Microsoft Silverlight on Nokia S60 Smartphones — I was wondering when this would happen, but well, it happened today. Nokia will support Microsoft’s Silverlight platform (a competitor to Adobe’s Flash technology) with a view to deliver rich web applications on the S60 (Symbian OS) series of devices. You may already know that Flash is available for S60 in the form of Flash Lite, but now Microsoft is aiming for a piece of the pie. Lee Williams, Senior VP for Nokia’s Devices software org claimed “Nokia aims to support market leading and content rich internet application environments and to embrace and encourage open innovation. By working with Microsoft, we are creating terrific opportunities and additional choices for the development community, S60 licensees and the industry as a whole.” Like Flash, Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in and is used on such websites as NBA.com and NBC Universal. With a mobile phone, the reach will be much higher. For a demo, check out the MIX08 conference on March 5 in Las Vegas. Developers can get their hands on Silverlight for S60 later this year.

iPhone has been announced a few weeks ago and a lot of people were waiting for it to appear. It is one of the best smart phones in its class. However, there is another smart phone that is on the same level as the iPhone. Samsung F700 was announced later then the iPhone however it beats iPhone in several characteristics. Samsung phones become better and better every day and the iPhone is almost the best phone in the world. These phones could be called gadgets because they are top leaders in cell phones industry.

It is very hard to compare and choose one of these phones if you want to buy a smart phone of that level. We will try to help you with that.

Which touchscreen is better?

The size of the iPhone’s touchscreen is bigger then the Samsung’s one and it measures 3.5 inches as opposed to Samsung’s 2.8 inches display. Size does matter nowadays: more and more we watch movies and view pictures using our phones and other portable devices. Sometimes it is crucial to have a big screen even if it involves increasing the size of the device. This means that you are going to have a bigger gadget.

The resolution of the screen is a very important feature that a smartphone needs to have because most of them have screen keyboards and it wouldn’t be so cool to type when you have tiny buttons displayed. iPhone’s display’s resolution is 480 x 320 pixels and it is very awesome for a phone. The resolution of the Samsung’s F700 screen is not much smaller and it is 440 x 240 pixels, besides it has a smaller screen.

Having a touchscreen on your phone is cool and convenient. These two companies have different solutions for their touchscreens. iPhone has the touchscreen with Multitouch function and Samsung screen has the Drag and Drop function.

See what is more suitable to you. I think that a bigger display would win the battle.

Connectivity

There is nothing much to say about it we just need to list you the features the phones have. iPhone works with Quad-Band GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900), it has EDGE, 802.11 b/g, and Bluetooth 2.0. As opposed to Samsung F700 it has Bluetooth and it is an advantage, we think.

Samsung F700 differs from iPhone with: Tri-Band GSM, 7.2 Mb/s HSDPA, and it has also EDGE. It does not say anything about Bluetooth; maybe it does not have it. It is not a good thing because it is one of the best ways to connect to other devices.

They both have Full HTML browsers so you will be able to get online easy and fast.

Keyboard

There are many discussions about the keyboards and which one is better. iPhone has a bigger display and it has an On-screen keyboard and has no real keyboard. On one hand it is more convenient to use a real QWERTY keyboard then the one that fits on a display and this is the advantage of Samsung F700 keyboard. However, on the other hand the number of buttons is limited if you have a real keyboard, as opposed to programmable keyboard of iPhone. So there are two sides of the coin in this case.

Camera

We do not doubt that Cameras and video capturing is very good on these phones however iPhone has done one not very good thing. They used 2.0 MP camera in their phone as opposed to 5 MP camera of Samsung F700. See for yourself 5 MP or 2 MP this is obvious that Samsung’s camera is better. Besides, Samsung was always making good cameras and good software to use them. It does not mean that iPhone has a bad camera but it is not as good.

Codec Support

Why are you buying a smart-phone? Of course you want to have good multimedia functions built in. And it is a matter of how many file types you can open, run or use with help of you smart-phone. iPhone has all the standard iPod files support and it does not differ from a video iPod in this case. However, Samsung can beat iPhone here because it supports more file formats: MPEG 4, H.263, H.264, Real MP3, AAC+, eAAC+ and photos.

Storage

A lot of storage space, that is what we all want to have. And there are also some differences and advantages of one gadget towards another. First of all iPhone has a drive for 4 GB or 8 GB and you choose what you want. It is pretty much space however, there are no expansion slots in it. So you will not be able to expand your storage space.

On the other hand Samsung F700 has micro SD expansion slot, but there is no information about the onboard memory so we cannot say anything about that. I think that it is more convenient to be able to use a memory stick but you have to pay additional money to buy it.

Both smart phones deserve to be called one of the best ones.

iPhone has advantages and beats its opponent with size and resolution of the screen, storage, google maps, push email, HTML Email, and of course it is still iPod.

However there are some cool things about Samsung F700: Better camera (5 MP), it supports more formats than iPhone, it has actual keyboard, and it has 3G connectivity.

HD-DVD lost the high-def disc format in battle which many seems to think it never had a chance to win from the start. After Toshiba’s retreat from the forefront of the high-def disc formats, it’s only normal to expect various Blu-ray-centric devices to crop up. PLDS or Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions, understands the demand for the format and hence, has come up with the world’s first USB-connected external BD-ROM drive. Called the Lite-On DX-4O1S, it can read the following formats:

The Nokia N95 is probably the most impressive full-featured camera phone/media player 3G handset we have seen released to the market. It features a 5-megapixel camera, video/audio player, GPS receiver, wifi, Bluetooth, FM radio, AV-out, 3G/GSM voice and HSDPA data support.

If you are looking for one device to act as your phone, still/video camera, video/MP3 player, and GPS receiver, take a good look at the Nokia N95.

Slide the N95’s screen out to reveal a typical number keypad for calling and texting with this 3G/GSM handset. Also, enjoy truly broadband wireless data where UMTS2100 HSDPA is supported. (By the way, the phone’s response time to cycling through menus or predictive text input is very fast.)

Or, slide the N95’s screen down to reveal media player buttons. Listen to FM radio or play music through built-in speaker, standard headphones, or wireless streaming. No special adapter is required to use regular headphones.

Or watch better-than-DVD quality video at up to 640×480 at 30fps on the sharp 2.6″ QVGA screen. (The video player plays supports standard MP4 video.) You can even play video from the N95 on a regular TV set.

Or, slide the shutter cover open to reveal the Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, and the N95 becomes a 5-megapixel digital camera capable of recording still photos at 2592×1944. Make movies recorded in DVD+ quality video at 640×480 at 30fps, and recorded in stereo thanks to the N95’s dual microphones. This is a serious camera that takes consumer digicam quality images.

With so much media content being generated and viewed, easy storage and sharing is good to have. In addition to 160 MB internal memory, you can add a 2GB microSD card (about $60). Connect the N95 to your PC via standard mini-USB/USB cable, and it will be recognized as an external hard drive — making it easy to move songs onto the phone, or move pictures and videos off. There is also uPNP support for streaming live content wirelessly throughout your home network.

There are still more refinements that we love: A single headset jack supports regular headphones for listening to music, or the included Nokia wireless headset/mic, or the included Nokia AV-out cable so that everything that you see and hear on the phone’s screen will be seen on a television. Simply plug any of these devices in, and the N95 asks you what you want to do. We also appreciate how readily the N95’s various features can be accessed: slide the phone one way for a media player, the other way for a phone, or open the lens cover to launch the camera. Finally, there is also an integrated GPS receiver.

We are already shipping this coveted handset. As with all Dynamism products, our Nokia N95 includes unlimited toll-free support and Dynamism Rescue Warranty.

