So here they are:

• Samsung Soul-the new Ultra Editions
  Samsung slim trendy phone was launched at CeBit. Slide design, shiny
  metallic body, 12.9 mm slim, 2.2 inches, 16 million colors bright
  screen, HSDPA, e-mail client, Bluetooth, and a Magic Touch
  interface. Other than that, it is also a multimedia phone, with FM
  radio and a 5 MP camera with face detection and image stabilization.
  SD card is supported.What it does, it has a touchable square
  underneath the screen as a menu. It will vibrate as son as it
  executes the command you issued. Nothing new from this point of view
  if you used a touch screen phone before. The menu was fast enough
  but not very logical.

• Samsung Q1 Ultra-I’ve read various
  reports about this gadget. It’s Samsung’s second attempt to
  establish a line of mobile/ tablet pc and be successful. The first
  time they’ve failed. But this time around they seem confident
  enough. A lot of people were curious at Samsung’s stand to try the
  Q1. I looked around and all seats were taken, all Q 1s were put to
  work on various sites.

• The apparatus itself moves very
  quickly. It should if you look at the specs:

• -Processor Intel® Ultra Mobile
  Processor A110 800MHz Clock 512Kb L2 Cache/400MHz FSB

• System Memory 1GB DDR2 400MHz
  Memory / Slot 2-in-1 Memory Slot (SD/MMC

• It runs Vista Home and I thought
  this will slow it down but it didn’t. It responded quickly to any
  command, it ran instantly all the programs installed and having a
  broadband at my disposal moved around Internet very quick also. My
  test unit had a keyboard attached, so I had no trouble with handling
  the unit.

The story changed when I tried to use
he unit without the attached keyboard. I’ve been using pcs, laptops
and various smart phones for more than 10 years now but I gotta admit
this one put me off. It was IMPOSSIBLE to use it, to write sitting
down without putting the Q1 in my lap or on he table. It’s not a
gadget to use on the move. The keypad layout looks smart, it has a
“thumb-mouse” if can call it like this but I couldn’t hold the
tablet and write at the same time. Then why would use this on the
move if I can’t handle it easily?
Of course, from what I’ve heard there
were a lot of improvements if you compare it with the first model:
the battery runs for almost 9 hours, the keyboard control is improved
(the first model only had a virtual keyboard on the screen) and the
screen has a new resolution of 1024×800. Another strong point is
connectivity: HSDPA, Wibro, WiFi, Bluetooth. Not always free but a
lot of ways to achieve Internet connection.This is a very good review, it was
taken from Samsung’s site – I read it and it seems to me a bit like
propaganda. But still, a full review.

• The Pocket Surfer-a very nice
  gadget launched at CeBit and aimed at using Internet wherever you
  are. The gadget itself is made by Hagenuk www.hagenuk.de which was a leader on the mobile market more than 10 years ago.
  Now all it produces is cordless phones, answering machines and
  occasionally, it does OEM products for others, like this Wind
  company. It comes bundled with a year of “free” Internet. Of
  course, “free” came along with some conditions: 30 hours of
  Internet/monthly for 12 months. If you need more, you can get
  another 30 or 50 hours for as “low” as 20 Euro. Of course, you
  have to take into account that you have Internet on the move and
  that’ still expensive. It’s country/network dependant. The price for
  the device starts at 250 Dollars, while in Germany it was 250 Euro.
  The keyboard felt like Motorola
  Razr and without a doubt, it shares the same technology.The screen, TFT, while very large
  looked extremely washed. The colors were dull, whitish and the
  browser couldn’t arrange the whole page – you had to pull the bars
  from left to right to read the whole page. It’s because the screen
  was only VGA while the site was 1024×768.Quite light and very well made.Only GPRS and EDGE, so big chunks
  of data will probably take longer to load.
  I couldn’t notice how focused was
  the salesman on closing the sale and that’s all. As soon as he
  realized I wasn’t gonna buy one (probably it took him a whole 2
  minutes!) he moved away from offering information. He then excused
  himself and left me a leaflet with the product. While I can admire
  the sales skill, I don’t agree with this heartless approach: a sales
  person is also a counseling party. It’s not all about money, money,
  money.
  All in all, I can have better
  Internet, faster internet on a better device ( laptop/tablet pc with
  WiFi) at cheaper prices. Also, my P1i does the job better ( 3G
  speeds) and much cheaper – no phone function on the Hagenuk, only
  data.
  http://www.datawind.com/html/specification.html

          HOPE

Nu stiu; de fapt stiu, insa nu vreau sa-mi bat capul cu
explicatii si rezolutii.

* The new HTC S730 which features a
full qwerty keyboard eve if it’s a smart-phone and those traditionally
didn’t have a second keyboard like this one. They usually had a
normal keyboard and by 3^rd party software an on screen
QWERTY was available. Runs the new WM 06 and runs it pretty fast. I
have really big doubts about it functionality. Usually, who buys this
kind of “phone” looks for at least 2-3 inches screen. But notable
advancement has been made and that’s the most important fact.

