Nokia and Microsoft just announced their big partnership, combining Windows Phone 7 with Nokia handsets.

Ben Brooks doesn’t think it will mean much…

I don’t think this announcement does much for either company. Windows Phone 7 is a very good 1.0 smart phone operating system — and the mobile OS I would choose if I were not able to have an iPhone — but Microsoft already has a decent selection of Windows Phone 7 handsets out there that are not selling that well. Nokia is a lost brand on consumers these days — most U.S. consumers will only remember the iconic ‘dumb’ phones that cellular providers would give you for free.

Here’s the thing – I like to read what Ben thinks and almost always agree with him, but not this time.

Windows Phone 7 is a terrific operating system. I think it goes a long way towards bridging the gap between so-called “feature phones” and “smart phones” because it has all the features of a smart phone while being really simple and easy to use.

Nokia handets, while not common in the United States, are very widely used throughout the rest of the world. Sure, those running Symbian were essentially useless, but the others are very reliable phones that serve their intended purpose. They’re also relatively inexpensive, making them ideal in developing countries.

I think this is a smart partnership. Microsoft benefits by moving into markets that they don’t currently play in and increasing worldwide marketshare. Nokia benefits by once again having a handset that the corporate market will be interested in using.

The big question though… Will this partnership be enough to bring Nokia into the mainstream in the United States?

From Bloomberg…

Apple Inc. is working on new versions of the iPhone that are aimed at slowing the advance of competing handsets based on Google Inc.’s Android software, according to people who have been briefed on the plans.

Of course. Why wouldn’t they?

Apple has considered selling the new iPhone for about $200, without obligating users to sign a two-year service contract, said the person who has seen it.

Now, that’s interesting…

Apple is working on a technology called a Universal SIM, which would let iPhone users toggle between GSM networks without having to switch the so-called SIM cards that associate a phone with a network, according to one person.

Also interesting.

This is a phone that would suit my usage habits perfectly. Particularly if I could take it while traveling internationally without having to worry about exorbitant roaming fees or finding a local SIM provider.

Dave, at 52 Tiger doesn’t like the downloads folder. He lists a number of valid reasons, but this one in particular stood out…

Searching the folder is another headache. You can’t, unfortunately, sort by date of download.

I do agree with this, but I make it possible by using a simple workaround. The Glims Safari plugin has several options for enhancing Safari to meet one’s particular needs and this is one of them – it enables Safari to save each downloaded file to a folder named with the current date.

Glims is the only Safari plugin I specifically install on a new machine, and downloading to a dated folder is the reason.

Tagalicious – it sounds like something Austin Powers would say after spending a weekend going through his iTunes library and fixing all of the errors and missing data[1. Maybe he really did say it.].

I have a fairly large and eclectic iTunes music library[2. As of today, 10,800 tracks and growing...] that has been carefully collected over at least the last 20 years. As my collection has grown, so has my need to have the best possible information about each track at my disposal.

I’ve been known to spend hours at a time slowly working my way through fixing missing artwork, correcting genres and ensuring spelling is exactly the same as the album[3. Hey, we all have our own levels of anal.].

I’ve also installed several different tagging applications to make the process easier, only to get frustrated within 30 minutes of downloading and delete them.

Until today.

Today I was doing something completely unrelated and stumbled across Tagalicious by The Little App Factory. Adequately prepared for more disappointment, I downloaded the application to give it a try. You can tag 50 tracks before registering and that was more than enough to convince me to pay for it.

Tagalicious seems to use a very extensive database and successfully found most of my tracks, including some of the more obscure bands that your local rock station has never heard of. It did fail at some music that has been released in the last 6 months, but I’m hoping that database updates are regular enough that this won’t be a huge issue.

The process itself is fairly simple – select a track, and Tagalicious does a quick search and returns the album artwork, track name, artist, album name, genre, year and lyrics. Yes, lyrics! I can’t think of many times I’ve wanted to see lyrics, but hey… why not? Then I click a button and it updates the file in iTunes.

Overall, I found Tagalicious really easy to use, and the quality lightyears ahead of the many competitors I’ve tried. Give it a try and let me know how you liked it.