In the past, we have employed various methods of testing, but none as rigorous as the one that was employed for the W580i. Before any revelations, we must tell you that this was neither our intention nor a procedural norm while testing phones.

After a long line of cars, trucks and rickshaws had run over it, we managed to collect as many pieces together as was possible. Back in office, we managed to put the phone back together, and to our surprise, it still works. With this, we have to agree that the phone is sturdy enough for Indian road conditions!

Design
Hardcore Nokia fans may not agree, but Sony Ericsson does seem to be getting into the groove with its all-new Walkman series of phones. It’s interesting to note here that it was SE that first departed from the tradition of ‘green-means-call and red-means-cancel’.

If there is one company that’s been making breakthroughs, it would certainly be Sony Ericsson. Obviously, we have also seen SE churn out its fair share of disappointments. The W580i isn’t only a fresh change from the usual, but also comes as a breather for those who seek parity in the eternal price-performance balance.

To begin with, the W580i is good to look at. At 99 x 47 x 14 mm the phone is not only sturdy but also has a very appealing form factor. The phone is thin and straight from the top and deviates only at the bottom which is slightly curved. The buttons on the front panel are evenly placed, and surprisingly not hard to use. The five-way D-pad, unlike in most of the other SE phones, is quite responsive. The area between the D-pad also houses the speakers, which happens to be not only loud, but also quite clear.

The last I looked at an SE phone, which happened to be the W610i, the keypad buttons were the most unpleasant I had ever come across. However, the W580i does SE proud. My grouse is with the slide — it’s not easy. By this I mean, you will need to strain your thumb a bit for the spring mechanism to come into play and for the phone to slide open.

All said, SE does manage to get some things turned against itself. It’s almost like a knack! The SIM slot is a bit of a pain. You will need to push the SIM in with the tip of the finger, which for comfort’s sake better be your protruding nail. Same while removing it. And FYI, it’s not hot swappable.

That apart, W580i has a lot of character. The phone has lights on the sides that change with the theme and when the music is on. This, combined with, the lighting scheme of the phone makes it look very colorful. This is one phone you will not mind bringing out for a chat.

Features / Performance
Keeping looks aside, the W580i is also feature-rich. The UI is fast, and didn’t lag at all even while we tried accessing data from the nearly full 1GB memory card. Also it has the usual assortment of features like animated menus, slight vibration while moving from one menu icon to another etc.
One unique feature of this phone is the inclusion of the pedometer, which can be accessed through the fitness icon. What it does is, counts the number of steps/strides/leaps you make (quite inaccurate) before it resets in the night. You can manually enter the distance you are going to travel, and the motion sensor installed calculates things like calories burned, steps taken etc.

The screen is a 262.144 color TFT (240×320 pixel resolution), and is sort of a finger-print magnet. The phone comes with an internal memory of only 12MB, but can scaled up to 2GB using the M2 card (Memory Stick Micro). One drawback with this phone is that if you unlock the phone without sliding it open, there is absolutely no way to lock it. You will have slide it open and shut to lock the keypad.

Apart from this, the phone has the usual world clock, alarm, stopwatch etc. You can change themes and wallpapers as in any other phone. The phone supports EDGE, and comes equipped with Bluetooth and USB connectivity. It also supports A2DP for listening to music through Bluetooth stereo headsets.

Camera / Music

The 2MP camera is pretty good, and has a lot of things that can come handy. It has the usual post-production gimmicks to offer through Photo DJ. The camera itself is good and manages to saturate colors quite efficiently.

Obviously, it goes without saying that the pictures are useful only on the phone or for publishing on the web. The camera has no flash, which is one of the major drawback. And to there is no auto focus either! We lost the M2 card during the accident, so have no pictures to show for it.

Seeing as it comes from the Walkman series of SE phones, the music performance is top class. To top it all the phone also features ’shake to shuffle’. You can simply change tracks by shaking the phone. We tried it and it didn’t work very accurately. But it’s fun to have it nevertheless.
The bundled in-ear earphones make up for the slightly low volume of the music player. However, what I like is the fact that the phone doesn’t lag while switching songs. This stays true even while the entire 2GB of space is full.

Conclusion

Often in the past, SE has managed to compromise on comfort for the dashing designs it’s so famous for. With the W580i, one may notice that SE seems to have struck gold. The phone is not only good to look at, but also feels right. The features may not have anything new to boast about, but the phone sure is fast. This phone is definitely aimed at music lovers, who will find that the W580i costs only Rs13,000. This in my opinion is a steal!
With a battery life of about a day (with a lot of talking and some music) you will have to charge the phone once a day. Well, what did you think, there’s so much to the phone that this shouldn’t be a hassle at all!

Specs

Microsoft Corp will authorize a proxy battle for Yahoo! Inc this week to convince the Web company’s shareholders to agree on a takeover deal that the Yahoo board so far has rejected, the New York Times’ DealBook blog said on Tuesday.

Quoting people briefed on the matter, the Times Web site said Microsoft, which has been expected to raise its cash-and-stock bid originally worth $44.6 billion, would seek to nominate a slate of directors by March 13, if Yahoo’s board did not enter talks.

A Microsoft spokesman said the company had always maintained it reserves the right to exercise all options but declined to comment specifically on the DealBook report.

A Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment, saying it does not respond to rumor or speculation.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters a proxy fight would cost about $20 million to $30 million, but the source was not aware of Microsoft making the decision to pursue the fight.

Microsoft is doing the smart thing. It’s giving both the carrot and the stick,” said Morningstar analyst Toan Tran. “The carrot was the big premium on Yahoo stock and now the stick is the threat of a proxy fight.” Proxy fights waged by corporations to facilitate a hostile acquisition are rare and represent less than 5 per cent of all proxy fights since 2001, according to data from research firm FactSet SharkWatch. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told Reuters on Monday that there was “nothing new” in the Yahoo takeover process.

“We’ve sent our letter and we’ve reinforced that we consider that it’s a very fair offer,” he said. The two companies are at a stand-off in Microsoft’s unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo.

Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $31 a share in cash and stock, a bid which Yahoo’s board rejected, saying it undervalued the company. Microsoft countered by saying its offer was “full and fair,” but did not say what it planned to do next.

I’ve been a fan of Apple products since I purchased my first iPod back in 2003. Yes, I waited until the 3rd generation of the world’s most popular audio player was on the market before I drank the kool-aid. Two years later, I took another gulp of that kool-aid and ditched my Windows PC, for an iMac and haven’t looked back. It did take me 3 tries before I finally made that switch though, as I always found some reason why the Mac OS didn’t quite do it for me. And now, I find myself standing at yet another Apple crossroads in my gadget life. This time, it’s with the world’s most hyped mobile phone: the Apple iPhone.

After Apple broke the news that they were NOT going to allow developers to create installable 3rd party applications for the iPhone, I was pretty sure that this device would be a disappointment to me. Their consolation prize of web applications just sounded lame and equally disappointing. I’ve been using a Treo 680 (and previously the Treo 650) for a long while now, so not having access to great 3rd party applications is almost unthinkable, when it comes to a feature on my phone. Of course, the fear of disappointment did not keep me from standing in line on 6/29/07 to buy my 8gb Apple iPhone. But after having used this phone for a little over a week, I am to the point where I have to ask myself if this is the right device for me. Before I let you in on my decision, let’s actually take a look at a phone that may have garnered more attention than Alexander Graham Bell’s original invention.

