Looks like quite a bit of Ovi integration is happening, with Ovi Contacts being added to the already present FIles on Ovi. Ovi contacts is now integrated within the contacts application, and there are a few new widgets for Facebook, MySpace and Youtube. There seem to be a few updates to the themes, with ‘Black Personal’, “Black Business’, ‘White Personal’ and ‘White Business’ being added.

Keep in mind that the E63 does not support user data preservation, so please backup your phone before updating.

Spent a month and a half in the US on a company project in April-May 2009, and quite a a lot happened on the tech front, revolving around the US trip. Here is a chronological account of what transpired on the tech front.

I was pondering over buying a music player, that could have a backup of my music collection. Thought about the Creative Zen Vision, and even the Ipod, momentarily, but then had a brainwave. I really liked the Nokia 5800 for its music capabilities, and for the screen. The money I would invest in a standalone MP3 player would be better invested in a device that has GPS + Video + Audio + Internet connectvity + a touch screen, all for around Rs.5000 lesser than an Ipod Touch. True, I’d lose out on disk capacity, but then the prices of memory cards are falling like mad. Keeping this in mind, the Nokia 5800 was duly purchased, before I flew off to the States.

I was casually looking up Amazon one day, when I came across a Western Digital 2.5″ 400GB external HDD on offer, for $70 only. Needless to say, it was purchased. With that, my storage has finally exceeded 1TB.

The latest addition to my computing arsenal is an IBM (Lenovo?) Thinkpad T400, which technically is not owned by me, but by my company. Nevertheless, work now happens on the Thinkpad T400, with the Dell XPS primarily used only on weekends, and is a strictly personal laptop now.

Windows 7 has been preordered, the $50 and all, so I’m really looking forward to the October 22nd, and cannot wait to get there.

June 14th happened to be my birthday, and all I had was my ‘trusty’ Nokia 5800 for taking pictures. Turned out crappy. Very crappy. I really rued not carrying my Olympus FE-20, which would have for sure given me good pics. A couple of weeks later, the Nokia 5800 was duly exchanged with my brother for his Nokia N82, and that seems to have done the trick. I’m back on a top-notch camera phone, the phone features of which I’m hardly using, leaving my Nokia E63 to do that job.

I guess this is a good enough post to announce my return to the blogging world. More to come, hopefully.

A 3.2MP, Carl Zeiss with single LED Flash. Not top of the line camera hardware, but then again its a business phone. With these specs, it should be capable enough of taking above average photographs during the day, and the Nokia E75 does not dissappoint.

The camera interface is the standard Nokia Interface we’re so used to already. The options list on the right, controllable via the D-Pad, and Location Awareness built into the firmware. I could not see any differences here between the N82 interface and this, probably there are none.

In bright clear conditions, the Nokia E75 somewhat surprised me with the clarity, as can be seen in the three photos below.

E75 Landscape

Random shot.

Close Range Shot.

I could not see any of the purple tinge that the 3.2 MP camera of the E71 was so notorious for. Pretty good printable photos, if you ask me! The colour reproduction, though not as good as the N82, is a great improvement over all the other E-Series phones. I can safely say the Nokia E75 camera blew the Nokia E71 camera right out of the water, from what I’d seen until then.

Now, encouraged by what I saw above, I tried to test the Macro-Mode on the E75, and the result is alongside. Not too bad at all, quite a lot of detail. A very good score in this regard too!

Skoda Logo in Macro

I was pretty happy with what I’d seen so far, and what remained was to test the video recording. VGA Quality recording at 640X480, and the video quality was about as good as the N82!

As a final test, I decided to take low light photos just to complete the whole camera review. As expected, the LED Flash generates at best average photos at close range. If you’re looking for brightly lit subjects during the dark, you should not expect the E75 to deliver on this count at all. Pics below, just so you can see for yourself.

Night Mode - Incandescent Light in the background.

Night Mode - My car from 10 feet away.

Macro Mode at Night - Car Logo from 12" away.

