Me and My Phones

Nokia 8800 Arte unboxing...

2008-02-21T00:51:00.022+08:00

So, this will be my first proper experience with an S40 phone, and what better way than to start right at the top. The Nokia 8800 Arte.

This phone is supposedly in Nokia "premium" range targetted at people who appreciate the finer things in life, but maybe still can't afford a Vertu. Materials and build quality are as good as it gets without comparison to Vertus. Technology takes a back seat in this range of phone. While not as power packed as the N series, it no laggard either. There is 3G and a 3.2MP autofocus camera besides all the things we all take for granted in a mobile phone these days.

The packaging really reflects the target audience. The box is made of what feels like very nice quality paper with expensive printing. So let's get on with the unboxing.

Nice, black and classy.

The phone and bluetooth earpiece sits on the 1st layer of the box.

On the bottom layer lies the manual, installation disc, charger, battery, desktop stand (that feels like it's made of gold!) and leather pouch.

Installation CD/manual pouch is very nicely designed.

Full contents of the box.

The INCLUDED desktop stand (hello N series???) deserves a very special mention. It not only matches the phone and looks incredible, it feels like it's made of some kind of heavy metal. I mean this thing is HEAVY. Well done Nokia!

Bye bye plastic protector.

Put in the SIM and battery.

And it's alive!

I am quite speechless as how beautiful this thing looks. Even the E Series have nothing on these guys in terms of build quality. N Series, no where near.

The phone from a few angles.

3.2 megapixel autofocus camera.

The speakers, which by the way, sound ASTONISHING.

A close up view of the keypad. One of the very best keypads I have ever used. Better than an E51 even. I am very impressed at this point.

Double tap anywhere at the bottom half of the phone to bring up the beautiful clock. Stunning.

I find the sync function without much trouble.

Setting up the phone is a one-click affair if you use another Nokia phone. I transfer my stuff over from my N82.

So far, with my limited experience with this phone, I already have a feeling that I am going to enjoy using it. Yes, it does not have wifi or HSDPA or 5MP camera with xenon flash. In fact it doesn't have even somewhere to plug in a set of earphones. Of course one can see that as weaknesses. But if Nokia only makes this phone, then it would be worth critisising. But Nokia has a whole range of phones that will satisfy tech leaders.

This lack of features only shows the focus of this range of phones. Not everyone needs the latest or fastest. Some people drive Honda Civic Type R's and others choose Mercedes C180's. Both cars are in the same price range but serve very different consumers. So far, the refinement and tactility of this device is certainly good enough for me to overlook the lack of some features I have been used to with N Series devices.

Now, if they only made an N82 that looks and feels like this... Someday, I hope...

Nokia N78 live pics...

2008-02-20T17:26:00.013+08:00

Ok, I got my greasy hands on an N78. Before I do a review on this proto unit, I'd like to spend some quality time with it. So it won't be maybe a week before I write it up.

Anyway, first impressions are pretty good. The phone looks much much better in real life than photos, so I take back my words in saying that it's ugly based on pictures on the internet. I love the way the phone looks like it's off when the screen back light is off. Being a prototype unit, the build quality isn't that great, but is very acceptable. It feels as good the the N82 prototype I had, which held up fine for a long time. The screen brightness is definitely better than an N82.

Weird as the keypad looks, it's actually pretty ok to use. No major adjustments needed.

The S60 FP2 adds quite a bit candy to the UI and it feels closer to the iPhone's interface, which has nice transitions in everything you do. The iPod-like touch sensitive D-pad works great especially scrolling through your large collection of music and/or photos.

So here are just a few pictures to whet your appetite:

Sorry, but the plastic protector has gotta go.

Ahhh, much better.

It's alive.

Close up shots of the keypad.

Can't get a good picture of the back cover with the plastic protector, so bye bye.

Reminds me of the carbon fibre dash kit on my car.

Transferring my stuff over from the N82.

Manage to wring an 8800 Arte, 7900 Prism and 8600 Luna from them too. By the way, I have to give them all back, so no need to be envious.

Like I said, gimme some time to use it before I write it up. Patience my friends...

Creative Aurvana X-Fi...

2008-02-19T11:45:00.033+08:00

Recently, I received a pair of Creative's Aurvana X-Fi flagship headphones for testing.

Aurvana X-Fi. Interesting name. Somewhat gimmicky perhaps, especially the "X-Fi" part, but definitely raises one's expectations of these cans. So can it really achieve aural nirvana? And what is aural nirvana? Audio quality is a very touchy and subjective topic.

Being in the music industry, I have seen and personally embarked on lengthy discussions (sometimes leading to arguments) about what constitutes "good" sound. Of course, being in the creative part of music (not consuming music, but manufacturing it), people like myself have to think more along the lines of what will translate well to consumer playback devices when we have such discussions. That is why the equipment we use has to sound as uncoloured as possible, so that we always have reference point.

Then we begin to add or take away things in the music so that when played back on devices like the iPod with iPod earphones, or the Zen with Zen earphones, or your TV speakers..., it translates well. Of course this adding and taking away has a lot to do with how our ears perceive sound too. Typical human hearing tapers off at the extreme ends of the frequency spectrum, ie, it is not as sensitive at hearing a bass guitar or reverb tail ends as it is at hearing an electric guitar. But that's another PhD thesis altogther.

Let's zoom in to earphones/headphones. Typical consumer level earphones sound somewhat tapered off at both ends of the frequency spectrum. The reason is pretty simple, it is expensive and impractical to make drivers that can produce a flat frequency response at every section of the frequency spectrum. To bring a generic pair of earphones anywhere near to what sound engineers deem to be "acceptable", the cost of manufacturing would multiply, making it unfeasible at this price point.

The bigger the driver, the easier it is to get a more balanced sound where the low, mid and high frequencies are easily heard. There is a reason why everytime there is a shot of your favourite pop start recording in a studio, he/she is always wearing HEADphones and not earphones.

Ok, enough rambling. So where does the Creative Aurvana fit in the world of headphones? Well, it is definitely prosumer and not consumer. The features are pretty impressive. There's active noise cancelling and 2 sound modes, X-Fi Crystalizer and X-Fi CMSS-3D. I don't know about you, but the names of those 2 sound modes are a bit too much for me.

Let's get on to how it sounds. I tried to look for the frequency response graph of these cans online but have been unsuccessful. No matter. It's how they sound that is important. Before I proceed, let me state the angle that I will be coming from in writing this article. Being a music arranger/producer, I don't use earphones or active headphones with noise canceling. I own a few pair of headphones but non of them actually are noise canceling active headphones and the only pair of earphones I use are the Shure E5C (for traveling or when I don't want to look like Princess Leia on stage).

So this article is written purely based on my knowledge and experience with sound quality as someone who makes a living off the subject of creating music and "good sound". I do not have any reference to other active noise-canceling headphones, except for a pair of Sennheiser PXC150 which was given to me, and just by looking at them, you already know that they are not in the same league.

So here goes.

Packaging

The headphones come packaged in a sizable box that has plenty of pictures and literature explaining the headphone's features. Not the cleanest or hip-pest design but definitely informative.

Opening up the box reveals a nice nylon weave semi-hard zipper case. A very nice touch, but expected for the price.

Very neatly packed indeed.

Physical attributes

The left can houses all the controls. On/off switch, volume wheel, noise cancellation, X-Fi Crystalizer and X-Fi CMSS-3D buttons.

The right can houses 2 AAA batteries that power the headphones.

The padding found here are of the very soft and comfortable variety. Like a Beyerdynamic DT-150, but even softer.

The notched extender mechanism for adjusting the length of the headband feels nice and sturdy. They even sound good when in action.

Performance

Time to actually listen to it then.

Plug in one side of 3.5mm mini jack to the headphones and the other side to the playback device.

For this test, I will be using mainly my Nokia N82 as the playback device. I chose a phone for a few reasons. This pair of headphones seem to be targeted at mobile music rather than stationary use. It has noise cancellation, which suggests it's meant to block out the world. Besides listening to music on the move, where there are many situations where the environment is noisy, there is hardly any need for noise cancellation. The X-Fi Crystalizer is meant to enhance MP3's or as they put it, "meticulously restore lost details and vibrancy in compressed music such as MP3 and even audio CD". Using a mobile phone will show how easy these pair of headphones are to drive as they generally have less powerful amplifiers as compared with dedicated MP3 devices, as well as see how much they "restore" the AAC files in my phone. All AAC files are encoded at 128 kbps.

One of the great things about the Creative Aurvana X-Fi is that it functions both passively and actively. It works like a normal set of headphones even when there are no batteries put in or when it's turned off. So even if you run out of juice with your headphone batteries in the middle of no where, you're not stuck with no sound.

Let's listen to them in this mode 1st. No batteries.

I play Diana Krall's "I've Got You Under My Skin" which I feel is right up there in terms of production quality. My first impression is the overall tonality is a bit too sharp. The higher frequencies (8000 khz upwards) are a bit too pronounced. Well, I'm really not surprised given that this product is targeted at a large majority of people who would appreciate this "open-ness". Also the vocals seem to be a bit behind in the mix, giving it a scooped EQ curve (bass and treble turned up while the mids are turned down). Not my cup of tea, BUT, it certainly sounds decent. Everything can be clearly heard and the spatial size that the mixing engineer intended is accurately represented. Small details like the sustain pedal movements of the grand piano and breathing of the string players, the classical guitarist's guitar moving against his pants can be heard. Definitely characteristics of a decent pair of studio reference monitor headphones.

Playing Black Eye Peas' "Where Is The Love" reveals the same scooped sound. The heavier drums are nicely reproduced. All the musical elements are clearly heard. The strings sound slightly trebly but acceptable. The guitars sitting way behind in the mix can be heard clearly. The higher frequencies are too accentuated for my taste. It makes the hi hats and cabasa sound too similar.

Organic Britpop like Cold Play doesn't so good with this scooped EQ curve. Overall tonality when playing Cold Play's "Politik" is cold and harsh. Using crash cymbals as a ride cymbal exposes the weakness in this tonal characteristic. Linkin Park works better. The Aurvana X-Fi's adds even more edge and attitude to the humbucking guitar pickups plugged into what sounds like a wall of dual rectifier guitar amps on "Don't Say". The hi hats in this case cut through the dense mix of the massive guitars which is necessary. Very nice.

Now let's switch on the power.

Whoa! The mids come right back up and and the volume got a boost. I get culture shock for a few seconds. I let my ears rest for a while before proceeding to listen. Sometimes your ears get accustomed to a certain sound characteristic and by suddenly changing it results in an inability to be objective. But this has proven one thing, the power switch alone makes a HUGE difference in sound quality and volume.

After having a cup of Japanese jelly, I continued to listen. Ahhh. Much better now. I play John Mayer's "No Such Thing" and the acoustic guitar panned to the right during the intro sounded nice and crisp. You can hear that he is striking the strings of his guitar pretty hard and you can actually accurately guess the brand of the guitar he is using as well (Martin). I still find the treble a bit bright and the mids a bit forward though. Bass is nice and tight but not very deep.

Switching to Randy Waldman's "Peter and the Wolf" (piano trio with trumpet and tenor sax), the bass reveals some weakness. Being not very deep, it makes the double bass sound thin and boxy. The bright treble gives plenty of "air" to the recording but makes the brushed snare drums and dry ride cymbal sound slightly too bright.

Next, I played Kyoto Jazz Massive's "Deep In Your Mind". The characteristics of the Aurvana's suit this song perfectly. The mastering of this song is quite compressed sounding, the "pumping" of the mastering limiter shines through. The phasing stratocaster sounds a delight and the vocals sound full and nice. The synths are presented in a very balanced way with the harshness that is typical of consumer headphones absent. A very enjoyable listen.

Ok, now to the main event. The 3 buttons that is what this pair of headphones is all about. First up, the noise canceling button.

The headphones themselves fit very well, cutting out a big portion of any ambient noise. But turning on the noise cancellation drastically cuts out even more of it. Very impressive. Just for comparison, I put on my Sennheiser PXC 150's. First thing you notice is that there is virtually no difference in terms of cutting out ambient noise when you wear them due to the fact that they sit on top of your ears instead of surrounding them. Switching on the noise canceling on the Sennheisers help a bit but not much. So in terms of noise cutting, the Aurvana's are extremely effective. I can easily see the Aurvana's being a great tool at cutting out airplane noise letting you sleep in peace.

However, the noise cancellation predictably affects the sound of recordings. Simply put, it scoops out frequencies around the 500hz range, which is actually not that bad of a thing since with the power on, the Aurvana's do a little bit mid forward. They're even quieter than my Shure E5C's stuffed uncomfortably deep into my ear canals. I find them excellent in this respect. I am not sure how they stack up against the competition, but it's hard to see any other product being much better at the Aurvana's for noise cancellation.

Now, to arguably the most important button on this pair of headphones: the X-Fi Crystalizer button.

This is where the magic supposedly happens. Creative claims to "restore lost details". Ok, physically speaking, that is impossible. Whatever data that is lost cannot be magically found and restored. If you rip your CD with an 8-bit algorithm, no amount of X-fi, Hi-fi crystals or diamonds can do anything to help the sound. The most anyone or anything can do is compensate the losses with clever use of equalisation. Which is in essence what the Crystalizer does. I have to admit, I am extremely skeptical when it comes to these kinds of things. How can one single preset EQ setting work for everything since every recording sounds different?

Nevermind. I push the button and I am pleasantly surprised. It has non of the "forced" characteristics of typical equaliser boosts. What I heard is an overall improvement in terms of sound quality. Playing Robin Thicke's "Lost Without You" and toggling between X-Fi Crystaliser on and off reveals a few things.

Firstly, the bass is much deeper. Often times, when you boost bass frequencies on a consumer level music device, everything becomes muddy and the tone of the recording becomes very coloured. The bass guitar instantly became deeper. It's like switching between a cheap Peavey bass amplifier with an 8" speaker cone to an Ampeg tube amplifier driving 2 speaker cabinets with multiple 12" and 15" speakers.

The mids sound pretty much the same. Not much difference here with the Crystalizer on or off.

The highs are extended, as expected. Now, the term I used is "EXTENDED". This is very different from the term "boosted", which is what you get typically from consumer level products. The effect is much more pleasant. Although still too bright for my tastes, it is nontheless pleasant. It exhibits very little of the harshness that treble enhancement software/hardware at this price point.

This may be a bold statement, but the Aurvana sounds more like a $4000 Rupert Neve EQ than an iPod EQ. I never expected this, but I actually like the Crystalizer!

The last button is the X-Fi CMSS-3D button.

This button, I am extremely skeptical about. To me, anything that messes with the ambience of a recording is just erm, for a lack of a better word, wrong. Some devices add reverb or delays to alter the size of the ambience of a recording, while others do it with phase alterations. Out of these 2 types of technology, if I had to choose one at gun point, I'd pick the phase alteration.

Well, judging by the Crystalizer, the Creative engineers seem to know what they're doing, and not surprisingly, the CMSS-3D sounds like it uses the phase alteration technique. I guess if they have to have it, this is the right choice.

Ok, so how does it sound? Well, I'll be blunt. I don't like it. It sounds, well, out of phase. I often use this technique in music production to make something like, the sound of a beach, sound bigger than it actually is, but I seldom apply it to musical instruments. The CMSS-3D button creates a sense of "hollowness" to everything, but the thing that bothers me most is that it changes the panning settings of the musical instruments. For example, a hi hat of a drum kit is usually panned to the right as that is what you see when you watch a right-handed drummer play on stage. With the CMSS-3D button on, the hi hats are moved to the middle of the mix. In fact, most things are moved from the sides to the middle.

Maybe in situations where one is watching a movie with these headphones, the CMSS-3D button might have its use. The nature of phase alteration is to give a perception of "open-ness". I can easily see how some people would find this sound appealing as it makes panning settings less precise, giving a feeling of being "unboxed". Again, it's not for me.

However, having said all of that, I have to add that the sound quality with the CMSS-3D turned on is still quite acceptable. The basics are all still there. Good bass, treble and mid responses are intact, especially when you combine the Crystalizer with CMSS-3D.

Conclusion

So, being used to reference studio monitor headphones, I actually quite like the Creative Aurvana X-Fi headphones. They seem well-made with nice materials. They are as comfortable as any headphones I have tried, and I have tried many in my life. They sound good and their Crystalizer technology works pretty much as they claim, which took me by complete surprise. The CMSS-3D, while not something I'd use, is something that is not hard to imagine some people would like, especially for movies. The noise cancellation feature is extremely effective without affecting the tone of the recordings too much. They are easy to drive too. I could get a decent volume level even from a mobile phone. The volume pot is nice and smooth and I could not perceive any tonal change or crackling typical of volume pots found on devices in this price range.