Hardware Specifications

Operating System: OS X
Memory: 4gb or 8gb versions available
Processor: (unknown)
Display: 3.5 inch 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 160 dpi
Wireless: Quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), WiFi (802.11b/g), EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Digital Camera: 2.0 mega pixels with 1200×1600 resolution
Battery: (unknown capacity) Rechargeable lithium-ion, Talk time: up to 8 hours, Standby time: up to 250 hours, Internet use: up to 6 hours, Video playback: up to 7 hours, Audio playback:5up to 24 hours
Size: 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 in (115 x 61 x 11.6 mm)
Weight: 4.8 ounces (135 grams)

Package Contents

Apple iPhone
Small folding prong AC adapter with USB input
USB docking / charging cable
Docking cradle
Earbuds / microphone
Polishing cloth
Apple stickers
Warranty info
“Finger Tips” User guide

After waiting for months and months to finally get my hands on an iPhone, unboxing it and holding it my hand for the first time was a real gadget lovers moment. I found the iPhone to be even sexier in person. The size, shape and feel of the iPhone in your hand makes you appreciate all of the engineers at Apple. There is no doubt that they are masters at creating wonderful consumer electronics. Let’s take a hardware tour…

Hardware

The entire front surface of the phone is a color display made of completely flat glossy glass. Yes, it’s a fingerprint and smudge magnet. Did you think otherwise? ;o) The color display is beyond gorgeous. I think it might be the best display I’ve seen on any handheld device to date. It’s so crisp and sharp that at first it looks like it’s not even real. You know how they have demo devices in stores with fake screens? That’s what the iPhone looks like. It’s just too good to be a real display. But it is real… the colors are great and the resolution is tight. I also found the display to be viewable in full sunlight. It does get dark, but it is readable.

What I love best about the iPhone display is the fact that it’s glass. Unlike other handheld displays that we’ve all been used to for years, this one seems almost impervious to scratching. It’s also completely rigid and does not indent when you touch it. Speaking of touching the screen, I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to feel comfortable tapping, swiping, pinching, etc. the screen with my fingers. I come from the PDA world, where doing so is a no-no. I will say that after a very short acclimation period, I’ve found that I really enjoy tapping away with my fingers. Stylus? What’s a stylus? BTW: if you think you’ll just be ’safe’ and use a stylus with the iPhone, instead of your fingers… you can’t. It won’t work. So just give in and touch it!

All of the finger gestures of pinching a screen to make text / images smaller or spreading your fingers to make it larger, work just like the videos you see on Apple’s site. The actions feel natural and the results are smooth and fast. This feature in itself will change handheld devices forever. Yay!

There is only one button on the face of this device. It is located in the center bottom edge. The Wake / Home button brings the iPhone out of idle and gets you back to the main menu whenever you press it.

Surrounding the display is a ring of chrome and if you flip the phone over, you’ll see that the back shell of the phone is constructed of brushed aluminum and Black plastic. The iPhone is sealed, you can not open it to swap batteries when needed. If / when you need to have the battery replaced, you have to send it to Apple along with $86 to have them do the switch. Can you say grrrrrr?

On the Left side of the iPhone, you’ll find a small switch at the top that toggles the speaker On/Off. I have always appreciated a similar switch on my Treo, so I love that Apple also included it on the iPhone. Below this switch is the volume up / down rocker switch.

On the bottom edge, you’ll notice the speaker / microphone grills. The iPhone has good sound through the built in speakers. I actually did a double take when I hit Play in iPod mode and heard music playing through the speakers. It surprised me to hear an iPod playing music without earbuds plugged in. Volume levels are very good as well. I can totally use the iPhone as an alarm clock.

Between the speaker grills is a standard iPod docking connector. Even though this is a standard 30pin iPod connector, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to use ALL of your old iPod accessories with the iPhone. Some accessories work, some don’t.

Apple was nice enough to include a small dock with the iPhone. You can use it or just plug the included cable directly into the phone to charge and sync with a computer.

On the opposite end, you’ll find the power switch. To power the iPhone off completely, you hold down the power button and then confirm that you want to power down by swiping the screen.

Next to the power switch is the GSM SIM card slot and earphone jack. To open the card slot, you have to use a paperclip or push pin to ‘eject’ it.

Regarding the earphone jack, it’s a standard 3.5mm jack, but there’s an issue with the fact that it is recessed into the case. Depending on thickness of  the plastic around your favorite earbuds, the connector might not make good contact in the jack. I tried several pairs of non-Apple earbuds with the iPhone and none of them fit correctly. Quite annoying! And if you are thinking of using a pair of external speakers with your iPhone, well… I wish you good luck. I’ve sure not had any.

Of course the earbuds included with the iPhone work just fine. They actually aren’t your typical Apple earbuds though. There’s a tiny microphone and switch built into the Right ear cable. The switch will pause and play music and will allow you to answer / end calls. These earbuds work remarkably well and I really liked being able to listen to a phone call with sound coming into both of my ears.

In hand, the iPhone feels extremely solid and comfortable to hold. My Gadgeteer squeeze test yielded no flexing, creaking or cracking and shaking the phone produced no rattles. I also have to say that after using this phone for the past week with no case or screen protection, it looks as perfect as the day I unboxed it.

To give you an idea of how the iPhone compares in size to other popular devices, I’ve photographed it with my 60gb iPod Video and the Treo 680.

The iPhone is quite thin and definitely pocketable (either in your back pants pocket, jacket pocket or cargo pants pocket.

Another stack up view. Treo on top, iPhone in the center and iPod on the bottom.

Activation

So, you’ve just purchased an iPhone and you want instant gratification. Guess what? You can’t just start using it as soon as you walk out of the store or open the box. Unlike all the other GSM phones I’ve used in the past, you can’t pop in your existing AT&T SIM card and skip away into new phone bliss. Nope, you have to back home, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your Mac or PC, pop the iPhone in the cradle and activate it through the iTunes. This means you will need an active internet connection as well.

Once you’re connected and start the activation process, you’ll have to commit to a 2yr plan. Plans start out at $59.99/mo., which includes 450 minutes, 200 SMS messages and the $20.00 unlimited data plan. My monthly rate stayed the same, so I was a happy camper.

Set up continues with iTunes configuring your email accounts, what music, video, photos to sync, etc. Everything is very easy to setup and understand. In no time at all, I was activated and ready to explore my new device…

WiFi and Bluetooth

Transitioning between using WiFi and EDGE is seamless. It just happens on the fly with no intervention from you. Surfing via WiFi on this device is a joy. EDGE, not so much. Ok, it’s not horrible… But it is slow.

As is, Bluetooth on the iPhone isn’t all that feature rich. It’s only good for using headsets right now. No tethering and no A2DP profile for wireless audio earphones.

I have been very pleased with overall system performance and battery life on the iPhone. The built in applications load almost instantly. If only there were 3rd party apps… You would think with such a gorgeous screen, WiFi and playing music through the speaker would be a real drain on the battery. But, Apple has done a great job cramming lots of juice in what must be a tiny battery package. I’ve gone a couple of days without charging. Very Nice!

Ok, time to talk about the software…

Software

When the iPhone is idle and the screen is Black, pressing the center ‘home’ button on the face of the device will turn on the display and prompt you to unlock by swiping the screen. Any missed calls, voice-mails, etc. will be shown in a list on this home screen when you press the home button. You can change the wallpaper on this screen, but you will only see it when the phone wakes up from idle state.

Here we see the main menu. The top line of the display gives you your signal strength, carrier name, EDGE / WiFi signal indicator, time of day, and battery level indicator. Below the status line, is a bank of 12 icons for all the main applications. Then along the bottom is a row of the 4 main apps (Phone, Mail, Safari and iPod). Unfortunately, you can not customize this menu in anyway.

I’m going to give a quick look at each app in order of appearance in the menu.

SMS (Text Messaging)

Although MMS (Multimedia messaging) is not a feature on the iPhone, good old SMS messaging is. This is an easy to use application that keeps a list of the people you’re texting, and your threaded conversation. Those of you that are expert thumb typists may find the hunt and peck finger keyboard a little hard to get used to, but after a short while, I was able to use my thumbs for quick typing. I have found that the auto word correction when you mistype a word works great too!

