Symbiosis60

The Moses Phone - a prophecy of great things to come..AKA N900

2009-09-27T13:58:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I took a trip to Chicago Nokia Store to play around with N900. Already being in love with the device before it's even released I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed. The main reason I'm so confident was due to my previous experiences with Nokia phones. First of the N-series was N80. Built like a tiny brick but had some (ok..quite a few) shortcomings mainly in the memory department. The device's built was one of the best ones I've had. Tight, no squeaking. Just a nice overall phone. Then I graduated to N95-1 (the first Euro version). Again, memory problems and since it was a new type of a slider phone, it was plagued with the wobbly and squeaky slider. The guts on the other hand... to die for. And after many firmware updates the phone was near perfect (skip the slider issue). A few generations later we're being presented with E's, N's and X's... Most of the previous issues seem to be a thing of the past. No more squeaky sliders, enough of memory, faster processors, the same VERY ggod camera that we were graced with in N95 etc etc. And then there's N900. If you think N95 was a good phone, think again. Over the past two or three years I had a chance to experience Nokia's N800 (courtesy of WOM World friends) and then I got N810 as a gift. While nice devices to "play" with, they did not have much of a real world use. The processor was just simply too sluggish and there was no GSM radio built in. That's where N900 became the savior. Already dubbed the "Moses" phone in the blogosphere this phone is causing geeks and others to flock to Nokia to see what this whole fuss is all about. I parted my ways with my beloved Nokia in October of 2008 when there was no love for T-Mobile 3G (aka AWS) frequency coming from Nokia in their HIGH end devices. Now (once again) Nokia kissed and more than made up for the lost time. After my yesterday's trip to Chicago Nokia Store I can easily say "I'm back". Just for the record the phone available to test out is the pre-release version dubbed as NXX0 (or is it N9XX). Either way the firmware is not final and there may be some changes. What I got a chance to play with was what everyone already saw on the interned. Due to the fact that this is a pre-release I was not able to test it with T-Mobile SIM card but only on WiFi (so no "3G Voice/Data" calling). After the initial "First contact" I honestly felt as if I was touched by Moses or some high power. You do feel the device's 181g weight. It's not heavy but it definitely feels "solid". The screen - an eve candy. Do you know what happens when you Take 800x480 screen and stretch it to 50 inches? Well each pixel gets enlarged and the screen looks ugly. Take this the other way...shrink 800x480 to a 13 inch size LCD and you get a decent display. Now compress the whole thing into 3.5 inches and you get something that's just simply amazing. Sharp as hell on par with HD sharpness of plasma tv. One bad thing that a lot of people are complaining about is the resistive screen (aka.. the screen must be physically pressed to invoke an action). While I'm not too crazy about it either, fret not...this is not your grandma's screen. The technology has advanced so far that it feels almost as good as the capacitive screen (as fond on iPhone and Android devices). I'm sad that Nokia did not elect to take this route - that only means that within 6 months we'll be upgrading to N910 or N920 or something similar that will fix these issues. I just pray that at that time it will also have AWS support. Anyway back to the software. I can't say anything else except WOW. The animations and screen transitions are exactly as you see in the promo videos.. These are not some gimmycky tricks to lure the world into buying a phone that wishes it was... this phone IS all that and more. The small space bar the people bitch about (before they even touch the phone) is a pleasure to use, quite contrary to what most say. It's placed in a perfect place - where your thumb lies. While I wish the keyboard had a dedicated numeric row, it's just a matter of getting used to. The positive outcome of 3 rows of keys is that the slider mechanism has a larger area to slide and therefore the slider is much sturdier. The screen, when opened reveals about 1/3 of the bottom part of the device. If there were 4 rows of keys, the screen would reveal about 50% of the lower part which would make the slider have less room to hang on to. It's all about mechanics. Not bad, but not the best either. The keyboard itself while a bit small felt pretty good. I have big thumbs but even then I had no problem with using the keyboard. On the right side was a nice feature..a spring loaded screen lock. I had a chance to try out the camera as well - Nokia stores have an ambient lighting so the pictures don't usually come out to good. This was not the case here. On the phone the picture taken looked pretty good and the camera's responsiveness was very good as well. The lag of the previous N-series devices, while still there" is barely noticeable. Remember, no matter how good the phone is, it still is a phone. It will not replace a dedicated Digital camera any time soon...maybe next year :-). On the the software... I felt like a kid in a toy shop. I tried to play with everything but in the pre-release version maemo applications (a la Android Market, App store whatever you call it) so I could not test the available downloadable apps. Only the included ones. Web browser rocks. There's no other way to describe it. Web pages load as fast as on the desktop, with EXACTLY the same layout. I was attempting to test the e-mail application but I did not want to put in my credentials and there was no test account so all I could see was the set up wizard. I don't think there will be much to complain about. One thing that I gave a go to was Skype. I logged in with my account and voila...my contact were online. To my disappointment the included Skype client doesn't seem to support video calling. A SAD SAD thing. I've always wondered why netowrk operators are so stupid and try to promote Video calling from phone to phone??? This didn't really take off. It was supposed to be one of the "IT" features of 3G and yet it failed. Instead someone could come up with 3G-to-IM video calling. I'm sure there are some WCDMA Video to IM Video gateways so put them to a good use. Skype could bridge this gap... Enable video calling from N900 to Skype and we have a winner. No need for the Operator to implement any equipment - only provide the data pipe. Hopefully this will be something that will be implemented shortly. Another sad part is the lack of MMS. As Nokia said this will be rolled out in the future update. With my previous experience I do not worry much about it - my bet would be that MMS update will be rolled out by the end of 2009. It's still sad to see The Moses phone not being able to relay pictures to its people...
Back to skype... upon signing in to my account I called my friend Tom to his Skype. I did the inevitable "Can you hear me now" or rather "how well do you hear me". He said normally. I told him I'm calling from Nokia store via Skype from N900. He said it sounded perfectly fine. Now once the phone comes out I'll have to give it a try via 3.5G and see how well it will sound. This brings another question... with T-Mobile's recent announcement of deployment of HSPA+ (aka SWEET 21 Mbits) in selected markets N900 supports HSDPA up to 10 Mbits...that's frigging more than I get at home on my DSL (I'm only on 3.5 Mbits). Call me a geek but this stuff turns me on, gives me ants in my pants, makes my heart race. Recently my friend had a heartbreaking situation in his relationship and fell apart. One day I was reading something about N900 on the web and he messaged me asking what I was doing. I told him I was reading geek porn... N900. He told me that it takes a very little to make me happy. Well he's wrong but my reply was that N900 will keep me a company, won't disappoint me, will allow me to get laid if need be, will be with me as long as I want to. He said that I can also put it up in tome other place. I said true - and that would get me off too. So there you have it.. a phone good for your everyday life, relationship and happiness. And it makes phone calls too. I love you my new lover... N900...that sound sexy.

