SINGAM II- My Review- EXCLUSIVE

Continuation of Durai Singam‘s mission in thoothukudi followed by SouthAfrica..
As witnessed in the ads it is an in and out mindless masala movie with the routine route of a fight follwed by a song and comedy sequence and sentiment
in the whole first half.
There are so many ribtickling serious scenes in the movie as well.
Suriya- He performed well indeed. Fire in acting.Few scenes were really powerful especiallly the interval block and first 20 mins
of the second half.
Apart from it drug smuggling,gypsy chasing,hero flying, etc., etc., blah blah you can predict the next scene well in advance..
Hari‘s route is this but there are so many obstacles he should have seen it. Trying to make the scenes jet speed is ok but it should
have continued throughout the movie.
Santhanam does the humour part,nice but silly dialogues and Vivek did a role similiar to sathyan in thuppaki.
Hansika was so cute. Her role is heavier than Anushka who filled the glamour portions in songs.
Coming to DSP the music is below average and the singam theme was ok for few moments. “Singam Dance” song was the best of the worst.
There are lots of starcast among them Mukesh rishi and rahman doing the Villain role followed by Danny the Afrian drug leader who was disgusting.
Graphics and VFX works horrible,
V.T.Vijayan failed to cut a lot of unnecessary scenes.
Priyan’s cinematography was apt for the movie.
It is nothing wrong in doing masala and commercial movies but it should satisy atleast fans of the hero.
If it doesn’t satisy even the fans then it is no use in marketting, still the makers of this movie
are keen in telugu market value and i believe that they overpowered the hero with tons of masses and ultimately it reversed against the
hero.People however will be forced to go to the theatres in the first week by the promotions.After that it may run only in tv ads as superhit.
And the movie is very lengthy almost close to 3 hrs.. you need some patience as well..
On the whole to sum it up there are some noteworthy scenes then and there you can surpass it by those saviours.

Singam II-Mission failed to fullfill

Ratings

Story                   –   3.5 / 5

Direction           –    3.8 / 5

Acting                 –    3.7 / 5

Other areas       –     3.5 / 5

—————————————

Overall               –     3.6  / 5

Related articles

• SINGAM 2 Exclusive Review by Martin Kuruvila (kochipost.com)
• ‘Singam 2′-JULY 5TH (adithyaentertainment.wordpress.com)
• This Singam is on an African Safari (thehindu.com)
• Singam 2 theatre reports (theatrereport.wordpress.com)
• A roaring start (thehindu.com)

Step-by-Step guide to Facebook Conversion Tracking

Step 1: Once you log in to your ‘Ads Manager’ tab, click on the Conversion Tracking button on the left side bar.

Step 2: Then click on the ‘Create Conversion Pixel’ tab to begin the process.

Step 3: You will be directed to this pop-up, which will ask you for a:

1. Name: An appropriate name will help you remember what you are tracking. (Example: Lead Generation – GATE Ad)

2. Category: This will help you decide the type of action that you want to track on your site. You can choose from the following:

1. Checkouts

2. Registrations

3. Leads

4. Key Page Views

5. Adds to Cart

6. Other Website Conversions

(For the purpose of this example, we have selected ‘Leads’).

Step 4: You will be able to see a pop-up window with a JavaScript code. This is the code that you will have to add to the page where the conversion will happen. This will let you track the conversions back to ads which you are running on Facebook.

The code should be placed on the page that a user will finally see when the transaction is complete.

Here is the tricky part. The code should not go on all pages. For that matter, it should not even go to the landing page of your product. The code should be placed on the page that a user will finally see when the transaction is complete.

For Example: If you want to track when students register for your GATE coaching, paste the code on the registration confirmation page/thank you page and not on the form that they need to submit.

How do you confirm that your conversion is working properly?

1. Check that the javascript snippet has been placed on the correct conversion page. Visit the page where the pixel has been embedded, right click and go to ‘View Page Source’ to find the pixel. The code should have the tag of the HTML. See image below.