Calendar

Nice calendar application that has an agenda (list), day and monthly views. New events can be added on the device itself, including repeating and multi-day events with notes. Your calendar info will sync with iCal or Entourage on the Mac, or Outlook on a PC.

Photos

The iPhone has a mini version of iPhoto. Your images can be organized in rolls and albums. You can use your finger to flip through images, or go to slideshow mode, complete with cool transition effects.

From this viewer, you can email pictures to your friends, assign pictures to your friend’s contact record or set as a wallpaper to the power on screen.

Camera

The iPhone has a 2mp camera built in that takes snaps that are actually really good. Cameras built into mobile phones tend to be pretty lame, but I was really surprised how well the iPhone camera does.

Click on thumbnails to see full size images

The camera app is dirt simple. It just has one on screen button to take the picture. That’s it, no user changeable settings or nothing… Just a shutter button. Unfortunately, you can’t capture video… Just images.

YouTube

Can’t get enough of watching YouTube videos? Then this app is for you. It lets you see the most viewed videos for the day, week or all time. You can bookmark them, email them and search for them.

Watching to videos using WiFi is great. EDGE, not so great…

Stocks

Keep an eye on your family fortune with this stock ticker.

Google Maps

Everyone’s fave map app is on your iPhone. Use your fingers to zoom in and out, view in map, satellite or list (directions) mode. In list mode you specify starting and ending addresses, and you are presented with turn-by-turn directions.

Weather

See if it’s going to rain tomorrow. No radar / satellite images though…

Clock

The included clock application is very nice. You get a world clock that you can use to see the current time in 4 locations. You also get a nice alarm clock with snooze and repeating features.

But wait, there’s more… You get a stop watch with laps and a timer feature. Nifty huh?Calculator

A generic calculator…

Notes

Keep all your bits of info in this application. The only problem is that it doesn’t sync to your computer! That also means that you can’t import text into it. No searching, cutting and pasting either. Can you hear me groaning over here? If I had to pick one of the main things I use my phone / PDA for, it’s looking up info in my notes / memos. The lack of this feature a really big deal for me. I’d trade the YouTube app and even Google Maps for a full featured memo app in a heart beat. :o(

Settings

Settings for each application / feature are all found in one place, instead of inside each individual application. I’ve included just a few of the screens here, so you get the idea.

Phone

Above all else, the iPhone is a phone. So it has to have a great phone interface in my opinion. It does a good job, but there are a few noticeable omissions.

The iPhone’s version of speed dialing is the Favorites screen. This is where you list all of your frequently dialed numbers. The issue I have with this method of making a call is, that it  requires me to do the following steps to make a call:

1. Press ‘home’ button to wake up iPhone from idle state
2. Swipe finger to unlock iPhone
3. Press Phone icon
4. Press Favorites icon (if not already on that screen)
5. Tap number to dial

Ugh… too many key presses. Not to mention the fact that it’s not really safe to have to interact with the phone that much if you happen to be driving. Incase you’re wondering, No, there isn’t a voice dialing feature on the iPhone.

The contacts view allows you to search your address book for people to call. Scrolling is done by flicking your finger up and down on the screen, or by pressing a letter on the right sidebar to narrow the search.

There’s always the good old standby dial pad… One of the great features of the iPhone is Visual Voicemail. Instead of just getting a number of voice mails you have waiting, you can see a list of exactly who each voice mail is from and when it was recorded. You have the ability to listen to them in whichever order you desire. You can also view / listen to deleted messages.

Another feature I appreciate is that you can easily change your greeting whenever you wish by tapping the greeting button and recording a new one.

During my week of using the iPhone, I’ve not had any issues with dropped calls or bad reception. I’ve noticed a few instances with low volume level calls though… A boost in the earphone volume would be a nice addition in the first software update.

Mail

For the most part, I love the mail application. It beats the pants off of anything I’ve ever used on Palm and Windows Mobile smart-phones. It supports MAP and POP3 (compatible with the most popular email systems ? including Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL, and .Mac Mail) and renders messages in full HTML with inline images. It was dead simple to setup (iTunes imported my Apple mail settings for all my accounts).

The iPhone can also view PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel email attachments. One thing missing is Apple’s great junk mail filtering though…

Safari

The Safari web browser is wonderful. Again, it’s the best browser that I’ve used on a mobile device so far. I don’t normally surf all that much on my phones, but surfing on the iPhone is much more enjoyable than any other phone/pda surfing experience that I’ve had.

You see the entire page the way it’s meant to be seen, then you use the pinch and spread finger gestures to zoom in on what you want to read. It’s really very intuitive and easy to do. I didn’t find it annoying to scroll around to read articles at all. And of course, you can rotate the display horizontally to see more text.

Double tapping on an image will zoom in on the image to fill the screen. Double tapping again will zoom back out.

Safari’s version of tabbed browsing is paged browsing. You can have multiple pages open at once and scroll through a thumbnail view with a swipe of your finger.

Of course the iPhone is not 3G capable. It’s just EDGE. And as such, surfing via your data plan is much slower than when using WiFi. Another gotcha is the fact that the browser is not Flash capable right now. I guess I don’t surf very many sites that use Flash, because I didn’t notice the lack of this feature… but I know a lot of people are complaining about it.

iPod

The iPhone is Apple’s first widescreen / touch-screen iPod. The finger scrolling features really lend themselves to the iPod interface. At first I missed the wheel scroll feature, but not for long.

Cover flow is another cool feature. It’s more of a gee whiz, look at what I can do feature though… I don’t use it normally, just when demoing the phone to other people. I prefer good old scrolling through artists and albums lists.

Sound quality through the included earbuds is on par with other iPods that I own. No complaints there. My question is, when will there be an 80gb iPhone? ;o) I want ALL my music on my phone, not just a small subset.

Watching video on the iPhone is wonderful. You will fall in love with the widescreen format, that’s for sure! I know I have.

What’s Missing?

All the built in apps are very nice (with the exception of the Notes app…). But I’m greedy and want more! I want 1000’s of cool 3rd party apps that I can install on the phone like I can on my Treo. Web apps are… well… lame if you ask me. I don’t want a crappy web app! I want a real application that works when I’m out of my coverage area, or while I’m in my basement where the signal is weak.

It only took me about 24hrs to start missing the following things:

No 3rd party apps (what I’m missing most is a date calculator, gas mileage app, unit converter and e-book reader, telnet, ssh client)
No note / memo syncing
No task / to-do syncing
No text search
No cut and paste
No file manager
Can’t use as external storage / flash drive
No external storage card for expansion
No voice recorder
No games included! What’s up with that?
No way to add my own ring tones
Can’t sync via Bluetooth

After reading all the things I’m missing with the iPhone over my Treo 680, it drives home the fact that the iPhone is not a smart phone. It’s a feature phone. I think that’s where a lot of us so called power users will find fault with this device. We’re just expecting too much out of it. I know I was. When I first saw / heard about the iPhone, my ears perked up and I started dreaming of the new and improved Newton Message Pad. Well, it’s time to realize that the iPhone is not the new Newton, the new Palm, new Windows mobile or Symbian phone. It’s just a very cool feature phone.

Bottom Line

I’m not going to lie to you, I do love the iPhone. Even though it’s crazy expensive for a phone, I love the display, love the widescreen iPod, love Safari, love Mail, really like the camera, appreciate automatic syncing through iTunes whenever I plug the iPhone into the computer (think Windows Mobile ActiveSync, only this sync actually works…) and have grown to enjoy the touch keyboard. I also share the excitement with all the hackers out there that are trying to open this device to make it better than it currently is. It feels like the early days of the Palm Pilot, when every other week brought us some cool new application or accessory. But all that said, it’s difficult to imagine myself using the iPhone as my main device much longer. Unless I want to continue to carry my Treo with me to use for all the functions that the iPhone lacks… But that would mean that I would have to swap the SIM in and out whenever I need to telnet or SSH into my web server. That’s just too much of a pain.