It comes with a nice case that will fit quite easily into a carry-on luggage and also all the adaptors that you will ever need to use these headphones in any situation.

If there is something I'd change on the Aurvana X-Fi's, it would be making them less bright sounding or maybe a switch that allows the user to choose the level of EQ being applied to the sound as the headphones already have good basic tonal characteristics. That I feel would bring them closer to something that would appeal to even audiophiles or purists. I think it's important as that group of people are the ones who are willing to sacrifice size for sound quality.

All in all, this is a pair of very nice headphones and certainly is as good or better sounding than any prosumer level headphones I have listened to.

Definitely recommended.

Rome was not built in a day: STAVROS...

2008-02-12T01:41:00.000+08:00

“Rome was not built in a day, which is surprising the way it looks, I mean half of it is not even finished“

The mango juice I was drinking when I watched the video clip almost landed all over my computer keyboard and screen. Luckily my cheek muscles are highly developed through years of food stuffing.

So what am I talking about? Remember the big pockets campaign by Nokia? Well this is kinda similar but it's actually a site providing info (stand up comic style) for a Nokia event where Stavros (the fella who made the above statement about Rome) will move across Rome, geotagging his positions using an N82, in order to form a geo-pattern submitted by users. It’s supposedly called "Position Art".

I don't know how useful or beautiful this art would be, but I sure hope more companies allow themselves to have a sense of humour like Nokia.

Head over for a laugh: http://www.theworldismycanvas.com/

Nokia N95-8GB unboxing...

2008-02-10T22:31:00.000+08:00

So the time has come again to return a prototype phone back to Nokia. This time it's the N95-8GB. But again, Nokia has been kind enough to send over a consumer edition version to extend the time I have with this lovely device.

As I've never seen how the retail package is like, it's interesting to see the box and what's in it. I've been using the charger/earphones/remote/cables from my original N95 with the N95-8GB proto, and yes, everything is interchangeable. So here goes:

The box

The walking girl fighting for attention with the N95-8GB. The phone wins this time.

On the 1st layer of the box: phone, remote control, earphones and battery.

On the 2nd layer: TV out cable, USB cable, charger, installation discs and manual.

Brand spanking new with nary a fingerprint.

Bragging rights.

Putting in the battery and setting it up.

And it's ready to go.

Some side by side pics with the N82 just for fun.

Joyful Joyful Joiku!

2008-02-07T02:00:00.000+08:00

Oh what a joy this is. The minute I stumbled upon it, it has already saved me hundreds of dollars and opened up more possibilities to stay connected to the internet.

What are we talking about here? It's the JoikuSpot application for S60 phones. And what does it do? Well, it basically turns your S60 phone into a wireless router.

Now, let that slowly sink into your system. Think of the circumstances that this feature might be useful to you. I, for one, am using it right now as I type out and publish this blog entry.

If you have an unlimited 3G data plan, this application would benefit you most. Imagine having a wireless router in your pocket at all times. It provides the simplest solution to share internet access. No wires, no devices to set up, just turn on the application, wait a few seconds and everyone within, I dunno, a 10 metre radius maybe (?), will have an internet connection.

The first useful application of JoijuSpot for me, is it solves the patchy wifi connection in my house. My wireless router is setup in my studio on the 2nd storey of my house.

The wifi signal on the 2nd floor is mostly fine except in the master bedroom where it gets really low. I bought an Apple Airport Express to try to extend it, but it didn't help much at all. The computer hooked up to my plasma TV in my bedroom had a very hard time getting internet access because the wifi signal is so weak.

Well, not any more! Open the application and within seconds, the computer detects the network and connects to it at full signal. The HSDPA connection is pretty speedy and is as fast as my wifi connection in my studio. Suddenly, surfing in bed with my plasma TV is extremely pleasurable.

And this network follows me wherever I go, which means my plan of getting more wifi network extending antennas or buying more Airport Express' to ensure a decent wireless network on the first storey of my house is now totally unnecessary! That has already saved me hundreds of dollars! This software that I downloaded for free over the internet and installed on my S60 phone in seconds has offered me solutions problems that I have been cracking my head to solve. Oh how joyful!

Now I can keep the Airport Express permanently in my travel bag and use it only to create a wireless network in hotel rooms when I travel.

Of course there are plenty of other applications that this solution can be used for. If you have an unlimited 3G data plan, I would bet that this will be of use to you.

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to JOIKU!

Canola 2 BETA: beautiful

2008-02-05T12:55:00.000+08:00

For those people who have Nokia internet tablets, Canola 2 BETA was released sometime in December last year. What is Canola? Well it's an application written for Nokia internet tablets for the specific purpose of consuming media.

To the people who have been raving about the iPhone/iPod Touch's interface, well, there is serious competition now. Canola's interface is a thing of beauty. It's nice to look at, simple to use (don't think it can get any simpler than this), customisable and feature rich.

It does photos, videos, music (with album art of course), podcasts and internet radio. But what's exciting about Canola its the future. They say:

"The second update:Show me the features! coming in March

Our primary plan is the following and is already under heavy work:

+ Lot's of bug fixes
+ Youtube plugin (streams video, search, featured, bookmark your favorite videos)
+ Last.fm plugin (Audioscrobble support)
+ Zooming on Image (under evaluation) but is in the plans
+ Podcast improvements
+ More file formats Supported

Also, we will make whatever is possible to release the 2 biggest features in our opinion:

+ Upnp (Using Brisa)
+ Third Party Plugin Support + docs"

Anyway, for those who have not jumped on the bandwagon, do it now! You won't regret it!

http://openbossa.indt.org.br/canola2/index.html

Here are some screen shots to tempt you:

Garmin Nuvifone. Watch out iPhone...

2008-02-02T14:26:00.000+08:00

Well well well.

Guess who is joining the big boys? One of the most prominent GPS manufacturers in the world, Garmin, is rolling out something called the Nuvifone. And it looks good. Damn good.

For people who are into GPS devices, your research would inevitably have turned up the Nuvi series from Garmin. I persoanlly have a Nuvi 610 portable GPS. The Nuvi series GPS is hugely successful. What makes it so good? It's very simple.

Yes. It's very simple.

The ease of the interface is pretty much idiot proof and is a pleasure to use. All touch screen, poke-and-it's-done type of interface. While driving, there's no better solution.

The Nuvifone pretty much has the same iPhone-style, hardly-any-buttons, poke-and-it's-done interface. Admittedly, from the press photos, it does look less "sophisticated" than the iPhone.

The Nuvifone may not be as pretty, but according to Garmin, this device has some specs that most people wished iPhone had in the first place. Let's see:
1) 3.5" screen
2) 3.5G
3) multi-tasking
4) built-in GPS, which knowing Garmin, will be killer
5) video recording

Sounds yummy doesn't it?

Here are some quotes from Garmin's website:

"...nüvifone, an all-in-one, sleek and slim, touchscreen device that combines a premium phone, mobile web-browser, and cutting-edge personal navigator..."

"The all touchscreen device is the first of its kind to integrate premium 3.5G mobile phone capability with an internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging, and personal navigation functions in one device. When powered on, the 3.5-inch touchscreen display reveals three primary icons — “Call,” “Search,” and “View Map” which allow the user to effortlessly master the nüvifone’s functions."

"The nüvifone is Garmin’s first device to include Google local search capability, which harnesses the vast point of interest information available from the world wide web."

"The built-in camera allows individuals to take a picture that will automatically be tagged with the exact latitude and longitude reference of where the image was taken. The user may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the image to a recipient who can navigate directly to the location."

"Other multimedia functions of the nüvifone include a built-in video camera, MP3 and MPEG4/AAC."

Here are some more pics and screen shots from Garmin's webby:

So what OS does it run? There's no mention of it anywhere but I'm guessing it should be Garmin's own proprietary OS? If that's the case, there won't be much fun trying to put stuff into it.

Having no hardware keyboard ensures that text input will be similar to the iPhone's, which is not too good.

But if they get all the basics right, I'll be in the queue for one.

Look out Apple, Nuvifone is coming...

http://www8.garmin.com/nuvifone/

Nokia N82 CE version...

2008-01-28T01:59:00.000+08:00

So Nokia finally wanted the N82 prototype back. Damn it.

But good thing they let me have a consumer edition version to play with for a while, extending my time with one of my favourite devices, ever. There's really nothing new to report. It functions the same as the prototype I've been using for months now.

The only differences are that I have the full package now, which includes the box and all it's contents, and that it is a titanium white one.

Since there's nothing new to write about, I'll just post some pictures of the unboxing process. Enjoy.

It comes with a 2GB card in my country, and probably everywhere else

It's titanium white

Putting a picture of a girl to try and distract people from noticing that keypad upon opening the box

Headset and the phone are on the first tier of the box

It's a different headset from the N95 (which I've been using with the proto N82)

Without the picture of the girl, you notice everything. It's shiny and new with all the plastic protectors still intact

The colour is actually very similar to the original silver one I was using. It's now just a bit whiter at the back and the faux brushed-metal part that houses the camera module is of a slightly darker shade. More boy racer. The fronts are identical.

On the 2nd tier of the box, you can find the rest of the stuff: charger, micro USB cable, TV out cable, install DVD, warranty card, manual...

And of course, more literature to persuade you to part with more money

I still love it!

Calcium's good for you...

2008-01-22T12:24:00.000+08:00

Here's a question for all you S60 3rd edition Nokia phone users:

Do you like the calculator?

If you answer yes, then you must be in the minority. Everytime I have to use the calculator, I keep wishing I brought my iPhone instead.

Ok, I know there are huge bugs in the iPhone's calculator (here and here), but I'm a neither bright or rich enough to run into them. My calculations usually circle around 4 digits. And everyone knows Apple ripped Braun off for the calculator application (picture from core77). But for simpletons like me, there's simply no better calculator.

The problem with the built-in calculator is that you need to scroll around just to get to the major functions if you didn't read the manual. Yes, there are keyboard/keypad shortcuts to get to them but it's just not intuitive. When you're in a rush to do a calculation, it's just downright frustrating.

Then I came across mtvoid's CA60 calculator for S60 phones. Finally, a calculator application that just gets on with it. The simple iPod like interface is easy to understand on the first use. Each side of the D pad square ring does a major function. You don't need to scroll around the screen just to get to the plus function.

This is more like it.

Opera Mini: I love it!

2008-01-22T01:46:00.000+08:00

Yeah, I know I know, it's been around for quite some time already. I somehow didn't find the time to install it on any of my phones until now. Now as in 30 minutes ago.

30 minutes of usage so far has compelled me to write this blog entry despite the fact that it is 2:52AM and I really should be in bed.

What can I say? Whatever people have been raving about is true. It's blazingly fast for one and the simple, clean and elegant interface is a pleasure to use.

Here's how the home page looks on an E61i and E90:

You might see less info on the bars above and below the browsing window when compared to S60's default browser, but I prefer the cleaner look.

I love that fact that they give you plenty of space to enter any kind of text.

When you click on the address bar, this is how much space you have to type your web address:

When you reply to a post on some forum, this is what you'll see:

I also like the computer like menu layout. Makes the browser easier to use and much less fussy than S60's default browser. Also the back button simply means back, and not a selection of previous windows. Yes, it may not present as much info as the multiple windows layout, but I much prefer it for it's cleanliness.

For those who have not tried it, I highly recommend it, except for E90 users. I find it doesn't quite work properly on an E90.

Simply go here to get it using your phone's built-in broswer.

Enjoy!

Symarctic ExtGPS

2008-01-22T00:09:00.000+08:00

Ever wished that you can use your phone's built-in GPS as a bluetooth GPS module?

It's a great idea. It's another device that you can leave at home, your standalone bluetooth GPS receiver, that is. Well, now you actually can.

Why in the world would anyone want to do this? One scenario is, for people who have installed computers in their cars. The computers run GPS navigation software and the device that feeds the GPS satellite data to the computers is probably a bluetooth GPS receiver. Now they can, if they want to, choose to use their E90 or N82 or N95 or 6110 built-in GPS receivers instead. Not that it would be a better solution. But the point is they can.

Perhaps, my usage of this software is a little bit more useful. It all started when I got my N810 internet tablet.

As some of you already know, the GPS module found in the N810 is erm, not too effective. It's frustrating just waiting for the thing to get a satellite fix. It's kinda like the old N95 without the AGPS software update.

I kept wishing that I could somehow use the very effective AGPS of my E90 or N82 to power the N810 map software instead.

And now, my wishes have come true, thanks to Symarctic's ExtGPS software.

Now I can have the power of AGPS in my N810. What bliss...

Picture of my E90 internal GPS module driving my N810:

From not really usable to bloody usable:

SMS: a good way of life...

2008-01-03T11:45:00.000+08:00

Text messaging.

What a wonderful thing indeed. Instant, concise communication that spans the world, without the need to expose your voice or face. It's the last part that makes this way of communication so attractive.

Yeah yeah, it's gonna squash whatever humanity there is left in this world, yada yada... But there is no denying, text messaging has a very important place in life.

SMS (short message service) communication gives you time to think. You don't have to answer someone immediately like a tele-conversation on the premise that you were "busy". Even if you encounter a difficult situation, it is much easier to project an image of calmness in wisdom beyond your natural capability.

Maybe that is why people in my country are addicted to it. It has become the default method of communication. Of course the telcos help in throwing hundreds of free SMS's a month to consumers. For example, I'm on a plan that gives me 2000 SMS/MMS per month. But of course, I exceed that limit without fail. My monthly SMS count is 3 to 4000.

I know in certain countries, text messaging costs an arm and leg. People in these countries tend to be resistant to the idea. I met up with a friend who has migrated to Australia and he says over there, he never sends any SMS's because it costs 50 cents per SMS. 50 cents for one SMS?? Who can blame them? I'm so glad that I'm living in Singapore, where it costs next to nothing to use this wonderful way of communication.

90% of my mobile phone usage is text messaging. 4000 SMS's per month works out to be 133 SMS's per day. I spend around 12 hours a day being active on my phone, which means I am typing out one SMS every 5 minutes that I am not in bed.

So, you can see why the SMS interface on a phone is so important to me. That is why for many years, I never touched an alpha numeric keypad phone. In my eyes, Palm Treos gave us the best ever SMS device. I have not come across a simpler and more effective device that I can SMS on.

The thing that was crucial to me was the chat thread style of organising SMS's. I don't have to keep saving SMS's as drafts and going back to the inbox to look at the points I have to address while typing out an SMS. Then after that go to Drafts and reopen the saved SMS to continue typing. Bloody irritating. Hence I owned every Palm platform (no Windows rubbish, sorry Windows users) there was.

The combination of a QWERTY keypad, touchscreen and elegantly simple interface made this the best SMS device ever. Alpha numeric keypads with T9 cannot even come close. Before Apple released the iPhone, I was hard pressed to find a device with a similar text input interface. The iPhone came close, but that touchscreen keypad isn't very nice to use. But the most glaring omission on the iPhone is the inability to cut, copy and paste text.

So, for the past 2 years, since I switched over to alpha numeric keypad phones due to Palm's inability to keep up, I have been living with, what I'd call, CRAPPY, texting interface of mainstream phones,

UNTIL

sometime in September last year, Nokia Beta Labs released an application called "Conversations" for S60 phones that provides chat style SMS'ing.

FINALLY!!

It's a decent piece of software. It integrates with the Address Book and creates a new tab where all your SMS are arranged according to contact. But as usual, Nokia being Nokia, the implementation ain't too great. Some things that bother me are:

1) it does not display full SMS's but scrolls to let you read them. I'd rather have the text in smaller fonts but be able to see the whole SMS at a glance.

2) no instant access to predefined replies like "Can't talk now". On a Treo, it is one single touch away.

3) it's a bit buggy and slow

4) no emoticon support

5) it only displays SMS from 4 contacts at once

6) it's easy to confuse my own SMS's with the SMS's that I receive with icons that are almost identical to differetiate them

Oh c'mon Nokia! You are the largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world! Surely you can come up with something better than something Palm came up with more than 5 years ago?

But as they say, some beer is better than no beer...

.

King of Cool: Salling Clicker...

2008-01-03T01:26:00.001+08:00

When Apple launched Front Row and the Apple Remote, everyone as usual went gaga. Sure, using your computer as a media consumption device is cool, but hardly ground breaking. Making a neat little remote to control your computer is cool, but not nearly as cool as using your mobile phone to control your computer via bluetooth or wifi.

