Decide what to buy: the Reevoo.com blog

Remember when we told you all about Near Field Communications (NFC) and how it was going to transform the way we do things?

Well the Japanese are now using it to promote movies through movie posters. Japanese mobile carrier, SoftBank has joined forces with Gemalto and NTT Data to develop the "smart poster system".

Information will now be able to be transmitted to mobile users through the posters. It’ll work a bit like our Oyster Cards in London and will send people trailers, screenshots and other free content.  Mobile users just need to stand near the poster and have a credit card application installed on their NFC-enabled phones.

Previously, Japanese mobile users could get information about products and services by using 2D barcodes. However, this new move will enable content to be sent without any effort whatsoever.

The possibilities are endless with this technology. People could receive taxi numbers just by stepping into a bar, supermarkets could push out special offers as you walk past them or you could get song lyrics by walking into a gig. I’m sure you can think of lots more exciting things too…

[Omio]

The Nokia N-series has a couple more handsets to add to the family. The N85 and N79 are different to each other in looks but pretty similar in terms of features. 

The N85 is a two-way slider with a 2.6 inch OLED screen. OLED - Organic Light-Emitting Diode, which basically means it uses less power, responds faster and has a faster refresh rate than a traditional LCD. This makes it particularly good for gaming, which is a good thing because there are 10 games included with the N85, one of which you chose yourself.

The N79 is a candybar handset with a 2.4 inch screen and Xpress-on covers. In fact, on the N79, the back cover will even change the colour on your screen so that your whole phone matches – brings colour coordination to a whole new level.

Apart from style, the main difference is the memory that comes with each phone. The N85 comes with an 8GB SD card whereas the N79 has been palmed off with a 4GB SD card. But both phones come with a five megapixel camera, FM transmitter, GPS, geotagging for photos, Wi-Fi and 3G with HSDPA.

The N85 is due to be released in September and the N79 in October.

Price wise, you’re looking at:
N85 - £358 (€450)
N79 - £279 (€350)

Take a look below for the main specs.

Download table

For more info, check out the Nokia website.

Not content with simple maps, Nokia have teamed up with Lonely Planet to create a mobile tourist map extravaganza.  Adventurers can download city guides to their mobiles for over 100 hot tourist destinations so that the “where shall we eat” question need never be uttered again. Among the restaurant recommendations, you can also find where to sleep, shop, visit and boogie. No more heavy books and highlighters to pack in with your toothbrush and sleeping bags.

There was mutual love-giving from Nokia and Lonely Planet with Maximilian Schierstadt, head of media partnerships, at Nokia context-based services, saying: "Lonely Planet is a well-known brand amongst travellers and stands for adventure and editorial independence.

"We are very excited to offer their expert local recommendations and itineraries to our Nokia Maps consumers, which will allow Nokia to continue to innovate and enable compelling location-aware experiences."

Stephen Palmer, CEO of Lonely Planet Publications, added: "This is a genuinely transformational deal, which makes Lonely Planet content available regardless of time or place… Together with Nokia we will help more travellers connect profoundly with their world, everyday."

You can get your hands on the city guides from today. They’re £5.99 / USD 13.99 / EUR 7.99, and can be found in the Guides section in the Extras menu. For more info, head to Nokia.

If you’re on the lookout for a new 32 inch TV, and your must-haves are style and low price, you might want to take a peak at Hannspree’s pop-art inspired Vibe:

With rounded corners and and a general impression of having been beemed down from the Starship Enterprise, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but at least Hannspree are making the effort. Detachable speakers are a nice touch, allowing you to get true stereo sound on a budget.

And budget is indeed the name of the game - this Warhol-inspired piece is available for as little as £221 from online retailer Misco.

The catch is that there’s only one HDMI port - so if you’re a gamer, the Vibe probably isn’t for you, and the contrast is low - so if you’re a movie geek, it’s also probably not for you.

If on the other hand you’re just looking for something bigger and less ugly to watch the South Bank Show on, this interesting offering could be up your street.

