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One of the best things about getting online is that you no longer are chained to a desktop computer if you need to do so. This is one of the reasons that smartphones and iPods with Wi-Fi have caught on so quickly; people don’t want to spend their entire day inside at a desk, staring at a computer screen. And, of course, that is why almost half of Americans surf the web not from a desktop computer, but from a laptop. They are portable, like cell phones, and this means that you can choose to get online and work or simply putter about outside of a dreary office.

But the jump forward that the internet made with wireless internet has been sort of stagnant. After all, before wireless, all of the innovations involving getting online had to do with increased speed, not the option to enjoy the internet from anywhere that there was wireless. And while there was a halfhearted attempt by cities to beat each other to the punch, each getting wired first, that didn’t catch on as much as people were expecting it to. So far, wireless has mostly depended on institutions like colleges providing a network to students or offices providing wireless for employees, while private businesses like various coffee shops draw in more and more customers than their net-free counterparts who don’t understand how much more money you can make someone spend by requiring that they keep buying lattes all afternoon.

For a while, it looked like the next step in the net was simply going to be people getting online using something other than laptops, especially when different cell phone companies offered 4G options for data, meaning that it was suddenly possible to Skype on your phone and watch movies on your iPod. But there is something far better for those people who do not want to do everything on a small screen that fits in your pocket, as well as for tech-inclined younger people who still would like to keep most of their internet time, aside from checking email and Facebook, on the actual laptop instead.

With WiMax, the combination of the ease with which you can get online using Wi-Fi while sitting right next to the router and the ease that a cell phone company delivers signal to your particular device are combined. This means that instead of signals that dip in and out, your internet connection will stay strong, no matter where you go. And unlike with Wi-Fi, you can go a whole lot further than the back of the pizza parlor or another room in your house. Because the towers being used can actually transmit the signal at least 30 miles before needing another tower to pick it up again, most cities that have coverage are covered entirely, with plans to branch out the networks so that they, like cell phone companies, cover the entire country.

So for a version of the internet that has actually managed to take different desirable elements and combine them into something perfect, there is no better choice presently than WiMax. After all, there is no point in mobility if it is limited when you can have the ability to truly get the internet from anywhere within the entire country.

Anyone who likes touchscreen phones should be excited; the most well known brand in the industry has brought out not one, but TWO mobile phones: the sexy Nokia 5800 and the terrifyingly jaw-dropping Nokia N97.

Phase 1 – Nokia’s not-so-brilliant early attempts at a touchscreen phone

Many people seem to be under the incorrect assumption that the Nokia 5800 is the first touchscreen mobile phone Nokia have ever made. It isn’t. The opposite’s true, because there have been several touchy-feely phones released under the Nokia name. Starting with the 7700, we’ve seen a few Nokia mobile phones that are controlled by you pressing directly on the screen. They had a relatively big (for the time) touchscreen in common, but the other feature they had in common, unfortunately, was that they were irredeemably hideous. Just one of those devices, the 6708, displayed a modicum promise, but it was made only for the Chinese market, and so, we never got to play with them in Britain. Unfortunately, that meant that the phones we got were utter, utter garbage.

However, those bad mental images have now been removed by the launch of two new Nokia mobile phones, both of which have touch-sensitive displays, and both of which are much, much sexier…

Nokia 5800 – the magic touch

The first phone on the roster is a completely new member of Nokia’s Xpress range of music mobile phones, the gorgeous Nokia 5800. This phone is very obviously built for music and video; you can tell by the separate XpressMedia touch-key that brings up a list of links to music, videos, the internet, and more. Oh, and the Nokia 5800 has a 3.2 inch touch-sensitive display, to let you use those different media files. Essentially, the Nokia 5800 was created to be a teeny handheld entertainment centre, and as music handsets go, this is just about the sweetest. The Nokia 5800 has also got a 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA internet connection and sat-nav, so that it’s a superb all-round mobile phone, in addition to being a superb media box. Oh, and it’s got a strap to clip on a fake guitar pick. Pointless, but brilliant.

Despite all those features, the Nokia 5800 is very definitely a mid-range device; it isn’t, nor will it ever be, a full-on powerhouse. That role falls to another device…

Nokia N97 – touched by an angel

With the Nokia 5800 all set to deliver touchscreen mobile phones to the mid-range market, that opens up a very big gap at the absolute top-end of the product range; well, there IS a touch-based mobile phone on its way to take its place as the top-end powerhouse: the utterly jaw-dropping Nokia N97. This uses the same Symbian S60 Touch operating system and packages it into the frame of a proper, full-on smartphone. So it has an even more huge, 3.5 inch screen, a slide out QWERTY keypad, and the camera now weighs in at a meaty 5 megapixels. The Nokia N97 is, as should be glaringly obvious, destined to be the new flagship Nseries mobile phone, and it really is as hyper-powered as the rumours had us believe, with HSDPA, sat-nav, digital compass, and integrated Flash, so that you have an internet experience that tops any other mobile phones! Put it like this: the Nokia N97 is awesome. It gleefully relieves itself over other mobile phones and while the Nokia 5800 angles firmly for the mid-range, I reckon that the Nokia N97 will completely DESTROY the competition next year!