Avinash Rathod : Mobilecentric

Is the Nokia N97 overpriced?

2009-06-25T19:24:00.006+05:30

Well I don't have any intention of buying the N97 or any phone that goes above Rs 15000. I'd rather wait for the phone prices to come down if such a phone is on my wish list. I've read on a lot of forums/sites that the N97 is overpriced. I know its got an amazing form factor, USB charging, GPS, touch screen, etc... also the E90 still costs ~ Rs 33000 , so may be the price (~35000) is just right.

Just put a poll to find out what others have to say. So do vote (poll on top of the page) and leave a comment if any.

Hands on with the Nokia N97

2009-06-25T12:14:00.009+05:30

I spent a few minutes with the N97 . Its a beautiful device, large screen , good QWERTY, USB charging, NGage, etc...

A few pics taken from my N958G (couldn't keep my clicking hand stable , will let you know why in my next post)

The N97 launched in Mumbai

2009-06-18T19:36:00.005+05:30

Here it is , the Nokia N97 finally launched in Mumbai.
I'm sure I'll get to see many of those soon in the 'First Class' train compartment while I travel, been seeing a lot of 5800's lately. Sites and blogs have been populated with every detail of hardware and application reviews of the N97. No one complains about anything crashing as its known that its a production firmware the device is running on. But here are some of the early owners , a lil disappointed with crashing issues

DiBo
All About Symbian (first commentor on the post)
Video link showing the crash

Am sure issues will be resolved with a couple of firmware updates, same happened with the N95 earlier.

Price : ~ 35000
Vodafone Offer:

As part of the tie-up, on purchase of the N97 Vodafone customers will receive an exclusive free data plan over 3 months for browsing internet services.

The offer will be valid for all Vodafone customers at all Vodafone stores retailing Nokia devices, all Nokia branded retail outlets as well as multi-brand stores in nine cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Jaipur.

More info here.

Nokia - Most trusted - Again

2009-06-17T12:10:00.002+05:30

Nokia continues to be 'The Most Trusted Brand' yet again in India.

Links:
2008 :
Nokia conversations
Economic times

2009:
Economic times

Win an N85 on Tech2

2009-06-02T13:40:00.004+05:30

Answer a simple NGage related question here and 2 people can win an N85.

Zombify yourself

2009-05-22T14:03:00.003+05:30

Killing zombies = real fun.
Imagine what it would be : Being zombified + winning a trip to Japan + an N96 ;)

The site/contest seems like some promotion for resident evil on Ngage. I haven't gone through the TOC of this contest and I really don't care about it (the contest), I just wanted to see how do I look as a Zombie.

Just log on to zombisingles.com and get urself zombified.

Interesting comments

2009-05-14T16:36:00.003+05:30

Sometimes comments on posts are more interesting than the post itself ;)

Is Nokia losing it? : This guy 'dextroz' in 10 mins made a comment which is twice the size of the actual post and still its interesting.

The case of iPhone is Strong : This is a really well written post and would make any reader go ga-ga about the iPhone. But wait, just go thru the comments and your thoughts might again change.

In search of a new N95 body - Part 2

2009-04-15T10:46:00.004+05:30

Finally a new fascia/body for my wife's N95. It cost me 450 Rs. The feel is nowhere near the original and even my wife does not like it so much, but its better than carrying the taped one. Got it replaced from a shop close to my office. I guess I will have to eventually give it to 'Nokia Care' for the original part but just don't get enough time to do so.

Goodies from S60.com

2009-04-02T00:33:00.004+05:30

I signed in for the NGage Level2 Ambassador program at S60.com some time ago. Was supposed to share my NGage experiences with friends/colleagues and submit their reactions on S60.com. I haven't done my part yet but still I've got a box full of goodies from the S60 guys.

A torch,pen,coaster,USB fan,4 port USB hub, writing pad, charms, a small S60 clip for the ear phone wire, comics and a 4GB micro SD card along with a small card reader. This is the second time I've got an S60 gift pack, the first time it was a T-Shirt , writing pads, 2 pens, mouse pads,lanyards,stickers etc...

That's not all,registering and signing in for a S60.com newsletter gives you access to exclusive S60 application every month. If not free for all they do give out early bird licences.

I think I should now do my bit and start submitting reports.

5800 : Close application from task list

2009-03-30T00:39:00.006+05:30

There's no 'C' key on the 5800. I felt the need for it when the Gmail application would simply refuse to come in the foreground. But I knew if there's a taskbar then there's surely a way to kill/close the application from there, after all its a Symbian phone. Just a few seconds of touching I figured out that a long press on the app icon of the task list reveals a small menu with'Open' and 'Exit' options.