The biggest issues keeping me from switching to the iPhone right now (in order of importance to me) is the fact that I can’t have all my text files on the device, can’t search those text files for info, and that the phone is closed to installable 3rd party apps. I’m hopeful that these things will change in the near future and that the iPhone will eventually become the smart-phone that I want it to be. I am keeping my iPhone close at hand. But it just won’t be in my pocket 24/7. At least not for now…

Late last year I reviewed two of Kingston’s DataTraveler USB flash drives. The Mini Fun and Mini-Migo. Today I’m back to tell you about three more of their DataTraveler drives: the 110, 400 and Style. Let’s find out if you might want to add one of them to your keychain or gear bag…

All three of these flash drives are available in capacities ranging from 1GB - 8GB (The DataTraveler 400 starts out at 2GB) and come with a 5 year warranty.

USB drives tend to be extremely simple devices that do not require instructions for operation. For this review, I tested each drive with my 24″ iMac and 15″ Macbook Pro. Here are the specific details about each one…

Kingston DataTraveler 110

This drive is available in capacities of 1, 2, 4 and 8GBs. According to the Kingston website, each capacity is designated by a different body shell color: 1GB (purple), 2GB (blue), 4GB (red) and 8GB (green). However, the one I was sent to review is Black and 4GB, so your mileage may vary. The 110 is a plastic bodied drive with a footprint of 2.142″ x 0.836″ x 0.512″ (54.41mm x 21.24mm x 13.00mm). It’s a little chunky, but very light weight (0.48 oz / 12g), which makes it feel a little cheap in hand.

It might be difficult to see in these images, but the outer shell of the drive is Black plastic and the inset is a see-thru Red plastic.

At one end is an attachment point for a lanyard or keychain.

As you will notice, there isn’t a cap to lose with this drive. Instead there is a nice strong slider mechanism that clicks in place when you slide it up to reveal the USB connector. The slider is strong enough that when the connector is extruded, it will not accidently slide back into the case when you try to insert the flash drive into a USB port.

The 110 is the most basic of the three drives I’m showing you in this review. What you see is what you get. I had no problems copying files back and forth on my iMac or MBP with this drive. The only issue that I did run into was that the drive was not recognized when I plugged it in the Kensington USB hub connected to my iMac. It worked fine when connected into a USB port on my keyboard and also the port on the MBP. Also, the status LED did not blink when connected to the port on the keyboard. All in all though, the 110 is a nice inexpensive USB 2.0 flash drive that anyone would find handy to have in their gear bag or pocket.

Price: $10.00 (1GB), $17.00 (2GB), $29.00 (4GB), $62.00 (8GB) - These prices are from Kingston. It is possible to find better deals elsewhere.

Kingston DataTraveler 400

Available in capacities of 2, 4 and 8GB, the DataTraveler 400 has a 2.57” x 0.71” x 0.41” (65.4mm x 18.0mm x 10.4mm) footprint.

It also has a capless design, which I appreciate. The USB stick portion of the device is slightly rubbery textured Black plastic, while the cover is a Grey aluminum.

The cover swivels around the center axis point of the stick, making it very easy to expose the USB connector when needed.

This cover is sufficiently tight to keep it from swinging freely. Two tiny star head screws hold the cover in place. I suppose if the cover would become loose with time, that it would be possible to tighten it if you have a matching tool. A small slit in the cover allows you to see the Blue status LED when the drive is in use.

The end of the cover has an attachment point for the included thin cord (more like thick thread - see image in the Style review below) lanyard.

The DataTraveler 400 is a step up from the 110 in three ways. The most obvious difference is the physical design. The 400 feels considerably more robust than the 110. The second reason is that the 400 comes with the MigoSync and SecureTraveler software preloaded on it (uses 24mb of space). MigoSync is basically a Windows application that allows you to sync your Documents and Settings, Desktop files, Email from Outlook Express or Mozilla Thunderbird, and your bookmarks from Internet Explorer or Firefox to the flash drive. That way you can take your settings, emails and bookmarks with you where you go. When you plug the drive into another Windows computer, it will transform it into your computer with the settings saved on the drive. SecureTraveler allows you to create and access a password protected secure area, called a “Privacy Zone” on your 400. Lastly, the 400 has data transfer rates of up to 20MB/sec. read and 10MB/sec. write.

Of course I had to do a quick speed comparison test between the 400 and 110 drives…

File used: a 57.5mb compressed file.
Copying file from Macbook Pro to the DataTraveler 400 took 5 seconds
Copying file from DataTraveler 400 to the Macbook Pro took 3 seconds

Copying file from Macbook Pro to the DataTraveler 110 took 6 seconds
Copying file from DataTraveler 110 to the Macbook Pro took 4 seconds

File used: a 247mb folder of 125 .jpg images.
Copying file from Macbook Pro to the DataTraveler 400 took 2 minutes 33 seconds
Copying file from DataTraveler 400 to the Macbook Pro took 31 seconds

Copying file from Macbook Pro to the DataTraveler 110 took 28 seconds
Copying file from DataTraveler 110 to the Macbook Pro took 16 seconds

Wow, look at that! The 400, which touts fast read/write speeds is slower than the cheaper 110 when it comes to copying more data. Go figure… I thought something must be wrong, so I did the test again and came up with the same results. As such, if I were trying to choose between the Kingston DataTraveler 110 and 400 drives, I would definitely choose the less expensive and faster 110.

Price: $31.00 (2GB), $56.00 (4GB), $137.00 (8GB) - These prices are from Kingston. It is possible to find better deals elsewhere.

Kingston DataTraveler Style

Available in capacities of 1, 2, 4 and 8GB, the DataTraveler Style has a 2.35″ x 0.88″ x 0.37″ (59.7mm x 22.3mm x 9.5mm) footprint.

This is yet another capless USB flash drive. So you won’t have to worry about misplacing the cap. :o) It has a Black plastic shell and a locking slider switch is located on the side of the drive to expose and store the USB connector.

A lanyard connection point is located on the end of the drive.

You’ve no doubt heard of “skinning”, when it comes to customizing gadgets. You can skin the display of your phone, PDA and computer. You can skin an iPod or other audio player with special stickers. And now you can skin your USB flash drive.

The DataTraveler Style has a plastic window that can be removed to in order to switch out small graphical card inserts. The drive comes with eight cards. Six are printed with various designs, and two are blank so that you can draw on them yourself. You can even go to the Kingston site for more images and the ability to create your own. I wanted to use the website to create a card with the gadgeteer logo. Unfortunately, no matter how many times that I tried, my uploaded image never successfully transferred. It’s either a compatibility problem with Mac browsers, or it just doesn’t work yet.

Anyway, I think that having a way to make your USB flash drive unique is a cool idea.

After testing the DT400, I was curious about the speed of the Style. Test below:

File used: a 247mb folder of 125 .jpg images.
Copying file from Macbook Pro to the DataTraveler Style took 43 seconds
Copying file from DataTraveler Style to the Macbook Pro took 27 seconds

Not bad… Out of the three DataTraveler USB flash drives that I’ve reviewed here, I would have to say that the Style is my favorite. It’s slim, fast, has a retractable connector and can be customized.