2. Check that Facebook is receiving the conversion events from your website. Go to the conversion tracking tab in your Ads Manager account. There you will see a list of the conversion tracking pixels that you have created. If the conversion tracking pixel has been successfully implemented and a conversion event has been recorded, it will be reflected in the Pixel Status column. If the status shows active, it means that the page which contains the pixel has been viewed by users. If it shows inactive, it means that over the last 24 hours, the page with the pixel has not been viewed.

3.Later, when you  create your Facebook ad , you need to check the track conversions box under the campaign, pricing and schedule tab to enable tracking.

Social Gestures and the Social Web – Part I

FROM the Below Article was Copied from the website http://blog.engag.io/2012/04/15/social-gestures-and-the-social-web-part-i/

The Original Author – MR.  William Mougayar

Social Gesturing is at the heart of the social web. Those little signals have a small footprint but a large impact.

The crowd-sourced nature of social gestures adds up to a lot of value. After all, Facebook with all its might was mostly based and founded on 3 basic social gestures: liking, sharing and linking, each taking a fraction of a second to accomplish.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the hierarchy of social gestures in terms of value and potential.  And I came-up with the following way to organize them into a taxonomy where certain gestures are grouped with each other according to the objective they are meant to achieve and the purpose they target: People, Interests or Content.

The graph below is self-explanatory. The objective of social gesturing is to a) grab Attention, b) Express yourself, c) Curate interests (or content), d) develop Relationships, or e) Engage with people.

The most commonly used Social Gestures are Sharing, Linking and Liking when it comes to Content, and Following or Friending when it comes to People. But the area that holds the most promise is Engagement with People.

There is an ascending amount of time it takes to accomplish each gesture. If you look at the two extremes, Discussing something with someone is a lot more time-consuming than Clicking on content or Sharing it.

Personally, and for Engagio, I’m very interested in the gestures around Social Engagement. I think we’re just getting started in that segment, and I plan to cover more on that topic in Part II of this post.

In the meantime, what is your opinion on the following 3 questions:

• Are there other Social Gestures that you are seeing?

• Do you see new ones that are emerging?

• Which ones do you use the most?

Related articles

• Engagio: A Canadian Startup Story and the future of the Social Web (startupnorth.ca)
• Engagio wants to be your one-stop social inbox (gigaom.com)
• How to swear in Italian (afrahm.wordpress.com)
• Don’t Export Your American Hand Gestures [Infographic] (communicationstudies.com)
• ShadowPuppets prototype lets you pinch-to-zoom, click, and scroll with shadow gestures (theverge.com)

Engagio: Recognize & Build Relationships On Social Network Easily

Engagio helps you to track your online conversations and allows you to develop meaningful relationships from them. In short, it is your tool to find quality relationships.

Pitched as ‘Your inbox for online conversations and relationships’, it is a tool much like Gmail, but is for managing your conversations in social networking sites and commenting systems. Engagio gives you visibility about the people behind these conversations and reveals their social identities profile. It saves you much time and allows you to connect with others in a much better and deeper way.

Although social media has many advantages, sometimes we fall short of managing our many relationships on social networking sites. With so many friends, family members, colleagues, classmates and relatives in our contacts list, we miss out on building quality relationships with people who matter. Engagio helps you to do that and more.

Engagio believes that commenting and conversations are strong social signals. They are stronger than likes, shares and links. Comments are implicit linkages about people. After all, you only care to comment on somebody’s post and take time to do it when you like that person or what s/he has to say. Like is easy, commenting takes time and thought. Engagio studies all that and more, and give you full visibility into the potential relationships behind your comments and conversations.

The service is frictionless and derives implicit data from your normal, everyday interactions. It does not matter whether your conversations are on social networks or inside your Engagio inbox, Engagio tracks them all. You connect to your social networks and Engagio starts to track, record, analyze and report on your interaction activity.

All you need to do is to signup from the entry page or jump to your inbox. You can easily track your conversations on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Disqus-enabled sites, Hacker news comments, Foursquare and more. This is a wonderful service for everybody who wishes to build up on great relationships without putting in much time and effort.

