Posts (page 2)
I was browsing yesterday through Rafe (from AAS) detailed reviews of the N95 features, when I stumbled on a very nice paragraph in his part 2 - music review comparing leading music industry provider Apple and Nokia:
The N95 integrates well with third party services and its capabilities can be extended through third party software. It is theoretically possible for any software-based DRM mechanism to be added to the N95. This reflects an important difference in attitude between digital music market leader Apple and Nokia. Apple prefers a proprietary ‘walled garden’ approach whereas Nokia has chosen to integrate with other products via open standards. Consequently Apple is able to closely control all aspect of the user experience, but locks customers into its own solutions. Nokia’s more open minded approach will appeal to the technical, but may not resonate with the wider public since the user experience can be less cohesive. However, experience in other areas does suggest the open approach does offer better longer term prospects.
I have been asking myself for a long time the same question: why does Apple prefer this 'walled garden' approach? And I found my answer there. Having owned a video 30GB iPod for quite a few months now (I waited for it to have really top specs in order to purchase one) I must say that when first using the iPod, the 'walled garden' didn't make me feel frustrated. The problem came when I saw at a certain shop a chinese replica of the iPod nano, that featured the same iPod options, while still bearing an FM radio, a voice recorder, an ebook reader and quite a few more. That's when I noticed how much my lovely iPod was missing and how much could be instaured in it but was not. In order to add those options to the iPod, you would need to buy a couple of other Apple or Belkin accessories, which Rafe clearly states in "Apple... locks customers into its own solutions" that cost quite a good fortune.
Still Apple manages to attach you to this little white wonder and when it comes to me, I will always prefer the iPod among any other music player, no question about that. Music quality is unquestionnable, and you'll be sure it won't break down or have a software problem after a couple of months of heavy usage.
I wonder whether Apple will manage to make its iPhone such a blockbuster. With such a high retail price, I believe not, especially among US users. Lebanese will always buy an iPhone: it's about looking kewl. But any mobile aware person will of course wonder what Apple will offer software-wise in order to counter balance the huge Symbian application / game directory. Still for now, the iPhone seems to be another "walled garden" device, and there is no clue as to whether Apple will ever get out of this strategy and use open standards.
My thoughts on the matter: too bad. Apple has always had the best of ideas: the iPod spinwheel, the touchscreen, the automatic landscape/portrait detection, the zooming system on the iPhone,... all GREAT ideas. Too bad they were all parts of a device that will never be a convergent one (for the iPod) or of a platform that will never be open for developpers (the iPhone). Although these great ideas won't, I suppose, threaten Nokia's marketshares, it's good and bad to see them: good because it tickles Nokia and Symbian developpers, bad because it makes us, users, jealous of the Apple devices' specs.
Starting April 15th, Ricky Cadden from Symbian-Guru, is planning to go PC-Free for 30 days, in an attempt to see how true is Nokia's statement "it's what computers have become" regarding the N95 and its "Multimedia Computer" new s60 devices. Using his laptop just for backup and storage, the guru will only be using his N73 ME for blogging, surfing, reading RSS, IM, email,... and basically anything you might usually need your computer to do. Ricky will be posting frequently to tell us his progress. Looking forward for his reviews...
When heading to Bossini yesterday (a clothes shop) I came across Georges. Georges used to have a cell phone shop a couple of blocks down the building where I live. He was the one who sold me the used 3250, and frankly he's one of the best phone shop salesmen. A couple of months ago, after coming back from my summer vacation, I didn't see him at his shop and when I asked about him, they told me he sold the shop and left the country. After the war that had been going on in Lebanon during the summer, I wasn't much surprised but I was sad to know he left. He was one of the rare honest guys in this business.
To cut the crap, Georges didn't leave the country, he just had a problem with his landlord, sold his shop and bought a new one at Galaxy Mall, which isn't that far away either. Good for him (and me).
I asked about the N95 price, he told me it was 1100$. Remember? Less than 3 weeks ago it was 1800$! A 700$ drop in a couple of days. Fool is the one who bought it at that time, and fool is the one who will buy it now! Anyway, it's always this way with new phones in Lebanon... nothing surprising. To tell you the truth, I expect if I go ask about the price in 3 weeks, it'll sure have dropped below 800$, that's a bet I'm willing to make. Who's up?
So Georges gave me the N95 to hold in my hand, but I didn't have the right to turn it on, which I totally understand. Holding the 3250 in my left hand, and the N95 in my right hand, I can't deny that my heart was on the right side, for once ;) Although the N95 has a lot more to offer than the 3250, it still was a little bit smaller, which I liked. But I still am reserved toward using a slider phone. Twisters are a lot cooler. The other 2 things I noticed are the following:
- I read a review, I don't remember where, that stated that when the keypad is open and u slide it back up, if u do put a little bit more strength than asked for, it opens the multimedia keys. I tried sliding it, didn't have that problem. The middle position seemed quite clear and not that sensitive. Good point for the N95!
