First the iPhone 3G appeared to have 3G reception issues, which is apparently being worked on, and now the Blackberry Bold may have issues as well. This is a quote from Barron's- "But he also lists as negatives some of the same knocks tossed out about Apple’s iPhone, and this is interesting because the Bold will be first offered on AT&T’s (T) wireless network, the same as the iPhone, setting up some potentially meaningful comparisons. “We had a few occasional 3G signal dropping troubles at some locations especially on high-rises building streets & on our 34th floor (EDGE picked up immediately but slower internet speeds),” writes Suva. He thinks RiM have delayed introducing the Bold because they want to iron out the 3G kinks with a software patch. He also lists “smudges on the screen from our extended testing” and a puny 2-megapixel camera. Nothing about battery life in the report."

I would like to throw in a possible signal issue with the Nokia E71 as well. Last week while away from home I failed to get a decent signal lock for the majority of my trip, with a slightly better lock coming from my Nokia N95. It seems that the 3G signal is not as good with the E71 as other phones, but this has been hard to judge because of very poor network performance from my provider anyway.

If I turn the E71 upside down in a location with poor reception, the signal gets a LOT better. If I put my hand over the back cover, as you would when making or receiving a call, the signal gets worse. This is indeed an odd situation, but I am far from the only person complaining about this with the E71. Maybe the antenna is at the bottom of the E71, surely not!, or maybe there is a software issue? No matter what is causing this, I suspect that the networks may have some responsibility here as well and some extra capacity would be useful...

Here's a video demonstration of the E71 signal issues-

MTR has written up a very good review of the Samsung Omnia i900 and included a couple of handy videos to boot.

The Omnia has few hardware controls. There are call send and end buttons and a touchpad/directional pad (more on that later) on the front lower section. The camera button and Main Menu launcher are on the right side, and the tiny power button is up top (the power button pulses in a variety of colors if you wish to indicate missed calls, new messages and reminders).

The entire brushed metal finish rear cover slides off to reveal the battery, SIM card slot and microSD card slot. Unfortunately, you've got to remove the battery to insert or remove a microSD card. Thankfully, the Omnia has mass storage mode and you can set either the internal storage or microSD card to mount on a PC or Mac's desktop via a fast USB 2.0 connection.

The Omnia uses Samsung's blade connector rather than mini-USB. This is the same connector as that on the Samsung BlackJack II, and their USB cables and chargers are interchangeable. Samsung uses the blade connector for the wired stereo headset as well. It's a two part affair: the first section has the blade connector and ends with an inline mic module with volume controller. That module has a standard 3.5mm stereo headset jack so you can use the included earbuds or any headphones you wish.

Efficasoft Backup for Pocket PC certainly sounds like an excellent option for backing up important PIM data, including text messages which is rare.

Efficasoft Backup backups Mobile Outlook information (Text Message, Contacts, Tasks and Calendar) into self-restoring EXE archives, so you can later restore/transfer them across all your Windows Mobile Smartphone/Pocket PC - it's as easy as 1-2-3!

Fully supports Windows Mobile Pocket PC (2003, 2003SE, WM5, WM6), screen rotation and VGA (480x640) resolution.

The ETEN V900 has been reviewed over at winMobile.se- "Some other new features is the Gravity Sensor, which basically flips the screen from landscape to portrait mode whenever you turn your phone accordingly. The neat thing is that you can exclude programs where the gravity sensor should be excluded. For instance, you don’t want it to flip while you take a picture, just put the camera application in the exception list, and the sensor will not activate.

Backlight: The backlight settings has a new feature called ”Auto-adjust backlight by L-sensor” and this little feature sense the light in the current environment and adjusts accordingly. So, if you are in a dark room, the backlight lights up more, and if you then walk into a lighter room with lamps turned on, it actually dims the backlight. I find this feature really neat and helpful!"

Kinoma Play has today been launched for Windows Mobile, with other platforms expected to follow by the end of the year. This 'could' represent a soft way to get that iPhone experience on a Palm, Symbian, Windows Mobile or Linux smartphone.

In 2005, Kinoma started an audacious project. We started work on a new type of mobile software — a “mobile media browser” — that would target advanced hardware and modern mobile operating systems not even available at the time.

The goal? To answer the question, “In a perfect world, how should mobile media work?” Today, we proudly present our answer.

Introducing Kinoma Play, available now for Windows Mobile. To get a taste of what Kinoma Play can do, watch these:

Kinoma Play: Podcasts
Kinoma Play: Music
Kinoma Play: Pictures
Kinoma Play: Search
And if that’s not enough, we present Felipe’s Dream for dessert.

Kinoma Play is everything you need to find and play video, audio and pictures, whether it’s on your phone, on your home PC, or on web services like YouTube, Flickr, Live365 and Audible.

A couple of weeks ago I was sent a Windows Mobile smartphone to review, and after 2 days I had to return it because I could see it turning into a negative rant concerning what was wrong with the device. This is the first time I have not written a review because of what I did not like, and the main reason I returned it was because I simply could not get on with the Windows Mobile interface anymore (which I could not blame on the device itself)…

Over the past 2 years I have used Windows Mobile devices 90% of the time with occasional dalliances over to Palm, the iPhone and Symbian, but within a matter of weeks with the iPhone and Nokia E71 I can’t see myself returning anytime soon. Using a stylus feels as alien to me as it could possibly be- it is slow cumbersome and just feels unnatural. The only real advantage to a stylus was being able to remove excess ear wax when needed:)

Strangely, I still find the iPhone unnatural, cumbersome and slow to navigate and must be the only person in the world who hates the finger touch interface. I still use the iPhone for music, as a work phone and video but that’s about it. The Nokia E71 with no touch screen at all is ‘much’ quicker to navigate for me than both the iPhone and any Windows Mobile device. It is as quick as a Palm OS Treo in daily use and that is a tough feat to achieve.

Windows Mobile has the added disadvantage of not being icon centric- the Touch Diamond was a poor effort at glossing over the standard interface, as was the original Touch, and I suspect that the Samsung i900 and Sony Xperia X1 will have the same problem; a nice glossy interface that covers the clunky Windows Mobile core.

I still believe that Windows Mobile is the most flexible of the big four mobile operating systems, but I am still shocked at how quickly I have fallen out of love with it.