I recently stumbled upon this software called Salling Clicker that turns your mobile phone into a remote control for your computer. A seriously cool remote control. See here: http://www.salling.com/

Intsallation, implementation, user interface are all very well done. Here are some shots of the installation process on my Apple Powerbook and Nokia E90:

With the softwares installed on your computer and your phone, you're ready to roll. On an Apple computer, you can use your phone to:
1) control iTunes
2) control presentations (Keynote and Powerpoint)
3) all your media players installed on your computer. I have DVD player, EyeTV, VLC and Quicktime
4) check and read email, on you PHONE!
5) control iPhoto and see the photo thumbnails on your PHONE!
6) use it as an Apple Remote
7) put your computer to sleep
8) control your mouse, means you can surf the net using your phone's D pad as the mouse!
9) control the balance of your sound output
10) control the volume of your sound output

I don't know whether you can see how mind bogglingly cool this is, but it IS mind bogglingly cool.

It means I can lie in bed and navigate around my laptop, which is hooked up to my plasma TV, without using a mouse (using my phone's D pad). Very cool.

It means I can see and control my whole iTunes library through my phone while I'm in the toilet. Very cool.

It means I can put my computer to sleep with my phone while starting my car before I leave for work. Very cool.

It means I can read my emails on my phone without wifi and without launching the Mail application on my phone (via bluetooth). Very cool.

It means I can look for a specific photo in my photo library while watering my plants. Very cool.

Here's a little video of my Nokia E90 controlling my iTunes:

This is the King of Cool.

.

emTube: prayer answered...

2008-01-02T23:06:00.000+08:00

As everyone knows, Nokia gave us this application called "Video Centre" in some of their latest devices, and inside this application are plugins that stream./download videos from different sites. Of all these sites, the most notable one is of course, youtube.

But anyone who has used Nokia's youtube plugin would know that it's a joke. Somebody in youtube land or Nokia land or wherever it is, somebody who apparently has superior taste in video content as compared to us mere mortals, decides what we can and cannot watch (mobile youtube). And we mere mortals have a superb selection of TWENTY-FIVE, yes, TWENTY FIVE videos.

Ok, let's go through today's selection:
1) Goals for first year as president
2) Salsedo - "Yeah Yeah:"
3) Some japanese cartoon
4) How to make a candy Christmas wreath
5) Crazy acting contest 1: You vs Bad Guy
6) Ocean village - James Martin
7) Moj kot lubiu wode/my crazy cat, lovces water
8) World free hand drawing champion
9) Some Japanese video
10) Wojciech Jaruzelski oglasza wprowadzenie stanu wojennego
11) Cussin'
12) Opening weekend at Shawnee Peak
13) Paint your smile
14) The guild: a Christmas raid carol
15) December 14, 2007
16) Another Japanese video
17) Alle vrouwen versieren met 1 smsje
18) Long haired dachshund puppy in the snow
19) Wakeing fat fat
20) Un africain incroyable mais vrai "choc"
21) All we want for Christmas 2007
22) Doubletake
23) Another Japanese video
24) Even Fools Know LIVE in Washington Square Park
25) Have yourself an alternative (merry) Christmas

So, out of the whole selection, which one would you voluntarily have looked for? My personal answer is: none.

But have no fear. Thanks to people like Sebastian Jedruszkiewicz, who wrote the software emTube, we are free again. Free to choose whatever we want to watch.

With a brilliantly simple interface, it is a fine conduit for playing youtube videos on S60 phones.

emTube playing a youtube video in action on an E61i:

Thank you Mr Jedruszkiewicz!

http://www.emtube.yoyo.pl/

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The lean and mean series...

2007-12-14T12:58:00.000+08:00

Nokia E series.

Feel disconnected when you read that? Feel like saying "they have lousy cameras"? Feel that they're too big?

I've recently been using the E51 and I find myself falling deeper in love with it each day. It's fast, it can do most things people need a phone to do and more, it's extremely well-made with no cheap feeling plastic bits on it, it's handsome, it's slim, it's perfectly sized, it's got one of the best hardware interfaces of any Symbian phone...etc.

The way I see it, this E51 is a very important phone. It bridges the gap between the different camps of Nokia mobile phone users. Firstly, its the size and form factor. It's a well-accepted and well-proven candy bar design. It's also very slim and pocketable, another nod by most users regardless of camp. It also has hands down the best-feeling alpha numeric keypad I have ever laid hands on.

Shallow it may be, but I think those factors alone will grab a lot of attention from many people on the market for a phone. Look at the E65 for example. I have some friends who bought one simply because of the form factor and how well-made it feels when compared to any phone on the market in that price range.

But is that all they're buying? They actually don't really care. They don't have push mail or VoIP setup on it. Nor do they even know they can do cool stuff like install google maps on it and look at aerial views of their own houses.

But I'll bet, once they use something else they're gonna miss it.

Yesterday, I decided to switch over to using my E90 which I have neglected for a while. As soon as I did, I was hit in the face with why I used it for months with pleasure despite its size.

It simply got the business done with minimal effort.

I hear some people saying "bah, whatever the E Series phone can do, the N series can do too". Well, true to a certain extent. They basically run the same Symbian S60 OS. But as they say, God is in the details.

The statement should be: "bah, whatever the N series can do, the E series can to too. But there are things that you can do on an E series that the N series can't".

The first thing that strikes you about an E series phone is how well-made it is. They feel solid. They are always made of high quality materials. It makes you feel good everytime you hold it, which is more than I can say for the other series of phones from Nokia. This alone may already make or break the deal for some people.

The next thing you will notice is extra buttons to get to most commonly used menus in a single step. I don't know about you, but this is a big deal to me. There are so many applications that I frequently use and having hardware buttons means more space for soft shortcuts for other applications. This is something I always long for on N series phones.

Then it's the user interface. Little details like email headers preview without launching the email application, extra options in the standby mode to further customise how you want your desktop to look like, excellent setup wizards, the most up to date cellular communication protocols, the high quality of text entry whether it's QWERTY or alpha numeric...

Running the Symbian S60 platform pretty much ensures a whole range of application available for the E series, much like the N series. Media capabilities are pretty up there too. Again, whatever the N series can do, so can the E.

If you're a mobile phone user who is not caught up with camera pixel count or playing Ngage games, I suggest you take a closer look at the E series. Although it's marketed as an "enterprise" range meant for business users, and its got serious software solutions to prove it, I think it's relevant to most mobile phone users. It would be a shame to skip over it as there is so much on offer...

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Made for the internet

2007-12-09T01:10:00.000+08:00

The internet. Ahhhhh. What a marvel.

This ever changing entity has indeed changed the way we live. Want to buy a vintage microphone? Want to see/talk to someone thousands of miles away? Want some information on glass blowing techniques? Want an alternative view on your doctor's diagnosis? Want to know the meaning of life? Whatever it is, you can find it/do it over the internet.

These days, if a device doesn't have some form of efficient connection to the internet, it doesn't seem that it will have any credibility.

Many governments are setting up their countries to be wired to the internet. Take mine for example. Anyone and everyone is entitled to free wifi access to numerous hotspots all over the country.

Quote:
"Wireless@SG is a wireless broadband programme developed by IDA as part of its Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastructure initiative. It will be run and developed in the next two years by three local wireless operators who will deploy a wireless broadband network in Singapore. Users can enjoy free, both in-door and outdoor seamless wireless broadband access with speeds of up to 512kbps at most public areas.

The targeted users of this wireless broadband network are broadly classified as "people on the move" - people who require wireless broadband access while away from their homes, schools and offices. These include students, tourists, business travellers and enterprise users such as insurance agents and real estate agents who use widely-available and wireless-enabled devices such as notebook PCs and PDAs. Once connected, users will be able to access all Internet-based services e.g. online gaming, web surfing, instant messaging, VoIP and email."

Malls, coffeeshops, bus stations... anywhere that people might be spending some time in, would be blanketed by free-for-all wifi internet hotspots. I'm typing this out at Starbucks at a neighbourhood mall with a Nokia N810 internet tablet and saving the draft remotely on this blogsite's server, so that I can continue writing this later at home or anywhere I can find an internet connection.

The Nokia N810 internet tablet. A child of the internet generation. This device was borne out of the need to be free from your desk, the need to be connected all the time. It does nothing but that. Its purpose is very pure. There's no built-in cellular connection at all.

So is it relevant? Especially when mobile phones these days can do pretty much the same. Apple saw this coming and produced their very first mobile phone embracing this vision. The iPod Touch is pretty much similar in concept.

Well, Nokia actually saw this coming too and pushed out 2 internet tablets before this, the N770 and the N800. Also not forgetting the numerous mobile phones that have wifi built-in. Yes, they had the vision. But Nokia being Nokia, their execution always leaves a bitter taste.

The current generation of their Symbian interface is clunky, "un"-elegant. Clicking and clicking and clicking on the edges of a square ring to achieve an action isn't what I'd describe as enjoyable.

And that's just the steps needed to get to a calculator and not even considering navigating around the internet and applications that are made to exploit the internet. Doing internet related stuff with a square ring and a button and a 2" screen is a royal pain in the butt.

Good thing the next generation of Nokia's interface for mobile devices finally embraces touch. Shall I say it? Like Apple.

Coming back to the N810 internet tablet, after having used it for 2 days, I'd say it suffers from middle child syndrome. It's good, but not great. It moves but not at blazing speeds. It's pleasant to use but can be better.

A big shot at Nokia, Anssi Vanjoki mentioned that the N810 represents the third of five steps in this made-for-the-internet product concept line that Nokia is going to be releasing over several years. Middle child.

The first internet tablet, the N770 launched in 2005, was like an experiment. It was targeted at "geeks", no, I'd reserve that term for people like myself. I'd say for people best described as "nerds". They choose the Linux platform for its ease and openess and to see if there was interest in the nerdy community. A very crucial step as these "nerds" are the people who would be developing stuff that make the device worth a squat. As expected, enthusiasts like myself, who don't know where to begin to make write our own applications, weren't too drawn to it.

Fortunately, the concept of an open source is fundamentally good. Like democracy. Apple also could not make people see otherwise and released their programming codes.

There was quite buzz within Linux communities. People started writing and porting applications and the number of useful things you can do with it grew and grew.

Encouraged by the response, Nokia launched the sequel, the N800, at the beginning of 2007. This time round, their target audience broadened. With a more polished interface, people like myself, whom I'd consider as "geeks", are within the reach of their casting net. Out of the box, you can do iPod-ish stuff. Listen to music , watch videos, extend your computer, surf the internet with a big screen..etc, except the memory capacity is limited to what's available and feasible.

The latest version of the lineup, the N810, has an even more polished user interface, despite having pretty similar hardware as the N800. Much like a hacked iPhone, there is quite a sizable number of FREE 3rd party applications available to make the internet tablet even more useful. Handily enough, the most common video/audio formats are playable on the N810. I can simply drag over whatever I want from my iPod library and it simply works.

The inclusion of a hardware keyboard, on top of touchscreen, makes this device actually usable for messaging or typing out a blog entry. Basically any kind of keyboard activity. If you bring your laptop everywhere for entertainment, media, web 2.0 usage, it is now feasible to leave it at home and bring the N810 instead. I've been doing that for the past few days and although the experience is not as good as a full sized laptop, I'd say it's acceptable for the size. My back certainly appreciates it.

Free applications like Pidgin consolidates all your messaging needs. You can talk to your friends on AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, GroupWise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, Yahoo...etc within one screen. A Mozilla web browser with full Flash support and ensures most websites are rendered correctly. The built-in GPS receiver adds value to the device, although how well it actually works compared to a modern GPS device and how much it costs to make it a full-fledged navigation tool significantly brings back the balance.

For now, it is a niche product. People who do not carry a laptop everywhere certainly outnumber the people who do. I think a big part of why this is so is not because most people don't want to carry a laptop with them. They actually want to, but it's just too much of a hassle. This is where internet tablets like the N810 shine. They provide decent internet experience without the need for a set of decent muscles to carry a laptop around.

The internet will only strengthen its hold on people's lives. There is no other way about it. And devices like this will be needed to meet this demand. You can already see that it will be a matter of time before they slap on a cell phone module into this thing. Dare I say it again? Like Apple.

Bigger devices with bigger screens will become more common and accepted as the need to create/share/consume content and communicating with a bigger audience becomes commonplace.

Like their ad says:

"A little hush please. The next episode is about to begin"

Touch is good...

2007-12-06T20:08:00.000+08:00

About time.

Nokia has finally realised that touch IS good. So good that it might even be better than click-click-click-click. So good that it might even be "THE FUTURE" (like Christopher Loyd in Back To The Future).

There are quite a number of videos posted on youtube showing Finnish people speaking Finnish English, which is inherently less cool than the American version, extolling the virtues of "touch". Quite a different stance from before.

A few examples:

Inherently less cool. Hmmm. Can that phrase perhaps be used to describe Nokia?

Why is it that Nokia's implementation of youtube on their N Series phones is at best, "limiting"?

Why is it that Nokia, being the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, couldn't have had the foresight of seeing the value of a touch interface and make a phone to show it before Apple launched their iPhone?

I've read so many people defending non-touch devices in various corners of cyberworld . I often wonder if these people are really from cyber space. Don't get me wrong. I do appreciate click-click-click-clicking to get to the icon, then click-click-click-clicking to get to the sub-menu that you want, then click again to do what you want. But how can that be better than having all the menus laid out and touching, or more like poking, it once and it's done?

Ideally, THE phone should have a tactile input interface and touchscreen at the same time, kinda like the N810 internet tablet (I'll be getting one tomorrow!! YAY!). Apple chose to eliminate that for the sake of vanity. But who can blame them? Just look at the thing.

Of course, the vibrate-slightly-each-time-you-touch feature of future S60 or non S60 devices helps to overcome the non-tactile nature of devices with only a screen. It HELPS, but a hardware keyboard is indeed hard to replace.

Having said that, I for one, would be able to accept the compromise if it makes the device gorgeous. Yes, I bought an iPhone.

There is a doodling software for the iPhone called "Sketch" and is one of the earliest implementations of this new generation concept of how a phone can interact with you. You draw on the screen of the iPhone and if you think it's rubbish and want to erase it, shake the iPhone hard a few times and it will give a short vibrate to tell you that the screen has been erased.

Watching the videos above, listening to Nokia say that they see value in things like flipping the phone upside down to silence it, I am greatly encouraged to look forward.

Can you smell scenes from sci-fi movies?

I was a big fan of the Palm interface. I've had every Treo since before they were even called Treos. Remember the Visorphone, anyone? Yeah it sucked of course. But Palm had the right idea from the start.

Poke and it's done. Intuitive. No need to relearn anything. Minimal lag.

Apple's philosophy is pretty much the same. It just works. Use a Palm Treo and an Apple iPhone side by side, and you will see how similar in concept they are.

Ok, before you start jumping on my case about what you cannot do on an iPhone or Palm Treo, or the deficiencies of their platforms, it's not the point of this article.

My beef is with Nokia taking so long to see this coming and pursuing it. How much resources could they have channeled to the development of the S60 touch earlier on instead of playing it safe and coming up with things like the N81 or N76? Nokia should be leading visionaries (and in some sense, they are with content sharing) in making mobile devices and not seemingly jumping on the bandwagon after known visionaries (Apple) have pushed out a great idea.

I'm not the only one who noticed. Listen to the very first question in the Q&A session in the first video about "copying" the iPhone. The response by the elderly Nokia big wig even admits to perhaps "copying" Apple's interface "with pride".

It's not likely that Apple mobile phones will ever be functionally as capable as Nokia ones. But now, it is actually feasible that Nokia mobile phones will be as nice to use, and maybe even as good looking as Apple ones.

So Nokia, being inherently uncool, should see a difference in terms of perception by consumers, with their next generation of phones. I foresee this revolution will elevate Nokia's coolness level. To maybe even close to Apple's coolness level, something that Nokia needs.

Too bad about the Finnish English accent though...

I've been waiting for more than 10 years for touching to be good. Finally, the time has come...

.

Nice kitty...

2007-11-30T19:35:00.000+08:00

Poor cats. What royalties do they get when a big company like Apple uses their names to sell its products? Cheetah. Puma. Jaguar. Panther. Tiger. Leopard. They all make any product, especially operating systems, sound fast and fierce.

Apparently someone in Apple didn't do his/her research properly and named the slowest and most un-fierce version of OSX Cheetah. Puma and Panther apparent belong to the same family of cats called the Cougar. Tigers don't run too quickly but has been the quickest, until Leopard came along. Well, at least they got Leopard right.

Since OS9 died and OSX took over, these cats have been helping Apple push up their stock prices and Steve Jobs buy more black turtle necks. Apple should set up a fund to help these dying species. Build a cat zoo on their premises at Cupertino, collect entrance fees and match whatever earnings they get from it and put it back into the cat fund. Give the money to people who actually help ensure these cats from becoming extinct.