So, as you can see, if you’re carrying only the E75 at night and happen to see something worth capturing, you’re really going to regret the fact that you left your standalone digital camera at home. I can’t help wonder why Nokia did not include a Xenon flash instead of the LED Flash.

I did not even bother testing the front camera, or the night mode video recording after what I saw above.

To conclude, as I said earlier, the Camera does not really do justice to this device. Its good if you’re carrying it around during the day, but the performance is seriously lacking at night. If you’re looking to save some money by having an all in one device, this is most definitely not it. I’d not rate the E75 camera very high, inspite of it taking good day photos, but it is a sure improvement over the E71 camera, by far.

In the final part of my review, I’ll look at all the stuff I’ve missed, and dwell over whether this device is worth the upgrade if you already have an E71. Hope this was not too long!

The OS: - The Nokia E75 is the first E-series device to ship with S60 V3 FP2. How much of an improvement is this over the FP1 on the E63, E71 and the others? Miles, if you ask me. Little gripes that anyone would have had with earlier versions seemed to have been ironed out. I’ve covered this (pretty comprehensively, I hope, in my earlier post about the FP2 screenshots), and I’m sure it would be agreed that the OS is a vast improvement. It does feel a little slower than FP1, but that could very well be becuase I’m running it with Menu transitions and other theme effects on. I somehow think that FP2 has something to do with improved battery life on the E75, even though it has a 1000mAh battery. I could discuss the OS itself at great length, waxing eloquent about how impressed I am with it. FP2 could probably be the only reason why I would replace a Nokia E63/E71 with the E75. Nokia has done a very very commendable job on the version of FP2 on the E75, and it is definitely one of the highlights of this phone, and probably all future E-Series phones to come. If the OS was the only point of consideration, I would choose an E75 over the E71/E63, anyday.

Multimedia: - Multimedia Convergence has always been on Nokia’s agenda, with varying degrees of success. It must be kept in mind that this is a business phone, and lesser attention would have been paid to details such as the camera and the music player, and rightly so. The E75 tries to strike a balance here, and does an average job.

• Camera/Gallery: -The camera does not seem too impressive in the few test shots I took, though as I mentioned earlier, I would dedicate a post to the camera, (considering everyone wants to know how the camera, irrespective of the purpose of the device). I can safely say though, that the E75 camera is a complete disaster at night, as with all the other LED flash phones. The Gallery application too, does not seem impressive, and it would have been better if the gallery was as well organized as the N-Series phones. More on this, in later posts.
• Music player: – I expected a lot from the music player, since it would be really convenient to carry all my music around on the phone itself, rather than carry my MP3 player along. The 3.5mm jack is a major plus, and ensures you don’t have a tag a converter along all the time. Did the music player live up to my expectation though? Sadly, no. Though I did not exactly research this like an audiophile, the bass on this device sounds decent at best, with no real thump at all. I played the same heavy bass tracks on the N82, E63 and E75, using the same headphones, and the the quality of sound was in that order. I had a couple of others check it too, and we concluded that The N82 sounds best, and the E63 sounds better than the E75. Mind you, the E63 is by no means a music phone, so that gives you a fair idea of how the music on the E75 sounds. Software wise, there is no real improvement on the music player, though there seems to be tighter integration with the music store. All in all, the music on the E75 is dissappointing, and if you’re looking at getting an E75, look somewhere else for a music player.
• GPS: – I’ve been using the GPS on the N82 since the time I had the phone, though turn by turn navigation for India is at best, a joke. Despite this, the GPS is pretty useful, and E75 makes no exception in that regard. I’ve managed to get a GPS lock outdoors, more often than not in about 10 seconds, and its served me well even when I’m in motion. I’ve not tried Nokia Maps 3.0 yet, and that should definitely improve the overall GPS experience even further. Combined with Nokia Map loader, a pretty good addition to the E75 repertoire. However, this is not a standout feature that would compel E71 users to switch over, and rightly so.