Maemo 5 & Nokia N900

2009-08-27T13:50:00.001-05:00

When I woke up today in the morning I checked my RSS feeds and then I wept...... My lover came back to me. I'm so HAPPY to see you back. My lover came back even stronger and this time did not even bother shake hands with its past love. WHAM... Here I go, here I go, here I go again (again?) Girls, what's my weakness? (N-!) Ok then, chillin', chillin', mindin' my business Yo, Salt, I looked around, and I couldn't believe this I swear, I stared, my niece my witness The brother had it goin' on with somethin' kinda...uh Wicked, wicked (oooo) - had to N900-kick it I'm not shy so I asked for the digits N900 A ho? No, that don't make me.. I'm in love once again. T-Mobile glory, small, T-Mobile 3G, powerful, T-Mobile 3G 1700...shall I give more reasons? Amazing. Sorry people.. I'm spinning but this thing makes me drool. I could not believe my own eyes when I saw that Nokia answered my prayers (and more) and announced a device which will support Euro and T-Mobile US 3G. No some crappy at&t half baked 3G on 850/1900 this time.. NO. I may sound like a beatch but now at&t users will have something to drool over. It looks like I may be ditching my Android once again. After G1 was released back in October 2008 I wanted a phone that would allow my to use 3G and since Nokia was not feeling AWS love, I put aside my N95-3 and made a leap to Android. Amazingly the switch was a pleasurable experience (albeit a weird one at first) but now I think I'll be happy to go back to Maemo (I have N810 and like it). So now the countdown continues. Now I want to see some pre-release pricing and my plastic will swoosh against the magnetic reader... N...you make me feel...mighty real

