also the hardware is obviously inferior in this demo but i have always used nokias (since the old b&w brick phones... those were the days) and they have always started freezing up on me several months into use whereas the iPhone which i switched to 5 months ago is running as if new, and i literaly spend all my time on it

But you never know what the final product may be, maybe an iphone killer, or maybe just a cheap knock-off, we'll c

emil.

emilcee

i was not arguing about the product, i was noting what i see as a fact, that the tone of Gizmodo (and for that, most of the geekblogs) is subtly promoting Apple dominance (although that is kind of difficult for them, esp the old-guard, who can not see themselves as the top-dog).

I wud not rasie this issue if for example, the headline was "Nokia UI prototype not polished yet", or even "Nokia UI is bad" - but by comparison with the iPhone, the writers make an effort to dissuade people from buying say Nokia and persuade them in the infinate coolness of iPhone

asherpat

Anyway, a coupl eof other comments pegged it - the VO says "We have to keep the OS familiar to Symbian users..." Legacy means you are STILL using 20th century paradigms...

But the Finns make awesome saunas and vodka.

tomtermite

I wonder if you even looked at the video... To me the video of the UI was even worse than what I was expecting after reading the headline and article. Are you telling Gizmodo should not write about things as they are but with some kind of anti-Apple agenda.

The facts are that iPhone is out and the UI is really nice, even when it was first announced, about a year ago it was *much* better than what Nokia is showing in Barcelona (according to videos, demos and several first hand reports). From this the assesment that Nokia is "months or years behind" is valid.

The iPhone is not a perfect product, far from it, but its UI is way better than what is shown on the video. I will refresh my opinion after Nokia has shipping products. Showing the UI at this point is quite a strange move, although it is better than faked demos that copy directly from Apple, which they managed to do last fall.

Joonatan

How pathetic can the worship free support of the media (and esp Gizmodo) to Apple be? As usual Gizmodo revels in the notion that nothing can touch their church, subtly insults anything that can challenge Apple's domination and in general promotes AAPL Inc. as if it was some family honour issue or their childhood football team. Puke.

asherpat

It's amazing to me that when a company(Apple)makes an excellent, yet "crippled" product that all we focus on is what it can't do. "Oh no, it doesn't have GPS". Use a map people because its good for your brain.

Apple has spent over 30 years developing interfaces. They pioneered the use of a mouse and as far as modern interfaces go they are arguably the best. It should be no surprise that they took the time to develop and test the interface of the iPhone under the cover of darkness, because if they would have to listen to all this dumb meandering by people that have no experience and live in the "customer is right" generation, the damn thing would be Windows Mobile.

assassinave

Brian Lam

ZekeCDN

All you have to ask yourself is this - after using cell phones for 5-20 years, how many had an OS you actually liked?

Yea, one - the iPhone.

jbelkin

Tiger-Fever

But this is Nokia, we only accept the best from them.

skulldriveshaft

The Nokia N800 and N810 have excellent touchscreen features but that demo product reveals otherwise. I'm happy with a non-touchscreen product for now. The iPhone requires too much cracking to get it to run on T-Mo and for such a steep price.

ninjatales

Also, things like actual voice recognition for dialing means you can use a Nokia E-series with a headset and basically never touch the phone itself - just tap the button to answer and hold it in a second and tell the phone who you want to call, and that without training the phone.

UI design is where they are lacking enormously though, and it's not just the design of the software but the hardware as well in some respects. The iPhone interface is just so glass smooth, so quick, so responsive that you are never reminded that it is a virtual interface, whereas a normal ugly Symbian phone is completely unacceptably laggy and slow.

It's great to see they are finally waking up and smelling the coffee and trying to design a modern UI, but they clearly have a loong way to go.

The new Xperia that SonyEricsson is doing too... well, it's based on clunky old Windows Mobile. I have to doubt that they can get the same smooth experience that you get on an iPhone, but reserving judgement. Way cool device otherwise.

cr0ft

To quote Nutbastard's greatest line:

[Everyone else]: Check this out - it'll be out in a couple years.

Apple: Check this out - it's fuckin' done, son.

ripfire

Anyways not gonna even bother watching the video after what everyone has said. Was really looking forward to a touch screen phone this year from nokia but hopefully in this context it isn't comming.

Apple has a really nice UI on there iPhone and I doubt the Nokia will come anywhere close to it even at launch but it'll be usuable and not crappy that's fine... Plus when the phone actually comes out it won't be locked to certain carrers and your allowed to develope for it yay!

DJTripleRRR

and the features are basically all there for nokia, and maybe even are more accessible on nokia's system, it just lacks the smoothness and beauty that OS X brings to the table.

verdict: almost ready as-is for spartan businessmen, and can be made into a really nice UI with a little more work.

rimplestultskin

Also, as a developer of Java mobile phone apps I have written a better touch-screen UI than demonstrated there!

sparx104

Paradise

Does the reporter speak spanish? No.
Is this Spanish woman doing an effort te speak english? Yes
Can she speak better english than the reporter can speak Spanish? Yes

So don't whine if someone tries to speak your language but still keeps his or her accent.

And stop comparing everything to the freaggin' iPhone.
This is not fair and balanced news ;)

Tinseldud

Jumep

Tiger-Fever

NightBlade

ProsumeThis

deepdish

johnnyabnormal

MrThunderfield

ANoel

johnnyabnormal

johnnyabnormal

misplacedparadox

SumGuy

RaviH

Rain-man

ProSeven

Mac-PC-EEE

Babysealclubber

itchytooth

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

Kendra

ouch, I wouldn't even show that in public, if anyway, ever.

deepdish

hassanpr

Kamenwati

squirgle

Apple better watch out!

scoobydoo

Kralex

kavendano14

Maybe it's because Apple's product is already out? I don't quite understand what you're talking about here. It's like saying a beta version isn't as polished as a final version.

Sqube