Chat With Command Prompt

If you want personal chat with a friend

you don’t need to download any yahoo messenger
All you need is your friends IP address and Command Prompt.

Firstly, open Notepad and enter:

@echo off

:A

Cls

echo MESSENGER

set /p n=User:

set /p m=Message:

net send %n% %m%

Pause

Goto A

Now save this as “Messenger.bat”. Open the .bat file and in Command

Prompt you should see:

MESSENGER

User:

After “User” type the IP address of the computer you want to contact.

After this, you should see this:

Message:

Now type in the message you wish to send.Before you press “Enter” it should look like this:

MESSENGER

User:27.192.168.1.88

Message: Hello SoftIT!

Now all you need to do is press “Enter”, and start chatting!

Mobile Trading

The Procyon Holdings (PROHD) name is expanding again as we push out into another development area — the Android framework. When I abandoned my BlackBerry, the choice to move to the Android platform was an easy decision. Market saturation, the development community, and fluidity between devices make this platform shine.

I’ve been having a few end user problems with the current iteration of our trading website. First, the native Android Gingerbread browser lacks SVG support, an issue that has bewildered me since I read about it. I can solve this issue by using another browser such as Opera, but I would like to use the native one.

Also working with a HTML + Ajax website on a device with a touch interface feels like you are not getting the full user experience. I want to scroll down lists with my finder, click and hold to expose options, and speed around menus.

Mobile Architecture

We had to expand our design and create a few new pieces to get data to the mobile world. New items include the creation of a daemon to simply database population, exposing data via XML, and working with an existing library to enable Push notifications.

Information Flow

The Daemon runs on our server, periodically pulls transactions from the Eve API, and places that information in our wallet table.

Our previous design was that you would have to hit the transactions webpage and it would trigger an update. Getting a page to refresh on a desktop connected via broadband versus a mobile phone is quite the different experience.

Android has a framework called C2DM(Android Cloud to Device Messaging) which enables you to send lightweight push notifications to devices.

Our vision is that when a sell order clears, a large/special sale has occurred, or a significant milestone has been reached, we send a notice. This will be visible on phone’s Status Notification Bar and cause me to act if deemed important. I have been forgetting to buy or trade a particular item after the sell orders have cleared. Forget things — loose profit.

Getting data out of our database required the creation of a webservice to produce XML output from our wallet table.

Here is an example of the sale of one item in our XML feed:

<?xml version="1.0"?>  
<TransactionList>  
<Transaction>  
<transactionDateTime>2012-04-19 06:21:04</transactionDateTime>  
<typeID>21096</typeID>  
<typeName>Cynosural Field Generator I</typeName>  
<quantity>1</quantity>  
<price>1948939.91</price>  
<profit>147803</profit>  
<stationName>STATION</stationName>  
<icon>21096_32.png</icon>  
</Transaction>  
</TransactionList>

Alpha Screenshot

This screenshot is our first proof of concept. We’re able to get information from an XML feed, display it, and get/cache images from the Eve image server. Major credit goes to my trading and corporation partner James, who has been doing the development work and educating me on the Android framework.

There is a lot we want to do with the mobile version. Menus, tabs, charts, reports, and the ability to add items to a shopping cart/wish list are all things on the drawing board.

Future Collaboration

This project is our first exposure to the Android framework and after the initial learning curve, we might perhaps coolabrate with the Aideron Robotics team on Aura. So maybe some of our trading mechanics will make their way into the Aura application.

Getting the Distance between Locations using Google Maps API

Modifying my post on drawing directions in a MapView using Google's API, I have come up with a solution to get the distance between two locations. Considering the same example I modified getDirections() to the method given below which returns distance as a string in kms(or meters).