- the multimedia keys aren't that intuitively pressed. Bad point for the N95 :( I tried to press the play / pause / FF / RW buttons while the phone was still in portrait mode and it seemed hard to get the buttosns pressed right. I know in landscape mode, this won't be a problem, but I suspect if the music player is running in the background, and you're browsing through ur phone in portrait mode, it would be a problem to control ur music.
Round up: I'm sticking with my 3250, again. The N95 isn't the right phone for me. Too bad, it was such a near-to-be-perfect device.
When I started this blog, I stated that one of the reasons that drove me to posting was the fact that mobile bloggers tend to be, almost all of the time, from the other gender, ie males. After browsing the web for around 10 months now, and after being a member in a couple of mobile dedicated forums for a while now, my first impression hasn't changed a bit.
It is common sense to suspect that the majority of mobile bloggers would be male, since obviously, "girls/women tend to concentrate on make-up, fashion and basically any other stupid superficial activity". Mobile addicts are technology geeks or nerds, sorry for the word. And well, women are less interested in technology, which makes them less eligible to the post of mobile blogger or forum poster. I understand that.
But on the other hand, why do forum members always call you a dude without even considering looking at your profile. I have been getting lots of thanx dude, nice work dude, nice post dude, keep the good work dude, dude can you help me with...and many more like that. While many members call each other by their nicknames, I get the dude word. Which makes me think: is it that my posts are too geeky to an extent that makes it unconceivable that I could be anything but a male?
Thinking back, I believe part of it is my fault: being on a dial-up connection, I don't even consider uploading an avatar to my profile. Well, that would eventually make me genderless. Still my nickname teddy_bearrr or teddybearrr doesn't sound like a dude's nickname, or does it? Well to me, unless I was counted as a 14 years old boy or a gay guy or an extremely obese person, I don't get how teddy_bearrr could be confused with a male's nickname.
In any case, I raise my voice to say to all forum members : I am a FEMALE (no longer a girl, still not yet a woman... sounds like Britney Spears *puke*). And since I haven't made any comment so far on the dude-calling habbit, I will, in the following days, make these steps in order to affirm my gender identity:
- Upload an avatar to all the forums I am a member in
- Make sure to reply to anyone who calls me dude by saying "I am not a dude, dude!"
- Add a signature to my posts that says "I am a woman, so don't call me dude"
That's basically it. I have written so many times the word dude in my post, i am starting to wonder whether the word actually exists (happens to me sometimes).
When opening symbian-guru today, I expected nothing like this: Nokia is pulling out of the US market! Looking then at the date, I noticed something was wrong :p Ricky had pulled out one of his april's fool pranks. Good one, had me going on for a couple of seconds, since in my family we tend to go over the day as any other one, no pranks, no lies, no surprises :(
Funny thing is that the first thought that came to my mind was: Oh, Darla didn't even have time to enjoy her pink N95! Good enough now, Darla has all the time in the world to enjoy the N95 :)
While every single mobile blogger or mobile user has bought or is considering buying or wishes he could buy the N95 (or the E90 for some other), my eyes are set on a different device: the new Nokia 5700.
Announced yesterday, the Nokia 5700 XpressMusic is, according to Nokia, "adding a new twist to mobile music"
The N5700 is also augmented by a dedicated audio chip for enhanced music performance [...] and features an iconic twist design that easily switches between four modes at the flick of the wrist - music player, 2 Megapixel camera, video call and smartphone. [also] featuring 3G dataspeeds, the Nokia 5700 XpressMusic is expected to retail for an estimated EUR 350 before taxes and subsidies during the second quarter of 2007.
The reason I am drooling over the 5700 is that has all the features I was lacking in my 3250: InfraRed, Flash for the cam, supported album art, S60 3rd FP1 and a more girly design, although I'm not that fond of girly designs.
So you all know, by now, that I have a thing for twisters. The thing I liked about the twist design is that it adds lots of buttons (music dedicated ones) without making the phone a slider or a fold device, hence without making it bigger when open, and while leaving the numberpad always at hand (except when the phone is in music mode). The other advantage for twisters is the side cam, allowing you to take hundreds of pics, unnoticed.
The one thing I am overwhelmed about with the release of the 5700, is the answer to a question i was asking myself before: is the 3250 a one-time try or will the twist become a standard phone model, like the slider and the fold model? Apparently, the answer is yes. I can't wait to see this Twist put in use in an Eseries or Nseries phone.
I was just forwarded this post by lonelybob on vox: Third Party GPS Applications on N95. According to Bob's review, both MGMaps and ShoZu, which are third party applications are able to access the built-in GPS receiver in the N95. MGMaps is a Java app basically like Google maps, and has a database frequently uploaded. ShoZu is, well everyone knows what Shozu is, but for those who don't, it's a service similar to Flickr - meaning it allows you to upload photos and videos from your phone.