Imagine naming an OS after an extinct species of animal. It just somehow doesn't have that zing, like "Welcome to Quagga" or "Enter Stellar's Sea Cow".

Anyway, I'm always a reluctant adopter of new operating systems. That's why I've waited so long to migrate to Leopard. Tiger was so nice. Fast, stable, efficient. I was totally happy with it. I've lived with it for quite some time, a year perhaps? But Apple being Apple, always comes up with something that requires you to learn more stuff when you get so comfy with something. They come up with snazzy ad campaigns, pack their products in irresistable boxes, surround their showrooms with the right lighting and music to make you do things you don't really want to: spend money and learn new tricks. I'm an old dog, and dogs have no money.

The first few versions of OSX were an absolute pain. Nobody made any software to work with it. The OS itself was unstable and slow. I still worked in OS9 and OSX was just for surfing the internet and eye candy. But it got better and better. By the time Panther was introduced, things were looking up. It was reasonably fast and stable and software developers finally caught up and gave us software that we could actually do real stuff with. With Tiger, I was absolutely elated. It was by far the fastest and most stable version of OSX.

I haven't even enjoyed enough of Tiger's company when they decided to move on to a new cat. Checking in with internet forums once in a while, Leopard seems to be pretty problem free. Most users report improvements.

Ah well, what the heck. It's still OSX. Can't be that different. Better late than never.

Attention to detail on the packaging has always been an Apple trait:

Installation was a painless process. Although I backed up everything, it proved to be unnecessary. Using the "Archive and Install" method, the computer does everything for you. You get a new operating system with your old settings, passwords, music, videos, documents, emails, bookmarks, cookies...etc with just a simple click.

A nice big green tick makes you feel like a little school kid when your teacher praises you for being smart.

A picture taken from outer space prepares you for the experience.

So how is it?

Well, it's certainly prettier with lots of cool details like the mirror reflections of the dock icons at the bottom of the dock. It responds faster, just slightly. You can have a fan in your dock if you want. You can preview your files with coverflow without actually opening them.

I'm sure there are many more cool things you can do with it, but it's only been a few hours since I installed it.

The cats are definitely getting fitter and faster..

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Setting up your .mac email on your S60 phone...

2007-11-28T23:34:00.000+08:00

A common question I get asked is "how do I set up my phone to receive .mac email?"

So here's a step by step. It's extremely simple, really. Demonstration is done on a
Nokia E90. But it'll be the same for any S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 phone.

I use POP3 for my account so this will be a POP3 setup process. POP3 here behaves like IMAP. Only the email headers are downloaded and not the content. When you click the particular email to open it, the phone then downloads the content. And I can still access the same downloaded emails that have been downloaded to my phone from any computer anywhere, any time. This is the way I set up my mail server behaviour:

So here goes:

1) Go to your messaging menu. If you have not setup your email yet, the email inbox is named "Mailbox" by default.

2) Click on "Mailbox" and it'll ask you if you want to setup your email mailbox.

3) Mailbox setup wizard is launched.

4) Choose POP3.

5) Enter your email address

6) Incoming mail server is: mail.mac.com

7) Outgoing mail server is: smtp.mac.com

8) Choose how you want to connect to retrieve your mail. I choose always ask so that I can use wifi as much as possible.

9) Name your mailbox anything you want.

10) Click OK and you're almost there.

11) Go back to your messaging menu and open your newly setup mailbox with the new name.

12) The phone will ask you if you want to connect to your email server to retrieve your mail.

13) Choose yes and it will prompt you to enter your username and password.

14) Choose connect on the next menu.

15) Choose your access point.

16) And WALA! The last 30 email headers will be downloaded to your phone.

17) Click on the email you want to read, and it will ask you if you want to download its contents.

18) Downloading.

19) And you can now receive your .mac email.

20) Now you need to complete the setup so you can send emails too. Go you your messaging menu and go to options > settings

21) Select email settings.

22) Select your mailbox.

23) Select connection settings.

24) Select outgoing email settings

25) Fill in your username and password in the blank boxes.

Now you can send emails with your phone's messaging application with your .mac account.

If you have your email server settings the same as mine, whatever email you have retrieved on your phone will still be retrievable on any computer, any where. They will just be marked as read, but you won't lose them.

Easy as pie.

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Not for the image conscious: BH-604 bluetooth headphones...

2007-11-26T17:04:00.000+08:00

Today, I received a pair of Nokia's flagship bluetooth stereo BH-604 headphones to play with. I've never used stereo bluetooth headphones before and don't really expect it to sound anywhere near conventional wired headphones. And I was right. Anyway, let's look at it first.

The BH-604's appearance is very typical of a good quality pair of headphones except that it does without wires. Its size is, well, large. The silver parts are actually plastic that is textured to feel like aluminium. The "leather" parts are nice and cushy and make it one of most comfortable pair of headphones I've used, and I've used plenty in my lifetime.

The left can has no functioning buttons on it.

Everything is located on the right can.

Here you can find the call answer button, play/pause button.

Rewind/forward buttons.

And also the volume slider, charger port, microphone and multi-function LED.

The cans' range of movement is pretty big and ensure they fit you nicely.

There is also plenty of extension to make sure they fit the largest of heads.

Here are a few side by side pics with my full sized AKG K271 Studio headphones.

Pairing up is a simple affair. Press the big answer call button until the LED flashes a blue light, scan for new devices with your phone, enter the "0000" passkey, and you're done.

Now, to the main event. How does this thing sound?

The first thing that strikes you is the big sound. It sounds pretty similar in character to my Sony MDR-Z900.

The bass is pretty hyped up, but not in an unpleasant way. The big drivers ensure there's plenty of bass extension, making music sound big instead of sounding like someone pushed up the 100hz band up by 12db.

The mids and highs are pretty natural sounding, requiring no EQ to smoothen out any frequencies that are sticking out.

However after about 30 seconds, it dawns upon you that what you're listening to is obviously not full resolution. It's no fault of the headphones but rather, the inadequacies of the transfer protocol.

Sound quality is pretty grainy. Hi hats and crash cymbals tend to crack. High and forceful horn lines sound distorted. The fingernail contact of intimate acoustic guitar playing is mostly lost or mis-translated. Reverb tail ends get lost and hence misrepresenting the intended ambience. Lower frequency inadequacies aren't as obvious as our ears are more sensitive to higher frequencies. But they're there. Again, the key work here is "grainy".

I'm sure if you connect a wire to this pair of headphones, it would sound very good, as presented by it's overall tonality. It's just too bad the weak link is the bluetooth transfer protocol.

As the amplifiers are integrated into the headphones are not in any way dependent on the phone itself, you can get pretty big volumes out of this thing. Great for drowning out the world while travelling on a train or something. The big bass helps this impression too.

Battery life as claimed by Nokia: "Get up to 18 hours of talk time from less than 1.5 hours of charging. Listen to music longer with up to 19 hours of music time and up to 2 weeks standby." I don't see a reason to doubt their claims. So this thing should give you plenty of juice to last through some serious listening time.

Conversations with it's built-in microphone is very good. The other party has no problems hearing you and you get a nice big sound of your caller's voice piped into your ears. Press the nice big button to answer calls. Can't get simpler than that.

Music automatically pauses while you talk and automatically resumes after you're done. All done smoothly with the appropriate fades. Classy.

So what's my conclusion? If you can get past its form factor, it's probably one of the best sounding stereo bluetooth headphones you can buy. Telephony is a treat through it too. It's so comfortable you can wear it for hours on end. It feels reasonably well made and will probably take some abuse. Battery life is great. No wires make it really convenient to use while carrying a bag.

Personally, the bluetooth transfer protocol is still far away from achieving an acceptable standard of audio fidelity. I'd use it at home for unfussy listening. But it's not worth looking like a club DJ out in public for the sound quality.

GPS comparison: Nokia N82 vs Garmin Nuvi 610

2007-11-25T20:09:00.000+08:00

Ever since I said that Nokia's new AGPS built into their latest phones are almost as effective as a true SIRF III GPS device, a lot of people have been skeptical about my statement. Well, I use GPS almost on a daily basis, and everyday, I'm amazed at the effectiveness of Nokia's AGPS.

The AGPS in the N82 and N95-8GB works so well that my Garmin Nuvi 610 is becoming a permanent fixture in my glovebox.

So, today was a perfect day to test out GPS devices here in Singapore. It has been raining the whole day and the sun is no where to be seen. Great for testing how quick a GPS device acquires satellite fixes. I'm supposed to meet my parents for dinner at a location that I have never been to in my life and have no idea how to get there.

The weather just before I hopped into my car:

View from inside the car:

Here's a video that will tell the whole story. By the way, the noise is rain falling on my car, not audio distortion:

I think it's clear enough to see that the N82's AGPS pretty much equals the SIRF III Garmin Nuvi 610 in terms of navigation effectiveness.

Obviously, there are setbacks with the N82 in terms of screen size. With the Garmin, with just a glance you know exactly where you're going and where you're going to turn next. With a phone's small screen, you won't be able to make out details so quickly.

Switching Nokia Maps to 3D view helps this a lot, especially during navigation. You can see a lot further ahead with 3D view when compared to 2D view.

2D:

3D:

Both Nokia and Garmin maps are rendered beautifully. Nokia Maps contain more detail than Garmin's but not overwhelmingly so. Garmin's map rendering is nice and clean and uncluttered but lacks detail (which I personally prefer).

Also, the touch screen input interface of the Garmin beats the alpha numeric keypad of a phone hands down. In my local context, before the Asian-named addresses are stored in the N82 dictionary, keying in addresses are just plain frustrating. But it's not an issue after you've used it extensively.

About the voice guiding the navigation, Garmin's lady sounds much more pleasant, speaks more slowly and clearly than the Nokia lady.

Taking into account that my Garmin Nuvi costs MORE than an N82, and that the N82 gets me to places just as effctively as my Garmin Nuvi, and that the N82 is, well, a Swiss Army knife of sorts, I can't justify the expense of buying a standalone GPS device anymore.

How quickly times have changed. Just a year ago, with the N95 GPS, there was no way I would use it instead of my Garmin. Today, the navigation abilities are on par.

GPS companies better have something up their sleeves...

.

Vibrator strength test: not much point but fun...

2007-11-25T02:14:00.000+08:00

Today, thadada from Mobile Review forum asked me something a bit unusual:

"I have a question, when the phone vibrates, how does it feel? Everything is solid or is everything moving and you hear that its not solid?
i'm not sure if you understand my question, but for example, when a solid phone vibrates on the desk it doesn't "jump" as much.... like the 88xx series, very solid and when it vibrates its a nice vibrate, but sometimes you dont feel it.
How's the vibrate on N82 is it more towards like a 88xx series or...?"

I've never really thought about the vibrator quality of a phone, but the question made me realise that whenever I use my iPhone, I keep missing calls because the vibrator strength is so weak that I can't even feel it.

So, here's a little video I made comaparing the vibrator qualities of the N82, N9508GB, N93, E90, E51, E61i and the Apple iPhone:

I don't know what the point of this test is, but it's fun to see the different types of vibrators in action.

Feel free to laugh at or derive whatever you want from this test. All I can say is the bigger the phone, the bigger the vibration, with the exception of the iPhone, where the vibrator is practically useless...

So thadada, is it solid or flabby?

Sharing your world, reaching the world...

2007-11-22T13:34:00.000+08:00

So you have taken some great videos of your child's first steps or of your dog calling you "daddy" with your N82. Or maybe you have downloaded some hilarious clips from the internet or converted an entire classic movie with the latest video conversion software so that it fits onto your phone.

Your friends invite you to their place for a casual gathering with the usual bunch and you have all these videos with you on your phone. You sit down and talk about the kids, about movies, and you are dying to show your friends what you're talking about.

So all of them crowd around you to stare at your little phone screen. That works.

But there is a much better way of doing things. With a little cable, all of you can watch the videos through a much bigger screen while sitting down comfortably with your legs propped up on the coffee table, sipping red wine at the same time.

Sounds good? Well it is. Let me show you.

I have some movie trailers that I downloaded onto the micro SD card on my Nokia E90 and they playback flawlessly on the device itself. I took out the SD card from the E90 and popped it into my N82 and lo and behold, everything plays there just fine too.

Here's a little video of the Spider Man 3 trailer being played on the E90 external and internal screens and the N82's screen. For those of you who haven't seen videos played back on an E90's internal screen, it is indeed a sight to behold. Stunning is the word I would use.

And here's how the trailer would look like being played back on a 42" plasma TV while sitting on your couch. The images do appear slightly pixelated on the big screen, but I attribute that to the compression settings.

I also played back pictures taken with the N82 on my HD resolution TV and again, the effectiveness is top notch. Images are crisp and clear with no pixelation. Of course, the quality also depends on each individual TV model. But the point is, with today's mobile phones, sharing your life with others has reached a new level of convenience and effectiveness.

We have all these possibilities on our little mobile phones but more often than not, we never explore them.

How many of us actually upload pictures/videos directly to the internet directly from our phones with the click of a button after we take them, so that our parents living hundreds of miles away can see them and smile and know that their children are doing well and having fun?

How many of us actually switch between network phone and internet phone with a click of a button so that we can call our loved ones who live thousands of miles away for free over wifi?

How many of us write down things on a piece of paper while having a telephone conversation so that we don't forget them, instead of pressing a button that records the conversation so that we can review it at our convenience?

All this is possible right now with the phone in your hands. We should explore and use these built-in conveniences so that we can suggest ways to improve them and give phone makers new challenges to improve the quality of our lives.

I look forward to the future...

**Additional pictures for "ssislands"**

Nokia N82 battery drain test...

2007-11-22T12:01:00.000+08:00

One of the many questions I got asked was how long the battery of an N82 can last while playing back music before it dies. Nokia's official N82 battery specs say:
Battery: Nokia Battery (BP-6MT) 1050mAh
Talk time: up to 190 min (WCDMA), up to 260 min (GSM)
Stand-by time: up to 210 hours (WCDMA), up to 225 hours (GSM)
Still images: up to 290 pictures (with flash)
Video capture: up to 110 minutes (VGA, 30 fps)
Video call: up to 120 minutes
Video playback: up to 200 minutes (VGA, 30 fps)
Music playback: up to 10 hours (offline mode)

Well, it's an easy test, so I decided to do it. Here's the process:

First I fully charged the battery and made sure no other applications were running in the background. There is no SIM card and the phone was running on offline mode.

Plug in standard issue Nokia earphones.

I took a listen to some music and decided that 50% volume would be a reasonable level for someone to listen to music for long periods, and set it at that.

Set the music player to repeat all songs in my song library.

Note the start time.

Check in after 7 hours. Still surviving.

Check in after 10 hours, which is Nokia's official rating. Still surviving.

Finally died after 11 hours and 43 mins of non-stop music playback.

In between, I turned on bluetooth on the phone to transfer 2 songs from my laptop via bluetooth, then turned it off. After that I listen to music through my AKG271 Studio headphones for a good 1/2 hour with the volume set to 100% for my other blog entry regarding the sound quality of the N82. I then put back the Nokia earphones and turned down the volume at 50% and let the phone continue to play until it died.

You can draw your own conclusions from that...

N91-8GB vs N82 SUBJECTIVE audio test

2007-11-21T22:41:00.000+08:00

I received a request to compare the sound quality of the Nokia N91 to the N82. Since the N91 is marketed as the flagship music phone from Nokia, I thought it would be interesting to see how it stacks up against the new generation N82 with regards to music playback.

So here goes. This is how I did it.

1) I chose 2 songs from Quincy Jone's Q's Jook Joint album, "Moody's Mood For Love" and "Is That Love We're Missin", and sent them from my iTunes library to my N91-8GB and N82 via bluetooth. I chose these 2 songs as I feel they are 2 extremely well-produced pieces of music and know they sound through studio reference speakers very well.

2) Just for the hell of it, I took out my trusty 3rd generation 40GB iPod (both songs already inside compressed with the same iTunes settings) and threw in into the test against the Nokia's.

2) I used my favourite pair of headphones (AKG K271 Studio) to listen to all the devices.

3) I set the EQ settings on the Nokia's to "Default" (which sounds like off to me) and the iPod's to "Off".

4) I judged the quality of audio reproduction with my critical "work" ears, listening to any frequency spike/dip, distortion, sense of space...etc. I must mention the usual disclaimer that this is my personal opinion of the sound quality of these devices. Everyone will have different views of what is "good" and "bad". As a music producer, I like my music to sound as uncoloured and as possible.

So here are my findings:

First thing that anyone will notice is how LOUD the N91 can play. It's much louder than the N82 in terms of output gain. It's fair to say the N91's 70% volume = N82's 100% volume. Against the iPod, I would say the N91 is comparable but cleaner than the iPod.