I know most of the S60 users would have figured that out with some fiddling but I'm sure not all know that getting the above screen shot made me take out my phones battery.

The 'Best Screen Snap'(BSS) application has the camera key as the default screen shot key. Pushing the camera key for the screen shot would put away the small menu. I tried the green key/menu key/volume keys the red key in the BSS settings but it would just say 'Not allowed'. The only key that worked was the keypad toggle key. Cool, now I have the screenshot and you see it up there ;) but a few seconds later the key pad got locked. Now every attempt to unlock would take a screen shot but no unlock. Even switching off the phone requires an unlocked phone. So the only option, I removed the battery.

I quickly did an image search of the N97 key pad to check for the 'C' key. Does not seem to be on it too. But am sure the circled key below will do the trick.

Understanding NGage

2009-03-25T16:14:00.001+05:30

It took me two full version games to understand NGage.

Asphalt 4 Elite and Creatures of the Deep(COD) are keeping me busy these days. Around a month ago I switched back to my N958G. Did a firmware upgrade (v31.0.015) and this time it had the latest NGage installed with a lot of trial games. I activated COD because it's by Infinite Dreams. I've earlier played KRally like anything on my E61 and I knew the graphics on COD will be something to look forward to. COD is a fishing game, catch fish and get points (XP's). The graphics of the game are amazing, the rain, the lightning, etc... You get to fish in Costa-Rica waters and once you have enough XP's you can travel to other destinations. I played this game all the time, unlocked a few items, went to different locations and kept on fishing. What I never understood is 'When does the game end?'.

Some how I got one more activation code. This time I activated Asphalt 4 Elite. Once you have a full version of the game vertical bars show up at the right side of the game listings. The bars indicate how much more you have to play to finish the game. I was two bar's up on COD and kept fishing all the time but the bar remained on two.

Asphalt 4 Elite has a menu which shows "Pickup points". These are stages in the game where you get X Ngage points. So there is a game score, which is $'s, and then there are NGage points. So the bars that are shown alongside the games listings are actually how close are you to achieving 1000 Ngage points. COD does not have a menu to show pick up points, but if you go into the NGage application - My Profile - Click on one of the game in the list there's a tab where you will see the games pick up points.

This answers my question of knowing when does COD finish. So I don't have to just keep fishing, I actually have to finish all the tasks listed in the pickup point list. After this much of knowledge I finished Asphalt 4 Elite. COD is a big game, you have to finish tasks in 4 places and the places themselves are not small. This time the NGage online community came in handy.

Browsing through the forums I came across screenshots where tasks can be finished , actual walkthrough's of games, tips and tricks. Also interesting is that I found one of my friend on the forum and was even able to add him as a friend on the NGage application. So now we can compare our points, discuss games and even play multiplayer games (havent tried it as yet).

Although I activated the games through activation codes I recieved I surely will be buying some of them. The games are not very expensive, I believe they are around 300 Rs (see Oxicash for more details). And looking at the quality of games I've played I don't think the amount is too much. I think I will be buying Prince of Persia.

I'm really enjoying NGage and will always make sure that whatever device I carry it's NGage enabled.

A touchy day for me

2009-03-18T16:13:00.006+05:30

Got an chance to play with 3 touch phones today.
- Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
- HTC Diamond and
- Samsung Omnia SGH-i900

(pics taken from my N95 8G closeup mode )

Had a little brush with the 5800 a couple of months back but it was only for 5 mins. This time the 5800 stays with me for say a couple of weeks, so will be posting my experience with it soon.
Can't say much about the other two phones, had them only for some time, but I must say they were good. The Omnia was Windows Mobile but am surely looking forward to the Symbian one (Omnia HD).

System up and running

2009-03-10T11:41:00.005+05:30

I did manage to get the system for 17.3 thousand INR without bargain from Cassette World , Lamington Road. I always recommend shop for all h/w needs.

The config changed a little:

CPU : AMD Athlon XP2 7750 2.7 GHz 3Mb cache -- what I wanted

HDD : 500 Gb -- Western Digital ( the dealer recommended WD on Seagate)

MBD : M3A78-EM HDMI (is almost the same as Asus M3A-H/HDMI but cheaper)

RAM : 4 Gb 1066MHz G.Skill (wanted only 2 Gb but again recommended by dealer)

Bought everything last Friday and even assembled it- all fine.

Loaded WinXP SP3 - all fine.

