iPhone 4 has been announced - coming on 24th of June.

iPhone 4 has been announced today, by Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. I was expecting to be a real surprise for me, but it actually wasn't, because pretty much of what was rumoring in the last period is found in the device. Also, the...too sharp design for an Apple product, in my opinion. So let's get through the specs:

• Thinest smartphone ever (9.3 mm)
• Apple A4 chip inside (also found in the iPad and we know that it has 512 RAM, but we don't know what's the frequency of the processor)
• 3.5-inch display with a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels, Apple calls the display a "Retina Display"
• Battery life improved by 16% compared to 3GS
• 5 MPx camera with (single) LED flash and 720p video recording capability
• Frontal camera for Video calling
• The case is made of a scratch-resistant material (both the screen and the back, finally)
• A secondary microphone (for noise canceling)
• Gyroscope
• New micro-SIM standard
• iOS4 (the new name for the iPhone OS) which allows the creation of folders, as well as wallpapers on the background)
• And finally, Multitasking (Apple has to learn what multitasking does mean from Android, but this is an other story)
  

It will be available in black or white, with a capacity of 16 or 32 GB. It will be first launched in the US, France, UK, Germany and Japan, with pre-orders starting in a week. Another 18 countries will be added in July. Its price will be $199 for the 16 GB version, and $299 for the 32 GB version (don't worry, with a 2-year contract with carrier).

Are you going to buy the new iPhone? I probably won't. Nexus One can do almost anything what the iPhone 4 can (except video calling). And even more.

Nokia announces the N8.

Nokia has announced their new high-end model, the N8. This smartphone puts a great accent on multimedia and social networking. It has pushing capabilities to various services such as Twitter, RenRen and Facebook, and you can even view Web TV directly on the phone (CNN and National Geographic for example). Plus, you'll have free GPS navigation (+maps), forever.

A 12 mega-pixel camera has been implemented, with HD video recording capability. The N8 brings the new Symbian 3 operating system (how about Maemo, Nokia?). What it has inside isn't that impressive as the camera is, and we are talking about a modest 680 MHz ARM 11 processor and 256 MB RAM memory. It has 16 GB internal memory, which can be expanded with another additional 32 GB (microSD). There is a 3,5" capacitive touch screen, with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels.

The quantity of internal memory is too much, in my opinion. Nokia is far away from being an important "player" in the domain of smartphones. Their previous high-end model (N97) was a disaster, and this happened mainly because of really slack performance especially when more data is present on storage memory. Because the improvements at processor and RAM are not that important, a great pressure is being put on Symbian 3.

In my point of view, this smartphone doesn't bring enough change compared to previous models so it won't reach the success. Moreover, it could be a disaster, like his "smaller brother", the N97. The phone will be available in more colors, at a price of 370 euros without any taxes. Shipping starts from the third quarter of 2010.

More details on official site: http://europe.nokia.com/find-products/devices/nokia-n8.

Nexus One, after three weeks.

I now have about three weeks since I got my Nexus One, so I'll tell you my experience with it. First of all, it's the best phone I've ever touched. It looks, feels, and moves excellent. So, here are its specifications: 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 512 MB RAM and 4GB storage card included. So, very powerful hardware.

It has a beautiful 3,7" capacitive AMOLED touchscreen, and it is a pleasure to view anything on it. Also, it has a 5-megapixel camera, with (single) LED and video recording capability. The battery has 1400 mAH, but because of the hardware, if you use it intensively it will keep you about 2 days. I am really satisfied with battery's life

Android, its operating system, is made and developed by Google, and is one which promises a lot. It's the best OS for mobile devices, in my opinion. It is the direct competitor for Apple's iPhone OS, since it comes strongly behind. Apple's AppStore has now about 180 000 applications, but the Android Market grows fast, having until now about 50 000 apps available.

Here are some problems, with the Android Market. Anybody is allowed to post any app he wants, so Google is probably not testing the applications that are in the Market. There are some ones even infected, so this is a risk for users. But it's better than how it is in the AppStore, where Apple approves and denies what he wants without any reason. One thing is clear. The Android Market grows. And the best of all, there are only free applications inside.

So, let's return to the phone. I have two words to describe what it can. Total customization. I hope you understood what I wanted to say. You have 5 screens, you can customize them how you want, you can add folders, plenty of widgets, shortcuts, you can open what application you want, let it open, open other, return to the first one without closing the other. The phone does a very efficient multi-tasking, the applications work like they are connected to each other, you have lots of options inside the apps, and on that screen.....everything is amazing.

However, I've experiencing some things that are not really ok with the phone:

• The phone started peeling off at the bottom. I think that it's from that sleeve case I got in the pack. Now I'm not using it anymore, so the phone is ok (no more peeling observed)
• When I wanted to wake up the phone, the screen didn't turn on at all. Nothing worked; I've even tried to keep the power button pressed for a few seconds, but the phone didn't wake up. The solution was to remove the battery and then turn the phone on (this happened two times).
• After keeping the phone charging for longer time, it heats quite much, but not excessively so this is not a problem.
• The power led indicator sometimes turn green, even if the phone has not been charged completely yet (it should be orange).
• The screen has also some problems, sometimes. It happened about 3 times (I think) for the touchscreen to be inaccurate when I was writing something with the keyboard(this is not a big problem). Pinch-to-Zoom works excellent in Maps, Browser and Pictures. However, via a painting application, it is obvious that if the multi-touch is used and the fingers are moved in aleatory directions, the screen is highly inaccurate. It is not known if this is a hardware or software failure, or just this is the way screen behaves, but I'm sure that somehow it will be fixed.

These were the only problems I experienced. The phone has also a trackball, which is very useful in different tasks. It also lights if there is something that you need to be notified about. What else I must tell you is that the soft buttons (back, menu, home and search) must be pressed above in order to be used. They work perfectly (don't believe the others who say they are not working as they should).

The sound when you receive a call is not high enough to hear it. I mainly hear its vibration, not its ringtone. What seems strange is that there was not implemented any file browser on the device by default. However, third party applications of this type are found on the Market.

And the biggest problem. If you search something in the Market, you can't delete that! Very unpleasant. If you search for example "gifts for my girlfriend", you won't be able to delete that so she might see that. I think that this is the biggest problem of this phone. There is a possibility to delete this history, but the phone needs a modified rom and this will void your warranty. Browser's history can be entirely deleted without any problem.

But mainly, the phone is amazing. It is everything I wanted. I've been using an iPhone for 1 year and a half, but the Nexus One is like a fresh breath. It's something new, something faster, something better. I've been using it in U.S. with a Vodafone Romania SIM, and I didn't experience any problem with the signal (you probably heard about this), using the phone on T-mobile, AT&T and Verizon. It costs about $565 in the U.S., with all tax included.