The next thing I have to say is the Nokia N91 plays back music BEAUTIFULLY. You don't notice it when you're using it alone, but put it beside the N82 and iPod, you begin to see how good this thing is.

Let's talk about the general sound first. The Nokia's have the same "type" of sound. It's nicely balanced, reproducing the music with similar quality to my Genelec studio monitor speakers. There are no obvious frequencies that stick out in an irritating manner. Both Nokia's are clean even up to 100% volume with barely a hint of distortion.

The iPod's sound is distinctly different from that of the Nokia's. The mid frequencies (800hz to 1.5khz) seem to be more pronounced. This makes the snare drums unnecessarily upfront. Vocals take on a more nasally quality. Reverb spaces are harder to perceive as your ears tend to be drawn towards the in-your-face character of each syllable, each snare hit (anything that resides in that general frequency range) and by the time they recover, the reverb tail ends are lost.

As a sound engineer, the topic of "imaging" is usually not applicable to headphones as there is no space between the ears and the music source. But I'll talk about it here because the illusion of space is still created with reverbs and delays that the mixing engineer used to mix the music. Besides, I did perceive a difference in all 3 devices in the way they present their soundstage.

As I mentioned, because of the iPod's mid frequency response, the illusion of ambience tend to be somewhat masked. Music presentation tend to be more 2 dimensional. Panning of the instruments are clear but lack depth.

With the Nokia's, the sense of space is presented in a better way. You can hear reverb tail ends decay nicely, telling you how big a space the sound engineer wants you to feel. The mid frequencies are natural sounding. Vocals sound relatively uncoloured, and I can even make an intelligent guess as to which mic was used to record them. With the iPod's coloured character, they just sounded like cheaper mics were used in the recordings.

Not all is bad on the iPod. It does have better high frequency extension than the Nokia's. For low frequency extension, they are comparable, but I would say the Nokia's edge the iPod out slightly listening through my headphones. It's a very small difference and it may even be attributed to my imagination, but I did hear the kick drums and bass reach down lower to tickle my brains.

Of course, this contributes to the iPod's "sharper" or "clearer" sound, which most consumers would probably prefer when they're out and about fighting off traffic noise listening to non-pro-level earphones.

At 100% volumes, the Nokia's are cleaner with less discernable distortion. At max volume, the iPod seems to distort more. The N91 is as loud as the iPod, and it's cleaner than the iPod.

So, my conclusion is, the N91 wins. It wins the N82 in terms of sheer power to drive earphones and the iPod in terms of sound quality. Overall, the N91 simply sounds more refined than the other 2, more "expensive" if I may.

Again, this is my own personal opinion and not everyone will agree with me.

Nokia E51: perfectly balanced...

2007-11-21T15:32:00.000+08:00

I've been using the Nokia E51 for a few days now. Like most reviews I've read, I find Nokia got the balance just right on this little phone. To me, it's an E61i shrinked into a little candy bar chasis, except, it's even faster and better to use.

Let's talk about the looks first. This thing is certainly attractive. More often than not, the design of a product either appeals to males or females (generally speaking and I'm not saying anything against people who go against this generalisation). With 3 colour choices, silver, black and bronze, Nokia has cleverly covered most "business-sy" tastes. For the "proper" business person, there's silver. For the business person with an evil streak, there's the black, and for the more flamboyant business person, there's the bronze. I can easily see any of these appealing to either gender.

This is a screen capture of the 3 colours from the PDF brochure:

I have a black one to try out. Although it's not really my taste (reminds me of a black BMW M3 with black rims, I'm more a white M3 with silver rims kinda guy), it still looks the business. Overall, the phone feels extremely well-made, like a German car. The casing is mainly covered in a metal skin (stainless steel?) with the the top part of the back side made of matte plastic. Everything fits tightly together and doesn't feel or look like it will peel off. Maybe if you drop it hard on a rough surface, the paint will chip off.

The front has, to me, a very attractive and functional layout. Typical of E Series phones, it has dedicated hardware buttons to access frequently used menus besides the usual Nokia software option keys and send/end keys. The keypad keys are big and broad. The usual delete button is now shifted from the right hand side to the centre. A white customisable flashing notification light is put on the top left, beside the earpiece speaker. This light can programmed to notify you of missed calls, SMS, MMS or emails and the duration of the flashing can be programmed to range from 5 minutes to 2 hours.

The back cover now sports a textured finish, which Nokia seems to be embracing with it's latest offerings (N82). Being an E Series, the execution of the finishing is much better than that of the N82. Here the battery cover is made of steel and the elliptical lines are etched onto the surface and not just printed or painted. A very nice touch indeed. A run of the mill 2 mega pixel camera lens and speaker holes are positioned above the battery cover.

The right side has the usual E Series style volume up/down buttons and sandwiched in between, the voice recognition button.

On the left is a lonely voice recorder activation button

Another lonely button is the power/profile button located at the top of the phone

A mini USB port, 2.5mm earphone socket and charger hole is found at the bottom

A view of the battery and SD card slot

Size and thickness difference between the E90 and E61i. You can see how small the E51 is compared with its brothers. Thickness wise, it's similar to the E61i.

What sets the E51 apart from previous smaller sized E Series phones is the improved interface. There are now 4 dedicated buttons and each button does 2 things according to the length of time they are pressed down.

A home button that functions like the Apple iPhone's solo button where it brings you to the desktop wherever you are and toggles between the desktop and main menu page if you're on the desktop. Pressing it down longer reveals a window that tells you what applications are active and go directly to them, similar in concept to Apple OSX's Expose.

By default, pressing the contacts button brings you to the contacts menu as usual and long pressing it will reveal a add new contact page where you can directly enter a new contact. The other 2 buttons work similarly in concept. Short pressing the calender button opens up the calender and long pressing it brings you to an add new meeting page. Short pressing the mail button brings you to the email headers menu and long pressing it brings you to a compose new email page.

The best part is, you can customise the long presses to access almost any function you want, bringing a new level of personalisation to this E series phone.

Like the E90, long presses on 3 alpha numeric bring you directly to 3 often-used functions. Long pressing the "*" key toggles on and off bluetooth, long pressing the "0" key brings you directly to the web browser and long pressing the "#" toggles between general and silent profiles.

These seemingly simple interface tweaks greatly increase productivity for someone who has a full schedule and is always replying email. Essential for business people and prosumers. They should've thought of it a long time ago.

The shift of the cancel button to the centre may take a bit of time to get use to if you have been using alpha numeric keypad phones for some time. However, once you do, it is likely that you'll like it. Being one of the most used keys, it's a great idea to centralise its position and bring it as close as possible to the alpha numeric part of the keypad.

Speaking about the keypad, this new keypad is just a pleasure to use. It has an "expensive" feel to it. The 2 option keys and send/end keys are longer and slightly raised above the 4 dedicated home/contacts/calender/mail menu buttons. The dedicated menu keys are "surrounded" by the raised keys and that lessens the chances of making mistakes as they feel distinctly different. The surface texture of these keys are not too smooth and creates just enough friction. They really thought of everything here.

The 5-way rocker keys feel really nice to press with positive clicks and nice action. Stiffness is one of the best judged, requiring a deliberate press but not in a way that take too much effort. The same can be said for the alpha numeric keys. They are large and broad and each key feels nicely separated from one another, lessening the chances of mistakes.

Being a business phone, and not a multi-media phone, the screen dimensions are acceptable at 1.6" x 1.2". Resolution and colour are similar to most of the newer N Series devices at 240x320 and 24-bit resolution. The legibility of the screen is worth mentioning. The pixels seem very dense on this screen making the contrast excellent. To me, it's more pleasant to look at than all my other phones.

From left to right: E61i, E90, E51 and N95-8GB

Business users aren't supposed to go around snapping pictures, so as expected, the usual 2MP fare has been shoved in here. This decision is a sensible one as there is no auto-focus camera or flashes to sap battery juice. Battery longevity is right on top of the list for a business owner.

In any case, I still took some pictures with it. I took an Apple iPhone alongside to snap comparison pics. It's quite relevant as the iPhone also has a 2MP camera without flash. All pictures are taken on auto mode on the E51. The iPhone camera offers no user control whatsover. Let's see.

E51

iPhone

E51

iPhone

E51

iPhone

E51

iPhone

E51

iPhone

E51

iPhone

E51

iPhone

E51

iPhone

I don't know about you, but I much prefer iPhone's no-control-whatsover 2MP camera.

The E51 feels very snappy to use, as expected of its ARM11 CPU clocked at 369MHZ and 256MB of built-in memory. Of the 256MB, 130MB is designated for user storage. However, the amount of free memory available after a fresh reboot is only 20MB (according to smape.com), which is paltry compared with the latest N Series phones (95MB for the N82!). However, this does not take away any joy in actual usage. The speed at which things happen is comparable to an E90 and even an N82, except for the startup time, which is a slower. Removable memory is micro SD format up to 4GB.

Here's a little video for comparison:

This phone runs Symbian OS v9.2 and the platform is S60 3rd edition, feature pack one. There are no surprises here. We've gotten used to this interface with recent Nokia E and N Series phones. Everything is predictable.

On the desktop, 6 active standby menus are available and fully customisable. Teaming up with the hardware shortcut buttons and long press option buttons and also voice commands, you can pretty much have everything you need/want on the desktop. On top of that, plugins that help you set up things like email and VoIP can be displayed and used. They automatically disappear once you successfully set the relevant services up, or you could disable them manually.

2 things that deserve special mention are the internet phone and email setup wizards. These are 2 well-written pieces of software that take the guess work out of making things work. I have never configured my Apple .mac email account on any phone before and it was up and running in less than a minute. The internet phone setup wizard is just as effective, a few clicks and a wifi connection, and you can call Zimbagbwe for close to nothing. I chose to use Gizmo and so far, it has been flawless. A bit of lag is present as expected of internet telephony, but it acceptable. Hey. it's free!

I'm a bit disappointed that the latest Search 4.0 application was not included in this phone. However, the old search is no less functional. I guess being a business phone, users are not expected to have gigabytes worth of music or media files, so its unnecessary. Here are how the new and old search menu look like side by side.

Nokia has done away with the ying-yang icon menu button. In its place, a home button with house icon is born. This is not a case of simply putting a new picture on the menu button. It works differently. With the old ying-yang icon, pressing it takes you to the main menu page if you're somewhere deep inside any submenu or to the desktop if you're on the main menu page.

The new home button take you to the desktop wherever you are, except if you're already on the desktop, which it will bring you to the main menu page. This works like the iPhone's home button (there's no other button anyway).

I like this approach. It simplifies the train of thought required to navigate around the interface. The desktop is where you get access to your most used functions and it's great that it only takes one step to get there.

The main PIM menus of S60 3rd FP1 phones are one of the best I have come across. They are attractively designed and carefully thought out. They have been around for some time already and don't need any introduction.

Active Notes, introduced in the last batch of E Series devices is found here as well. Instead of notes with just text, you can attach pictures, audio, videos, business cards...etc together in the notes, making it more, what is the right word, "human"? I doubt it's something the business crowd would spend much time using.

The E51 like all Nokia S60 phones have this thing called "Voice Commands". It's a fun little toy to have. The idea is you can change your profile, call your mailbox, turn on/off your bluetooth, search for a contact, or anything really, by pressing or pressing and holding the button between the volume up/down button. You can freely add a voice command to launch any application. This is a cool idea but it's hardly reliable in everyday use.

Another voice function is the ability to read out your messages. Again, cool idea, but poor execution. The sound quality is poor and half the time, you're wondering what the voice is saying. The weird-accented English doesn't help either. This could potentially be very useful if Nokia gets it right. You could listen to your messages while driving, which is a big plus for me.

The voice recorder is something I use all the time. Overseas clients call me and shoot a tonne of info at me and expect me to remember everything. Fortunately for me, there is the voice recorder. I simply press a button on the left of the phone and record the whole conversation. I can then review it at my own convenience. Sound quality is good and everything can be heard clearly. What joy!

New in the E51 is this thing called "Audio Themes". It's the audio version of graphic themes found in S60 devices. I find it irritating. 3 choices, Hiphop, Nokia and Orchestral, are available. Hiphop sounds like Motown (the roots going too far back) with record scratching, totally inappropriate for a business device. Nokia sounds familiar, nothing to shout about. Orchestral features a flutist playing a meaningless melody with too much vibrato. How does a flute define "orchestral"? A strings passage, maybe, but a solo flute? Thanks, but no thanks.

Talking about sounds, I'm very impressed with the speakerphone on the E51. This being not a multi-media phone, has speakers that are optimised for telephony. The mid frequencies are enhanced making voices crystal clear. Talking over the speakerphone is a very nice experience. You can hear the other party very well and vice versa. Being such a slim device, I can put it in my breast pocket while driving and talking over speakerphone with perfect clarity and plenty of volume. It has rendered my bluetooth handfree unnecessary.

5-way conference calling is also supported. So, technically you can talk to 5 people from 5 different countries while driving with the E51 in your breast pocket talking through its speakerphone.

As expected, music playback on such a speaker would suffer. The overall sound is shrill. But that is not really relevant on such a phone. You don't see a business person walking around blasting HIPHOP or ORCHESTRAL music over their mobile phones.

However, a business person would listen to the radio (Nokia's obligatory visual radio) or music or watch videos while having a quiet lunch at a coffeeshop. So the sound quality needs to be decent at least. So how is it? Well, it's a bit difficult to judge as I only had the E90 standard issue earphones to test (I don't have a 3.5mm to 2.5mm converter plug). Putting aside the cheap sounding earphones, the sound seems to be clean with no distortion. I can see it potentially being good but I won't bother to test it with a 3.5mm plug earphones. This phone is not meant for that. It is plenty loud for sure and the sound quality is similar to the E90's. It does the job.

Supported media formats include AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, M4A, (SP-)MIDI, AMR, WMA, RealAudio 7,8,10, True tones, WAV and Mobile XMF. That's plenty for a phone that has no media pretensions.

Video playback is crisp and clear, albeit a bit small. It's just fine for some entertainment during a quick lunch.

Quickoffice is included as usual. But if you want to edit documents, you will pay to upgrade to a full version. I don't think anyone would enjoy editing a spreadsheet on this small screen anyway. The included Teams application allows you to define workgroups and enables productive actions like send group emails, keep track of communications...etc.

Web browsing experience on the E51 is decent. Wifi (802.11b/g) speeds are snappy with a good connnection and it seems to be able to pull weak signals very well. This is its saving grace. The small size of the screen does nothing to make things better. You need to squint to see the small text. That being said, the screen is crisp and sharp. The preview window that we are used to by now helps navigation with large pages within the small screen.

Nokia's web browser supports HTML 4.01 (forms, tabs, frames are supported), CSS1 and CSS2, RSS and JavaScript. So far English and Chinese co-habitate happily within this browser. GIF, JPEG, BMP, WBMP, PNG graphic formats are recognised and MIDI, WAV, MP3, ACC, EACC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB and Real Audio audio formats are recognised.

But for web browsing, give me an iPhone anytime. I do in fact carry an iPhone around just for this purpose: mobile surfing via wifi.

Windows Live instant messaging client is supported, giving business users another avenue of communication.

The E51 uses the BP-6MT battery, which is the same one as the N82. It is rated at 1050mAH and on this device, Nokia says it's good for 3.48 hours of talk time and 312 hours of standby time. Without energy sapping features like an auto-focus camera and GPS, togther with a small screen, it lasts very well. I don't usually care about the numbers as I'm one who charges my phones everyday. However, after using it, I can say that the battery is indeed very decent.

Yesterday, I unplugged my charger at 5am. Through the day, I spent 3 hours surfing via wifi and 1 hour via 3.5G, talked for 45 minutes using my telco network, sent and received 120 SMS's, took 40 pictures, listened to music for 1 hour while surfing, talked for 1/2 hour using internet telephone, checked and downloaded email more than 10 times via wifi and 3G. I went to bed at 4am the next day and there are still 2 bars of battery left. That's acceptable to me.

Communication protocols are as good as they come. Bluetooth 2.0+EDR is utilised with all the usual profiles, including A2DP, supported. Telecommunication wise, it has the kitchen sink too: Quadband EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G with HSDPA (dual-band 850/2100).

What can I say? I really like the E51.

Aesthetically, it looks good with it's small and slim form factor. With 3 colour choices, it is unlikely that it will not appeal to most people.

It is well made with expensive-feeling materials. Design details like the etched metal battery cover elevate the feeling of quality. Very important in this category of phones. It is well put together with no wobbliness to any of the parts. All the keys and buttons feel nice to press and they don't feel like they will wear out anytime soon.