public String getDistance(double lat1, double lon1, double lat2, double lon2) {
	String result_in_kms = "";
	String url = "http://maps.google.com/maps/api/directions/xml?origin=" + lat1 + "," + lon1 + "&destination=" + lat2 + "," + lon2 + "&sensor=false&units=metric";
	String tag[] = {"text"};
	HttpResponse response = null;
	try {
		HttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
		HttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();
		HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(url);
		response = httpClient.execute(httpPost, localContext);
		InputStream is = response.getEntity().getContent();
		DocumentBuilder builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
		Document doc = builder.parse(is);
		if (doc != null) {
			NodeList nl;
			ArrayList args = new ArrayList();
			for (String s : tag) {
				nl = doc.getElementsByTagName(s);
				if (nl.getLength() > 0) {
					Node node = nl.item(nl.getLength() - 1);
					args.add(node.getTextContent());
				} else {
					args.add(" - ");
				}
			}
			result_in_kms = String.format("%s", args.get(0));
		}
	} catch (Exception e) {
		e.printStackTrace();
	}
	return result_in_kms;
}

How to get more page views for your blog

“What makes a blog popular? What drives page views?” These are the questions that we’ve been trying to answer over the last few weeks. We were on a mission to dig into the data and analyze the strongest parameters that influence the flow of visitors to WordPress.com blogs.

Out of the 30+ million blogs on WordPress.com, we randomly selected a sample of almost 100,000 blogs to perform a regression analysis. Here are our findings, together with a few recommendations. We hope that this provides some new information, and kudos to you in case you’ve already incorporated these tips into your blog – the data suggests that you’re on the right track. Keep it up!

Make your blog easy to follow – It almost sounds obvious, but the simplest way to build more awareness is to make it easier to do so. Make sure that you have the follow widget as visible as possible. If your readers receive a notification every time you post, or see your post in their reader, there is a much higher chance that they will revisit your blog.

Comments, Comments, Comments – The most successful blogs, we found, created and encouraged a dialogue with their readers. The best way to make people more engaged with your writing is for you to engage back and start a conversation. In your posts, encourage people to comment. Also, make sure that you reply to people’s comments and continue the dialogue. This back and forth conversation is a significant driver of page views; holding all else equal, every additional comment can potentially drive up to 18 incremental page views! You can start by simply asking follow-up questions at the end of each post: ”have you ever done X?”; “do you think Y is acceptable?”. You can read some more thoughts on how to build your audience  and how to get more comments.

Post Frequently and Regularly – Your readers want to know that you are there for them and that you are “on it”. If you post frequently and regularly and have enabled the follow feature as we mentioned above, checking your blog could become a daily routine for your readers. Even if it’s a short post, write something new as frequently as possible, and at regular intervals. (The Daily Post can help with ideas, as can the advice on how to get more traffic)

While these three tips were shown to be the most important drivers of page views in our analysis, you might consider other parameters, which we found as having a partially significant effect: syndicating your post to Twitter and Facebook (using Publicize), for example, could lead to additional page views.

Happy blogging!

Change Mobile Service Provider without Changing Mobile Number

You might not happy with your current mobile service provider but you probably don’t like to switch another mobile service provider because you don’t want to change your current mobile number.
Here is good news for those who are not happy with their current mobile service provider. Now you can change your mobile service provider without changing your mobile number. It means your mobile number belong s to you and not belongs to service provider for your lifetime.
TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has declared that MNP( Mobile number Portability) will available from 20th September 2009 in selected cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore etc. and from 20th march 2010 it will be available in all over India. This means you are able to change your mobile service provider without changing mobile number from March 20 2010 all over India.
TRAI also declared that there will be small amount of fee for changing your mobile service provider from current service provider to new and the maximum time within two days.
You can get details on:
http://www.dot.gov.in/as/MNP/AS-1%20Amend.%206-5-2009.pdf

Now you are free to choose your desired mobile service provider without changing your mobile number because now there is no hassle in switching from one mobile service provider to another without changing your most valuable, distributed and known mobile number
The decision of MNP (Mobile Number Portability) is beneficial to consumer because it will increase the quality of service provider and bring down the calling/sms/validity/roaming rents or prices. Department of Telecommunication is already in the process implementing MNP in major metro cities.
The Tentative MNP (Mobie Number Portabitlity) is as follows
1)Don’t end up with current service provider till bind up with new service provider.
2) Pay any dues of current service provider or do settlement.
3) Contact new desired service provider which will start the process of MNP by contacting your current service provider.
4) Your desired new service provider will contact you at this time keep your mobile details handy like your number, registered name , address, pin etc.
5)After confirmation new service provider will activate their service on your mobile number.

