I used to be in the Apple camp of, _”The cell phone will eventually kill the iPod as it subsumes digital music functionality”._ After all, everyone is going to have a cell phone, so why carry both?

However, after the “Nano”:1, I’m now in the camp of, _”Apple should just start making cell phones.”_ I mean the high bar to hit is Nokia. Here’s some of Nokia’s recent “designs”:3.

Uhhhh… whatever.

Come on, it’d be game, set and match Apple.

After all, *everyone* is going to have one. “Bill”:2 can keep his “PC on every desktop”:4, thank you.

[4(Infoworld on a PC on every desktop)]http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?/features/990621directions.htm

[3(Zoinger on Nokia... lost in the Matrix)]http://www.zoinger.com/words/archives/2005/05/10/nokia-starts-making-phones-you-might-want-to-buy/

[2(Wikipedia on Bill Gates)]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

[1(Link to Apple's Nano site)]http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/

Then complain to the FCC. Your complaint is worth approximately 25,000 “votes.” Apparently, somebody in the government keeps track of these complaints.

bq.. But customer complaints continue to dog T-Mobile. In the fourth quarter of 2004, T-Mobile logged a rate of 4.3 complaints with the Federal Communications Commission per 100,000 customers; only Cingular had more at a 4.6 rate, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

p. This from an “article”:1 in last month’s WSJ. “Here’s”:2 a page I found on the FCC’s “site”:3 about filing complaints.

[3(FCC site)]http://www.fcc.gov/

[2(FCC complaint page)]http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html

[1(WSJ 2005-04-27: T-Mobile Offers More Details On Coverage to Ease Concerns)]http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111445269927616146,00.html?mod=home_us_inside_today

In case you were interested in purchasing the “Audiovox SMT5600″:1 Microsoft-based smartphone and wanted to know how the camera shots looked, I’ve uploaded a few to the “Zoinger Flickr”:2 channel an affiliate on the “Zoinger Network”:3.

Of course, you could have also just gone directly to Flickr and searched on _SMT5600_ and found a bunch of “sample shots”:4.

[1(Zoinger mini-review of the SMT5600)]http://www.zoinger.com/archives/2005/03/15/10.05.52/

[2(Zoinger Flickr channel)]http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoinger

[3(Read all about the Zoinger Network)]http://www.zoinger.com/words/archives/2005/04/18/zoinger-becomes-the-zoinger-network/

[4(Flickr search on SMT5600)]http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/smt5600/

It appears that Microsoft has finally wised-up and will stop using year numbers in their product names. So, instead of Windows Mobile 2005, we’re gonna get “Windows Mobile 5″:1. Thank goodness!

WM5 will upgrade the default applications like Word Mobile (the artist formally know as _Pocket Word_) and Excel, support hard drives, enable syncing over Bluetooth, support USB 2.0 and — best of all — keep your data persistent when the battery dies. I’ve put together a bunch of links related to WM5.

* Dave’s PDA “reviews”:4 of all the new features — a good round up.
* “Here’s”:2 a video of Bill Gates introducing it (look for the video entitled _Bill Gates Keynote from the Microsoft Mobile & Embedded Developers Conference in Las Vegas_)
* A Microsoft “presentation”:6 on WM5.
* Engadget’s “take”:3 on it
* And a “post”:5 saying that Dell will offer an upgrade for Axim x50 owners. Giddy up!

[6(theunwired hosts a presentation on WM5)]http://www.theunwired.net/photo/index.php?gallery=./Gadgets/Windows%20Mobile%205.0

[5(Dell will offer upgrade to WM5... yippie)]http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=83371

[4(DavesPDA blog on WM5)]http://www.davespda.com/special/wm5/

[3(Engadgets post on WM5)]http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000923042798/

[2(Bill gets his mobile 5 on)]http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx

[1(MSFT Windows Mobile 5 site)]http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/5/default.mspx

Knock, knock Nokia. It’s been a long time since I’ve wanted to buy anything from you. Remember back in the late 90s when Nokia phones were *it*? The pinnacle of Nokia’s hipness was probably the 8110, aka the _Matrix phone_.

table{width:200px}=. |!/img/Nokia_8110-Matrix-Phone.jpg! |
|

Since successfully hacking into the Matrix, Nokia has come up with some design doozies. Let’s review a couple of Nokia’s greatest misses of the 21st century beamed directly to us from deep, deep within the Matrix.

How about the famous “side-talking”:1, first-generation N-Gage?

table{width:20px}=. |

Or how about this one… the Nokia 3600? Works great — just as long as you don’t actually use any of the buttons. Who needs SMS anyway?

table{width:20px}=. |

And there’s a bunch of others, but no need to pile on. Recently however, it looks like Nokia just might just be regaining a clue regarding design. For example, there’s the Nokia 8800… a phone that actually looks, dare I say, _kewl_.

table{width:200px}=. |

Oh, and then there is the “much-hyped”:2, up-coming N91. The N91 is rumored to have a 4GB hard drive, an industry-standard 3.5mm headphone jack, support for of MP3, M4A, AAC, and WMA audio files, USB 2.0, 3G (WCDMA) and both built-in WiFi and Bluetooth. All for the low, low price of $900.

table{width:200px}=. |

I’m still really happy with my Audiovox “SMT5600″:3, so it’s going to take a lot to get me to switch phones. However, in a year and a half when my contract is up, I just might consider buying a Nokia. Hey, even being considered is a big step up for Nokia in my book. Welcome back from the Matrix.

[3(Zoinger mini-review of the Audiovox SMT5600)]http://www.zoinger.com/archives/2005/03/15/10.05.52/index.html

[2(Engadget hype on the N91)]http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000683041511/

[1(See what side-talking is... or was)]http://cellphones.engadget.com/entry/8817137592535560/