Functionally, it can do everything the E90 can except GPS. Wifi, 3.5G, push/pull mail, VoIP, productivity suites, compatibility with Office documents, PIM, instant messaging, camera, music, video...etc. You name it, it can do it. Battery life is good. The interface has improved too with customisable long press options on the hardware shortcut keys. It tops the class. However, I'm still waiting for something other than Symbian to take over th world, but that's my gripe with the OS and not the phone.

If I must find fault with it, there are only 4 things that bothered me:

1) This thing is a fingerprint magnet. The shiny surfaces all over ensure that.

2) The buttons on the sides and top of the phone are very stiff and require quite an effort to press. But I think this is done out of necessity. It is irritating to keep accidentally activate the voice recorder or turn down the speaker volume while talking.

3) The silver trim surrounding the lens and the font of the text that reads "2.0 MEGAPIXEL" look cheap.

4) The screen could be bigger.

The RRP is SGD$588 (USD$400 or Euro$273) here in Singapore. I honestly cannot think of a more capable, well-made and good-looking phone to buy at this price.

I think we have a winner here.

.

**Additional photo of where my proto was made**

Video of N82 vs N95 reaction times...

2007-11-20T00:42:00.001+08:00

So there have been some doubts over why I don't offer numbers to prove that the N82 is faster than the N95.

Well, the thing is, I'm not really a very technical person, as you can see from my style of writing. I don't really care about the numbers. What I care about is how things are like to use. In my lifetime, I have encountered many times numbers that are impressive but when you use them, they reveal the opposite story. For example, a Volvo's 200BHP is much slower than a Saab or Volkswagon's 200BHP. By precise measurement, they all may have 200BHP, but there are so many other things involved that you can't just take the numbers and come to a conclusion. The ultimate conclusion has got to be derived from actual usage.

However, I do see where "nipsen" and "island_paradise" are coming from. So here's a little video I made to substantiate my claim that the N82 feels a lot faster to use than the N95. There is no multi-million dollar timing equipment used or anything like that, but I doubt anyone who watches this will still think that the N95 is actually as quick as the N82.

For the record, this N95 has been updated to the latest firmware which has made it a lot quicker than the original release. I'm sure many people would stand up and agree with me by virtue of EXPERIENCE, without the need to give numbers.

Also, the N95 is totally empty, just fresh from a firmware update. The N82 is full of stuff (over 500 contacts, 35 notes, over 700 SMS/MMS's on the phone memory and 800MB worth of data on the micro SD card)

Enjoy.

Made in China, for the Chinese, or is it?

2007-11-18T22:40:00.000+08:00

Yesterday a friend came over to my place and I noticed he was carrying a phone that looked vaguely familiar, but I can't pinpoint which specific model it was. So I asked him what is it, and he said "Oh, it's a brandless phone that I bought in Shanghai for $200".

Now, my friend is pretty well-to-do so he can pretty much buy any phone he wants. He's not really a tech-leader so he only buys what works for him. So, I asked him why in the world he would buy a $200 made-in-China-for-the-Chinese-brandless phone. He said he couldn't find anything outside of China that can run 2 SIM cards at once.

2 SIM cards together in the same phone, and switching in between them with just a click? Wow! I'm impressed. I haven't come across something like that either.

I tool a closer look.

The front

The back (is that really a 3MP camera or maybe they just decided "3" looked better than "1")

The phone turned on

Beside an E61i for size comparison

So what's so great about this thing? A few things struck me.

1) It can house 2 SIM cards and can switch between them with one click seamlessly. I'm sure there are many people out there who need this feature.

2) It is a TV! I find this to be quite hilarious. When he turned on the TV, I laughed uncontrollably. And when he transformed the stylus into an antenna, I fell over.

I'll show you some antenna pics first, which I'm totally bowled over by. I mean, it's not only functional and practical, it's hilarious! If you've spent any time in China, you'll see it reflects their culture. They invent things out of necessity. As long as there is enough demand, they will make it and sell it.

Harmless, normal looking stylus

Kaboom! It becomes a TV antenna cum mini pointer!

Transformation complete and ready for receiving TV signals

Here's a video of the TV in action:

3) The speakers on this thing is amazing! Best I've heard on a mobile phone. Important for TV watching I suppose

4) It runs some kind of Symbian OS and has touchscreen.

5) It receives and sends MMS's, unlike the iPhone.

6) The screen is big and bright

I didn't play with it much but I already love it. It was stable and easy to understand and use. Battery life is very good according to my friend (as expected of it's size). A newer version that receives digital TV is already out.

If this is a preview of Chinese-designed phones, we'll be seeing many interesting devices yet.

Camera startup speed: N82 vs N95-8GB vs N95 vs N93

2007-11-17T12:02:00.000+08:00

I received quite a few requests from readers who want me to measure the startup times of the phone cams after I did the image processing times videos.

Firstly, I must apologise that the N73 is not with me anymore as I returned it to Nokia already. I only had it to review some Ngage games, so I can't use it in this comparison. Secondly, posting videos take too much time to upload and process, so I'll just take still shots of the timings and you'll just have to trust that I did it as consistently as I could.

The measurement process:
1) I turn on and off the camera 3 times
2) On the 4th time, I measure the time taken from the moment I flick on the camera switch the the moment an image with the camera menu appears on the screens.

Here are the results.

N82 camera startup time

N95-8GB camera startup time

For the N95, before I did any measurements, I updated to the latest firmware:

N95 (firmware version 12.0.014) camera startup time

N93 camera startup time

One thing that deserves special mention is that after the firmware upgrade, the N95 is much faster than before. It just does everything faster, from starting up to getting GPS satellite fixes. Fantastic! This is a must-do for N95-1 owners. It brings the user experience much closer to that of an N95-8GB.

Other than that, the results were pretty predictable and reflects how it feels to use the devices.

Image processing speed: N82 vs N95-8GB vs N95 vs N73 vs N93

2007-11-16T17:13:00.000+08:00

There has been much debate lately over how fast the image processing speeds of the N82 and N95-8GB are. So I decided to do a little unscientific measurement myself with a stopwatch.

The chosen devices are the Nokia N82, N95-8GB, N95 (no firmware upgrade), N73 and N93. The pictures are taken indoors with natural light shining in. Camera settings are set to automatic and no flashes were triggered. I may not have pressed the start/stop button in a truly consistent manner, but you get the general idea.

I'll just let the videos do the talking.

N82

N95-8GB

N95 (no firmware upgrade)

N73

N93

So despite the inconsistencies of this timing method, the results actually tell an accurate picture of the user experience of these camera phones. The N82 feels similar to the N95-8GB, the N73 is reasonably quick, the N95 is *yawn* and the fastest is still the giant N93.

Nokia N82: impressions after a week...

2007-11-11T16:16:00.000+08:00

**UPDATE 1: The final release of the N82 will not have Navi wheel, so I edited this blog entry to reflect it.**

**UPDATE 2: Nokia came back to me regarding SDHC support. Their answer was:
"The N82 technically DOES support SDHC (SD High Capacity) if it means cards that are 4GB and bigger (FAT32). Due to card availability, we have only verified cards up to 6GB.". Also, the SAR rating for the N82 is 0.62W/kg**

A week ago, I received this late build N82 proto for testing.

Now that it's officially announced, I can finally write this up. The past week has given me adequate time to evaluate this phone pretty thoroughly. So here are my thoughts.

In a nutshell, the N82 is a super fast N95 wrapped up in a candy bar style monobloc body with a xenon flash. That's basically what it is. If you wanna know the nitty gritty details, read on...

The design of the phone, in my opinion, will not win any beauty contests. It looks and feels plasticky. It's quite a feather weight too, feeling just a tad heavier than the N95 8GB (non scientific hand weighing machine). Scientifically, it's 120g.

The front is mostly reflective smoky silver. The earpiece speaker is at the top centre as usual and the front camera (for video calls or crappy pictures) is on its left. The SEND and END buttons are located just below the centre of the phone on either side and positioned just like the N81 where it curves slightly towards the sides of the phone.

The shortcut, menu and cancel buttons live between the send and end buttons on a flat plane while the multi-media button is given special treatment being the lone button that sticks out. The multi-media button is the same as the keypad buttons, much like an N91: thin rectangular blocks. On the N91, they feel sturdy,like they are made of metal and click with a very positive action. Here, they feel like plastic.

Here's a comparison between the N82 and N91 8GB keypads

At the back, the covering is a pearly silver that has a V-shaped pattern repeated all over it. It looks textured but when you touch it, it's actually smooth. There is a camera slider switch that activates the 5MP camera as well as the lens cover, like the original N95. The highlight of this phone is of course, the xenon flash. This is the first phone with xenon flash Nokia has ever made.

On its left are the micro USB port (I'd prefer a mini USB but it's not a deal breaker), micro SD card slot and the charging port.

On its right are two loud-sounding speakers, camera shutter button, picture/video gallery shortcut button and volume up-down/zoom in-out buttons.

On the top lies the power/profile button and a 3.5mm audio port (perfect position for it).

A lonely microphone resides at the bottom of the phone

I know it looks rather good in the pictures, like glass and metal, but in real life, that's not the case. It's looks like a light chunk of plastic, which it is.

Here are some pictures comparing it's thickness against other phones.

N95 8GB vs N82

N73 vs N82

E90 vs N82

Apple iPhone vs N82

N93i vs N82

E61i vs N82

And some pictures of it beside its cousins

N95 8GB with N82

N81 8GB with N82

N93/N93i with N82

N91 8GB and N73 with N82

E61i and E90 with N82

Apple iPhone with N82

And finally, a family shot

This is the first ever Nokia phone with a xenon flash. The camera itself is a 5MP, autofocus, Carl Zeiss Tessar (2.8/5.6) module. It's the same module as the N95/N95-8GB. So we already know how well the camera performs. But let's see what kind of difference the xenon flash makes.

Below are a series of pictures taken by the N82, N95, E90 and just for the heck of it, a 10.5MP Leica D-Lux 3 digital camera. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

These pictures are all taken on auto mode without any zoom.

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lex 3

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

Shot with "Close Up Mode" (macro) with flash set to automatic

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

N82

N95 (no matter how I tried, I couldn't get the words to be legible)

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

Shot with "Night" mode (no flash)

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

N82

N95

E90

Leica D-Lux 3

And just for reference, here's a video of me walking around my apartment taken with the N82. Camera setting is Automatic.

Here are some full resolution pictures shot with the N82:
http://homepage.mac.com/adam.madmusic/PhotoAlbum101.html

And here are some full resolution N82/N95 comparison shots in a very dark room:
http://homepage.mac.com/adam.madmusic/PhotoAlbum102.html

From the pictures and video, I can say that my N82 PROTOTYPE does better than the N95 in situations that require flash, but not necessarily better in situations that do not. The xenon flash of the N82 simply gives a much more natural tone to pictures. The bluish tint typical of LED flashes is not present. Again, I must emphasize that my unit is a prototype it does not represent consumer versions.

A few things became apparent in the process of taking the pictures:

1) The N95 is painfully slow in doing everything, especially in processing images. The waiting time is easily double, maybe even triple that of the N82's.

2) The position of the N82's END button (right below the shutter button) is very prone to accidental presses during picture taking. I have quit the camera menu many times pressing the END button while pressing the shutter button. Maybe it's just me.

3) The Leica D-Lux 3, which I bought just prior to taking these pictures, is a very nice camera!

Another very talked about feature of the N82 is the automatic screen rotation. It's better than the iPhone in only one respect, and that is: the rotation feature is not limited to a few applications but is available on almost every screen except the desktop, games and "Video Center" menu. That's great. However, the execution leaves a bitter taste.

Why? The screen rotation is a bit hit-and-miss. Sometimes it works fine, and other times it's slow and indecisive, resulting in situations when you get landscape view while holding the phone vertical, and portrait view while holding the phone horizontal. Many times, viewing the phone while lying down creates similar problems. Also, it works in only one vertical axis and one horizontal axis. Watch this video to see what I mean.

Compare this with Apple's superior implementation (2 horizontal axes instead of 1). It has never made any wrong decisions, no matter which position you hold the phone in.

As you can see from the videos, Apple presents internet content in a way where you can see lots of info at a glance and get to it with a tap. Nokia's way leaves you wondering what you are looking at most of the time. For me, the only times where screen rotation is really useful is when viewing web pages and pictures.

Surfing the net is a pain on the N82 (and every other Nokia phone) in the sense that you can only see a tiny bit of a web page at a time, forcing you to scroll up down left right to get to what you want to see.

Yes, I know there is a preview window that pops up to show a "map" of the page you're viewing, but what I want is an Apple-esque solution where I can see and get anywhere in a flash.

Apple leaves Nokia in the dust in this respect, sorry to say. Even on the with the E90's big screen, it's still no match for Apple's web surfing experience.

So is screen rotation on the N82 something to shout about? Not to me.

Regarding the audio quality, it's good, very good. To my trained ears (I produce music for a living), it's as good as the N81 8GB, which to me is slightly tighter than an Apple iPod Video. The 3.5mm earphone jack is great and I think it should come with every phone on the planet. On the N82, the position of this port, in my opinion, is perfect. Its on the top left of the device, staying out of the way when using the phone while listening to music.

Through my AKG K271 Studio headphones, bass is tight, treble is natural and everything is balanced. It definitely has a high quality (for a mobile phone) headphone amplifier inside.

Another thing I love about most N series phones, including this one, is when the phone detects something being plugged into the 3.5mm port, it asks you what type of device it it so that it can give you the best possible output. A nice touch.

The speakers on the N82 are pretty loud. Louder than an N95's, but prone to distortion at higher volumes.

The other aspects of the N82 is similar to the N95 8GB. They run the same software.

Communications protocols are as per N95 8GB, so I'm not going to elaborate further as there is plenty of info out there regarding this.

A few things I feel that is worth mentioning are:

1) The multi-media menu is now different from the original N95. It's the same one found on the N95 8GB. You can't customize it anymore. Instead, 7 sub-menus reside here now (Gallery, Music, Videos, Games, Maps, Internet and contacts). Within these sub-menus are convenient shortcuts that are relevant to each sub-menu. I don't like it. I much prefer the N95's where I can add or take away any function I like. A step backwards for me. But I suspect this is the way Nokia is going in the future.

2) There is A-GPS (Assisted-GPS) now and that improves the user experience by leaps and bounds over the original N95. Satellite fixes from cold starts are extremely quick at less than 30 seconds. Basic navigation features are pre-loaded but features like voice guidance and city guides are payable. Maps are free for download either via network or wifi on the phone itself. Or you could download them onto your PC, then transfer them to your phone with a PC software called Maploader.

Nokia Maps are very nicely rendered indeed. It's a bit more cluttered than my Garmin Nuvi standalone GPS, but no less pleasant to look at. The colour scheme is also very similar to Garmin maps, which is a good thing. The experience is almost as good as a genuine SIRF III one. Very impressive. Here's a little video of it in action:

3) Video Centre now has more content than ever before. Plugins from youtube, Reuters, CNN, Jamster, Sony Pictures...etc keep you *kinda* entertained (not much choice in terms of content), especially when you have a wifi connection. Here's a little video of how it looks:

Again, the execution is nowhere near as elegant as Apple's:

One thing about N series phones that impresses me is this little detail: if you get a call/SMS while watching a video, the sound of the audio fades out and your ringtone fades in you alert you and your video pauses. After you're done talking and return to the video menu, the video resumes from the point that it paused and the sound fades in. It's all very smooth.

Sometimes when you get patchy internet connection and the video gets choppy, the audio doesn't just stutter. It fades in and out. The same thing happens with the Music Player. Not a big deal, but it's these kinds of differences that make a Bentley feel better than a Toyota.

4) It plays Ngage games

5) Search 4.0 is now permanently embedded on the desktop (just like the N95-8GB). I love it. It works just like my Apple OSX Finder. You can find anything on your phone really quickly.

6) Battery life (BP-6MT) is very decent. It still holds 2 bars after taking 40 photos (about 20 with flash), 1/2 hour GPS usage, 100 SMS's, 1 hour's worth of 3G usage, 20 minutes' worth of voice calls and 1 hour of web surfing over wifi.

7) When inputting text, the new positions of the SEND and END keys make it less susceptible to accidental quitting of the text input menu compared with an N95/N95-8GB. For example, on the N95, while tapping out an SMS, when I need to press the cancel key to erase something, I often press the END button and quit the SMS application due to them being right beside each other. It doesn't happen anymore on the N82 as it takes a deliberate effort to go from cancel to END.

8) It's FAST (by Symbian standards of course). It's one of the faster Symbian devices I've used. Slightly faster than the N95-8GB, much much faster than the original N95 and faster than an E90. You can throw anything at it and it will eat it up. Multi-tasking for this guy is a walk in the park. I tried to cripple it by deliberately leaving applications running, within normal usage parameters of course, but it didn't work at all. Maybe I didn't try hard enough.