Wallpapers

2009-07-13T00:54:00.005-05:00

Towards the end of last year my cousin's boyfriend asked me to buy a Nicon D90 DSLR for him. After a few months I received a CD with the fruits of Krzysiek's creativity. These images were taken in Poland in Rabka area (Carpatian Mountains). All I can personally say is.. WOW. I shrunk them to fit Android screen. Of course they can be used on any phone. Go to my Flickr album to download them. There's a total of 74 images. Enjoy them.

Click on the title of this post to go to Flickr album

Peaches - Fuck the Pain Away, sung by Miss Piggy

2009-06-05T16:22:00.001-05:00

Nothing to do with the mobile industry but it made me laugh....

Time off

2009-02-06T19:43:00.002-06:00

Lately I have not been very active on my own or other blogs. Due to personal matters I have to put my mind into other aspect that are very important to me at the moment. I have decided to take a little time off. I will be commenting from time to time however my participation will be limited. I hope to be back soon.

Maciek

Listen... I am alone at the cross roads

2008-11-21T01:31:00.008-06:00

…that's how I feel at this moment. Listen to the lyrics of "Dream Girls" song "Listen" and it will pretty much describe how I feel about Nokia right now. With the recent release of Android OS I was faced with the harsh reality....I've been waiting for T-Mobile US' 3G network launch and wanted a kick ass device that Nokia has been gracing the world with for a long time now. Unfortunately Nokia chose to "disconnects people" once again and completely ignored the T-Mobile US crowd and its new yet-to-be-popularized 3G frequency and instead churns out 3G devices for at&t frequency only. I dearly love my carrier and will not make a move to the MONSTER of at&t. So because of that I chose to put my beloved N95-3 to the side, part my ways with an excellent 5MP camera, heck of a good OS and made a leap to Android.

YES...I ditched S60 for the time being. I'm truly sad to say it. I will not sell my N95 for now but who knows in the future. My relationship with that Android started on a low note... I said to myself "First I want to finally ride the 3G wave". Then I will only "flirt" with the Android to see what the fuss is all about. And then it hit me like a lighting...my Google account typed in, password entered..and voila...no over bloated PC suite installation required and within 1 minute 160-some contacts were in my phone, the calendar synchronized and the e-mails started pouring in. I was honestly afraid that I will like Android. After all I've been a devoted S60 user since my first S60 based Nokia 3650 device. By the time I realized it, it was too late. I was falling in love already. The first thing that struck me as an ingenious invention was the notification bar. For as long as I can remember I have been annoyed beyond description with the way S60 (even v3) does the tasks of e-mail send/receive, calendar synchronization etc. Basically the phone is useless while those tasks are being performed as the "progress bar" takes 40% of the screen and prevents the phone from doing anything else until it's finished.

This is the area, in which the Android shines. EVERY SINGLE sync is done absolutely in the background. Unobtrusive, calendar, e-mail, contact sync. WHY hasn't Symbian and Nokia implemented this approach a long time ago is beyond me.

