It’s time for the latest opinions roundup. Here we herd up this week’s opinion pieces and review verdicts. This week we’ve got the verdict on the Nokia N8, Nokia C7 and an Electricpig-shaped divide on Apple’s latest announcement.
The Beatles on iTunes: the long and winding road or the end?
The Beatles back catalogue finally arrived to download in digital form on Apple’s iTunes music store. Is it a big deal or has Apple taken its eye off from more important matters. Our writer, Mic Wright reckons it’s worth shouting about. Electricpig editor, James Holland isn’t so sure.
“There’s something about The Beatles finally arriving in a digital format that matters. It’s a philosophical thing: the point at which digital stores become permanently undeniable – our musical heritage resting in the cloud as well as racks of CDs.
“The second part of my argument with James is our disagreement over whether people under-25 even vaguely care about The Beatles. I think they do. He thinks they couldn’t care less. When we took the discussion to Twitter, the replies were fairly evenly split.”
As good a deal as it could turn out financially for Apple, Mic says believes that, from a cultural viewpoint at least, The Beatles landing on iTunes is special.
The Beatles are a cultural virus, they infect each generation in turn. Just as we haven’t stopped playing classical music, we won’t stop playing The Beatles, however trendy it becomes to say: ‘Oh yeah, The Beatles were SO overrated.’
“The Beatles are so relentlessly covered that new fans will always be led back to the source and I like that they could soon be doing that digitally.”
Meanwhile, James Holland reckons Apple has more important things (that should be) on its agenda.
“It won’t make iTunes any more exciting, any better designed, or less prone to crashing when I try to import a wonky file. It won’t make iOS 4.2 arrive any quicker, or fix the alarm clock on my iPhone. Frankly, if Apple hadn’t plastered a billboard on its homepage, I doubt many people would’ve noticed. That’s because those who want to buy The Beatles have done already, and those half dozen that haven’t – you think being able to do it on iTunes will coax them to do so?”
“The fact Last.fm shows The Beatles have fans of many ages proves my point: it’s not hard to get the band’s music in digital format. In fact, ripping it from a CD provides a better quality version.
“If you’re foolish enough to buy into The Beatles’ latest publicity stunt and debit your iTunes account for the privilege, good for you. Me? I’ll hold on to my cash thanks, and keep waiting for a meaningful iTunes update.”
We finally got to review the Nokia N8. So, was it worth the wait? The N8 is certainly impressive. Reviews editor, Ben Sillis hailed its solid build and camera, but felt let down by its Symbian operating system.
The Nokia N8 features 16GB of built-in memory, an AMOLED screen and a 12-megapixel camera, which for Ben was up there with its most impressive features.
“The camera on the Nokia N8 is nothing short of sensational. It’s true that it gives the handset an unwelcome width around the sensor, but that twelve megapixel sensor not only shoots at a resolution high enough to crank off large prints, but for possibly the first time with a phone, they’re good enough that you’ll want to.”
But the bottom line is that the Symbian 3 OS lets the side down somewhat. “It’s faster, yes, it’s cleaner yes, but delve too far and you’ll still stumble over the skeletons of the S60 UI. For one, the keyboard still takes up far too much of the screen in both portrait and landscape, so you can only see a few lines of text at a time.
“Secondly, those horrible white screens you got at random when launching an app or tilting the screen? Yeah, they’re still there, and they’re more jarring than ever. We also suffered some major outages from time to time when launching the browser. We’re also puzzled by Nokia’s decision to make screen swipes through the three homescreens activate after you finish the gesture – it just makes Symbian look laggy, when it’s not.
“We can’t help feel that Symbian 3 is still letting the side down a tad, and that this superb hardware would be better off mixed with MeeGo instead. One thing’s for sure: we can’t wait to see the Nokia E7 and rumoured N9.”
Announced months after the Nokia N8, the Nokia C7 is a cheaper, slim touchscreen smartphone with a mini HDMI slot, 8-megapixel camera and the ability to add USB storage.
The Nokia C7 attained a credible, but not outstanding three stars in Ben Sillis‘ review. As with the N8, Ben loved its camera and video quality. “It’s not quite up to scratch with the stunning low light performance of the Nokia N8 and its huge sensor, but it’s still better than anything rivals like HTC can muster, and for the size, the 720p video is excellent, with a welcome option to digital zoom while filming in HD.”
So, the Nokia C7, or the N8? Ben? “It’s one for longtime Nokia fans only, but if you don’t need the extra bells and whistles, we’d choose it over the Nokia N8 and save a few quid each month.”
Agree or disagree with any of the opinions raised? Let us know in the comments section below.