Connectivity: - Bluetooth, Data Cable (with 5 connectivity modes), 802.11g, 3G. Enough said. As should be the case with any business phone, Nokia as expected delivers with the connectivity options. There seems to be 3 new modes here while connecting with USB cable (Image Transfer, Media Transfer and Connect PC to web), which logically should mean lesser dependence on Nokia PC Suite to get stuff done. I’ve not tried these modes yet, so I’m really not sure. I hope I can directly connect the phone via USB and use it as a modem, rather than going through PC Suite. No complaints with the connectivity options, full marks here.

Email: – The killer feature on the device. Period. The Nokia Email implementation on the Nokia E75 is simply put, awesome. I have loved the email implementation on the E75, and I probably could have written an entire post here. However, fellow Nokia blogger CJ has already posted the Ultimate Bible of Nokia Email on the E75, and I don’t think I can do a better job than that! Nokia Email on the E75 finally comes with HTML support, and thats a vast improvement over the current versions floating around. Its the closest I’ve felt to a Desktop mail client yet, but there are a few niggling issues, which can be corrected (There is no way to get back to Inbox from the Home Screen, when you get a new email).  It remains to be seen if the same VASTLY improved, integrated client is released on the other E-Series devices as well, which means the E75 would lose its exclusitivity.

Interesting times ahead..

I’ll look at the other stuff I’ve left out on the E75 (Productivity features, memory, dislikes etc.) in the next post, and have a dedicated post for the image/video recording capabilities of the device. Hope this was informative enough!

Overall Look & Feel: - The device feels very comfortable in the hand, though on the heavier side, and should easily fit into a normal sized palm. Looks wise, I think its pretty sleek and thin for a device that houses two whole keyboards. It seems a little unfinished in places though ( the silver battery cover simply does not feel like its finished yet). The phone has much more rounded edges than the other E-Series phones, and while this might appeal to some, I’m sure it will have its detractors. Nokia seems to have worked hard on the device thickness here, if the E75 and the E55 are anything to go by. I’ve enjoyed watching people’s reactions when I slide out and show them that the device actually has a QWERTY keyboard underneath. The copper coloured device that I’m reviewing does not look too bad, though if I were to buy the E75, I would definitely go in for the Silver-Black version. To sum up, though the device looks extremely sleek, it appears slightly unfinished which would make it lose some points in the looks department.

Keypad/Display: – The numberpad itself is very comfortable to use, though I’ve hardly used the numberpad to its fullest (I prefer the QWERTY keyboard to type). The numberpad seems a little hard to press, and the lack of a gap between the menu keys means you could accidentally press the wrong button very easily. I don’t know whether this is an issue with the unit that was supplied to me, but the up key on the D Pad feels less sensitive than the other keys. The D Pad itself on the whole, feels lesser responsive than the N82 and other Nokia devices, and somewhat brings the whole E75 experience lower. Mind you, this could very well be an issue with the piece I’m testing, not the E75 as a whole.

Slide out the front screen, and its almost like its a whole new device. It took me a couple of hours to get used to the QWERTY keypad, but its been an absolutely convincing experience since then. The size of the QWERTY keypad makes it very easy when you’re typing out emails, as opposed to other QWERTYs like the E71/E63 or the Blackberrys. Full marks here for the QWERTY keyboard, and this could well be the ONLY reason people might want to buy this device.

The display is very very impressive, with a brilliantly bright screen and is among the stronger points of the device. the 2.4″ 320X240 QVGA does a stellar job. Absolutely no complaints here.

Battery: - The battery life was something I was really keen about looking into, and I’m relieved to say its impressive. I’ve not charged my phone for a little over a day now, and its just two bars down. Before the last recharge, I ran the phone through three hours of Audio through Bluetooth, and that brought the battery to its knees in a day, flat. I can only conclude that A2DP music majorly eats into battery life, and I’d advise everyone to carry a spare set of headphones, always. Another thing to note is that the OS (S60 V3 FP2), seems to manage power much better than FP1. That seems to have had a major effect in the E75 having good battery life. Having said that, I’d have been happier if this had the BP-6MT, like the Nokia N82. No complaints though, the battery life has dispelled my worst fears.