 

 

 

*A self-driven car: VW Passat
Variant , nicknamed Caroline

 

  
There’s also this video (54 MB, attention!)




http://www.peteava.ro/video/material/20059
 
 * At Vodafone I got to try a Z8 much
more than yesterday (branded, of course) and I had a positive
experience except for the keyboard which is very hard to operate (
you have to push firmly) and it’s not a qwerty… Other than that,
like I said, very good materials and manufacture. UIQ (and probably
a small processor) makes it a bit slugish at times. Or it’s the Voda
crap?:) Then I had a play with their new Samsung communicator (didn’t
bother to get the name and number) which boasts a big screen and
full qwerty. I managed to crash it in minutes by just surfing the
net a little bit, trying a bit of Voda Live and trying to make a
phone call. Is that so much to ask from a ….
“C.O.M.M.U.N.I.C.A.T.O.R”?
* BTW, I had a big laugh at the motto below. They weren’t able to tell me how much would cost me every MB of data used thru Vodafone DE, me being in roaming (their customers roam all the same in foreign countries, aren’t they? PLUS the fact that the price for the use of internet in roaming is the same all over Vodafone network thru a program called Vodafone Passport. Hello, Vodafone employees, can you hear me? I had to find out myself. An whooping 6 Euros/ MB!!! And at home is 0.17 Euro cents.
 
• 
• 

• Already looking forward to CeBit
  2009 -them, not me! I have to (financially) recover! Oh, I’m just
  kidding:)

  

• A poster on the wall – why would
  you need that at 45?!!!

  

• * The Space Up VW concept , some
  kind of revolutionary city car. No data available yet. Probably with
  Blue Motion technology.

• The T-Mobile stand is huge,with at
  least 150 consultants – they sell both services and phones.
  Nothing new except for Blackberry and Iphone.
  

• I haven’t seen Orange at all. I know
  they’re not operating in Germany (are they?) but still. This expo is
  not only for the german market, it’s for Europe markets.

 

 

 

There were also the W980i, W 350i, Z 770i, etc. Most of them had bugs and
couldn’t be operated normal. It took as 5 minutes to be able to
listen to a song on a   Z 770i and the consultant had to restart it 3
times to make it work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is also the low/medium Walkman line: W350i but it was poorly
manufactured and very, very simple. It has a small flip with
play/pause/next button on top of it and it’s very slim.

W 350i 

 

 

 

 

SE accessories

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other than that, a huge interest from the public. Everyone was trying
all the phones, curious like babies. The Walkman brand attracted huge
crowds when presented and everyone was happy to give it a try. The
W980i in particular was like a magnet and it seems to me like SE is
creating the trend in mobile phones design right now. All I could
hear around me was : “wow, look at that lines!”, or “look, the
orange light is pulsing on the beat!”. Little gimmicks that will
make the world go round.

 

 

  

Motorola

 

Motorola is represented by Motorola Germany which is a shame. I can’t
understand the lack of interest in CeBit. They have a small place
when you can try out 6 or 7 phones like U 9, Razr 2 V8, Razr 2 V8
Luxury Edition, Z8 and Z 10. And that’s all. Some of them weren’t even
powered, I had to ask the only consultant (!!!!) to plug a charger
into one, so I can try it for 5 minutes. While the first ones were
usual Motorolas with an awful menu and smallish screens, the Z8 and
the Z 10 represent a step ahead. But a small one. After years of
making flip phones (remember Kramer and the others ahead of it?) they
still haven’t learned that even if it’s a good solution implemented
right, the moving parts always break down! Easily! Quickly! I
understand it’s a gimmick, a fashion design but still. The upper part
of the Z series bend a little when you open it, so the phone bends on
your face when you’re talking to someone. Slide it back up and it’ll
straighten again. Looks nice, feels nice. The plastic on Z 10 is
silver/black. The silver looks cheap, the black is getting prints all
the time. But the menu (UIQ operating system) looks nice and I had no
trouble operating it. It’s small and light. The screen is bright
enough and on Z8 that green/yellow colour attracts attention. Both of
them have a “Today” screen like SE. It shows you the meetings you
have, the tasks, the date/hour, the profile you’re on, the song
you’re listening to and also provides a shortcut in case you wanna
cal someone from your agenda.

Important tech data: Z 10, dubbed “The Mobile Film Studio” –
HSDPA, 2,2” QVGA display ,320×240 and 16 million colours,3.2 MP
camera, Bluetooth, 119 grams, UIQ powered supporting up to 32 GB
Micro SD card.

Interesting tech data: Z 10, dubbed “The Mobile Film Studio” –
HSDPA, 2,2” QVGA display ,320×240 and 16 million colours,3.2 MP
camera, Bluetooth, 119 grams, UIQ powered supporting up to 32 GB
Micro SD card.

 

 

 

 

Z8: HSDPA, 2,2” QVGA display ,320×240 and 16,7 million colours,
BT, 117 grams, also UIQ powered supporting up to 4 GB Micro SD card.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also wanna mention the ROKR E8, the second try-out for Motorola in
the mobile music industry. The first one, if you remember , ROKR, was
a total failure. This one is “fashion conscious”. It has a
pollished finish – all around! Looks like a Star Trek comunicator.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take pictures when it was on. I
managed to squize 2 minutes of battery time and then it died on me.
The screen was small but nicely organized.