Price: $9.00 (1GB), $16.50 (2GB), $28.00 (4GB), $85.00 (8GB) - These prices are from Amazon

From Abrahamic religions

From Christianity

From Catholicism
Keith Ellison American, raised Catholic, Representative from Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress
Keith Ellison American, raised Catholic, Representative from Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress

* Torquato Cardilli - Italian ambassador.
* Muriel Degauque - Belgian suicide bomber
* Keith Ellison - American, Representative from Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress
* Roger Garaudy - French philosopher, before converting to Islam Marxist and member of the French Communist Party, who denies the holocaust ever taking place.
* Murad Wilfred Hofmann - NATO official
* Knud Holmboe - Danish journalist and explorer.
* Nuh Ha Mim Keller - from Catholicism to agnosticism to Sufism, Islamic scholar.
* John Walker Lindh - the American Taliban

Raised Roman Catholic, John Walker Lindh later converted to Islam, joined the Taliban and was captured in Afghanistan fighting against the Northern Alliance.
Raised Roman Catholic, John Walker Lindh later converted to Islam, joined the Taliban and was captured in Afghanistan fighting against the Northern Alliance.

* Vincenzo Luvineri - American rapper and the lyricist behind the Philadelphia underground hip-hop group Jedi Mind Tricks.
* Ingrid Mattson - Canadian scholar and current president of the Islamic Society of North America (2006)
* Matthew Saad Muhammad (formerly Matthew Franklin) - former boxer.
* Peter Murphy - vocalist of the rock group Bauhaus.
* Poncke Princen - Dutch soldier, later human rights activist.
* Radu cel Frumos - was the younger brother of Vlad ?epe? (Dracula) and prince of the principality of Wallachia.
* Ahmed Santos - Filipino, fugitive, founder of the Rajah Solaiman Movement & suspected by Filipino authorities to be an Al Qaeda operative
* Danny Thompson - English double bass player.
* Mohammad Yousuf - Pakistani cricketer. Known for holding the world record for the most Test runs in a single calendar year.
* Omar Sharif - Academy Award-nominated Egyptian actor who has starred in many Hollywood films.

From Protestantism

* Ryan G. Anderson - former Lutheran, convicted of charges of espionage for Al Qaeda
* Isabelle Eberhardt - from Lutheran Christianity, 19th century explorer & writer
* Yahiya Emerick - American Muslim scholar, president of the Islamic Foundation of North America.
* Yusuf Estes - former preacher and federal prison chaplain.
Yusuf Estes, a convert to Islam, is the National Muslim Chaplain for American Muslims.
Yusuf Estes, a convert to Islam, is the National Muslim Chaplain for American Muslims.
* St. John Philby - Arabist, explorer, writer, and British colonial office intelligence operative; converted from Anglicanism.
* Yvonne Ridley - British journalist, from Anglicanism. She converted after being kidnapped and released by the Taliban.

From other or unspecified denomination

* Atik Sinan - Ottoman architect
* Thomas J. Abercrombie - photographer
* Éric Abidal (changed his name to Bilal) - French soccer player , converted to Islam after marriage.
* Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor) - retired basketball player & the NBA’s all-time leading scorer
* Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (Chris Jackson) - retired basketball player
* Tariq Abdul-Wahad (Olivier Saint-Jean) - originally from France, former basketball player for the Mavericks and Kings
* Abdul-Karim al-Jabbar (Sharmon Shah) - former NFL football player
* Ivan Aguéli (Johan Agelii) - famous Swedish painter.
* Dawud Wharnsby Ali (David Wharnsby) - Canadian singer/poet.
* Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), to The Nation of Islam to Sunni Islam to Sufism, famous boxer
* Rowland Allanson-Winn, 5th Baron Headley - British soldier and peer.
* Nicolas Anelka - French football player
* Yasin Abu Bakr (Lennox Philip) - of Trinidad and Tobago, under trial for an attempted coup as of March 9, 2006
* Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker (Philip Barker) - professor of Urdu, former chair of the University of Minnesota’s Department of South Asian studies and creator of the Tékumel fantasy world.
* David Belfield - American, fled to Iran after assassinating Ali Akbar Tabatabai, an Iranian dissident.
Muhammad Ali- a convert to Islam.
Muhammad Ali- a convert to Islam.
* Józef Bem - Polish-Hungarian general, considered a national hero of Poland.
* Mohammed Knut Bernström - Swedish ambassador to Venezuela (1963-1969), Spain (1973-1976) and Morocco (1976-1983)
* Art Blakey - American Jazz musician
* Claude Alexandre de Bonneval - French noble.
* Tawana Brawley (changed her name to Maryam Muhammad) - African American woman noted for claiming to have been raped by several white men, a claim determined to be a fabrication by a grand jury. Later in life she converted to Islam.
* Willie Brigitte - French convert to Islam who associated with al-Qaeda in Pakistan and was possibly involved in a plot to conduct a terrorist operation in Australia.
* Dolores “LaLa” Brooks - American musician.
* Count Cassius- Visigothic aristocrat who founded the Banu Qasi dynasty of Muladi rulers.
* David Chappelle - comedian and television star
* Benjamin Chavis - controversial former head of the NAACP; joined the Nation of Islam
* Jimmy Cliff - Jamaican reggae musician

Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae musician
Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae musician

* Aukai Collins - fought in Chechnya, paid FBI informant, author of an autobiographical book
* Jerôme Courtailler - one of two French brothers convicted by French authorities in 2004 for abetting terrorists
* Ian Dallas - Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi - sufi shaykh of Scottish origins.
* C. Jack Ellis - Mayor of Macon, Georgia
Chris Eubank British boxer
Chris Eubank British boxer

* Chris Eubank - British boxer

* Sultaana Freeman - sued the state of Florida for niqab restrictions.
* Adam Yahiye Gadahn - spokesperson for Al-Qaeda; on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list
* George XI of Kartli - Saffavid commander.
* René Guénon - French Author in the field of metaphysics
* Ryan Harris- football player for the Denver Broncos
* David Hicks-Australian former rodeo rider, recently released from detention in Adelaide.
* Bernard Hopkins - American boxer
* Ahmed Huber- Swiss Neo-nazi journalist, holocaust denier and terrorist supporter
* Silma Ihram - Australian pioneer of Muslim education in the West, founder and former school Principal of the ‘Noor Al Houda Islamic College’, campaigner for racial tolerance, and Author/
* Jermaine Jackson (Muhammad Abdul Aziz) - former member of The Jackson 5 and brother of popstars Michael and Janet Jackson.
* Sarah Joseph - commentator on women’s issues and founder of emel magazine.
* Michael Muhammad Knight - American novelist, writer, and journalist.
* Rustie Lee - British television chef and celebrity.

Richard Colvin Reid known as the “shoe bomber” was a convert to Islam.
Richard Colvin Reid known as the “shoe bomber” was a convert to Islam.
Malcolm X- famous Muslim convert and civil rights leader
Malcolm X- famous Muslim convert and civil rights leader
Hamza Yusuf, head of the Zaytuna Institute
Hamza Yusuf, head of the Zaytuna Institute
Timothy Winter is a prominent British lecturer at the University of Cambridge
Timothy Winter is a prominent British lecturer at the University of Cambridge
American journalist, newspaper owner, and former Consul-General of the U.S.A. in the Philippines, Mohammad Webb was a convert.
American journalist, newspaper owner, and former Consul-General of the U.S.A. in the Philippines, Mohammad Webb was a convert.

* Germaine Lindsay - participated and died in the 7 July 2005 London bombings
* Alexander Litvinenko - former Russian spy converted to Islam on his deathbed.
* Lee Boyd Malvo - convicted of capital murder and arrested for the Beltway sniper attacks, for being involved in 16 murders and 7 additional attempted murders.
* Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood - British author.
* Iyasu V - Ethiopian emperor.