On one of the forums not too long ago one participant said that that the Android is a flop and that Nokia will never implement it in their phones as it's too tightly attached to Google's services. That individual though neglected to pay attention to the fact that Android is a completely open source OS and Google said that anyone that wishes to dissect it to their likes will not be stopped. I replied with a comment that Nokia can strip down Android from Gmail and Google services (contacts, calendar, e-mail) and replace it with their own Ovi services. Ovi now has ALL parts to complete this puzzle; Ovi contacts instead of Google Contacts, Ovi Calendar instead of Google Calendar, the recent Nokia Mail instead of Gmail... and even more services to stuff into the device....Ovi Share (photos, video), N-Gage games first ported to Android and then dumped into Android Market, and finally Ovi Chat, which is basically the same service as Google talk - XMPP compliant (so the users of OVI Chat can talk to Google talk members)...and on top of that Nokia just acquired OZ Communications so the IM client that's on most mobile phones these days is now owned by Nokia. I hope the big N will look at this as an opportunity and see the great things that Android can be. I deeply like S60 but Nokia's reluctance to evolve is just too depressing. Opening the source of S60 to the world may not be enough at this moment. People are used to S60 being "done" by Nokia. It's so tightly tied to Nokia that many people keep forgetting that until recently it was a separate company, with a major stake holder being the big N, which recently they completely bought out in order to release the OS to the public. It just may be too late for Nokia now - which sadly I have to say, would not be a bad idea if S60 would start losing market share. Android could be a great opportunity for Nokia. Slowly phase out dated S60 and focus on a new Linux based OS which has a huge potential - with Nokia's potential it could be designed to resemble S60 in "looks" department as possible AND guess what...all those thousands of S60 applications could run on Android with a bit of S60 engine emulation love implemented.

Now as a last note I would like to say again how greatly disappointed I feel with Nokia for not releasing a SINGLE device supporting T-Mobile's frequency. There is a starved T-Mobile population here in the US which could easily fork out $400 for a good device. Unsubsidized Android sells for $399 and people are buying it. Nokia could easily churn out N85 for T-Mobile now, and with the right advertising (even going against Android) could gain a large market share. T-Mobile started to offer "decent devices" such as G1, and then the two 5 MP shooters (Samsung Behold and Moto ZN5) but not even one matches the photo quality or the functionality of a good ole' Nokia. T-Mobile US may be a small chunk of Nokia's market but it should not be neglected either. I wonder how many "Maciek's" are out there...how many of you have given up your Nokia device because you cannot get love from the phone manufacturer you fell in love with and then you realized that you may actually stay "married" to your new Android device... Nokia, wake up...smell the turf. You are losing your long time customers.

It pays to be a geek

2008-11-19T01:07:00.009-06:00

On a recent trip to Sam's Club store in Evanston, IL this past weekend I had a funny encounter. First of all let me state for the record that I'm not a big supported of such behemoths as Sam's Club, but due to my current condition (herniated lower back disc) I wanted to see if I could get an inversion bed cheaper at Sam's Club.

So my painful story aside, I walked in to the store with my friend, looking cool, feeling sexy, wind in my hair I pulled out my G1 to play around with Shop Saavy. After passing some LCD TV's I asked my friend to stop by Sam's mobile phone stand as I wanted to look at the new Samsung Behold. So after a few minutes of browsing I aksed about Behold. Unfortunately they did not have them yet. The girl I spoke to noticed G1 in my hand. The first question that the nice girl asked me was how I like it. It struck a brief impromptu conversation about this and that, the goods and the bads. After a few minutes of chatter the nice girl said "I got one too but I have to send it back to T-Mobile for service as I locked it up". She pulled the phone out and to be honest I was expecting to see a phone locked due to an improper SIM card password. This was not the case. Her G1 was locked because of too many incorrect password attempts at the initial screen. The issue here was that I believe this was a T-Mobile provided device for the reps to use but also to show to the potential clients. What surprised me was the fact the this nice innocent girl was told by T-Mobile that she had to send the phone back to have it unlocked and restored back to the factory settings. I asked her to show me the phone after which I did the "Power + Home button" reboot into safe mode and restored it back to the factory settings. At the booth there was a young guy working together with her. Both of them were simply amazed and almost kissed my hands to thank me for doing this. The girl took a piece of paper and wrote down exactly what I did just for the future. What amazes me is that T-Mobile did not provide such a basic information to their own reps and instead they had to rely on a stranger's help which definitely does not make Sam's "Techy" people look good. At the end the girl REALLY appreciated my help and offered a discount either on a new activation or on an accessory. Since I already have a car charger, I asked my friend if he wanted one so he scored a few bucks off :-) Happy ending.