Tech data: 107 grams, FM radio, WM Player compatible, USB 2.0, 2GB
internal memory, Micro SD up to 4 GB, email client. The finishing and
the materials used are both superb. That’s one thing one can expect
and appreciate at Motorola.

 

 

 

 

 

There is also a middle bracket music phone, the ROKR Z6. The only thing I
noticed was the Orange color which I didn’t like and the bad
finishing and poor plastic used.

 

 

 

Samsung Soul is next! Also the Flickr badge was updated with new pictures.

My morning started at 4.30 AM when I
had to wake up to prepare myself for the first big day in technology.
No problem there, with plane and accommodation tickets in my pocket,
I jumped into a cab and off at the airport. The check-in went
smoothly (the Lufthansa people know their business, I gotta admit)
and the flight to Munchen went without incident. At Munchen, I had to
switch planes in order to get to Hanover-there is no direct flight
from Bucharest, I knew that.

That was around 10 A.M. And of course,
my connection flight was canceled! Not delayed, not “we’ll see what
we can do about this” but simply canceled along with other 4
internal flights.

Now, I could’ve (not would’ve) listened
to the “microphone lady” that kept on rambling in 4 languages
that we should wait for further instructions and then, in a much
lower voice, to contact our flight company. I didn’t know why until I
saw the trails of people waiting to talk to someone about their
situation.

Dashing thru the lines, I’ve seen a lot
of “Business Class” people sittin’ nice and neat (calm, too!)
talking to people on their phones, emailing from their Blackberries
but overall, just minding their own business while waiting in a line.
I come from a society where the calm ones have no place to be. Like
many others, I am trying to solve things quickly, moving and talking
fast, in general creating a bit of a rumor around me. The same
principle applied to the 3 guys standing right in front of me and
talking to some Lufthansa employees about the current state of
events. One of them knew what was going on and was kind enough to
share it with me after I kindly asked him to do so: it was a strike.
People working for the Munchen Airport decided yesterday that
Wednesday was a good day to start a strike, maybe to soften some
people and touch their hearts with warmth. Which I guess it didn’t
happen, as it costs Lufthansa some hundred thousand of Euro in
collateral damages. And delayed baggages from my side. But I am not
at the end, nor am I jumping to conclusions.

Along with some other 3 guys also from
Romania, I went to a line that was forming with Deutsche Bahn, where
you can get a ride to Hanover, which we did! At first, I was a little
reluctant to go but because it was no possible flight soon, I went
along. And I did good because the train usually goes between 150 km/h
and 250 km/h. If you have a laptop with you, a charger and a mobile
phone, you can’t go wrong – we played a little bit, watched some
movies, talked a lot esp. because the beer bottles kept popping out
on our table. At the end there where more than a dozen and the
janitor was not very happy. Nor the other passengers as our loud
voices and laughter were the only ones to be heard. But we didn’t
care – that’s a “quality” beer can give you, even if you don’t
need it! So I had no baggage, only a laptop and a phone and the
money, of course, but that all I need! They said we should inquire at
the “Lost and Found Luggage” at Hanover Airport that night
because the strike would end around 12 P.M and there was a good
chance they’d send it right away.

Four hours later we made it to
Hauptbahnhof , the Central Station in Hanover (the bliss was not out
yet!) where you can see a thousand people running wild all around.
Lots of Japanese with little baggages, youngsters with 7 bags from
CeBit, visitors from around the world, all in a big rush! I guess
you can make your way without asking around but I had to do it
because it was busy, cold and I knew had to switch at least 2
trams to get to my room. I am only seven minutes from CeBit but
half an hour away from Center which is not good – I have to eat,
you know!

Knowing that the U-Bahn (subway)is very
complicated in Hanover ( they have around 16 different lines, grouped
in co lours) , as I said, I called the landlord (lady) and she was
very nice and gave me directions. I arrived there only to leave as
soon as possible to buy some clothes – thank you Lufthansa and
Munchen airport for giving me the chance to update my wardrobe even
if I didn’t need it! Of course, at the end of the day, around 11 P.M,
I went to the airport with my new acquired friends and met a nice man
who let me watch thru a big window, in case I find my bag among other
200 that just arrived. Which I did because mine I a normal
duffel-bag, with silver and Frey and has Volkswagen Golf enscribed
on it – thank you Roxy for getting that bag for me, you saved me

I was so happy that I forgot all about
the lost day of CeBit (which it was and I am mad for it!) and about
the long way home at midnight. But everything is alright when you get
home, start this article, do it only half, go to sleep, only to wake
up the next morning ready to go to CeBit and see, touch, feel, smell
and experience all this wonderful world of gadgets!

The 2^nd day at CeBit is not
over yet but my camera card is full and my mind has a thousand
thoughts which will be written here soon tonight:)