* Jacques-Francois Menou - French general under Napoleon I of France.
* Bruno Metsu - French coach of the Senegal team at the 2002 FIFA World Cup
* Daniel Moore - poet
* Preacher Moss - American comedian and comedy writer.
* Sheila Musaji - founder of The American Muslim magazine.
* Ibrahim Muteferrika (original name not known) - From Unitarian Christianity, an early example of a Muslim publisher and printer.
* John Nelson - first recorded Englishman to become a Muslim.
* Prince Buster, Jamaican singer and producer.
* Queen Noor of Jordan (formerly Lisa Najeeb Halaby)
* Omar Pasha - Ottoman general. Converted from Serbian Orthodoxy.
* Emin Pasha - physician, naturalist, and Egyptian governor.
* Judar Pasha - conqueror of the Songhai Empire.
* Bilal Philips - Islamic scholar and author
* Marmaduke Pickthall - famous translator of the Quran.
* William Abdullah Quilliam - poet, ambassador & journalist.
* Ilie II Rare? - prince of Moldavia.
* Ahmad Rash?d - Emmy award-winning sportscaster (mostly with NBC Sports) and former American football wide receiver.
* Richard Colvin Reid - shoe bomber (convicted terrorist)
* Franck Ribéry- a French soccer player. His name after he converted to Islam is Bilal.
* Busta Rhymes - Music artist, born to Rastafari parents
* Sana al-Sayegh, dean of the Science and Technology Faculty at Palestine International University, converted to Islam in August 2007. Fatah has accused its political rival Hamas of forcing the professor to convert from Christianity, a charge Hamas denies.
* Scarface - American rapper
* Mario Scialoja - Italian ambassador and President of the World Muslim League.
* Betty Shabazz - wife of Malcolm X; former Methodist.
* Zaid Shakir - African-American Muslim speaker and intellectual in the United States.
* Rudolf Carl von Slatin - Anglo-Austrian soldier and administrator in the Sudan.
* Suleiman Pasha - French-born Egyptian commander.
* Joe Tex - soul singer and recording artist.
* Joseph Thomas - Australian convert, acquitted of terrorism charges, placed under a control order under the Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005, currently pending retrial.
* Richard Thompson - British musician, best known for his guitar playing and songwriting.
* Ahmad Thomson - British barrister and writer and also a member of the Murabitun movement.
* Top Topham - rock guitarist from England.
* Gabriele Torsello - Italian freelance photojournalist based in London who was abducted in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
* Philippe Troussier - French, former football player & trainer of a Japanese football team
* Mihnea Turcitul - was a Prince (Voivode) of Walachia. Converted from Eastern Orthodox Chrisitianity.
* Abu Usamah - controversial American-born Imam of Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham, UK. Accused of preaching messages of hate towards non-Muslims in a UK Television documentary.
* Siraj Wahaj - African-American Imam, noted for his efforts to eliminate Brooklyn’s drug problems.
* Danny Williams - British boxer
* Malcolm X - American, from Christianity to Nation of Islam to mainstream Islam, African-American civil rights leader.

* Khalid Yasin - Executive Director of the Islamic Teaching Institute, and a Shaykh currently residing in Australia.
* James Yee - former U.S. Army Muslim chaplain.
* Hamza Yusuf - American convert from Greek Orthodox; head of the Zaytuna Institute.
* Alexander Russell Webb - American journalist, newspaper owner, and former Consul-General of the U.S.A. in the Philippines.
* Suhaib Webb - American Islamic activist and speaker.
* Abdulla Webster - former Sergeant First Class in the United States Army who refused to deploy to Iraq.
* John Whitehead - an American singer, songwriter, and record producer.
* Timothy Winter - prominent British Islamic thinker and scholar, and a lecturer in Islamic studies in the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge.

* Za?anos Pasha - one of the prominent military commanders of Mehmet II (Mehmet the Conqueror) and a lala, at once an advisor, mentor, tutor, councilors, protector, for the sultan.
* Mohammed Zakariya - an American master of Arabic calligraphy, best known for his work on the popular Eid U.S. postage stamp.
* Clement Lindley Wragge. A British born meteorologist who later moved to New Zealand.

From Judaism

* Abdullah ibn Salam - 7th century sahabi said to have been a rabbi of aristocratic stock.
* Sultan Rafi Sharif Bey (Yale Singer) - a pioneer in the development of Islamic culture in the United States.
* Rashid al-Din - 13th century Persian physician
* Jemima Khan (Jemima Goldsmith) - ex-wife of cricketer Imran Khan, English socialite, a UK ambassador for UNICEF, and former girlfriend of Hugh Grant.
* Jacob Frank - publicly converted to Islam in 1757 and to Christianity in Poland but actually presented himself as the Messiah of a syncretic derivation of Shabettai Zevi’s Messianism.
* Leila Mourad - Egyptian singer and actress who rose to fame in the 1940s and 1950s.
* Lev Nussimbaum - prolific author on the topics of Middle East and Russian history; the Nazi propaganda ministry included his works on their list of “excellent books for German minds” before discovering he was an ethnic Jew.
* Jacob Querido - 17th century successor of the self-proclaimed Jewish Messiah Sabbatai Zevi.
* Sarmad - 17th century mystical poet and sufi saint, arrived from Persia to India, beheaded for assumed heresy by Aurungzebe.
* Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) - Viennese journalist who became Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations
* Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari - 9th century Persian scholar physician (a hakim), who produced the first encyclopedia of medicine.
* Yaqub ibn Killis - 10th century Egyptian vizier under the Fatimids.

From Dharmic religions

From Buddhism

* The Barmakid family - originally the guardians of the great Buddhist shrine near Balkh, upon conversion they became “the greatest family” in the early Abbasid caliphate.
* Mahmud Ghazan - seventh ruler of the Ilkhanate.
* Mubarak Shah - head of the ulus of the Chagatai Khanate (1252-1260, March-September 1266).
* Tarmashirin - Khan of the Chagatai Khanate following Duwa Timur.

From Hinduism

* Salma Arastu - Indian artist living in North America.
* Dhiren Barot - convicted terrorist, who confessed to planning “to detonate a dirty bomb and launch an attack on London’s Tube”.
* Sumita Devi - Bengali actress and filmmaker.
* Pir Mangho - 14th century Sufi pir.
* A. R. Rahman (formerly A. S. Dileep Kumar) - famous Indian music composer
* Parameswara - Malay prince of Palembang Hindu descent from Srivijaya that founded the Sultanate of Malacca around 1402.
* Abdul Wahid Pedersen - Danish cleric.
* Sahaj Ram Sapru - the grandfather of the British-Indian Muslim Philosopher, Sir Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, who was an official in Kashmir during the administration of the Afghan Governor Azim Khan.
* Kamala Suraiyya (formerly Kamala Das) - Anglo-Malayalam writer
* Sharmila Tagore - renowned Indian film actress from Bengal.
* Vilayil Fazila - popular Mappila songs singer from Kerala.

From Sikhism

* Ubaidullah Sindhi - religious leader and political activist.

Other

From Paganism

* David Myatt - from Paganism, former Neo-Nazi-activist

See also: List of Sahaba

From non-religious to Islam

* Zhang Chengzhi - contemporary Hui Chinese author; raised as an atheist.
* Charles le Gai Eaton - British diplomat and writer.
* Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) - British musician and singer (had a nominally Christian upbringing, but never was a believer)
* Jeffrey Lang - American, Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Kansas. (Raised Catholic, but atheist from age 18 to conversion)
* Martin Lings - a widely acclaimed British scholar. He was raised as a Protestant, became an atheist, and later converted to Islam.
* Mos Def - American rapper and actor.

