Nokia Morph

The future of mobile phones is this: there won’t be phones as we know it. Looking at the “future” as suggested by Nokia, the concept of the Morph goes way beyond mobile phone technology. Essentially speaking, a “phone” by definition today implies more than just making calls - there is a camera function, MP3 playback and web surfing. Pretty much, by design - a computer.

The Morph is the closest thing to a portable environmental suit: more than calls, it becomes a repository for otherwise useless information like pollution levels, smell analyzers and other such things that require the use of nanotechnology. it can help us locate places and people, be worn as a fashion accessory, and be folded up into something more portable.

The funny thing is that when I re-read what I just wrote, I’m basically describing phones as they already exist today (save for the smell analyzers and pollution level thingees). Cliche as it may sound, the future is not too far away, really.

Nokia N96

Mere mortals will need to wait until the third quarter of the year -- if not longer, depend on their region and tolerance for some probable price gouging in the early going -- to get their hands on the mighty Nokia N96. On the other hand, Mobile-review apparently knows the right hands to shake and eyes to wink to get hold of a prototype unit extraordinarily early, and they're taking full advantage of the opportunity. A few hours of your time devoted to the novella of a review will net you a deep understanding and appreciation for the N96's strengths and follies, but in a nutshell, the site seems to come away with a pretty ambivalent opinion of a device that should be knocking everyone's socks off -- especially for a sticker price that'll hover in the $800 arena. Problems included a penchant for picking up dirt and fingerprints (the price you pay for a beautiful glossy face, we suppose), a cramped nav key layout with the tricky touch-sensitive Navi Wheel front and center, audio performance that wasn't bad but was expected to be far better in light of the dedicated DSP, and a "shovel"-like feel in the hand, a symptom of the phone's generous dimensions. Everyone owes the production version of the N96 a chance to show its true form when it's released later this year -- and hey, at least Nokia's got a checklist of things that need improvement in the prototype now -- so we're keeping our chins up that this'll still make the N95 8GB a proud daddy when it comes time to hand over the crown to the Nseries kingdom.