I’ll look into the camera, music player, and the other components of the phone in the following parts, and hopefully provide some sample shots with the E75 camera.

Nokia E75 Screenshots (28 photos)
15 March 2009
Screenshots of the spanking new FP2 Interface on the Nokia E75

Albumul poate fi vazut doar online.

Here is the video of the E75 unboxed for the first time after receiving it. I should have uploaded this yesterday, but my Internet connection let me down horribly!

For starters, the build quality is pretty sturdy. The steel body makes it a little heavy, at about 140g, which is not too bad. The Horizontal slide mechanism to reveal the QWERTY keyboard is quite solid too (like the E65/E66 and MUCH better than the N80), though I did accidentally half-open the slider a couple of times when using the phone in the conventional vertical mode while typing out a few numbers on the numberpad.

When slid out, the screen auto-rotates into landscape mode as it logically should, and the part with the LCD screen that has slid out forms a very thin sheet. I wanted to check if pressing the farthest number keys (*,0,#) on the front keypad (not the QWERTY), causes the screen to depress or bend, but it turns out that when in landscape mode,only the function keys on the front keypad work. In other words, all the number keys on the front keypad are disabled when in landscape mode.

The front keyboard is pretty comfortable to type on, though keys on the last row are a little too small compared to the other keys. Seasoned Nokia users should be easily able to use the ‘Left menu + *’ combo for locking the keypad, but for a new Nokia user, it will take a few tries before getting used to it. The 2.4″ screen allows for the display of a lot of stuff on the Home screen. ( I right now have 2 mailbox notifications, 2 calendar entries, now playing, Wi-fi scanner, the missed call and message notification and the active standy icons on display, with none of them being truncated due to the lack of screen space ). The slide out Communicator/E90 style QWERTY keypad is supremely comfortable, and should be so even for people with big fingers. I’d rate the comfort of this QWERTY keypad much higher than the QWERTY Keypad on the E63/E71, considering that there’s more space per key.

The placement of the rest of the buttons and sockets is pretty standard. Volume control, camera and voice buttons on the right side, microUSB slot and microSD slot on the left, charger slot on the bottom right and the 3.5mm headphone jack on the top right.

The Camera, as always, is placed on the back side with no lens switch, but protected none the less with a lens cover. The secondary VGA camera is also conventionally placed on the front right hand side on the top.

To conclude my initial thoughts, the E75 appears to logically be the E51 upgraded with a slide out QWERTY keypad, a 3.2MP autofocus Camera, a larger screen and the OS upgraded to S60 V3 FP2.

I will be digging deeper into the software side today. This would be my first experience with a S60 V3 FP2 phone, and this is the first E-series with FP2, so I’ll go through this in detail. I’ll try and post screenshots of the new FP2 features and menus. Hope to post soon!

Since the E75 was announced at MWC, I’ve been wondering if the 100mAh battery would suffice. I’ve  swapped the 1500 mAh Nokia E63 for a 1000mAh E75, and I will be using the E75 the same way I use the E63. The E63 battery lasts me about a day and a half, so I’ll be benchmarking the E75 against it.

The E63 battery lasts me about a day and a half with: -

1. GPRS switched on the whole day, to sync GMail via IMAP (every 15 minutes) and my Work Email via mail for exchange.
2. About 3 hours of music via Stereo Bluetooth.
3. Light Browsing, Twittering and the likes for a total of about a couple of hours a day.
4. About an hour of phone conversations and messaging.

Keep in mind that India is not yet 3G enabled, so I’m running in GSM mode as opposed to Dual mode. I’ll not charge the device overnight and wait for it to drain out completely, so that should give a clear picture of how the battery performs.

I know Lithium batteries peform their best after a few charging cycles, so I’m sure the battery life would improve from what it is initially, though not by much.

