Nokia N95 one year on - An assessment (Part 1)

Whilst rifling through my things yesterday, trying desperately to find some misplaced tickets, I stumbled upon my N95 documentation. Much to my surprise I discovered that today, "3rd April", is a year to the day since I first purchased the N95. I remember reading a preview of it in the Gadget Porn magazine Stuff, (it could have been T3), at the tail end of the previous year. Immediately I lusted after it as a replacement for my Sony K750i.

Without signing up to some ridiculous contract, I knew that I wanted one as soon as possible after it came out. I didn't expect it to take quite as long for it to emerge. I knew it would be a special phone, but I didn't quite realise it would change the way I use technology, and how much. The marketing term "Its what computers have become" was more than just marketing.

So looking at its features and how I've used them

Phoning

The obvious one, but it wasn't actually explained how to make a phone call until Page 93 of the manual (something at the time I described in a forum as the N95s hidden feature). I honestly probably make phone calls the least. I don't use VoIP (but don't have many foreign contacts or anything that might make me want to do this). I've never used Video calls and I'm not sure that I can try Push to Talk, nor have I ever heard of anyone doing so. I've made my own ring tones, assigned personal ring tones and played with the 3D settings etc.


Features 10/10 (not sure what else I would want)
Usage 4/10 (Indispensable but not used as much as other things)

Texting

Used a lot. Pretty good but no smileys (surprisingly). Easy to send texts to groups of people as well. A download from Nokia (Conversation) allows texts to be followed as conversations (a bit like a threaded forum). Multimedia Texts are easy as well and photos will be re-sized as needed. I also tried out an animated message application called Yoyap. Fun but most of my mates phones come from another era.

Features 8/10 (wot no smileys)
Usage 6/10 (could do more with Multimedia but I'm too lazy)

Email

Initially I set up my email accounts on the Phone and set it to auto poll. It was kind of great getting alerts to messages every 15 to 30 minutes when friends and colleagues only managed to log on once a day (got lots of free Cinema tickets this way). Two things though that annoy, battery life and not getting all of the email only the headings.

I also tried push email (I used emoze but there are others). Brilliant, but battery again is the problem.

I've settled on using more web based email services now, and the Gmail app is excellent, Yahoo Go is OK, and I also tried a Windows Live app. I tend to avoid windows. (so the Windows Live app may be good but only lasted a week).

Funnily enough you can also "just" log on to your web based email sites using the browser, but hey that would be too simple wouldn't it?

Features 7/10 (Headers/Battery)
usage 7/10 (Would beat blackberry to a pulp if the battery lasted)

Part 2 etc coming soon Happy Birthday My Little N95

Jogku (or Run Fat Boy Run)

Phones can get you into trouble.

You know, you fancy a really expensive model for no particular reason, you buy it, and then you feel compelled to find a reason to have it.

That's how I found all these blogs

...and that's how you find all these forums

...and that's how you find and try all these amazing free applications

...and thats how I found myself weighing myself and going for a run for the first time in 20+ years.

Firstly over at Nokia Geek Matt was trying an application called Nokia Sports Tracker and came up with the idea that he should undertake Geek Fitness in order to get fit. Willpower being the equivalent of the Nokia N95s battery (short lived) it didn't last very long.

Then over at Symbian Guru Ricky, in view of his impending nuptials, announced Geek Vs Guru thinking that the two of them would spur each other on. It was working, but due to other circumstances Matt is currently unable to partake. Therefore Ricky has opened up the offer to others.

I also have Nokia Sports Tracker (out of curiosity) but thought it was brilliant. Just needed something to use it for. I also have a brilliant little application on the phone, and use via the PC, called Jaiku. This is a brilliant microblogging application (a bit like Twitter) where MunkiMatt and Ricky just happen to hang out. Several guys were talking about also joining Ricky and Matt and thats how Jogku happened.

So I'm in, have taken my first, albeit short, run and it half killed me. Still there should be more to come, if others take up the challenge (come on you know who you are). They should get better and this fattish, nearly 40 year old will either prosper, die or more likely give up.

The Weigh In
This is the bit I hated most

The First Jogku

Click here to see the Route on Sports Tracker

Visions of the future?

This is what I really am



This is what I aspire to

Brussels Experiment No 1 - Grand Place using autostitch

Took a whole set of very quick pictures around the Grand Place in Brussels using my Nokias Camera Function. I just made sure they overlapped. Then I just used Autostitch and voila a panorama is produced.



Clearly with a bit more effort (for example taking more pictures of the sky,putting the church in the middle of the panorama rather than at the end and standing in the centre of the square) the results might be brilliant. But as a 5 minute first effort I think Autostitch is well worth further effort.

Experiment with PocketCaster

Just starting an experiment with PocketCaster an application that allows a user to stream live video from their Mobile App (my N95) direct to the web



Only shows something here when I'm live.

OPML Manager & N95 views

I've been playing around on a website called OPML manager which, as you may guess, creates and manages OPML files (outline Files) that are often used for Podasting Feeds, but also pretty good for transportable Favourites lists for Mobile Phones.

Firstly I was just mucking about and looking to create a favourites file that i could access on the PC, Laptop, at Work and also on the mobile phone. I soon realised that the website itself offered different views of the same OPML file that gives differing uses.

Firstly, I created my own feed, but then tried a more generic feed looking at Nokia N95 RSS and Podcasting stuff.