Ben Brooks has been thinking about the next big cat…

Everyday I listen to podcasts during my commute to and from work and while I was listening to some very smart people talk about Mac OS X Lion, I began to think that Lion may be a lot like Windows Vista. A thought I am sure sparks fear in fanboys worldwide, but bear with me because I do see a striking resemblance.

While I don’t of myself as an Apple fanboy, I did have a machine with Vista installed on it for at least 12 months. His opening paragraph is enough to make me physically shudder. It was the worst Windows operating system since version 2.0.

Read the entire post though, because he explains his rationale and it does get better.

What I am saying is that Lion, like Vista, is going to be a stepping stone OS update for the Mac OS X platform. Which is a rather long way of saying 10.8 should be awesome.

That makes a lot sense. Compared to its predecessor, Windows 7 was truly amazing. One question though – does that mean I can skip Lion and just wait for the next one? That’s highly unlikely because from what I’ve seen so far, Lion will still be very, very good. Only time will tell.

From All Things Digital…

With Verizon beginning to accept pre-orders for the iPhone on Thursday and about ready to put the device on sale to all, AT&T has been pulling out all the stops in its efforts to maintain its base of iPhone customers.

Although it has been preparing to lose its iPhone exclusive for months, the carrier has made a few eleventh-hour moves aimed at stemming as many defections as possible.

• Improved tethering with extra data
• Quiet “unofficial” upgrades
• An advertising blitz
• iOS upgrade reminders

For a company that isn’t worried, they’re sure spending a lot of time and money trying to keep their current subscribers.

From Macworld…

But, according to AT&T spokesperson Mark Siegel, the mobile hotspot plan will replace the existing tethering option, which AT&T began offering for iPhone users the middle of last year. Like its predecessor, the new mobile hotspot feature will cost an additional $20 per month in addition to requiring AT&T’s $25 per month Data Pro plan.

It’s a start. Personally, I think the hotspot should be free until the user reaches their monthly data quota. After that, charge whatever you like.

Until then, it’s just another reason people are jailbreaking.

News Corp’s new iPad “newspaper”, The Daily, launched today.

At $0.99 per week or $40 per year, it’s the first publication to offer in-app subscriptions on an iOS device. I watched the press conference[1. Mostly News Corp executives dodging questions by telling people to subscribe and see for themself.], and then downloaded the app.

Following are my initial impressions.

• The app itself is free because you pay once you get inside. An initial two-week subscription is supplied, sponsored by Verizon[2. Take that, AT&T! Verizon is doing everything possible at the moment to get their logo in-front of Apple users.].
• It weighs in at 46.5MB. I wonder how much of this is template, and how much is content. More importantly, I wonder how long it will take to refresh when it gets opened every morning[3. February 3 Update: It took around 5 minutes for mine to refresh this morning. ].
• It’s quite clean and is pleasant to look at, but there is a lot of animation. A lot. Certainly more than is required to differentiate it from a website, which I presume is the goal.
• It’s big. There is more content that I have time to read every morning. Having said that, it might be ideal for someone who commutes to and from their work on public transport.
• I like that it contains a sudoku puzzle and a crossword. Both are big-ticket items in my household. [4. Big enough to ensure daily use]. They aren’t easy to get to though – you need to scroll through the entire Apps & Games section to get to them. I found it faster to go to the Sports section and scroll backwards.
• Advertising! It’s not at all surprising considering the publisher, but to charge a subscription fee and also include advertising seems a bit rich.

I’m going to keep reading over the next two weeks of my free subscription, but at this point I very much doubt I’ll subscribe. I get most of my news from my web browser and RSS reader in small amounts throughout the day and this doesn’t suit me that way.

After following some random links yesterday, I stumbled across this post about making URLs easy for humans to read and remember.

Sure, these URLs look normal to us. They’re what we expect—what we’re accustomed to. But there’s really no logical reason why they need to be this way. They don’t add any particular value to the usability or personality of the website, and I see no compelling reason to stand on tradition for tradition’s sake.

It made a lot of sense to me. In fact, you could say it resonated. So I’ve now updated my permalink structure accordingly.

Articles I write myself now have links starting with kabijet.com/wrote-about/ while articles that are purely my own comment about someone else’s thoughts start with kabijet.com/added-to/

Some of my posts contain a little of both, so I may need to think of a third category soon.