I’d originally set my eyes on the Nokia E71 Black, which was due to be launched last week on February. However, when I compared this with the Nokia E63, the feature set offered by the E71 did not look too appealing. Consider this, for about Rs. 5000 more, what I got on the E71 was: -

1. A steel body, which looked sleeker than the plastic body of the E63.
2. A slightly thinner phone, just slightly.
3. A 3.2MP camera with AF, as opposed to a plain vanilla 2MP, which was never really a point of consideration.
4. A GPS receiver, the navigation for which I would have to pay for, anyway.

I simply could not convince myself that I needed the above, since I prefer usable features more than looks, and hence, the decision to go with the Nokia E63.

This phone in most ways, and as mentioned by about a million mobile phone blogs before me, is the younger sibling of the E71. The ONE standout feature that has appealed to me most is the 1500mAH battery like the E71, that gives insanely long battery life. I’m online on Mobile Internet, with my phone on GPRS almost throughout the day, but the phone still manages to squeeze about a couple of days of battery life. If I’m listening to music via stereo bluetooth, I can expect the battery to last me around a day and a half, which is good by any standards.

The 3.5mm audio jack in my opinion is where Nokia faulted on the E71, and where the E63 wins. Since the E71 comes equipped with a  2.5mm jack, you’ll need to spend a little bit more to get the audio adapter that would let you connect a normal pair of headphones. The 3.5mm jack was an important consideration for me, since  I hook up the phone to the aux-in on my car, as a hands-free, so the E71 would not have helped me there. As with the E71, the landscaped 320X240 screen provides a pretty good browsing experience.

On the software side there is little to write against. Two home screens let you have  two different perspectives, one at work and one at leisure, that independently let you define themes, enabled applications, and standby icons.

As with any Nokia Symbian phone, the software installation possibilities are virtually unlimited. I currently have Mail for Exchange for getting my work emails, IMAP for Gmail, Google Maps, Nokia Maps, Fring, Twibble, Facebook and a couple of other applications which I’ve installed.

The only issues with this phone are that the software freezes sometimes, and the phone restarts, though that has happened only once in the past month, and should be fixed in the next firmware update. Another issue is that the music skips if an email notification is received when a song is playing. This again, should be fixed. The other major gripe, which unfortunately cannot be fixed, is the somewhat silly protective cap provided for the 3.5mm jack. There is simply NO way one cannot lose that cap. If I really have to be snobbish, I could say there is no dedicated volume control key on the device, but I really don’t find that a major let down.

Apart from this, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the E63. If you’re on a tight budget, need a QWERTY phone, and really are not interested in a camera, look no further than this.

WOM World has been kind enough to let me test the new and upcoming Nokia E75 for a couple of weeks, so I’ll be reviewing the E63 in much more detail, with pictures and all,  juxtaposing it against the E75 and to a lesser extent against the N82, in the following week. Stay tuned.

For all you Virtual Machine junkies out there, check out VirtualBox, highly recommended!

The only program that seems to hog memory perenially, is Firefox, though…

Alright, the real purpose of this shitty post is to check whether Twitter gets automatically pinged when I click submit..

Update: - It does!

With reference to last week’s post, I got a good deal on the N82 + E50 combo, which I duly traded in for a Nokia E63. Insane battery life, enough business features for my purposes. (This is no way reflects a fluttering state of mind and an insatiable thirst for new gadgets).

Besides, I figured that having the N82 was a BIG stumbling block in me getting a Digital Camera with Optical zoom. Now that I got rid of the N82, I bought myself a Olympus FE20 8MP point and shoot, which should suffice for the kind of photography I do.

Convergence is there, and I’ve happily enjoyed it until now but the limitations seem to be too much for me to sacrifice. The downside was the lack of an optical zoom on the N82.

I’ll do an E63 review later, when I find the time, I guess.

Highlights: -

“We have set up a unified threat management system for the ministry. This simultaneously uses eight levels of protection like firewalls and spam mail filtering,” said a senior official

Really? Eight layers of protection? The NSA should be contacting you shortly to ask how the hell did you do that! Someone’s been reading too much of Digital Fortress, clearly. Oooh!