Related Articles

• Mobile Number Portability (aronnirmal.wordpress.com)
• Mobile Number Portability in Rest of India from 20th January (espreson.com)
• First in India: Mobile Number Portability Service flag-off in Haryana on 25th November (espreson.com)
• India Introduces Mobile Number Portability (pcworld.com)
• Mobile number portability to be applied nationwide from 20th January (panasianbiz.com)
• MNP (Mobile Number Portability) : Change Your Mobile Service Provider Without Changing Your Mobile Number (ritusays.wordpress.com)
• “Loop mobile number portability in India – Wanna move?” and related posts (etechreviews.net)
• “Mobile number portability in India: It has finally arrived” and related posts (etechreviews.net)
• Mobile Number Portability: Top 7 Reasons to ditch your Mobile operator! (trak.in)
• What is UPC (Unique porting Code) for MNP Process | Telecom (amitbhawani.com)

BSNL Launches 3G Services in Mangalore

Of late, BSNL has been on a continuous 3G launch spree as some of you might have noticed. Its services were launched in Kerala, Bangalore  and some cities of Andhra Pradesh not long ago. This was after the launch in a few cities in North India and in the metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

It’s the turn of coastal town Mangalore to go 3G now with BSNL announcing the commencement of 3G services in the city. The expansion of services to Mangalore is a part of BSNL’s expansion plan to equip 32 towns across Karnataka with 3G. All district headquarters in the state are slated to be 3G enabled in the next two months.

BSNL is also increasing the number of towers under its aegis to support 3G services. The number of towers in Karnataka will jump from 3,000 to 6,000 very soon. Anyway, if you happen to be a lucky resident of Mangalore and use a BSNL connection, you might want to check the 3G service now!

Vodafone says already launched App Stores in India

With its competitors announcing big plans for App Stores initiative, Vodafone Essar claims that it has already launched its App Stores in India on February 15, 2010.

Branded as Vodafone Mobile Applications Store, the operator claims to have clocked over 10,000 downloads from these App Stores. Presently it offers over 800 applications covering entertainment, utility, finance, social networking, games.

The company has categorized its Apps as Newest Apps, Top Apps and Just for You Apps offering customized set of applications as per consumer’s preference with ‘tabbed browsing’. A search engine simplifies the the process of locating the right Apps for users.

Users keen to avail the App Stores can send a SMS to APP to 111 (toll free) and also access the store through the portal Vodafone live! by clicking a link on the home page. Over 15% of applications are available free of charge while the majority of paid applications are priced in the range of Rs. 5 to Rs. 30. Kumar Ramanathan, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone Essar said,

“We are delighted to launch the Vodafone Mobile application store which combines an array of facilities for our customers including easy access to information, utilities and entertainment. The mobile applications are affordable and a significant step forward in the growth of mobile data and the future of Mobile internet in India.”

The new business initiative has been launched in partnership with digital content player, Arvato Mobile.

BSNL rolls out India’s first urban mobile WiMAX service

BSNL today commercially launched the country’s first mobile broadband fourth generation Internet access network–Mobile WiMAX in Kerala.

Union minister of state for Agriculture and Consumer Affairs K V Thomas, launched the facility at a function here today.

BSNL is also the first operator in the country to launch the service, for which technology has been provided by AVIAT, formerly Harris Stratex.

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology, can provide a speed of up to 37 mbps. It is being deployed in Kerala with 900 BTS (Base Transmitting Stations) to cover the entire state, Principal General Manager, BSNL, Ernakulam, E M Abraham said.

In the first phase, 450 BTS would be set up to cover all major cities, district headquarters and important towns at a project cost of about Rs 100 crore.

In the second phase, another 450 BTS would be commissioned to cover the remaining towns.

The technology will provide access to broadband at a cost performance ratio that is far better than any other technology, he said.