Loaded all drivers - no sound. Spent around 15 hrs and finally sound. There's some conflict with WinXP SP3 and HD sound drivers. Had to install this patch first and then loaded the drivers again. All fine now.

Dead motherboard :(

2009-03-04T13:00:00.003+05:30

My PC is not working because of some motherboard fault. Will go to Lamington Road on Saturday to buy some hardware ( mbd/proc/ram and hdd ). This time choosing AMD instead of Intel. I have finalized on processor,RAM & HDD but am still to zero in on a MBD

Proc : AMD Athlon X2 7750 2.7 GHz
HDD: Seagate 500 Gb
RAM: 2GB (transcend/corsair)
MBD : most probably Asus M3A-H/HDMI.

This may just fit below 17K if I bargain well I presume. Wanted to be < 15K but this always happens.

N86 = N85 8MP

2009-02-20T16:33:00.005+05:30

We all know N86 is just a successor of the N85, but as always pictures say more than words.

(click image to zoom)

As can be seen the print on top of the screen says it all.

More of these pictures here.

Forward/Rewind on Symbian Realplayer

2009-02-19T00:54:00.006+05:30

I never read it anywhere nor there's any option/menu in RealPlayer about doing a forward or rewind of a playing video. For more than 2 years I thought only third party media players like SmartMovie can seek video position, until yesterday my 18 month old niece pressed and held the navigation key while her video was playing.

That's right press and hold the navigation keys to turn up/down the volume and left/right to seek forward or reverse a playing video (or vice-verca depending on the screen orientation). I googled a bit to find that this is mentioned only on a few forums. Maybe this will be helpful to someone out there.

Cheers Kiara.

BTW , some more shortcuts
Me,Message Reader
Darla
E-Series.org
Gallery shortcuts

Vodafone India plays bully, blocks MyToday

2009-02-17T17:07:00.005+05:30

This is really unfair. Vodafone India has now blocked opt-in SMS services from MyToday. I've been using MyToday for more than a year now. Its simple you ask for SMS's and you get them for free. There are a lot of choices like cricket/word/horoscope/stock/bible etc... See the full list here. The best part is you can stop the SMS's whenever you wish by just sending STOP .

It's anytime better than paying 50 Rs a month per service to the operator. I've subscribed for Cricket/Word and News. I get one SMS for each of the latter two. For cricket may be around 10 I think. I dont mind the ads shown at the end of the messages. Infact sometimes the ads are useful. MyToday has around 3.8 million subscribers and Vodafone clearly knows that this is a straight competition to their services. Earlier MyToday had the same issue with Airtel, don't know its status now. Vodafone goes even further and has blocked mobile portal http://mytoday.com

Check out Rajesh's blog more on this.

In search of a new N95 body - Part I

2009-02-14T22:58:00.008+05:30

My wife's N95 is in really bad shape now.

We've inquired at about 4-5 places about replacing the cover/body and got different prices from all of them. I've still not approached 'Nokia Care' because I think they would give me a token number and ask me to be back in a few days. I would like to get it changed in an hour or so and maybe in front of my eyes. All of the shops I've gone into sell Nokia's and I repeatedly asked that I want an original cover/body only. None of the shops had the body at the very moment and said they would get it for me in a few days. I agreed for this at a shop and went there the other day only to find that the cover was still not available. They've taken my number to inform me about its availability.

I started googling to find out if I can get the price of the cover. I used keywords like 'body' & 'cover' but no good results. The actual keyword to search for is 'fascia'.Google define - A fascia is the name given to the removable housing of a mobile telephone. I came across this word when I was searching for a cover for my 6630 around a year ago when the rubber surrounding the phones camera went missing.

Finally I found what I was looking for, a plum fascia (here). I doubt if its original but, I just wanted to know the price. Its approximately 1000 INR. The prices I got from the shops I inquired are way too much as compared to this.I think the only option left with me is to take the phone to Nokia Care. I just hope they give me the right price and if possible replace the thing on the same day. Actually I dont want anyone to go into the phones gallery or Inbox. Maybe I'll backup everything, format and then give my phone. Damn I miss those XpressON's.

Will post an update once I have the new fascia.

The N85 fails to impress

2009-02-10T18:55:00.005+05:30

I've been trailing the N85 for about a month now but haven't found anything good to write about it. Its an expensive feature packed phone but I would never buy it.

The phone looks sleek , slimmer than many other phones , but its heavy.
The much talked about OLED display looks great indoors, but in bright daylight its hardly viewable.
The USB charging is a welcome feature, but dont forget to carry the USB cable/charger when going out somewhere. I made a mistake, not carrying the charger to my trip to Bhandardara and was left with a dead N85. I could have got any other Nokia charger from friends/hotel staff.