The circular also discourages using services like G-mail, Yahoo! or Hotmail for official communication. A similar circular, officials said, had been issued in the Prime Minister’s Office in December.

What is G-Mail? I know what is G-Spot, and I know what is Gmail, but G-Mail?

But the matter is even more critical for the foreign office as officials posted in Indian missions abroad or on foreign tours tend to use web-based mail rather than the ministry’s own mail system.

“We have had cases of senior officers using G-mail or other similar accounts abroad for official work, only to find some form of tampering when they return,” the official said, adding people have been told to change their web-mail passwords if they had opened the account during foreign tours.

The missions have been told to use their official mail ID issued by the National Informatics Centre for communication. But several missions have complained that the mail home page was inaccessible due to port blocks by local Internet service providers.They have been asked to contact their service providers to unblock the site.

Really? Government Email address blocked by local ISPs?

But, it gets even better!

In 2008, nearly 100 Internet addresses were blocked, several of them at Chengdu in China, after these were found to be the source of a swarm of attacks on the network.

“An attack could be just a simple mail, which activates a programme to leak data from that computer to another address on the net,” the ministry official said, adding new intrusions were more geographically dispersed.

Of course, your computer will start leaking data, considering the fact that you were dumb enough to click on the mail that promised you nude pics of Deepika Padukone.

“We had some intrusions which were traced to Houston, but we know that Chinese hackers were behind it,” the official said. “It’s a daily defensive war that we are engaged in.”

So be careful guys. Your local Chinese wallah may actually be a hacker in disguise. It does not matter if you stay in Chunnabhatti or Cincinatti. Who knows, there might be a worm in your Manchurian, the real or the virtual kind notwithstanding.

Even better, now we have this new protest.

I did not even know there was Hair-dressers association in India, forget the fact that they had a problem with the word ‘barber’.

As an aside, there were supposed to weekly candlelight ‘protests’ against 26/11, when I last heard of it. Are they still on? Or have we found better stuff like the above to protest about? Priorities, people?

I’m not even starting about the Mangalore pub case…

Join me as I sing, pseudo patriotically, somewhat ironically…

‘Saare Jahan se accha….Hindustan Hamara…’

No, wait!

I’m sorry for hurting National sentiments by singing the line above. I agree that these actions are a reflection of my current frustrated state of mind. I fully withdraw this post, in case anyone’s sentiments are hurt and they threaten legal action.

There, an unconditional apology in advance, lest the media or some Tom, Dick or Harry does sues me and forces me to apologize, like the NDTV case recently.

I feel a lot better now. God save us!

Nevertheless, the N82 remains, though the workload off it is technically halved, with the primary Internet Device being the E50, with an always on data connection, allowing me to tether it to the XPS whenever I want, for full blown Net connectivity.

The N82 will be the Multimedia Device, carrying a backup of all my essential Music, serving as the Camera, Camcorder and GPS Device. I’m still not too sure about retaining Internet connectivity on this phone, though.

Between these two phones, I guess I have all that I want!

Flipside? With 3G set to be launched soon, I should have got myself a 3G capable handset, since the E50 is incapable in that regard. Plus, the lack of wi-fi in the E50 dents the options. The E63 I guess, will be a viable option. Though not tech nirvana, I’ve come pretty darn close, I guess.

Seriously considering replacing both these devices into one device with monstrous battery life. Wondering what to do, though the choice seems to be just at the end of the tunnel.

Thankfully, an oppurtunity came by that allowed me the freedom I needed. It involved me leaving Mumbai, and get myself the much needed ‘me’ time. I know its too early to say it, but I’m liking whatever my new job has thrown at me until now. It looks very promising.

Besides, I’ve moved out of Mumbai. I’m a staunch Mumbaikar, and a proud one at that. However, the place is simply too crowded right now. Adapting to the new place is tough, especially considering I’m used to the ultra fast Mumbai lifestyle.

Considering I’m practically doing nothing post office hours, expect more posts on the blog in the immediate future.