This link http://www.opmlmanager.com/opml/N95RSS.opml when pasted into the Nokia Podcasting Application provides a folder with subscribible feeds including MP3 podcasts and RSS links opened via the web. Very handy and easy to personalise.

I then decided to go one further and look at creating a whole set of Mobile Web site links. Lets face it the N95 browser is ace for looking at web sites, but for general everyday browsing on the phone its better to look at mobile optimised web sites (still find it very annoying when it defaults that way such as the BBC).

So the output of this experiment was this http://www.opmlmanager.com/opml/mobilewebsites.opml a starter for ten. If you know of any really great mobile web sites (I have a UK slant) that I should add, please let me know.

I then saw a link for optimising the look for mobile phones, which looks like this http://www.opmlmanager.com/mob/mobilewebsites Looks pretty good don't it?

However, one of the features of OPML Manager is being able to look at OPML files in outline format. I think that this is an even better format for display on a Mobile Phone as it is expandable/collapsible. See this http://www.opmlmanager.com/outliner/mobilewebsites. A much better format in my view.

There are lots of other things that can be done, such as exporting the OPML, creating a bitty etc, but i am quite happy hosting on the site and have also created myself another OPML file loosely based around the Nokia N95 which can also be displayed in all formats, but detailed in outliner format below

http://www.opmlmanager.com/outliner/NokiaN95

See what you think

Mystrands Social Player for Symbian. Great app but...

A recent post on the 3G forums about experience of Mystrands Social Player for Symbian led me to re-evaluate my Mystrands experience.

I’m a pretty voracious consumer of Music (a glutton in fact) so it is quite interesting to see who is playing what, what else they are playing and perhaps discover something else I might like. It’s also pretty handy to keep track of what I’m playing myself. I’ve got music on my laptop, my PC, my two creaky old (but still Brilliant) Creative Nomad 3s and my Zen Vision (not M).

I never would have put music on my old K750i phone (shite headphone connection and I’m a headphone snob) but the proper headphone jack on the Nokia N95 and its “book” slider/media player plus its support for Napster to Go convinced me that I could now wander around with less hardware (and less chargers) on my person.

I’ve installed Mystrands on the PC and Laptop (for WMP) and the beta version (2.7.3) for the Nokia N95 and given it quite a test run. There are a couple of reasons why I haven’t used it recently (including rebuilding the phone), but I still think that it’s an excellent idea on its way to becoming an excellent app. Here was my feedback on the phone app

• Wi-Fi works better than 3G currently. Less failure with Recommendations, Synchronisation, Other Users etc but eats the battery soooo very quickly. Best keep plugged in for this.
• If you decide to use the “always ask” option for connectivity (rather than stay online with 3G or Wi-Fi you get prompted every few seconds.
• You have to re-build the library if you want to add new tracks, but at the same time this means you have to re-sync the library (on-line again). These need to be separated.
• An improvement that must be implemented is to log tracks you have played whilst offline so that you can sync this info with the server next time you connect. This would be a huge battery saver.
• Currently doesn’t recognise the DRM tracks from Napster To Go. As I use a lot of music from this it’s a bit of a pain working out whether I can listen through Mystrands of the Nokia Media Player.

Generally for all Mystrands applications the recognition of tracks could be better. Firstly it doesn’t recognise a lot of the tracks I play which are new (and I listen to a lot of brand new releases). Secondly it does not necessarily recognise the full tag. As I write this the Fall tracks in my chart are all from the Peel Sessions Box set, but Mystrands is relating them to other Fall Albums. This really needs to be improved if a real picture of listening habits is to be drawn up.

Having said this, I still think it’s a fab app. Being able to post your charts in flash and html to blogs, myspace etc is good and there are a lot of interesting developments at Mystrands Labs to get excited about. I have fed back my comments which are being taken on board (the offline playing of tracks and syncing later is already written in a future release). I would urge you all to try out the Social Player for Symbian, consider trying the beta, feed back your comments and help turn it into the killer app it could be.

Playing with Mystrands and my Phone

I started this blog really for myself and to explore the capabilities of my Phone a Nokia N95. I was paticularly keen to get a phone that had a good web package as ebay, etc is banned at work and I wanted access to email on the go. As soon as I saw the blurb for the N95 I coveted it and eventually got it on a t-mobile web and walk package.

It had a decentish Camera (I've never owned a Digital Camera myself, I leave it to Mrs Wavey), great MP3 capabilities and was alright for Video, podcasts, etc, etc.

Next stop w.as trying to stretch it including blogging from the phone and trying out bleeding edge applications, including Mystrands.

Mystrands allows you to play your music, and as doing so, can catalogue what you are listening too, let you know who else has listend to it, get recommendations of other tracks you would like and put you in touch with a community of like minded people.

See the Mystrands promo youtube thingymajig below.



I couldn't get it to work at first, but a quick email and I was allowed the beta version for the phone and was up and running. I also installed Mystrands on my home PCs. Thne results are quite impressive, and although I have a few questions, gripes and ideas for improvement I am enjoying using it. The 'charts' on this blog come from code generated in mystrands and lets me know what I have been listening to on my Phone and PC. There are other groovey little applications in the Mystrands Labs, such as maps of recommendation to play with as well.

I may add more, once I have fed back my coments to Mystrands and made sure I understand the capability better, but if you have a decent web plan, and diverse music tastes it is well worth a play.

http://www.mystrands.com/Download look for Mystrands Social Player for Symbian.