What we may take from that is that the basic question every N95 fan was asking himself "Does the built-in GPS receiver work with third party applications?" has been answered, and good enough, the answer is positive.
Hopefully, other GPS relying-on applications will release a version update that supports the N95 receiver. We don't have to wait that much for that, I believe.
I found this via symbian-guru, a post called: Biometric Fingerprint Recognition on your S60 - Coming Soon.
According to Symbian-Freak, ClassifEye's Secure Biometric Solution has joined the Symbian Platinum Program to develop their solution for Symbian devices [...] Yeah, that means it's a downloadable app to use the camera lens on your S60 to read your fingerprint for things from usernames and passwords to undoing a device lockdown to mobile banking. This is the stuff that power users like to see. And did I point out that you will be able to download it right to your existing phone? No buying a new phone just to get that extra ounce of security. MAD PROPS for that, ClassifEye.
Now that's a nice implementation for s60... Make use of the platform people, it can perform sooo much! Security via fingerprint, on your own device, just an app download, that's HUGE!
Browsing through engadget, you can always find posts that make you think, discuss, smile, dream, and even sometimes you can find a post that will make you scream in surprise or amusement. This is one of them: XM patents multi-finger touchscreen. XM is a satellite radio device and the multifinger touchscreen is explained in the blog like this:
"The patent, which was filed in June '05 and published this last December, describes "context sensitive data input using finger or fingerprint recognition." Basically, instead of having to look at the device and punch the correct part of the screen with your finger, the screen can tell which finger you're tapping it with, and perform an operation based on whatever finger you're using.As illustrated above -- we use the term "illustrated" loosely here, it looks like the picture was drawn by a blind man using his feet -- the thumb could automatically mute the device, while other fingers coud be set to preset channels or to menu shortcuts. We're not super clear on the actual method of finger recognition, or if there is one as of yet, but the system will supposedly be able to work with multiple users, each with unique fingerprints and particular shortcut setups. Naturally, no word on when this might hit devices."
Looking back at the way mobile technology was in 2000, i'm more than stunned. This patent is just a way of proving how things have evolved and a glimpse at what mobile and portable technology would be like in a couple of years. I guess I wouldn't be crazy to think that XM will have many many phone calls raining from all PDA manufacturers looking for a long-term collaboration.
I am definitely adding this multifinger touchscreen feature to my device wishlist. Oh, I haven't explained this before but usually, having to function on a low-budget because I'm still a non-productive pharmacy student, I sort of make a list of what features a device should have in order for me to buy it. Having bought the 3250, my next must-have features list is: 7MP cam (with great, clear night mode digi-cam like, great video capabilities), 10GB internal memory (with memory card support), 400MHz CPU speed while still having 3250-like battery life, integrated GPS, 3G WiFi Bluetooth AND Infrared, Symbian operating system, pda-like touchscreen (size matters), QWERTY keyboard (preferably with an ordinary 12-key keypad), dedicated music keys (also function as cam keys), tv-out, 3.5mm headphone jack... I don't know if I forgot something, but that's basically it.
Now you can add to that the multifinger touchscreen and the windows mobile and palm OS patches. I don't know much about developping, but it seems possible that there would be a program or an integrated patch that would permit the symbian system to run ordinary palm OS files or windows mobiles ones.
Now, you may think that's a crazy demand, but believe it or not, in 2 - 3 years, most of these specs will be normally implemented in mobiles. Just think that in 2003, color screens were a luxury in mobiles.
So until a phone comes out with at least the first list of specs, I am NOT buying anything. It's either a major change, either nothing. I won't waste my money on some minor feature modifications.
I've seen this device through engadgetmobile, and just when I thought that the nokia 3250 was the craziest functionning and popular mobile design ever made, I changed my conception of both words: crazy and popular.
The Samsung UpStage device, also called m620 is a 9.4mm thick bar and presents a dual face phone with one face presenting a QVGA screen and touch sensitive music controls (mp3 aac wma), while the other is a typical phone interface with a smaller screen. The switch between both screens is easy through a side button. The phone also holds stereo Bluetooth, built-in speakers with strong audio capabilities, microSD expansion and 1.3MP cam. Read more about it on gizmodo (the name was still UltraMusic back then). It's rumored to be priced at 299.99$.
With these specs around, I suspect the phone will be more than just popular, not only amongst teens like it may sound like because of it's trendiness, but also among many, and i mean MANY, average phone users (people who think phones are just used to call, sms, take pics and send them via bluetooth) especially here in Lebanon. My predictions: this will be HUGE here, like the RAZR though I still can't understand the fuss about it. I am guessing, one or two months after its release, 1 out of 5 people I will cross will be having this phone in their hands.
Well, all things being said, I would never give up a symbian phone to get a Samsung or a Motorolla. Still, it's good to see how creative phone manufacturers are becoming.
I can imagine a double-sided dream mobile: symbian phone on one side and touchscreen windows mobile on the other... Guess that's faaaaaaaaaaar from becoming true.
