Roland Tanglao's Weblog

The Wall Street Journal also thinks the Motorola RAZR line (which includes the KRZR K1) is behind in technology.

My free advice to Motorola: it's not just the package, it's also the software and most importantly the entire experience which consists of the hardware, software and the packaging. Learn from Apple and Nokia or you are doomed. People are not going to be content with a beautiful phone with yesterday's software which allows you take decent photo and videos but has no easy way to share them.

FROM How Motorola Fell A Giant Step Behind - WSJ.com:

QUOTE

A year ago, Motorola Inc. appeared headed for a third straight year of rich profits under Chief Executive Ed Zander, driven by its hit cellphone the Razr. "A lot of you are always asking what is after the Razr," Mr. Zander said in an April 2006 conference call after another quarter of 30%-plus growth. "I say more Razrs."

But behind the scenes, Motorola was working furiously to get a successor phone to market by the second half of 2006, according to people familiar with the matter. When it failed to do so, profit margins on handsets narrowed and the company swung to a loss. Key executives left. And as the stock slid, activist investor Carl Icahn built up a position and began campaigning for a board seat to address what he called Motorola's "operational problems."

Motorola's travails illustrate the risks for a company that rides high with a big consumer hit. Amid its success with the Razr, it fell behind on developing a phone with the next generation of technology. Missing a beat is especially hazardous in cellphones, where it can take two to three years to develop a new line.

END QUOTE

The KRZR works great as a modem for the Nokia N800. Glad I finally found something the KRZR is good for :-). (For me personally, the KRZR K1 just doesn't work since the KRZR I have from Rogers is both closed and locked so there is no easy way to get videos and photos onto online services like flickr unless you enjoy the USB and Bluetooth chain of pain which I don't. Bluetooth and USB cut it for those who take one photo a day. I unfortunately take much more than that!)

Pretty hilarious that Rogers is hawking a video shot on N series Nokia phones when Rogers doesn't offer any Nokia N series phones in Canada. Or maybe this means Rogers will be selling N series phones in Canada soon? Now that would be cool! Fingers crossed.

Of course anything that Rogers sells would be horribly locked like my trial KRZR K1 which has had its ring tones locked (you can't put your own MP3 ringtones even though unlocked KRZRs support them) and its bluetooth address book and calendar are locked.

I'd love to see Rogers introduce unlocked N series phones. If/when that day comes, I'll be the first to praise them for it. Not holding my breath.

Buyers beware. Buy only unlocked phones if you want to use all their multimedia features and not be tied to cellcos r*poff ringtone stores. At least Rogers and Fido customers have the option of buying and using unlocked phones. Telus and Bell customers are stuck with the cr*ppy handsets that Bell and Telus foist on them.

FROM Chantal Kreviazuk, Rogers and Nokia Partner to Shoot the First Canadian Major Label Video with Handsets:

QUOTE

TORONTO, April 5 /CNW/ - Multiple award-winning singer/songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk has partnered with Rogers and Nokia, to film her new video for the smash single "Wonderful," entirely on two Nokia Nseries mobile phones. The video was conceptualized by SONY BMG MUSIC (CANADA) to be filmed using a Nokia Nseries handset and was shot in Los Angeles last month at six unique locations. This marks the first time a major record label has partnered with a mobile phone manufacturer to shoot a music video for widespread servicing on national television outlets. Log onto www.chantalonline.com/wonderful to watch a 30second clip of "Wonderful" and access information on Nokia products. Win one of 5 prize packs including a Nokia 5300 XpressMusic phone, $100 gift card from Rogers and a full Chantal Kreviazuk discography. Visit Rogers Yahoo! at rogers.yahoo.com to get an exclusive first look at "Wonderful" and the making of the video, for a limited time.

END QUOTE

I've set my trial KRZR K1 to get SMSes from twitter which means that I get 75 SMSes per day. After 50 SMSes have been received, the KRZR runs out of memory and stops receiving text messages. This is not very helpful and a bug. In my opinion it should store the SMSes on the memory card which has plenty of room left. Anybody out there know how to make the KRZR store SMSes on the memory card?

The KRZR K1 shortcuts just keep on coming :-) Close the flip. Then, hold the up or down volume key & then hit the camera key to change ring style from Loud to vibrate to silent to the many other ring styles.

I am sure this is not news to the Moto fanatics out there but it's news to me! Nifty feature but not really useful to me. Because I'd prefer a 1 key shortcut to toggle between general and pager. I don't really care about silent and the other ring style combinations!

Just like Nokia N series phones, you can hold down the "#" key when on the home screen to toggle the ring from silent to normal and vice versa. Useful feature for when you are in a meeting or a place where a cellphone ring would be obnoxious. I still think it should be toggling between normal and pager and not silent but maybe that's just me!

I think the photos are as good as the ones on the Nokia N70 (except of course there is no flash) which is two year old technology. What do you think?

KRZR K1:

Nokia N70

Apples to Oranges comparison to be sure! I have 2000 other N70 photos for you to compare if you don't like the one above :-) !

The KRZR K1 video is decent CIF quality but it's two year old techology. The Nokia N70 videos were just as good quality back in 2005.

Check it out and judge for yourself:

KRZR K1 video of the Skyte (blip.tv bug, I rotated the original but the flash video below is not rotated: original KRZR K1 Skyte 3GP Video with correct orientation)

Click To Play

Compare and contrast with Richard's Nokia N70 video of the Skyte

Courtesy of the Hill and Knowlton (Hill and Knowlton Blog) Motorola Bloggers Relation Program, I picked up my free trial Motorola KRZR K1 phone (complete with new phone number and unfortunately locked to Rogers) yesterday. Bottom line so far: for the power multi-media creator user, Nokia's phones are much better and I would pay my own money for a Nokia N95 or N93 or my mythical N999, I wouldn't pay my own money for the KRZR.

Cool

1. Came in an awesome aluminum briefcase
2. Great form factor and light weight
3. USB Charging
4. Text Auto Complete even with ITAP turned off
5. Camera has a nice mirror for self portraits

NOT COOL:

1. Cheesy Operating System (ugly to me but YMMV)
2. Adapter for normal headphones must be unplugged to answer a call!
3. no flash for camera - Nokia flash is not great but better than nothing. Sony Ericsson flashes are much better!
4. the web browser doesn't allow you to change the home page (Rogers bug not Motorola bug?)
5. the web browser is primitive and bad - sorry to be harsh, but compared to Nokia's Web kit browser or Opera, this browser is a toy: it doesn't support upload of attachments to mobile gmail, no way to enter a URL to surf to (you have to create a bookmark), many, many problems
6. ShoZu doesn't work on this phone (Rogers bug?). A phone without ShoZu is like a phone without sunshine :-) !
7. No WiFi - I wouldn't pay my own money for a phone without WiFi
8. No obvious way to upload your photos or videos without going through USB or Bluetooth "chain of pain" - I prefer ShoZu but there's no support to upload photos to flickr and photos and video to Vox which the built in Nokia gallery app on all recent N series phones does
9. Voice Recognition doesn't work for all commands (e,g, I can't turn off Bluetooth with a voice command)