg to its subscribers.

Had the man who reinvented himself, a moribund Apple Inc, and just about every rule in the game of personal electronics with iPod, and then in telecom with iPhone, finally lost his battle with pancreatic cancer?

No, the man was alive and kicking even as a red-faced Bloomberg -- usually sharpshooters when it comes to financial news -- had missed the mark by miles.

The gaffe happened when the American agency decided to update its 17-page stock obituary on Steve Jobs, and someone accidentally published it in the process. The story, which was meant to be sent to Bloomberg's internal wire, accidentally slipped out to its subscribers. And all hell broke loose!

The story that ran 'Hold for release' - 'Do not use' couldn't actually have been stopped as it was simply too big for global financial markets. The jitters subsided later when the agency promptly retracted it.

Nokia's iPhone killer, N96

Nokia is all set to steal Apple's iPhone thunder. In a first global launch in India, the world's largest cell phone maker, Nokia has unveiled its 'killer product' N96.

Touted to be an iPhone killer, the high-end Nokia N96 has been launched two days before the official launch of Apple iPhone (August 22).

Nokia N96 is the successor of Nokia N95. The phone which was tipped to see its global launch in October will be available in the market from the first week of September.

Here's looking inside Nokia's iPhone rival.

Here's a phone sans touchscreen, however, still billed as the toughest iPhone rival. Nokia's N96 is seen as a hot competition to iPhone, though the company is also reported to be working on a touchscreen rival reportedly called Tube.

With a large 2.8-inch screen display, the phone packs 16GB of internal memory, expandable up to 24GB. According to Nokia, the phone can store up to 40 hours of video.

The phone supports talktime of up to 3 hours and 40 minutes. Nokia N96 offers support for Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 Operating System.

Nokia N96 boasts of a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, flash and video light. The video camera captures at 30 frames per second. The images can be stored in both JPEG and EXIF format.

With the integrated A-GPS, users can geotag their pictures with location data.

The dual-slider Nokia N96 supports standard video formats including MPEG-4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video. The phone offers support for high-speed USB 2.0 connection, WLAN and HSDPA.

N96 has a 'kickstand' on the back cover that allows for hands-free viewing.

For music lovers, the phone has media keys, 3.5 mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers. The phone offers music playback time of 14 hours and video playback time of 5 hours.

The phone supports Nokia Maps application which offers maps with urban details and satellite views and has upgrade options such as City Guides, turn-by-turn pedestrian mode and voice-guided car navigation.

The phone is expected to be priced around Rs 35,000. The handset is likely to be available in the market from the first week of September.

In comparison to Nokia N96, iPhone is likely to cost about Rs 31,000 for the 8 GB version and between Rs 35,000-37,000 for the 16 GB. But if the iPhone is bundled with a carrier's service, the price could be half this amount.

For corporate users, the iPhone packs a punch with its encrypted Push-mail with Microsoft Exchange, which the Nokia N96 lacks. Apple has also put in a 3-axis accelerometer that senses motion much better than N96's basic motion sensor.

However, there are things one would miss in the iPhone like being able to transfer data using Bluetooth, which N96 allows. iPhone also lacks regular FM and offers users streaming Internet radio.

Also, while the iPhone offers the popular Google maps, the drawback is that these maps do not offer voice directions in India. The N96 offers Nokia Maps 2.0 with voice directions for India as well.