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Checking the stats on MobileBurn, in the six hours that my Apple iPhone article has been up, it has received as many hits as any other release story from CES has received in the full 24 hour period after publishing. That’s on track for four times the popularity of its nearest competing story, the Nokia N76, and that is amazing. This has been reflected on the stock market today as well, with Apple shares up over 8%, and Motorola down 1.83%, Nokia down 1.32%, and Research In Motion down an astonishing 7.68%. Talk about shake up the market.

Anyway, it’s back to CES work for me – I’m really looking forward to sleeping after this week is over…

Looks like Samsung will be unveiling two new handsets for the US market at CES next week – on the 8th at 10:30am, to be exact. Both devices will feature stereo Bluetooth, a microSD memory card slot, a 2.0 megapixel camera, and will be slim devices (as is a regular occurrence with Samsung), though one will be tooled for video and one for music. I have a feeling that they will be a version of the SGH-F500 and SGH-F300 announced back at ITU Telecom World for the US market, but I’m not willing to place money on that.

I also know all about Nokia and Sony Ericsson’s releases for CES, but I have to keep hush-hush about that. Watch the CES page on MobileBurn for live coverage from CES for all things mobile.

[Update: Thanks Kent and Richard. Keep it coming!]

[Update 2: Jenith (a former MobileBurn employee and fellow Australian) weighs in, as does James Kendrick.]

Today is a travel day, as Ze Frank would say, and while packing up for the impending journey I am faced with the decision of what gadgets to take with me. It’s only the essentials that are coming this time, so the list includes:

1. HP dv2040XT notebook computer
2. Nokia N73 smartphone
3. Motorola MOTOKRZR K1
4. Sandisk Cruzer Titanium thumb drive
5. HP iPAQ h1940 PDA in a GPS car holder for directions
6. Sony CyberShot DSC-W7 digital camera
7. mVox MV900 Bluetooth speakerphone for in the car
8. Assorted memory cards, cables, and chargers for the above

Sitting the trip out that would otherwise be coming is the iMate JAQ I will be reviewing, for the simple reason that it hasn’t arrived yet.

So, if you’re reading this, I would be very interested to hear what gadgets you take with you on a trip. Let’s try and start a meme: post your travel gadgets list to your blog, and be sure to ping me so I can find you. Kent Newsome, Robert Scoble, Richard Querin – I’m looking at you!

I’ve had this desk for maybe two months, tops, and I’m already wearing away the finish where my mouse travels. Symptoms of a person that works from home, I guess…

(photo taken with the Nokia N73)

The Nokia N73 has been a bit of a roller coaster for me. When it was originally announced and I wrote the story for MobileBurn, I didn’t like it. It just looked funny to me, and I wasn’t really interested. Here we are though, five months later, the N73 has been released and I have one in my hand – and I love it. Read on for my initial impressions/mini review of this powerful multimedia handset.

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Just thought I would let you guys know what reviews are coming soon on MobileBurn:

• Nokia N73
• Nokia N93
• Nokia 6708
• Nokia E60
• LG KG320
• Helio Hero
• Helio Kickflip

Phew, that’s a lot of Nokias, isn’t it? There will probably be others added between those as well, so don’t take the above as definitive. Also, watch out for my Nokia N73 initial impressions, which I will be posting up here later today.

One of the hardest parts of my job is remembering model numbers of handsets. For a long time, confusing numbering has been the norm, but finally some of the marketing folk that work with handset manufacturers are waking up to the fact that model names, rather than numbers, are the way to go. Samsung are by far the worst when it comes to naming schemes, followed by Nokia, but the later has recently announced (in a very informal way) that it will be moving to a meaningful naming scheme.

Unlike Barry Allwood at MobileScraper (like the name), I think this is a great idea – with a caveat. Like Barry, I hate Motorola’s confusing naming. Why are vowels so bad, Motorola? What I do like, however, are names like LG’s Chocolate. Think about the auto industry, manufacturers do not name their vehicles with long, confusing numbers, but instead give them names that are memorable, which increases model awareness and encourages word of mouth marketing.

I don’t think a pure name based system is the answer, though; Too many names will get just as confusing as the numbers. What I would love to see is manufacturers using names for ranges of products, which are then broken down with short, easy to remember numbers. Samsung, which I previously called the worst offender, has actually begun introducing this method (though only on a very small range of handsets currently). Samsung has its ‘Ultra’ range, which is then broken down into numbers based on the thickness of the handset (Ultra 9.9, Ultra 6.9), and while I don’t particularly like the decimal point in there, I think this is the way of the future.

Imagine it, the Ford SMAD-1901 – pretty memorable…

To begin, I’m not one to bad mouth convergence. While I have no real use for a music phone, I certainly don’t have a problem with manufacturers combining an audio player and a phone – it does seem like a good match. What I do have a problem with, is the fact that many are trying to take the interface of one very popular music player and make it work on a mobile handset.

Of course, the device I’m referring to is the iPod, and the interface is the click (or scroll) wheel. This input device is great in the audio player space, but it was not designed as, and will never work as, an input device for a phone.

Two recent handsets that come to mind are the Samsung i300/i310 and the LG KV2400. Both are respectable devices in their own right, especially with Samsung’s 4GB/8GB hard drives, yet both spoil functionality by using a click wheel.

One of the biggest problems with adding a click wheel to a phone is the space constraints. While the iPod’s wheel is very easy to use, when you reduce its size and place it with a myriad of other buttons, usability is severally compromised. Nokia, for once, have actually taken the right step on this issue – their N91 music phone still uses traditional phone navigation, and modifies the music player to accommodate this – the addition of non-click wheel music control keys is the icing on the cake.

I do hope that the trend I’m seeing of adding a click wheel to a phone does not continue, and that manufacturers wake up to the face that the usability of the handset should not be compromised to add a ‘cool factor’ to the music side of things.

I was interviewed today by a PR firm that handles Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo, one of the largest and most technologically advanced network operators in the world, and one of the questions asked raised a very interesting point to me. NTT DoCoMo is rolling out two smartphones, a Blackberry and the HTC Z, and I was asked what impact this will make on the marketplace.

Going against initial assumptions that the very technology happy country that is Japan would jump on advanced devices like smartphones, previous releases, based mainly on Nokia’s S60 UI, have not done well at all. This is a trend that I imagine will continue, but I am really at a loss to explain why. The HTC Z is a very capable device – based on the Hermes reference design, it has all the specifications of a high-end non-smartphone – yet will most likely be outsold by a considerable amount by handsets with less organizational capabilities. This is certainly something that puzzles me, and I will be keeping a keen eye on what happens when these handsets are released to the market.

As requested by several people, here are some Nokia E61 comparison photos to help you get an idea of its size. Click the thumbnails for a larger version.