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I got myself a new cell phone! Yay for me! And I shall share my joy with you whether you like it or not. So shut up and listen.

The contract with my cell phone provider recently expired so seized the opportunity to pretend I needed a new phone. I made a short list of what I wanted (namely WiFi, GPS, Symbian and a good, replaceable battery) and what wasn’t all that important (multimedia capabilities, camera and touchscreen) and the list of possible candidates quickly became very short.

I was fairly excited about the Blackberry Storm when it was announced last September. Of course now we know that it didn’t really live up to all the expectations it initially raised, but even if it had done so, not having WiFi would still be an absolute no-go. The iPhone is a great piece of engineering, but the battery isn’t replaceable and I don’t agree with the overall concept Apple is pursuing with its App Store. The Android-powered phones (all two of them) are somewhat clunky and in my opinion not quite mature enough yet.

I’ll only comment on a few things instead of boring you with a lengthy in-depth review, there are plenty of them out there already, and I agree with them for the most part (take a look at All About Symbian, Mobile Tech Review or Engadget Mobile). But truth be told, who really sold it to me was Joel Spolsky – I trust that man :-)

Synchronization

I manage all my contacts and appointments using Zimbra, so seamless synchronization was mandatory. Turns out that Nokia’s Mail for Exchange does exactly that. Just enter the URL and your login credentials and you’re all set, no need to manually synchronize with your PC.
There’s also RoadSync which is more powerful but puts a 50$ deep dent in your pocket. If I ever switch to Exchange I might take another look at it. Until then, Mail For Exchange is just fine.

Battery

Now that’s a big one. I just hate having to recharge my cell phone every other day. The E71 easily lasts four or more days, and that’s including some semi-serious WiFi usage. Plus the battery is replaceable which is great. You can get a new one for as low as 20€, should need be.

Keyboard

As you can see in the picture, the E71 features a full QWERTY-keyboard which rather small keys. I was very skeptic as to how tedious typing on it would be. Turns out, it really is a breeze once you’ve gotten used to it. The positioning of the ‘ü’ is somewhat awkward but that’s no biggie. I was very pleasantly surprised.

WiFi & Web

Unfortunately, the way the E71 handles WiFi connections isn’t terribly smart and you have to manually select the appropriate access point for each program each and every time you want to connect to the Internet. If, however, you can bring yourself to shelling out 10€ you can get Psiloc Connect which will take care of all of that hassle.
The device comes with its own browser but I didn’t even look at it given that Opera Mobile is indisputably the weapon of choice here. I have to admit that surfing with the iPhone is a lot more fun due to its touchscreen (and larger display). So if that’s a primary concern for you then you should probably go with the iPhone. I, however, am not planning on spending too much time on the web. All I usually do is look something up on Wikipedia, post on Facebook or read news. For that the navigating with the keyboard is perfectly fine.

All in all, the E71 is a truly great phone. The only thing one could complain about is the mediocre camera and possibly its multimedia capabilities (or lack thereof). Then again, it’s a business phone. And a good one at that.

What a glorious day! First a Swedish court convicts Pirate Bay owners, then German’s family minister Ursula von der Leyen persuades ISPs to block child pornography websites. Now all we have to do is outlaw violence and theft and world peace is at hand!

Oh, wait…

The whole thing would be a good laugh if it wasn’t so frightening. I’m not gonna comment on the Pirate Bay ruling, there is plenty of press coverage on that as it is, and it’s the blockage of web sites containing child pornography that really worries me. Not because I endorse it (far from it) but because it is not merely a futile move but a dangerous one at that.

Here is how it is supposed to work: Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (aka the BKA) creates a list of all web sites containing child pornography and supposedly updates it on a daily basis (that alone gives rise to plenty of questions). That list is then forwarded to the ISPs who block all access to those sites.

First of all: it’s not gonna work. Ever. There’s VPN, there’s Tor, there’s proxies… but this is what you get when politicians make decisions about things they don’t understand. We were all very happy to hear that Germany’s Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble finally realized that the internet isn’t really just a modern telephone switchboard. Even he has his moments.
And even if it did work it wouldn’t change a damn thing. The children were already abused. The damage has been done. You are fiddling with symptoms. It’s populism, and nothing but populism. All it will achieve is force pedophiles deeper underground, aggravating the problem if anything. You can close your eyes all you want, it’s not gonna make the issue go away. If history has taught us one thing it is that people who desire forbidden things have always found ways to get it. It takes a lot of willful ignorance not to see this.

In and by itself this may not seem all that bad. But you have to see this in context: a while ago a German court approved of a house search of a blogger who linked to a site that in turn linked to another site which was on the Danish child pornography blacklist. Add the fact that “child pornography” is a delightfully fuzzy term to begin with and you find yourself on a very slippery slope to censorship.

This isn’t China. Yet. But we get closer to the edge every day and when you look at the big picture it gets really scary. Censorship is unacceptable, whatever form it may take. Wehret den Anfängen!