LG Android phone

 LG GW620 handset will be available in stores by the end of February for AED 1,999

I'm not an Android groupie but I think I'm getting there. This is not because I believe everything Google does is gold (I think Wave was a puddle) but because, most of the time, their technology just works. And if you don't believe me, check out LG's GW620. Yes, it uses the Android platform (albeit the older 1.5 v.) and it's honestly one of the easiest no-fuss phones I've used in a while.

 Messaging on this is a breeze with the slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard and its predictive text offers an accurate list of suggestions. Unlike other phones, it won't automatically finish the word for you but rather waits until you choose the option you want. It might seem like more work but I didn't find it a pain in the least. It neatly arranges all your text messages under different contacts (most recent first) which means you don't need to frantically scroll down a mess of texts to find that one with the info you needed.

Menu options are available on three different screens which are accessible with the slide of your finger. But you'll always have the contacts, call log, messaging and main menu icons on the home screen, and there are no menu customisation options.

It has a decent 3-inch resistive touchscreen display and handy SNS Manager (Social Networking Service) that makes sure you're connected to your favourites on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

I've had to force quit apps three times in my two weeks of using the phone. Most of the time I recall that happened when I tried to overload it with having several apps open at once, while another time it froze when a colleague tried to get on to Google Maps.

There is a 5 megapixel camera with flash, a microSD slot, a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and a useful power button on top that also serves a quick lock option so you don't end up dialling Ali when you carry it in your pocket.

At AED 1,999,  it's not as pricey as most new smartphones but you do get the feeling that it should be more than what it is. Yes, it has the wonderful ensemble of Google apps and you can get more Android goodies from the market, but the user interface feels a bit basic (or too cutesy depending on the home theme selected!) and the design isn't inspiring. But maybe it's because I've seen a fair bit of bells, whistles and flashing lights from other phones in recent months?

LG's focus was obviously on functionality with this model - and there's nothing wrong with that.

Nokia X6 - Ringing in the Tunes

Nokia X6 (16GB) is now available in the UAE for AED 2,100

The Nokia X6 comes with music but should you come a'calling?

The 32GB X6 was first launched at Nokia World in September last year along with N900 Maemo wonder that no one could stop talking about but still managed to get a fair bit of attention with its 3.2" capacitive touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera and, more importantly, the Comes With Music service. For the uninitiated, the service allows you to download tracks from a library of four million songs over the course of 12 months for free. Yes, free. 

 After being made available in sixteen other countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa since 2008, Comes With Music recently made its regional debut signing on leading Arabic labels such as Rotana, Melody and Mazzika and offering a selection of Western as well as Arabic music. That in itself deserves applause since Apple has been ignoring the Arab world for a long long time now in terms of opening dedicated iTunes stores with localised content.

To use the service you need to install the Nokia Ovi Player on your PC, which is registered along with your handset, using a special code included within the X6 pack.  I decided to install the entire Ovi Suite, with Player as just one of the components. That didn't go so well since the Ovi Suite is a whopping 93MB file and nearly took my laptop to the happy gadget place in the sky. My second attempt on a heartier desktop was more successful.

The setup process, which requires you to create a dedicated account, is fairly straightforward. Within minutes I was selecting songs like a kid in a ear candy store. The usual Western pop princesses and rock gods aside, I also found tracks from the good ol' Frank, Icelandic wonders Sigur Ros and Niger musicians Etran Finatawa who struck all the right chords at WOMAD Abu Dhabi last year.

While there are no constraints to swapping and transferring music between your registered phone and computer, Windows Media DRM restrictions means that you aren't allowed to burn them on CDs [If you try, you are politely asked to to purchase the selection from Ovi Music]. Fair enough.

Nokia is really trying to carve out a future for itself, and one where it's not necessarily about phones. Ovi Music is impressive but so is the entire Ovi Store with its games, apps and Maps with around 1.5 million downloads a day (read Q&A below).

Moving on to the X6....I suppose I should compare it with the XpressMusic 5800 model, which it's an obvious improvement over, but I've chosen to look at it from a fresh perspective. The X6 is Nokia's first phone to feature a capacitive touchscreen, which is definitely more responsive that its other touchscreen offerings in the market. But it was sluggish at times especially when trying to open multiple menus and apps. I'm also disappointed it doesn't have multi-touch support, which the phone's current Symbian^1 OS doesn't deliver on, or a microSD slot to expand memory which means you're stuck with the 16GB for all your multimedia needs.

Some of the features that impressed however were its built-in stereo speakers that delivered good sound quality from the 192kbps music files downloaded, the 5MP camera that came up with better than expected photos and videos, general ease of use and seamless synchronisation with the Ovi Store so you can get all the apps you need while on the move.

With a price tag of a little over AED 2,000,  the X6 is decent enough if you're comfortable with brand Nokia and want to upgrade to a touchscreen phone. But coupled with the Comes With Music service, it's a good deal, especially if you can't get enough of sweet sweet music.

 

 Frederic Copper-Royer, Music Manager for Nokia Midde East & Africa, answers all our X6 and Nokia Ovi questions:

   

Aside from using a credit card to buy tracks using a user's Ovi account, there are two options for downloading music off Ovi Music - prepaid vouchers and the Comes With Music service. How can people in the UAE get hold of prepaid vouchers?

Today we are including pre-paid vouchers with all of our other music device that do not have the Comes with Music service.

How much will each track cost using the vouchers?

The price per track is 3AED, based on the prices of the tracks when we launched the Nokia Music Store.

How does the X6 cost here in the UAE?