Undetermined former religion

* Abd al Malik - birth name Régis Fayette-Mikano - French rapper of Congolese origins.
* Mumia Abu-Jamal - journalist, Black Panther, political activist, convicted murderer.
* B.G. Knocc Out - American west coast rapper.
* Hasan Akbar (born Mark Fidel Kools) - American sentenced to death for the murder of two fellow soldiers during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
* Kevin Barrett - university lecturer and member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth.
* Maurice Béjart - French choreographer.
* Robert “Kool” Bell - musician.
* Ronald Bell - musician.
* Mohammed Knut Bernström - Swedish ambassador.
* Khaled Edward Blair - British barrister, later married Princess Badiya bint El Hassan of Jordan.
* Bizzy Bone - American rapper.
* Omar Bongo - Gabonese, President of Gabon.
* Charles Brooks, Jr. - converted while serving a sentence for murder; first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
* H. Rap Brown - civil rights activisit.
* Titus Burckhardt - Swiss writer and scholar.
* Amir Butler- Author, Engineer and Islamic activist.
* Kérim Chatty- Swedish bodybuilding stuntman who was once suspected of attempted hijacking. The preliminary inquiry was dropped.
* Common - American rapper.
* Jill Courtney - Australian, girlfriend of convicted killer and drug trafficker Hassan Kalache, arrested on March 26, 2006 for attempted murder of unnamed people.
* Robert D. Crane - former Presidential advisor and ambassador.
* Ice Cube - Gangsta rapper and actor.
* Bob Denard - French mercenary.
* Jeffrey Mark Deskovic - served 15-year wrongful imprisonment sentence.
* Isabelle Eberhardt - explorer and writer.
* Baron omar Rolf von Ehrenfels - Austrian anthropologist and orientalist.
* Everlast - Irish-American rapper and singer-songwriter.
* Alys Faiz - human rights and peace activist; converted at the time of her marriage to Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
* Philippe Fragione - French rapper and producer of French hip hop.
* Christian Ganczarski- Head of “al Qaeda in Europe”.
* Philippe Grenier - (1865-1944) French doctor, first and only muslim MP in France.
* Gigi Gryce - American saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator.
* Walt Hazzard - former NBA player.
* David Hicks - convicted Australian terrorist.
* Lim Yew Hock - Singapore’s second Chief Minister from 1956 to 1959.[216]
* Craig Hodges - former NBA player.
* Ibrahim Hooper (Douglas Hooper) - Islamic activist, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
* Abdullah Ibrahim - South African Jazz musician.
* Umar Islam - one of the suspects arrested in the UK in connection to the 2006 transatlantic aircraft terrorist plot in the United Kingdom.[220]
* Tiara Jacquelina - Malaysion actress.
* Ahmad Jamal - Jazz pianist.
* Jan Janszoon - Dutch pirate.
* Larry Johnson - retired American professional basketball player.
* Gustave-Henri Jossot - French caricaturist, illustrator and Orientalist painter.
* Muhammad Khodabandeh - eighth Ilkhaid dynasty ruler in Iran from 1304 to 1316.
* Vladimir Khodov - leader of the Beslan school hostage crisis- converted in prison.
* Abd al Haqq Kielan - Swedish cleric.
* Ghostface Killah - member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
* Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan - born Yvette Blanche Labrousse, Miss France 1930, wife of Aga Khan III.
* Yusef Lateef - American Jazz musician.
* Johann von Leers - advisor to Muhammad Naguib known for his anti-Semitic polemics.
* Gary Legenhausen - American philosopher and writer.
* Brandon Mayfield - American attorney-at-law, was erroneously linked to the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
* MC Ren - American rapper and hip-hop producer.
* Ali Shaheed Muhammad - member of A Tribe Called Quest.
* Idris Muhammad - American jazz musician.
* John Allen Muhammad - convicted serial killer, known as the Beltway Sniper.
* Anthony Mundine - Australian Boxer.
* Abdul Alim Musa - Muslim activist and director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington, D.C.
* Susanne Osthoff - German archaeologist who had worked in Iraq since 1991 and had been taken captive there for three weeks.
* José Padilla - the respondent in Rumsfeld v. Padilla currently on trial as an alleged al-Qaida operative, converted while in prison for aggravated assault.
* Robin Padilla - Filipino actor.
* Sokollu Mehmet Pa?a - Grand Vizier of Suleiman the Magnificent.
* Christopher Paul (aka Paul Kenyatta Laws aka Abdulmalek Kenyatta) - American citizen, alleged member of al-Qaeda.
* Charles John Pelham (Abdul Mateen), 8th Earl of Yarborough.
* Q-Tip - North American hip-hop emcee, actor, and hip hop producer who was the leader of the critically acclaimed group A Tribe Called Quest.
* Dwight Muhammad Qawi - former boxing world heavyweight champion.
* Jack Roche - convicted of involvement in an al-Qaeda plot to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra.
* Ilich Ramírez Sánchez - aka “Carlos the Jackal”, convicted murderer and terrorist, currently in prison in France.
* Ibrahim Savant - one of the suspects arrested in the UK in connection to the 2006 transatlantic aircraft terrorist plot in the United Kingdom.[220]
* Frithjof Schuon - metaphysician, poet, painter, philosopher (in the original and Platonic sense of this term), and a leading figure of the perennialist school.
* Stephen Schwartz - American journalist, columnist, and author.
* Derrick Shareef- charged in a plot to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans December 22 at the CherryVale Mall in Rockford, Illinois during the Christmas rush.
* Sahib Shihab - jazz saxophonist and flautist.
* Divine Styler - American hip-hop musician.
* Nahshid Sulaiman - alternative hip hop artist.
* Apisai Tora - Fijian politician.
* Mike Tyson (Malik Abdul Aziz) - former heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Converted while in prison after being convicted of rape.[262][263]
* Abdul Waheed (Don Stewart-Whyte) - accused of participating in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot.
* Jason Walters - of the Netherlands, member of the Hofstad Network, convicted on charges of terrorism.
* John Ward - (changed name to Yusuf Reis) British corsair and pirate.
* Rakan Ben Williams - suspected member of Al-Qaeda terrorist.
* Michael Wolfe - American poet, author, and the President and Executive Producer of Unity Productions Foundation.
* Michael X - civil rights activist in the United Kingdom and convicted murderer.
Forced conversions
Francis Bok a Sudanese ex-slave forced to convert to Islam
Francis Bok a Sudanese ex-slave forced to convert to Islam

* Anusim of Meshhad, Jewish community forced on pain of death to convert in 1839. Most continued Jewish practices in secret and many of their descendents returned to Judaism in the early 20th century.
* Francis Bok - Sudanese-American activist, from Christianity; later returned to his Christian faith.
* Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig - forced to convert at gunpoint by terrorists of the Holy Jihad Brigades.
* The Janissaries, originally children removed forcibly from their dhimmi parents under the devshirme system in the Ottoman Empire.
* Joseph ben Judah ibn Aknin - 12th century Jewish philosopher, forcibly converted by Almohads, lived as crypto-Jew.
* The Nuba population of the town of Lobonok, Sudan, forced to convert by a goverment-backed Muslim militia in 1995. A number of locals were murdered by the militia for refusing to convert.
* Sabbatai Zevi - convert from Judaism, 17th century mystic, pseudo-Messiah and the self-proclaimed “King of Jews”. Converted ostensibly of his own free will as “Aziz Mehmed Effendi”, in September 15, 1666 while in prison. Although, some speculate that he may have been executed for treason had he not converted,[145] Muslim authorities were opposed to his death.[278] He lived his remaining ten years as a public Muslim favoured by the Sultan. Some of his Sabbatean followers became the Donmeh, who behave externally as Muslims.
* The Christians of Tunis, forced to convert en masse in 1159.