And a few things that irritate me:

1) The white on silver keypad markings are impossible to see in bright sunlight. Not good.

2) The shortcut/options/exit buttons are now on the same plane as the Menu and cancel buttons (like an N81). This makes it far less tactile to use (see picture above).

3) The centre button of the 5-way rocker switch is awkward to use. Why? It not only functions as the left button on a mouse where it selects what your cursor is pointed to. It also duplicates the function of the 4-way rocker square ring surrounding it. I can actually navigate around the menus without ever touching the square ring. The sides of the centre button move the cursor around. So it gets a bit frustrating when you don't press the sizable centre button right in the middle. Instead of selecting what you want, you end up moving the cursor to somewhere you don't want.

4) The screen is a bit on the small side. At 2.4 inches (QVGA, 16 million colours), it's smaller than the original N95's (2.6 inches). The resolution remains the same for both phones at 240x320 pixels. It makes web surfing on an N82 a slightly less enjoyable. That being said, the screen (TFT with ambient light sensor) is very readable in bright sunlight, like most Nokia S60 phones.

5) The location of the charging port bothers me. I'd much prefer it to be at the bottom of the phone. If you're like me, often using the phone while it's being charged, you'll find the N82 extremely awkward to use while it's charging. The cable just gets in the way of everything.

6) This thing can't stand by itself! I don't about you, but being a phone whose camera is one of its biggest selling point, I can't just put it on a flat surface and shoot! Especially for shooting videos of yourself doing something with your hands (now now, don't be naughty), this ability is absolutely crucial. This very next video (shot handsfree with an N95) is an example of how I can use a phone that can stand by itself (like the N95) in this specific situation, but is impossible to use an N82 for the same scenario:

7) This has nothing to do with the phone, but why does Nokia give us half-baked content? Now we have youtube, but we can only watch what they say we can watch. You can choose from all 25 (wow.) crappy (double wow.) videos. If Apple can give us unrestricted access to youtube content, why can't Nokia, the LARGEST MOBILE PHONE MANUFACTURER IN THE WORLD, do that too and more? Is it because youtube deems Nokia to be uncool? Is is because Apple paid more? Is it because Nokia can't afford to pay youtube?

I don't really care. All I know is that I, and everyone in the world, want content that we can choose, not content that is chosen for us.

Overall, I like the N82, very much. It's got everything an N95 has and more. If only it didn't look and feel so cheap in real life. Even if you have an N95, I feel it would be worth the while to upgrade to the the N82. It's fast. Press a button and there's hardly any lag before something happens, unlike the N95 where it's press a button and then fall asleep waiting.

It's got a xenon flash that makes taking pictures that require flashes much better looking than with LED flashes. Assisted GPS (AGPS) makes navigation very pleasurable. With micro SD cards of capacities up to 8GB available now, you're not missing much by not getting the N95 8GB. Overall, it definitely offers a much better user experience than the original N95.

HSDPA turbo-charges 3G connections and it works great in real life providing broadband-like speedy web surfing. Integrated software on the phone makes creating and sharing content from anywhere a breeze.

Again, my observations are derived from a PROTOTYPE device and may not represent the final consumer version. From experience, the final release is always better.

So what's my conclusion?

Let's put it this way, if I can have only ONE phone today, a phone that can do most things well, it would have to be the Nokia N82.

But dear Mr Nokia, can you please make a device that has the N82's capability to create content and the iPhone's ability to consume content? That would be close to perfection indeed...

Nokia N81 8GB

2007-11-09T01:15:00.000+08:00

I've had this N81 8GB prototype for a while now but I haven't written anything about it cos I'm having a hard time coming to a conclusion to what or who it's for.

There's 3G but no HSDPA, so the experience is not as good as an N95 or E90. The camera is a weedy 2 megapixel unit with a near useless LED flash. The interface is half baked compared with the S60 3rd editions that we're used to by now on the latest Nokia devices. These are just a few of my gripes about the device.

Anyway, let's get on with the pics.

Front view

Back view

Side views

Top and bottom views

SIM tray

Slider open

Extra gaming rocker buttons integrated togther with the earpiece

Side by side pics with other phones:

You can see from the pictures that Nokia meant for it to be quite a good looking device. However, the execution is a bit off. Instead of looking classy-ly glassy, it ends up looking more plasticky cheapie. The phone itself is put together well, feeling sturdy and firm. It has the stiffest keys I've ever come across in a phone, requiring quite a bit of strength to press. This is probably done to ensure longevity when gaming, which is what I think this phone is made for. The extra rocker buttons on either side of the earpiece emphasizes gaming intentions.

The speakers are pretty powerful. Much louder than the N95's, they will make gaming more enjoyable I suppose, if you're the type who likes a big soundtrack while playing games. The audio output through the 3.5mm, I must say, is very very good. It's noticeably cleaner and more defined than the N95 and even my iPhone.

The weight of the N81 8GB is pretty hefty. It's weight is closer to the E90 than the N95, giving a further impression of sturdiness.The action of the slider feels very good. The tension of the slider spring is taut, making it feel much better than that of an N95.

There is 8GB of built-in memory and no removable media slot. With the advent of 8GB cards, this is not good, as with all current 8GB models from Nokia. There seems to be plenty of user accessible RAM. I still can't seem to make it crash despite turning on as many applications as I can.

The arrangement of the keys deserve a special mention. Under the screen are 16, yes SIXTEEN command keys. Not the most ergonomic and definitely very prone to accidental presses. But I suppose acceptable given the space constraints.

The keypad keys are very flat and one dimensional, making text input not as tactile as a more contoured keypad. However, it's not too much of a chore.

New in this device is this thing called Naviwheel. It's similar to the iPod concept where you run your finger around the silver square to control the cursor. The thing is, it works only in a couple of menus and it works like a drunk iPod. Sometimes it works, other times it misses. And it's turned OFF by default. Weird. But if Nokia gets this right, it'll be a great navigation tool.

This is a 3G phone with no HSDPA to turbo charge things. Web browsing over 3G is acceptable I suppose, but it ain't no N95 or E90. Wifi and bluetooth work as usual. They took out the infrared port on this device which I don't miss at all.

Being used to Nokia's latest interface on the N95, I'm finding this interface lacking. The thing that irritates me the most is that there's no WLAN scanning menu on the desktop, something that I would think people would wanna use all the time. You have to press the applications button and select "Extras" before you can see the WLAN menu. Too many steps to get to something so commonly used.

According to other reviews, the search 4.0 application is included in the official release, and that's a great thing. It's like the file browser on the Apple OSX finder. This shot of the search 4.0 application on my N95 8GB placed beside my Powerbook screen:

Let's talk about the camera. I'll just let the pictures do the talking. I've taken pictures of 2 subjects using the N81 8GB, N95, E90 and iPhone. You judge for yourselves. All the phones are simply set to Automatic. I just pointed and shot. All the pictures are compressed with iPhoto with the same resolution settings.

Taken by the N81 8GB (yes, the flash was ON)

Taken by the N95

Taken by the E90

Taken by the iPhone (which we all know is 2MP has no flash)

Round 2.

Taken by the N81 8GB

Taken by the N95

Taken by the E90

Taken by the iPhone

So the N81 is supposedly made for gaming. Trying out the preloaded Ngage demo games, I don't see much difference in playing the same games on my N95 8GB. In fact, playing Asphalt with my N95 8GB proved to be more pleasurable due to it's bigger screen. However, with a fighting game that required 2 hands, the extra buttons beside the earpiece proved to be indispensable. Here a video of that fighting game:

So at the end of the day, who is this phone for? I can't figure it out. I guess if you're someone who is a hardcore phone gamer, someone who values sound quality, someone who doesn't care too much about the camera quality, someone who doesn't use 3G much, someone who likes loud phone speakers, someone who like taut slider springs, this one's for you.

I guess there won't be too many takers...

Dead Powerbook: REVIVED!

2007-11-08T17:02:00.001+08:00

So, I have this 550MHZ G4 Titanium Powerbook that I have not turned on for 4 years. I dropped it and cracked the case and one of the screen hinges actually broke, exposing some wires. On top of that, the backlight was becoming really unreliable. Sometimes it would be ok, and most times, the screen would be black. The famous "paint peel" syndrome of Titanium Powerbooks was also apparent on mine.

I bought a 17" Powerbook and just shoved this into a drawer, until a few days ago when I came across it again while doing some spring cleaning. I thought to myself if I can hook it up to my 42" plasma in my bedroom, I can permanently leave my 17" Powerbook downstairs in the living room instead of bringing it up all the time. So a plan hatched.

I checked the back of the Tibook and my Panasonic plasma TV and found that the common factor was VGA. Simple enough. I dug out a VGA cable and hooked them up and voila! There was action! The old neglected Tibook still worked!

But wait a minute. How am I supposed to type and move the cursor while lying in bed? Wireless keyboard and mouse of course! Being a pre-bluetooth machine, I can't just go out and buy a set of bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The cheapest solution, I figured, would be a wireless USB RF keyboard/mouse, right?

So, I went out and bought a S$65 Microsoft RF wireless keyboard and mouse.

And what a waste of money it turned out to be! Anything further than 12 inches, they lose connection. My bed and the computer is a good 8 feet apart. So it looks like bluetooth is the only option.

So I went to my favourite electronics place again to buy a USB bluetooth dongle to add bluetooth capability to my aged Tibook. As it turned out, it's not easy as I thought. Nobody can guarantee that their USB dongles would work with OSX. I finally found one that has a picture of the Mac sign on the packaging and bought it. Went to buy a set of Apple wireless keyboard and mouse. They were really expensive but at least they looked good.

I went home, happily set everything up and crap. It didn't work! Bluetooth can detect my phones and can even transfer files, but no matter what I tried, it just couldn't detect my Apple bluetooth keyboard and mouse!

So, what to do but go online and trawl internet forums? After some serious reading, I found that the only USB bluetooth dongle that has been proven to work with OSX is the D-Link DBT-120. I called my local D-Link number only to find that that model has been discontinued!

Sp did I just spend S$65 (Microsoft RF keyboard/mouse) + S$29 (bluetooth dongle that didn't work) + S$225 (Apple bluetooth keyboard/mouse) for NOTHING??

No! I didn't come this far for nothing?!

I called up D-Link again and found out that the DBT-120 has been replaced by a newer model called DBT-122. According to the website, it supports Mac but with zero details. Searched the internet but did not find any conclusion about it being able to work with OSX.

I decided to take a risk and order it. It wasn't in stock and I had to wait 3 days for it.

After 3 days, it finally arrived!

I pluged it in, crossed my fingersm and YES!!! It works! It detected my keyboard and mouse immediately! I can now surf the internet or do anything I want on my computer in bed with a 42" plasma as my monitor!

The view from my bed:

So, for anyone wondering how to get totally functioning bluetooth into your old Titanium Powerbook, the answer is: D-Link DBT-122.

Apple iPhone vs the Symbians - Part 2: Beauty Contest

2007-10-30T23:20:00.000+08:00

So is it really that good looking? Do we really need to ask?

Look at every Apple product and the answer's obvious. The iPhone easily fits into the family and emerges and one of the best looking siblibgs. Clean, industrial, minimalist design. It's a screen with a button. You can't get cleaner than that. An automotive equivalent would be an Audi RS4 wagon maybe?

But one man's meat is another man's shit, so I'll let the pictures do the talking.

iPhone vs N95

iPhone vs E61i

iPhone vs N91 8GB

iPhone vs E90

iPhone vs N93i

Tastes may vary, but hard facts like thickness can't be perceived differently. Out of all the phones above, only the E61i comes close. The rest are at least twice as thick.

I'll just mention that out of all the phones above, the iPhone's screen is easily the brightest. And it's brighter by a big margin. In the pictures above, the iPhone's screen is set to around 15% brightness and it's already brighter than the others set at 50 or 100%. At full brightness, the iPhone's screen actually hurts the eyes in a darker room.

I'll just do a couple of pics of the iPhone's screen set at 100% brightness versus the N95 8GB and E90 also set at 100%.

Apple iPhone vs the Symbians - Part 1: bringing it home

2007-10-30T12:19:00.001+08:00

So why am I writing this? We all know that most Symbian phones will trounce the iPhone in terms of function. But is function everything? If you had one choice, would you rather be driving a slow convertible or a fast station wagon? Ultimately, it boils down to taste, needs and budget.

I'm the kinda guy who values the little details that make me go "damn, they thought of that?". So you can understand my fixation with the iPhone, or rather, Apple stuff.

Ever since I first saw iPhone on the internet when it was launched, I had a terrible itch to buy it. Because of it's old-ish technology, I managed to tame the itch for a while. Afterall I had almost every flagship Nokia phone at my disposal so it wasn't too much of a hardship.

Until, that is, I saw one in the flesh. When I saw it in my friend's hand, my knees literally went weak and I felt dizzy. My vision suddenly became like an over-exposed camera lens. Everything just whitened out except the iPhone. It felt like the the first crush I had on this girl when I was 8 years old. My blood pressure rose, I felt hot at the collar and I had an irresistible urge to want to hold it, despite that fact that it wasn't right to.

There's voodoo involved. There must be. How can a chunk of glass and metal bring out such irrational emotions in a human being? Apple stuff has always made me feel like that, which explains my need to own them:

Ok. So I have a problem. I need to see a shrink.

Or I could just spend more of my hard earned money to make Apple richer. I think that sounds like a better plan.

Back to the story. So I made a few calls and found out where to buy an unlocked one. I went to the shop, and made sure it was working and had the guy apply a screen protector. I couldn't help taking some shots with my Nokia N95 8GB at the shop.

Neat little package:

Warning:

Stuff in the box:

What a way to welcome the user!

Shop guy applying the screen protector. He's got the bling factor:

After that, I drove home as quick as I could with the turbo in my car spooled all the way.

Part 2 coming soon...

Nokia N76

2007-10-29T23:18:00.000+08:00

Hi folks.

I've been getting some queries from some people about the N76, so here's a little writeup about it.

The Nokia N76 seems to be targeted at people who value a very slim form factor more than anything. But fortunately, it does so without sacrificing too much function.

To describe it, I'll use an N95 as a comparison since everyone should be familiar with it:

The N76 basically is an N95 packed inside a Moto RAZR chasis, but without GPS, 5 MP cam (2MP) and wifi.

Considering that it's so much smaller than the N95, I feel it's acceptable. Then, there are a few things that are better than the N95, like the screen (very sharp and vibrant!), the speakers (best quality I've heard on a phone so far). The interface is even prettier than the N95's with fonts that look gorgeous.

Ok. Let's move on to the pics.

4 shiny protoypes. 2 red 2 black.

I choose a black one for myself. Front view.

Right view.

Left view

Top view. Notice the 3.5mm earphone jack!

Back view

A thickness comparison. From left to right: N95, N76, N91 8GB, E61.

Peel off all the protective stickers. From this moment on, the phone is worth close to nothing.

Slide off the back cover. Oops, not enough Euro batteries, so they just put one meant for China inside this proto.

Insert the SIM card. A bit awkward. Never seen such a system before.

Insert the Micro SD card

Turn it on and see the front cover display comes to life. Beautiful!

Flip it open and reveal the inside. Wow!

So far, I'm really enjoying using it. The keypad feels better than even the N93i. The screen is simply breathtaking. The interface is very quick, faster than the N95 (as expected due to less stuff in this phone). Despite the 2 MP cam, the pic quality is pretty decent. I'll go take some pics outdoors with it later.

The speakers are just awesome. You can actually hear a little bit of bass on them and they're plenty loud. Music seems to be a big thing on this phone. There are dedicated buttons on the front of the phone to access the music library and all the music players functions. One doesn't expected to see a proper 3.5mm earphone jack on such a slim device, but the N76 gives you one!

Another thing I love about this phone is the cover display. You can choose to read SMS's through it without flipping the phone open. This saves a lot of time indeed. Not only that, you can even take pictures using the cover display as a screen! All the phone menus are even accessible through the buttons in front. That means you don't even have to flip open the phone to take pics, making it much quicker and easier to use as a camera.

Battery life should be pretty decent considering there's no wifi and GPS in this thing.

I took some pictures using the N76 camera during lunch yesterday. The sky was very overcast, so no real bright sunlight was involved.

All pictures are taken on auto mode. Point and shoot. The camera is a 2.0 megapixel one. Non Carl Zeiss, aka, el cheapo camera module. Let's see how it performs.

Outdoor shots:

Inside the car with roof blocking the sun

Placing the phone nearer to the subject (there is no close up mode on this cam)

Indoor shots

Night shots

Overall, I find that the camera has a greenish tint to it and is grainy, especially under low light conditions. For a quick point and shoot, I suppose it's ok. Can't expect too much from something that's so slim...