The price of the X6 is 2,100, available now in the market. 

Will both the 16GB and 32GB X6 models be available?

Only the 16GB Nokia X6 Comes with Music is available. 

Other than the X6, are there more Comes With Music Nokia phones launching here this year?

We will be looking at introducing other devices with the service, but for now the focus is on the Nokia X6. 

Moving away from the Ovi Music side of things, how many applications and content items are currently available through the Nokia Ovi Store?

The total apps number is not being disclosed, but considering the scale of the service includes support for more than 100 separate Nokia devices and active users in more than 180 countries, we're seeing around 1.5 million downloads a day through Ovi Store. On average, each registered user has downloaded (12) items from Store since the launch of the service. We're seeing 22 downloads per second, 24/7, with daily highs of 1300 downloads per minute.

Playlist DJ, an application that helps in making playlists according to the mood of the listener, is preloaded on the X6 and there are other music applications such as Shazam amd Midomi available on Ovi Store.

A Wii-like experience for AED 585?

iGame is available in the UAE for about AED 585 at major electronics stores

Well...not quite. The iGame Family is described as the "world's first TV Games Dock" that allows you to play motion-sensitive games as well as stream music, movies, podcasts and photos on TV using either your iPod or iPhone.

 iGame from UK-based Elonox comes with 10 free games including Firecracker, Sudoku, Tennis, Bowling, Trampoline, Table Tennis, Tanks and Darts (for ages 3+). They aren't going to keep hardcore gamers addicted but, like its name says, the iGame is really one for the family.

I had a six year old and 50+ year old try out the games, which were easy to pick up with helpful (irritating after you've seen the same message more than five times!) visual aids that demonstrated how to use the full motion-controlled wireless remote. 

Adults will probably end up feeling bored in about half an hour of playing since the games aren't exactly challenging, but the company says that additional games can be downloaded through their website with more titles expected later this year.

Comparisons to the Nintendo Wii are inevitable and if you're looking for quality gaming, the iGame isn't for you. 

Hardware-wise, I like the rounded dock that's small enough to sit on your bedside table, while the remote is also impressive - light, easy to handle but with an annoying in-built vibrating feature that makes sure your hands get a free massage with every focused movement.

Despite all my talk of its gaming prowess or lack thereof, I think it's important to look at the iGame as a whole. It was never meant to be a standalone game console, and the fact that it has media centre is a whole other chunky side of it. The quality and connectivity was seamless when I reviewed the product, and really made me want to download more videos on my iPod just so that I could watch it on my large flat TV screen. I think the best way to describe the iGame would be that it extends all the goodness of the iPod/íPhone so that it can do much more.

The best bit? It has a bargain price of AED 585 at the usual electronics stores like Jumbo, Jacky's, i2, CompuMe in the UAE.  It's a great choice if you've got younger kids and don't want to splurge on that AED 1,000+ Wii console for a motion-gaming experience...and the media extras means that everyone wins in the end!

Twitter for BlackBerry

 Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones is impressive and practical, but not without drawbacks

I've been using the beta version of Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones for a few days now and it's impressive. Not in an OTT kind of way but its convenient and practical. I don't tweet a lot but using the app on the Berry has made me a lot more active than I would have been without it.

 The app is at a ‘closed beta' stage at present which means that you need to be invited to try it out, but ITP.net is giving away 10 codes to the Twitter enthusiasts if you'd like to get in there first - more about that below. But you can also head to the www.blackberry.com/twitter and sign up to receive a notification when Twitter for BlackBerry gets to the open public beta stage.

Now I know there are other third-party Twitter apps for BlackBerry smartphones already available but this one is straight from the source, which is already a plus, with Twitter being integrated into the BlackBerry platform. Once it's downloaded and you enter your login creds, it takes barely a minute to set up. You're then greeted with the blue and white homepage which includes navigation icons right at the top for ‘home', @mentions, user profile, direct messages, find people, topic search and trending topics as well.

The first thing I tried was the search, where I threw in random ‘Garden' and ‘Wall' queries with success - public tweets on that topic were displayed...but I didn't care about gardens or walls and I moved on to more interesting things with the satisfaction that it worked.

Push functions great (as expected) and you can choose how often to update, but you will invariably end up having to scroll down down down because of the screen size that just about fits two small tweets.

You're also notified with that all-familiar life-changing red light whenever any of your followers tweet something new. This default setting can get really annoying if you have a lot of people on your list but it's easy to just get into Settings and change that. It's also a good idea while you're in there to specify that you'd like to keep your direct messages separate from regular tweets!

A definite plus of the new app is the Send/Share BlackBerry menu and camera integration. This means that if you're browsing a page or taking a photo that you'd like to post, you can choose to share it on Twitter with the click of your little trackball. The app automatically shortens URLs for you and enters it in a new tweet. Another interesting feature is the ‘View Conversation' option that organises the public conversation between two Twitter users so you haven't missed out on the flow.

So could it be the BEST Twitter app for BlackBerry smartphones EVER!? I think it's really good but probably not quite ready for that title yet. Since it's still in beta, there's time to make improvements so I'll be keen to see the final release and would definitely use it over other contenders.

But enough about me and my opinion - what's yours? ITP.net has ten closed beta codes for the app to give away and all you need to do is answer the easy question below by replying to the post. Correct answers will be entered into a draw and I'll post the winners and get in touch with the lucky ten (selected randomly - bits of paper and deft fingers style) on March 15th. To keep things fair, usual rules like non-transfer of prize and ITP family apply but I'm also limiting this only to Twitter users based in the Middle East.