Manufacturer’s page

It’s Sony to the rescue this week. It seems Sony Ericsson need a little help in the shape of the Bravia brand. Much like branding previous handsets with the Walkman and Cybershot labels, Sony Ericsson hope that Bravia handsets will have the same success.

However, rumour has it that Sony chiefs fear they may have made a big mistake by letting the brand go so quickly - especially as the new Sony PSP phone is in the pipeline.

Whether it was a mistake or not, only time will tell but it’s a little too late for regrets. Bravia handsets have already been launched in Japan and will soon be available in India where the exponential growth in mobile usage will be favourable for the brand.

[techradar]

It seems us Brits are baffled by modern technology that was sent to help us. According to a poll of 2000 people (by the folks over at Reevoo), mobile phones, SatNavs and even TV remotes send us into panic and rage when we can’t figure out how to use them. In fact, a whopping 32% of people admitted to throwing a complicated gadget across the room when they couldn’t work out what to do with it.

Digital cameras were voted the most complicated with SatNavs and mobile phones close behind. Interestingly though, people are obviously happy to live in confusion with their SatNavs, as only 6% actually read the manuals!

More alarming is that the same numbers of us are as baffled by our laptops as our ovens (the nation’s health crisis suddenly makes sense now…). And people are more inclined to read their TV manual over their oven’s. Hmmmm.

And even when a device goes wrong, more than a quarter will try to fix it themselves, or even buy a new one, instead of turning to the instructions.

Here’s the full list of things we find complicated:

1.    Digital Camera - 26%
2.    GPS navigation    - 21%
3.    Mobile phone - 19%
4.    Washing machine - 18%
5.    Camcorder - 17%
6.    DVD player - 15%
7.    Games console - 13%
8.    TV remote control - 13%
9.    MP3 player - 13%
10.    Microwave - 12%
11.    Computer - 12%
12.    Digital photo frame - 12%
13.    Scanner - 11%
14.    Laptop - 10%
15.    Television - 10%
16.    Modem - 10%
17.    Oven - 9%
18.    Printer - 9%
19.    Answer machine - 9%
20.    Freeview box - 8%
21.    Broadband - 8%
22.    Sky - 8%
23.    Dishwasher - 7%
24.    Digital TV - 7%
25.    Hi Fi system - 7%
26.    Tumble dryer - 6%
27.    Iron - 6%
28.    Telephone - 6%
29.    Clock Radio - 5%
30.    Smoke alarm - 5%
31.    Electric timer - 5%
32.    Smoothie maker - 5%
33.    Alarm clock - 4%
34.    Blender - 4%

…and how many people bother to read the manuals for these items:

1.    I don’t read manuals - 46%
2.    Mobile phone - 19%
3.    Washing machine - 17%
4.    Television - 16%
5.    Digital Camera - 14%
6.    Microwave - 11%
7.    Oven - 10%
8.    DVD player - 10%
9.    MP3 player - 9%
10.    Laptop - 9%
11.    Computer - 8%
12.    Printer - 8%
13.    TV remote control - 8%
14.    Broadband - 8%
15.    Telephone - 7%
16.    Tumble dryer - 6%
17.    Iron - 6%
18.    GPS navigation - 6%
19.    Camcorder - 6%
20.    Dishwasher - 6%
21.    Hi Fi system - 6%
22.    Scanner - 5%
23.    Freeview box - 5%
24.    Answer machine - 5%
25.    Alarm clock - 5%
26.    Modem - 5%
27.    Smoke alarm - 5%
28.    Clock Radio - 5%
29.    Games console - 5%
30.    Sky - 4%
31.    Digital TV - 4%
32.    Digital photo frame - 3%
33.    Electric timer - 2%

Did you think that moving text and photos on magazine covers were only possible in Harry Potter? Well they’re so last month. Esquire magazine have already decided to mark their 75th anniversary edition (in October this year), by using E-ink.