It provides features like high speed broad band connectivity anywhere, anytime for devices like Desktop, Laptop on wireless.

It has two tariff plans – Home Plan with a fixed monthly charge of Rs 999 while the Business plan is Rs 1,999 for a band width 512 to 2 mbps.

Gadget Lab Hardware News and Reviews Androids Dance, Slide and Fight at Robo-One Competition

Gladiatorial matches between bipedal humanoid robots is just one of the reasons to get excited about Robo-One, an event last weekend in Toyama City, Japan.

This year’s event showed some interesting new robots such as a thought-controlled robot, a robot that can flip its head back so you can ride it, and a mini-Gundam robot.

Check out these videos of these robots that kicked up a storm at Robo-One. Got any other great videos or photos from Robo-One? Let us know in the comments.

Takeshi Maeda is known to robot lovers as the man who designed the red, bi-pedal Omni Zero robots. Maeda showed the latest version, the Omni Zero 9, at Robot-One. It’s an eerily humanoid robot that can autonomously walk a few steps. Among the stunning features of this robot is it ability to lie flat on the ground and roll up a ramp using the two wheels that make up its shoulders, kind of like a slow, mechanical Jean-Yves Blondeau. It’s a sight worth watching!

The Omni Zero 9 also competed at the Robo-One Championship, as shown in the following video:

The robot’s head also flips back so if you are small enough and brave enough to sit in the gap, you can actually ride the robot. If you are wondering how big the robot is, then here are the stats: The Omni Zero 9 is just about 3.4 feet tall and weighs 55 lbs. The robot won one of the three prizes at the championship.

Thought-controlled robot

Brain interfaces are becoming popular among videogamers who use electrodes hooked up to their skulls to control the movement of characters on the screen.

Taku Ichikawa, a fourth-year student at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, is trying to do something similar with a robot. Ichikawa uses 12 electrodes to measure his neural activity, which in turn issues commands via a wireless connection to a robot that is about 20 inches tall and weighs 4.4 lbs.

Ichikawa’s robot can perform three types of movement: walking forward, rotating right and using its single arm for stabbing attacks, says Japanese newspaper Mainichi Daily News. The thought-to-action process is not instantaneous though. It takes a total of about 1.5 seconds for the robot to begin doing what Ichikawa is thinking.

Nvidia Shows Off Android with Tegra

Nvidia worked closely with Open Handset Alliance and came up with new Tegra APX 2600 processor running Android OS at the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC). These Tegra APX 2600 application processors are capable of HD video playback from 720p to 1080p.

Aimed at the Android based device development, Nvidia believes that Android sales will surpass Windows Mobile sales by 2012. Hence by working closely with Android, Nvidia’s Tegra APX 2600 chipset promises high-definition video playback, low power consumption and better looking interface. Thus, Nvidia is pushing Android OS with its Tegra APX processors for the portable/mobile devices platform.

In addition to its Tegra APX 2600 applications processors, Nvidia also hinted about two mysteriously named phones S2 and Yulong N8 expected in Q3 and Q4 of this year respectively.

At the MWC, Nvidia showed off the prowess of Tegra APX 2600 chipset on a prototype device that flaunted a 1080p HD video playback. Check the demo of what Tegra APX processors are capable of here.

The Tegra APX 2600 chipset isn’t just for mobile phones; it will be usable in Mobile Internet Devices, Portable Navigation Devices, and Portable Media Players. Doesn’t this remind of what the Creative Zii platform can do? Well it surely does.

So what can users expect from Tegra APX chips? Well, one can expect more handheld devices with HD video playback capabilities and longer battery life. Hopefully, by the end of the year, we’ll get to see working handheld devices spruced with Nvidia’s Tegra APX application processor.

Hands On With the New Nokia 5800

The touchscreen 3G Nokia 5800, set to launch in North America later this month, will give the mobile world a pleasant surprise. This iPhone rival brings plenty of hardware goodies, but can it compete with Apple’s crown jewel?