So if you're looking for a 3G phone that is sexy, does music excellently, and photos/videos not so well, this is your ticket...

Nokia E90

2007-10-28T16:57:00.001+08:00

Hi folks! Quite some time ago, before it was in the stores, I received a Nokia E90 communicator prototye for testing. Although the the phone is no longer new and the novelty has worn off, I'll still do a review for people who are still thinking about this phone.

As soon as I got it, I transferred all my stuff from my E61i via bluetooth. A very simple process if you have multiple Nokia phones.

There's a special place in my heart for the Communicator series from Nokia as I used a 9110 many years ago while I was studying in Australia and I absolutely loved it. It proved to be indispensable in school. So I'm gonna spend some time and write a deeper review for this phone.

After my 9110, I moved on to Palm Treos mainly because the Communicator series were always compromised in some area when compared with their smaller cousins from Nokia. But not anymore. This is the one I've been waiting for all these years. Let me explain why.

The form factor:

Many people have the impression that Communicators are big chunky bricks. Well, it is still a brick, but this time round, it is a stylish one. It's not as big as you think. Here is a comparison between the the E90 and it's N series cousins:

As you can see, it's actually not much bigger than your regular phone. The only thing is stands out is it's weight. At 210g, it is rather heavy. But hey, this is the mother of all phones, and not a toy. To me, it's looks pretty good for a brick. It's all black with shiny silver frame surrounding the display and the black keypad, chrome rocker key and large and very solid metal hinges. The whole device is solid and tight, and feels very well put together. It doesn't feel like it will fall apart anytime soon.

As with all Commuicators, this one has 2 screens. The outer screen is QVGA (240x320 pixels, 16 million colors) and the physical dimensions are 30x40 mm. Unlike previous Communicators, the external screen is no longer a simple cover that only has access to a few simple functions. For the first time, it has FULL functionality. Whatever you can see and do on the big screen inside, you can do with the external screen. This has finally happened after so long. For geeky people like me, this is big news!

Right below the external screen, there are two soft keys, menu and "C" buttons, the usual Green/Red Send and End buttons and a 5-way rocker in the centre. The 5-way rocker button consists of a chrome frame and a large black central button, much like an E61i. It works extremely well, much better than an N95.

The Power button located on the top right hand corner of the front of the phone serves slightly different functions from previous Communicators. When you power off now, it turns off the whole phone, including the internal screen, unlike before where the internal screen is always active when you open the clamshell. To use the PDA functions while the phone is off, you have to select "Offline" mode now. Wifi and bluetooth will still work in this mode.

A quick look at the bottom of the phone reveals a mini USB 2.0 port, 2.5mm headpone connector (boo! should be 3.5mm!) and charger connector. The micro SD card slot is right below these set of connectors.

On the right side of the phone, you can find the voice recorder button, camera button and and an infra red port.

At the back of the phone, you can see a 3 mega-pixel autofocus camera module with LED flash and a pair of stereo speakers. Of course most of the back is occpied by the battery cover.

Speaking about batteries, this one is definitely worth a special mention. It's a 1500mAh battery (BP-4L), the same one found in the E61i. I used the phone heavily for a day and it didn't even make a dent in the battery level indicator! You definitely don't have worry about running out of juice within a day if you charge your phone everyday. It's rated at 14 days standby and 5 hours talktime. Also, unlike previous Communicators, taking out the battery is a simple affair now, not requiring any special tool. Simply slide it out.

What this thing is built for:

Opening up the device reveals what this thing is all about. The HUGE, GORGEOUS SCREEN and the full sized QWERTY keyboard.

Let's talk about the screen first. The resolution is 800x352 pixels (24-bit, 16.7 million colours). It measures 90x40mm. This screen is is perfect for watching widescreen movies and more importantly, surfing the internet. It's a lot better than surfing on say an N95. You can see a lot of a web page and need to do a lot less scrolling. Editing documents is also a pleasure. It will beat any Windows Mobile device in this aspect.

The quality of the display is in a word: STUNNING! It is hands down the best phone display I have ever seen. The size, sharpness, clarity is beyond good. Even under bright sunlight, the readability is excellent due to the matte screen (anti-reflective coating). I will buy this phone just for the screen.

Moving on to the keyboard, again, it's one of the best in the business. The keys are large enough to be used seriously. The top of the keys are just a bit convex and falls away at the sides that leaves you in no doubt where the keys begin and end. The main letters and digits keys sit at a slightly higher level than the keys at the sides making it even better to use. The enter and delete keys are very large, there is no way you can miss them.

The feel of the keyboard is extremely good. If you have used any of the old Communicators, expect this one to be MUCH better. But the best thing is: the keyboard is finally backlit! And you can turn the back lighting on and off easily with the big button with the bulb sign.

There are many dedicated buttons and teamed together with the S60 software, you can configure this phone to be extremely efficient in terms of getting to what you want with just 1 click. Hardware buttons have access to Desk, Contacts, Messaging, Web, Notes, Calendar, TWO configurable "My Own" buttons, Bluetooth on/off, Infrared, Multimedia volume and call volume control and Profiles. Leaving the EIGHT S60 active standby menu for other things! Talk about customising.

The first thing I don't like about the E90: the 5-way rocker key. It feels slightly awkward to use as the travel of the outer silver ring is a bit too shallow, making you tend to accidentally press the middle select button a lot. With no arrow keys, this is the only way to move around the screen. Hopefully, Nokia will get it right by the time this phone is released. The silver outer ring just needs to travel a bit more and it'll be perfect. But it's gonna be a tough feat to achieve due to space constraints. Any higher it might hit that gorgeous screen.

Opening up the clamshell, you will notice 2 indents where the screen clicks into place, One is at about 90 degrees and the other at 180 degrees (flat like a book). However, the screen will lock securely in place at any angle you wish. No worries about toppling the phone over when setting the screen angle at more than 90 degrees and the keyboard section of the phone is is much heavier than the screen part. The shiny, heavy duty hinges are very strong and sturdy and feel like they will last a long time.

So how does it perform?

To sum it up, it is BLAZING! Despite being a prototype, this Symbian device is hands down the fastest I have ever used. People who have been using the N95, E61 or even the E61i and think that the response is decent for a Symbian device, you ain't seen nothin' yet! Press and things happen at once! Not quite as quick as an old school Palm device, but close. For a phone that can do so many things, it's amazing.

The processor running the E90 is the same one as the one in the N95 and N93/N93i. But take it from me, it responds much faster than any N series phones. It is a TI OMAP2420 processor (ARM11 architecture) running at 330 MHz. Things can only get better by the time it goes on sale.

Another thing that's very important is, the E90 has 128 MB of RAM, and 80 MB of it is free. That makes it the Symbian device with the largest amount of free RAM in the market. What this translates to is fantastic multi-tasking capabilities. You can use GPS, edit a word document, surf the net, listen to music, type an SMS, make a phone call, view a large PDF document and look at pictures all at the same time without the E90 giving so much as a blink!

The supplied internal memory capacity is 136 MB, of which 128 MB is free. On top of that, it supports micro SD cards of up to 2GB capacity.

Connectivity:

This phone has the kitchen sink thrown inside, breaking the tradition of compromise in the Communicator series. It used to be that the most up to date connectivity mediums were always omitted in Communicators and not anymore. Try this on for size: It not only supports GPRS/EDGE (Class A, MSC 32) and UMTS but also HSDPA with transfer speed up to 3.6 Mbps making the E90 a 3.5G device. UMTS/HSDPA support (and the secondary VGA camera) also mean that video calls and IP telephony are finally possible. The E90 is also a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and WCDMA 2100 MHz device.

WiFi protocol is 802.11 b/g (up to 54 Mbps) and UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). Bluetooth 2.0 EDR implementation on the E90 is now faster and includes A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) support providing compatibility with stereo bluetooth headsets. USB 2.0 via Mini USB port provides mass storage support with drag and drop desktop functionality.

Another breakthrough with the E90 is that it is the 1st ever Communicator with a built-in GPS receiver. Although no specs of the GPS module is available, it is supposed to be the same one as the N95. But performance wise, I can tell you it is better than the N95. It acquires signals faster and clings on to them more strongly than the N95 GPS. Coupled with the huge screen, it is actually a joy to use. Problem is that it is difficult to find a way to mount it in a vehicle for navigation purposes due to the weight and the necessity for the screen to be flipped open. But I'm sure Nokia will come up with a solution.

There's a driving game out there that even uses the GPS to determine where you are in the world and direct you to the nearest race track. What will they think of next?

Also another break in the tradition of the Communicator series is the EXCLUSION of fax. This will no doubt stir up unpleasant emotions in long time Communicator users. It used to be that the Communicator offered the simplest and most effective way of sending and receiving faxes on the move. And now, it can't even do it. Doesn't matter to me as I'd rather use email.

A small thing, but definitely worth mentioning: the E90 is the first Communicator with vibrating alarm! Feels good and strong despite the size and weight of the device.

Operating system and software:

The E90 uses the S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1 platform running Symbian OS 9.2. Why Nokia chose to dump S80 is quite logical. Symbian OS 9.x has many fundamental changes with much improvements. These changes means no backward compatibility is possible with pre OS 9 devices. To make the E90 run S80 (which many people like), it would cost too much to develop a special platform to do that on OS 9.x. So, stay with S80 running on pre OS 9 and live with yesterday's mobile technologies or dump S80 and go with S60 and recycle their R&D already dumped into the N series and get the latest bells and whistles? It's a no brainer. Also the S60 already has a mature 3rd party developer support market.

Anyone who has used an N series will know roughly how the E90 interface looks like. I don't have to elaborate on this as it is pretty similar in terms of function. And just like any S60 phone, it's fully customisable in terms of appearance. Just download themes that are freely available on the web and install them. Just a little note to say that due to the internal screen's resolution, certain existing S60 themes that are unscalable will not look good.

All the usual funtions like contact, calendar..etc work as per any S60 phone (newer N series) except that they are now further refined and improved.

Mutimedia:

So Nokia has finally realised that business people also need entertainment. About time! The E90 has very decent mutimedia capabilities.

Hardware wise, it includes a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash. I do not have the detailed specs of the camera, but judging from the pictures taken with it, it's as good as the camera found in the N73, which is pretty decent. The secondary camera on the inside of the phone is mainly for video calls. Nothing worth mentioning here.

Here are some pics taken with the E90. All taken on auto mode except the last one taken with close-up mode:

The E90 has 2 speakers at the back that reproduce sounds in stereo, although their positions negate any true stereo effect. They're positioned too close together. But the speakers are simply awesome. I used to say that the N76 speakers are the finest mobile phone speakers I've heard (not in terms of volume, but in terms of quality). Well, not anymore. The E90 speakers are much better than those of the N76's. It's to be expected, due to the large size of the device.

Also included, like all N series phone, is an FM receiver. As usual, you need to plug in the headset to use it.

The E90 records video clips in MPEG-4 format with AAC audio (48 kHz mono). Max supported quality is VGA (640x480 pixels), 25 frames per second (PAL). Video stabilisation is included. Video quality is decent.

The music player is the same one found on most S60 smartphones. It has a music library that lets you organise your music by artists, albums, playlists, genres and composers. The Equaliser lets you choose from predefined settings (None, Bass booster, Classic, Jazz, Pop, Rock) or create your own.

I won't go into any more of the functions as most people should already be familiar with the S60 platform.

Conclusions:

Despite being a prototype, it's already the best Symbian phone I have ever used. That huge, wide screen is simply jaw droppingly good. The speed of the interface is extremely quick for a such a device. Both the QWERTY and alpha numeric keypads work very well. Hardware quality is right at the top as expected of a flagship device from Nokia.

There is every conceivable connectivity option making this phone relevant even in times to come. Lots of RAM means effective multi tasking. USB 2.0 and stereo streaming bluetooth are very nice touches. Built-in GPS, very decent 3.2 megapixel camera with video capabilities, wifi as fast as my laptop. Excellent ergonomics.

All the above points make this a very powerful device. I hope by the time Nokia releases the E90, the internal 5-way switch and the camera shutter button can be improved.

This is the one everyone has been waiting for all these years. If you ask the question, "why don't I just get the N95 instead since it's smaller, just as powerful and comes with a better camera?", then you don't understand this device and it is not for you. But for people who see the point, the time has come.

Nokia N95 8GB

2007-10-28T16:10:00.000+08:00

Hi folks!

So, what better way to kick off my little blog than to write about a cool little phone called the Nokia N95 8GB. A mouthful maybe, but it accurately describes what it is. An N95 with an 8GB memory.

After a lengthy wait, I finally got my greasy hands on a N95 8GB prototype. It's a "build-4" version. There will be one more "build-5" version before the final CE is released, so it's pretty near to what you'll get in the shops. Actually, by the time you read this, it will be in the shops.

The N95 8GB is nearly identical to the regular N95 except for a few things:
1) Bigger screen
2) 8GB built-in memory
3) Revised user interface
4) No more slider to turn on the camera
5) A-GPS (Assisted GPS) which basically means the GPS is faster
6) It's black

Here's an all round view of the phone:

Front view

Back view

Left side view

Right side view

Top view

Bottom view

Here are a few pics of the N95 and the N95 8GB side by side. In real life, the N95 8GB is actually very slightly smaller than the N95. Weight is almost identical (128g vs 124g).

As the hardware/software is almost identical, I won't go through the functions/protocols of the phone as everyone would already know them well by now. I'll just point out a few things that I feel are the biggest differences between the 2 devices.

1) Build quality - the N95 8GB seems to be a lot better built than the N95. It's like the difference between the interior fittings of a Hyundai accent and a Mercedes E class. All the keys now feel very well damped. They are very pleasant to press on and give you a feeling of "expensiveness". My prototype I received is a well-used one from Europe. When I got it, it still had many pictures of the previous owner which were mostly of his ski trip in Sweden, so I know it's been properly used.

It still feels tight. The wobbly feeling which is typical of a used N95 is absent. When you press on the keys, it's tight and has no unnecessary movement.

2) The screen - it's noticeably larger and is more pleasant to look at despite the fact that they have exactly the same OMAP 2420 graphics chip (thanks to Agaas and heineken702 of symbianfreak.com for pointing out my earlier misleading info). Resolution remains identical to the old N95. So the only real difference is there is more screen real estate.

3) User-interface - a few things are different.

Instead of 6 active standby icons, the N95 8GB can now squeeze one more icon across the screen, making it 7 active standby icons in total.

The search function is permanently active on the desktop. At first it irritated me, but I soon realised that it's fantastic. It's extremely easy to look for stuff now, necessary when you have 8GB of memory at your disposal. It works similarly to the "Finder" of Apple's Tiger interface. I love it!

4) It plays N-gage format games. My set came loaded with a few demo N-gage games and although I'm not a gamer, they felt fantastic to play. The graphics are seriously nice.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of the screen with just my digital camera. You can imagine how good it looks in real life!

5) No more tacky BLUE lights! They are now cool white, which I feel look so much better.

6) No more customisable multi-media menu. BOO! In the N95, the multi-media menu is fully customisable. You can add any application to it and select the application you want by just rotating around the menu. No more. Press the muti-media menu key on the N95 8GB and all you'll see is this:

You cannot add anything to it, which I find to be quite pointless in having the menu now. In the multi-media menu, the sub menus include "Gallery", "Music", Videos", "Games", "Contacts", "Internet" and "Maps". Within these sun menus are convenient shortcuts which are good for the specific application. This is all well and good for those particular applications that are included. But what if I want to include "Bluetooth" or "Clock" or "Converter" or whatever else I want in this menu that I find I use all the time? There's no way to to do it. A big step backwards in my opinion.

7) The slider that turns on/off the camera is gone. Some people might protest, but I really don't miss it at all. The camera in the N95 always gets accidentally turned on but in the N95 8GB, this won't happen anymore. To turn on the camera, simply do a long press on the shutter button. Simple, effective and not prone to accidental activation.

8) The battery is of a higher rating. Although mine came with a N95 battery (BL-5F), the production N95 8GB will come with a better 1200mA BL-6F battery. Hopefully, this will help in providing better battery life than the N95.

9) No more memory card slot. No big deal as you plenty built-in.

After 6 hours of use, that's all I can think of. Generally speaking, it's a nicer device to use. Whether it's worth upgrading to from a N95, it really depends on what's important to you. If you value a more refined user interface, much more memory, bigger screen real estate, faster GPS and probably better battery life, go for it. Functionally they are virtually the same. There's nothing you can't do with a N95 that the N95 8GB can, except of course carry a huge amount of data.

I'll update again if I have any additional thoughts.