The technology includes a tiny battery that has to last until the magazine is sold. It currently lasts for 90 days and will also power a moving Ford advert (Ford will be sponsoring the issue), inside the magazine.

The batteries won’t be the greenest things on Earth; they will have been made in China, assembled in Mexico, via Texas and then distributed in refrigerated trucks but I guess it was all about the novelty with them.

But it doesn’t end there. If you thought that was cool, they’ve also come up with moving mobile phone covers. The Hitachi W61H (above) has a load of moving images on its cover. Its 2.7 inch E-ink display switches between 96 different images when you receive a call or message or when you open it up. Japanese designer, SeKiYuRiO, designd the phone with a perfume bottle in mind. The Casio Model G’zOne, which also uses E-ink, will be released this summer.

All this moving business is great news for loads of other technology: we could see fridges that tell you what’s empty without you having to open them up, pictures of callers that flash up on mobile phone covers or cars which can display different designs. The possibilities are endless!

[Wired]

Unveiled at the British Motor Show this week was the waterproof, multi-use navigator from Garmin. The nüvi 500 is great news for cyclists, drivers, walkers, and folks in boats as it can customise itself to whichever form of travel you undertake.  It’s waterproof and built for adventure, providing turn-by-turn directions to get you when you want to be.

The different maps include TOPO for outdoor navigation and Blue Chart cartography for marine usage.  Boat fans can also add the optional BlueChart g2 Vision marine cartography, which will show them wrecks, port plans, inter tidal zones and other clever boaty things.

Walkers will also feel special as there’s a digital elevation map option, compass page and tracklog so that you can track where you’ve been - great for knowing who to blame when you get lost.

All the usual suspects are also onboard (sorry), such as Garmin’s “Where am I” feature, which tells you your exact coordinates, traffic avoidance and millions of points of interest.

You can also navigate by photos by using the “Connect Photos” option which will give you access to Google’s Panoramio.

This would be a great little device for people that want navigation for all their forms of travel.

The nüvi 500 has a 3.5 inch TFT screen, weighs 215g and has a battery life of 8 hours. It’s set to be released in the UK in September for £299.

Casio has decided that we all need a bit of big screen love in our cameras so their new EXILIM EX-Z150 comes with a whopping three inch LCD display. Pretty out of the ordinary for a low-end model. But if you thought the huge screen would create a clumpy camera, you’d be wrong - it’s only 20.1-mm, tapering down to 18.9-mm and it’s slim and stylish exterior comes in silver, black, red, pink and bright green.

To add to the goodies, they’ve also packed in:
- 8.1 megapixels
- 4x optical zoom
- CCD-shift image stabilisation
- 28-mm wide angle lens
- 17.9MB built in memory
- face detection function

If that wasn’t enough, you can use SDHCs, SDs, MultiMediacards and MultiMediaCardplus memory cards. There’s also ‘YouTube mode’ which is a setting that will give you 640 x 480 quality at 30fps (frames per second) for up to 10 minutes at a time.

We’re not sure when the EXILIM EX-Z150 will be available, or how much it will be but we’ll let you know when we do.

If you want to look through other Casio reviews, you can read them all here.

[Far East Gizmos]

Well, first we found out that those helpful folks over at Nintendo were helping people to stop smoking. Now we hear that they’re helping Japanese students with their English too. A teacher at the Tokyo Academy for Girls has introduced the Nintendo DS into English lessons to help students concentrate.

The DS helps the students with their writing, listening and vocabulary but they are under strict instruction that all the machines must be handed in at the end of the lesson and no other games, apart from the English aid, are to be used.

Despite the lack of fun games, the students do seem to be enjoying the new method of teaching and they’ve even commented that they’re finding the lessons more interesting and engaging.

This is still a trial at the moment but what with all these new ways we’re discovering that consoles can help people (the Wii fit helping people to lose weight, the DS helping people to quit smoking etc.), who knows where the possibilities will end.

If you’re in two minds over whether to get a DS or not, try reading the Nintendo DS reviews first.