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Nokia N97 vs. HTC Touch Pro2 comparisons appear

Now that Nokia has the N97 rolling out around the world I think one of the first things prospective buyers will do is look at what available options there are for these QWERTY devices. HTC has been making these side slider QWERTY devices for several years and they have been quite successful. Nokia started with the E75, but the N97 is the first with a touch screen as well. I took a look at the N97 and HTC Touch Pro2 on ZDNet and now Steve Litchfield posted a comparison between these same two devices. Steve doesn’t seem to like Windows Mobile as much as I do, but I can completely understand his thoughts on inconsistencies between what HTC has done and the Microsoft OS at the base.

After using the Touch Pro2 for a couple weeks, with the rumors of it coming to T-Mobile USA, and with my usage of the Nokia N97, I don’t think I am going to pick one up like I originally planned to. The keyboard on the Touch Pro2 is fantastic, but I am finding the N97 to be just fine for what I need on the go and actually enjoy using my T-Mobile G1 Android device with my T-Mobile SIM.

Have a good widget idea? Enter to win your own Nokia N97

Do you have a Nokia N97 or are you thinking about getting one? The widget support on the home/standby screen is one of the slickest features of this new device and there is a new contest going on where you create a widget using their four step process to have a chance at winning one of 10 Nokia N97 devices. It appears that the widgets you design for this competition are different RSS feed options to give you data “as it happens”.

The winning widgets will be installed on the N97 you win and available for download on the Ovi Store. I am trying to think of something valuable myself and may enter if I can come up with a good idea. Best of luck to all you readers who enter.

PSA: Follow Nokia Experts via our Web Runtime widget

You may remember a post I made quite a while ago about Aptana Studio and how I created a simple Web Runtime widget (WRT) for Nokia Experts. Downloading and installing this small widget (visit this site to get it) lets you have an icon-based link to the RSS feed for this blog. I think it is pretty slick and now have to see about the possibility of making the same thing work as a widget that can be used on the N97 standby screen.

I did take this and put it into the Shortcut widget though, along with a Google Reader widget I found posted on the Nokiapp site. This is shown over on the right on my current N97 home screen.

Anyone have quick links to creating widgets to run on the N97? I’ll Google around, but if you already found something you would like to share that would be great too.

Nokia N97 survives 4 feet fall to concrete, don’t try this at home

I was hesitant to say anything on Twitter about what happened to my Nokia N97 two days ago because I wasn’t sure if I was keeping my white N97 or not and didn’t want to raise any undue concerns for the integrity of the device. I was getting out of my Jeep Grand Cherokee to go into Starbucks for breakfast on Sunday morning when my reached over on the dashboard to grab the N97 and it slipped through my fingers. It bumped into the carpet on the floor of the driver’s side and then out of the Jeep and onto the pavement, landing under the Jeep. I looked down in horror and quickly recovered my poor N97.

I took this photo with the HTC Touch Pro2 (only other phone I have with me that takes a fairly decent macro shot) and you can just barely see the extremely small scratch just to the right of center adjacent to the reflection. It really is very small.

Thankfully, everything was in one piece and there are only two very minor scuff marks on the silver metal bezel around the device. NOTHING was shaken loose or affected in any other way, including the super cool hinge, display, etc. I actually still have the factory screen cover on the screen as I look for an alternative, like BodyGuardz to protect my display. You can’t imagine how relieved I was after seeing nothing wrong with the N97 and I have been testing it extensively the past two days with no issues at all.

I would say the Nokia N97 is one durable device and highly recommend you DO NOT try this out on your device. I will continue to baby my N97 as I do with all my devices, but sometimes things happen accidentally and it sure is a relief to know we can count on quality Nokia products to keep us in touch.

I guess this means I will have a tough time reselling this device, huh? The truth is I always disclose any damage or drops that may have occurred on my device and have to say this is only the 2nd or 3rd dropped device I have had in over 100 mobile devices in my 12 year history of usage.

Nokia N97 call management animations are cooler than the iPhone

I mentioned that the UI isn’t everything in a mobile device and even though Windows Mobile, RIM BlackBerry and S60 do not have the latest and greatest eye candy they are quite functional. One area where the UI is very slick on the iPhone and Palm Pre is when calls come in (not on the Pre), when calls are made, and management during a call. On the display you will see some large buttons for easy call management of functions such as speakerphone, mute, dialpad, etc. I decided to do another test on my Nokia N97 and was quite surprised by the very cool blue and green slider functionality very similar to the iPhone and new HTC Touch Pro2 appear right there on my Nokia N97. I will be taking a video later tonight of this and more functions on the N97 to share with you all, but captured a couple of screenshots of the slider animation in action.

When a call comes in and your N97 display is off you see a green arrow animation (moving left to right) for answer and a blue one below it (moving from right to left) for unlock. After you answer a call you have large on-screen buttons for mute, hold, activate loudspeaker and end call. There are also left soft keys for Options (include some of same big button features) and Dialer. If I call the Palm Pre there is just an option to answer, with nothing to ignore the call.

Hmm, seems to me after a bit further investigation and thought that the S60 UI may not be quite as dated as we all may assume. I plan to put together some more detailed thought on this soon.

Skyfire (Alpha) For BlackBerry

There has been a lot of ruckus in the forums the past little while over the announcement that Skyfire was looking for beta testers for their browser for BlackBerry smartphones. For those of you who don't know, Skyfire been available on Windows Mobile and various S60 devices for a while now and is finally here in all it's Alpha glory to all the beta testers who were chosen.

With some cool features already built into the browser it looks to be off to a great start, but it still has a ways to go. We're going to wait before singing its praises too loudly. It wouldn't really be fair to claim it as a winner just yet, afterall, it is still in its Alpha infancy. Yesterday Boy Genius gave us all some hot screenshots. We waited and played around with Skyfire a bit and today we have some more pics after the break of it in action along with some of my initial impressions.

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CrackBerry.com’s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Skyfire (Alpha) For BlackBerry

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