Picture/Video quality not as good as the N95 or the N82. Even the videos I was able to take at Bhandardara were jerky. Upgrading to firmware 11.047 didn't make any difference either. The camera lens cover is not that easy to slide unless the phone is held in a particular position(not ergonomic I must say). The N95's cover is much better or better still don't provide a cover like the N958G.

The numeric keypad felt OK , but the softkeys/menu key/'C' key and the navigation keys suck. They are very hard and the softkeys even make a sound when pressed. The 6210 Navigator , which I trailed just before the N85, had one of the best keypads I've used.
The keypad sliding is smooth but the multimedia/ngage key slide is just the opposite.
There's this small keypad lock toggle switch , but I've hardly used it.

Like I said , I've got really no nice words to say about the Nokia N85.

Which mobile phone does an Indian buy?

2009-01-21T16:14:00.003+05:30

A recent survey conducted in India's major cities suggests that brand is a major factor when buying a mobile phone. Other factors include music quality , recommendations etc...

By the way we all know Nokia is #1 in india.

Head here for full details.

Message Reader gets a shortcut

2009-01-17T09:07:00.008+05:30

S60 v3 FP2 seems to me just like a Mario game. In the sense, there may be lots of hidden things to find. Mario is my wife's favourite game , ya she still plays it, she just jumps somewhere in the air and there is this brick which has some powers or points.

A few days back on the 6210 Navigator I found out about the built-in FlipSilent. Now I've found out a shortcut to message reader.

A long press on the 'Show' softkey on the '1 new message' prompt opens up Message reader.Nice thing for the visually impaired.

Can't say the same happens for all FP2 devices as this (N85) has no built-in FlipSilent.

A similar find was 'Receiving via Bluetooth' notification by Vaibhav on the N85

May be there's some more treasure need to dig more.

5800 theme for S60 v3 : Looks great

2009-01-17T08:46:00.005+05:30

This third edition theme with the 5800 icon set really looks cool on the N85. Not so good on my N95, may be because the icons are more spaced out on it. I don't change themes often and even if I do I stick to the default icon set, but this theme (all black) with the 5800 iconset ROCKS.

Download link.

Nokia is to "phone" what Kleenex is to "tissue"

2009-01-13T12:39:00.002+05:30

Nokia's market share has slid to just 8% from 15% two years ago (North America)

Nice read : Nokia's North America problem

'FIT OF RAGE' test

2009-01-08T07:57:00.005+05:30

We know that Nokia performs a lot of crash performance tests on the phones, some of them are: drop test,pressure test,washing machine test,under the tap test etc....

Here's one very common test that's been missed out, the 'Fit of rage' test. How many times does it happen that you are so angry that you feel like throwing something against the wall? Well, a lot of times I believe and the only object (mostly) at such times in our hands is our cell phone. I just did it a few days back. I threw my N95 8G against the wall. How angry was I? Just see the impact of my throw on this wall

What happened to the phone? The battery came off and so did the sim card. What hit the wall was the lower right edge of the phone, some color from the wall stuck there otherwise no visible mark/scratch on the phone. I put it back again with shivering hands just hoping that the phone ain't dead. But thank God, the phone's working good. But my keypad lights dont work and ever since that throw I've not been able to get a GPS lock, may be the GPS reciever no longer works.

All thanks to Nokia for making such sturdy phones which can survive almost anything. WOM World people (the place from where I get my phones from) rest assured I would'nt have done it if it were one of your phones ;)

5800 Xpress Music:Mixed reactions

2009-01-02T19:53:00.006+05:30

Nokia's first touchscreen has got mixed reactions all over. Some have liked it and some not so much. The 'iPhone killer' tag attached to the 5800 XM seems to have been stolen away by the announced N97. The phone, just released in India, has already got a firmware upgrade which puts up a question 'Should I be an early adopter or not?' . The flagship N95 when released had its share of problems like slower camera,problematic slider,slower bootup etc... but then came N95 8G with much of the problems in the N95 rectified. Ofcourse the firmware upgrades kept coming for the N95 (about 3 of them i think) and the phone is much better now. At a price tag of 20 - 22 K bundled with Sennheiser LX90 earphones and some 200+ songs in the 8GB card the phone is a deal for music lovers. So here's two of my favourite links which may help decide buy the 5800 XM :

Symbian Guru (Love)

Symbian Guru (Hate)

Symbian Freak (Not a primary phone)