The 5800 will launch on February 26th, and will be available in an unlocked version, which can be used on either AT&T’s or T-Mobile’s network, for $399. I’ve been using the Nokia 5800 as my primary phone for the past few days to see how well it performed–and how well it compares with my iPhone. 

The Good

+ 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, dual-flash, and geotagging

+ VGA video recording at 30 frames per second, and TV out

+ Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio with RDS, GPS, and USB 2.0

+ Accelerometer, proximity sensor

+ Nokia OVI integration

+ Rich retail package and relatively affordable price (for an unlocked phone)

The Bad

– Immature and cumbersome user interface

– Not the best touchscreen sensitivity

– Unpolished web browser

– Llimited 3rd party apps availability

– Separate charger/syncing ports

– Additional paid license needed for voice-guided GPS navigation

The Hardware

What struck me immediately about the Nokia 5800 is that it lacks external music controls–and it’s supposed to be a music-centric handset. On its right side, you’ll find SIM and memory card slots, with stereo speaker grills underneath. On the left side are volume controls, a sliding screen lock, and a camera shutter. At the top of the phone, there’s a power/profile switching button, plus a microUSB slot and a standard 3.5mm audio jack. A pleasant surprise was the included stylus, housed at the bottom right corner of the handset’s back.

One of Nokia’s 5800 most important assets is located at the back of the phone. The 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera sports Carl Zeiss lens with dual LED flash (take that, iPhone). Nokia just upgraded 5800’s firmware last night, adding geotagging for photos (using the built-in GPS antenna), among other features.

The 5800 features a 3.2-inch 16:9 aspect ratio touchscreen (360 x 640 pixels), which has three control keys underneath it: call, menu and hang up. The front of the phone also has a secondary VGA camera for video calling. Above the touchscreen, there’s a tiny touch sensitive area can be found that brings up five onscreen shortcuts for music, pictures, media sharing, movies, and Web.

Music is the central point of the Nokia 5800, and the phone delivers. The sound quality is excellent, and the 5800 has a dedicated music chip built in, offering a listening experience on a par with a dedicated music device like the iPod and the iPhone. The music player offers plenty of functionality, including the ability to create playlists, view cover art, and an adjustable equalizer. The new firmware also allows users to modify song information in MP3 ID tags. As usual, iTunes DRM protected songs are not supported.

It’s worth noting that the Nokia 5800 is almost 50 percent thicker than the iPhone but around half-inch narrower and quarter-inch shorter. In contrast with the iPhone’s poor retail package, Nokia’s 5800 package is quite rich, coming with PC and video cables, headset and remote control, extra stylus, a stand and wrist-strap with an alternative stylus. A 8GB microSD card and a carrying case come bundled as well.

The Software

The Nokia 5800 is based on the Symbian S60 platform, and its touch-optimized user interface is where the 5800 scored the least points with me. Unlike the iPhone’s excellent interface, the one found on the 5800 is not very user-friendly. I also found that the touchscreen was not very responsive; I had to press very hard with my finger, though I did have better luck with the stylus.

Nokia didn’t really optimize the Symbian S60 mobile operating system for touchscreen input, though you do get haptic feedback (via gentle vibrations). Scrolling down is still achieved using a regular bar, making it virtually impossible to be done with your finger. This is quite inconvenient, especially when you have to scroll down through a long list of songs or artists in the music player.

In addition, I found the 5800 slow when accessing menus and switching applications. Even after installing the new Nokia firmware update, the phone still felt slow in comparison to the iPhone or even the T-Mobile G1. And while I’m making comparisons, there are not enough applications out there for the Nokia 5800 right now (but Nokia is expected to launch an AppStore soon).It’s worth noting, though, that the 5800 supports features long-craved by iPhone users, such as copy and paste and multitasking with applications allowed to run in the background.

Messaging on the Nokia 5800 can be difficult, as well. The touchscreen makes finger typing on the full-screen QWERTY keyboard cumbersome. Nokia offers a mini-QWERTY keyboard, an alphanumeric one, and also handwriting recognition, all done best with the stylus. Unfortunately, the e-mail client doesn’t take advantage of the large screen and doesn’t display HTML e-mail either–just text (text size can be adjusted in large, medium and small formats).

Though Nokia’s 5800 own web browser uses the same WebKit rendering engine as Safari on the iPhone, the browsing experience is not comparable. Browsing the Web on the 5800 is fast, but zooming in and out of columns and pages is by far not as smooth and functional as on the iPhone.

The Bottom Line (So Far)

The Nokia 5800 is by no means an iPhone replacement, as I discovered from a few day of using it as my primary phone. But if you’re not into the iPhone and you want a good music handset with a decent camera, this might be the one for you, especially if you get the handset bundled with Nokia’s Comes With Music offer, which gives you unlimited music downloads for a year. Also, given the recent firmware upgrade, it seems that Nokia is actively working to improve the phone’s features and responsiveness. We may also see another firmware update after the phone is available in the US.

Regardless, if you’re looking for a more powerful, full-featured touchscreen phone from Nokia, maybe it’s worth waiting a few more months for the N97 to get released.

Back in Europe, Nokia announced that it already sold over one million units of the 5800. Do you think the phone will be successful in the US? Will you be queuing up to get a Nokia 5800 for the full price (unlocked)? Please let me know in the comments.

Nokia Too Readying its App Store?

The huge market share gives Nokia the biggest consumer base for its applications store now that it owns Symbian

Days after the announcement that Samsung is hopping on to the App Store bandwagon, here’s some more news and a rather big one at that.

Numero-uno phone maker Nokia too seems to be keen to join the likes of Apple, Android, RIM and Samsung with their own applications store. The report comes from Eldar Murtazin of Mobile-Review, who is not just any other blogger, but a person known to have insider contacts and contacts within the mobile phone industry. According to Eldar, the company might announce the new app store at the now imminent Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, Spain.

UnwiredView has translated what Eldar has mentioned in Russian. He seems to have had a first look at the portal that Nokia seems to have readied. This is what Eldar had to say. “At first glance, for now, the app portal looks so so, there is some confusion. But they are trying, polishing it and a lot has changed for the better in a matter of days. A right step in a right direction? And the distribution and revenue sharing model between app makers and Nokia looks very attractive.”

Now, Nokia entering the Apps Store bandwagon is quite significant owing to the fact that Symbian smartphones outnumber all other smartphone platforms with a dominating 46 percent market share. Apple’s iPhone is quite a distance away with 17 percent of the market share (although it has been growing at a phenomenal rate!). The huge market share gives Nokia the biggest consumer base for its applications store now that Nokia owns Symbian.

While this would be the first official jump by Nokia to create an applications eco-system, the company already has it’s MOSH and Download services which does a crude job of being an app store. It remains unclear as to how these initiatives end up once the app store is up and running.

Asus, Garmin to Launch Nuvifone Smartphone

The companies expect to introduce the device at the Mobile World Congress scheduled later this month

The GPS centric Garmin’s Nuvifone was supposed to be out sometime back in 2008. However, it did not, thanks to a series of delays.

After all this while, the company now claims that the product is finally ready and is close to a release. Garmin added that it has tied up with Taiwanese manufacturer Asus to help them in the development of the Nuvifone. In fact, since early 2008, Asus and Garmin have been working on the Nuvifone. The Nuvifone was touted as a GPS centric touchscreen handset boasting of a 3.5-inch screen, Bluetooth, WiFi and other latest features. However, soon after the announcement, the Apple iPhone 3G hit the market, stealing the thunder from the Nuvifone. Almost after year, the development seems to be in its final stages. The companies expect to introduce the device at the Mobile World Congress scheduled later this month.

Since Garmin’s original plan to introduce the phone by the third quarter of 2008 did not work out, it now aims to release the phone in the very first quarter of 2009. While many expected the announcement to come at the recently concluded CES, the company chose to skip the event and is now expected to announce the new device at the MWC.

Asus, even though not a big player in the mobile phone segment, seems to be enthusiastic about the Nuvifone and expects it to help the company carve a niche for itself in the competitive mobile segme