The morale of the story: Geeks Unite :-)

Android synchronization

2008-11-16T18:08:00.004-06:00

With the recent release of Google Android phone on T-Mobile the forums have been flooded with a lot of complaints from people who swear by Outlook (or any PIM application for that matter) and have complained that the phone does not come with any desktop synchronization software. To be honest I find it quite interesting that the same people who use Gmail, and give up on desktop e-mail clients complain that they can not get Outlook synchronized with their Google phone.

It’s almost as perplexing as the fact that people suddenly want a soft keyboard on a device and praise iPhone for having one YET were swearing at iPhone for not having a hardware keyboard. I’m about to loose my marbles in this mixture of decisions. My personal opinions aside I do have to say that I did find it quite annoying that I could not synchronize my Outlook contacts with T-Mobile G1 somehow right out of the box and instead had to enter them manually…that was until I did a little search on the net for some kind of program that would allow me to sync Outlook with Google services. To my surprise an application called CompanionLink popped up in my searches. I read the brief description and thought to myself "this sounds like a solution…but what’s the catch?" Well for starters the program is about 10 MB. Second it’s a paid application which costs somewhere around $30.00 - true not much but still it’s something you have to add on top of the price of the phone itself. And last and the best - it’s a free trial for 30 days. I have to tell you something - this application is a marvel and worth absolutely every penny. Google has the option of importing the contacts from a comma separated file (exported from Outlook) however I’ve noticed that the file would have to be mapped properly in order to transfer every field from Outlook contacts into Google contacts and I was not going to sit in front of my computer trying to figure out the proper mapping of fields. If you fear that you will have to enter every phone number manually into your android, think again. Companion link (the trial version) has a full functionality for 30 days and believe me - it was a painless procedure which, unlike exporting from Outlook and importing into Google contacts, worked amazingly well and moved every field properly, including the addresses. One negative that I found was the way the phone numbers were transferred. I’m a "neat freak" when it comes to my phone book organization so every single phone number that I have on my device is entered the international format like +1 (773) 555-1212 so as you see I have the plus sign, area codes in the parentheses and the dash between the main number. When Companion link did the transfer, It truncated +1 and the parentheses. For a regular John Doe this most likely would not cause a problem since most people enter the number in +17735551212 format. For me though it was just a neat factor but not a major issue. After fixing the minor issues my Android had EVERY single contact ported from Outlook. One thing worth to mention is the fact that the CompanionLink for Android DOES NOT synchronize Outlook to your phone - instead it syncs them to Google account which takes over from there to sync with your phone via OTA transfer.

It’s also not a one way road…the software can be setup to synchronize both ways so if you update your phone’s calendar or Google calendar, it will synchronize to Outlook. So on a final note, don’t be cheap - if you depend on Outlook for all your daily scheduling needs, that $30 will be a well spent money. If you only need to do a one way transfer, then get the trial version, however if you’re reading this AND debating on how to port Outlook contacts to your Google android phone, my guess is that you’re the kind that will indeed be smart enough to get the full version which will allow you to use your phone and Outlook in harmony.

Gay Chicago Magazine

2008-11-15T21:25:00.005-06:00

Gay Chicago Magazine,
originally uploaded by ordxpres.

In a recent Gay Chicago magazine I wrote an article about QR codes. The magazine's issue #46 can be downloaded from Gay Chicago website or by scanning the below QR code shortcut. The file is 10 MB. Check it out and share your thoughts.

If you'd preffer, you can download only the article which is about 800kb (not the whole issue) by clicking here.

11042008369

2008-11-04T22:53:00.002-06:00

Today was the time to vote. Luckily my polling place never had the lines so I was in and out in 10 minutes. That's all it took to elect Obama.

T-Mobile G1 photo

2008-11-01T11:30:00.003-05:00

This is a cool looking shot posted directly from my G1

Cool mix by Andrew McDonald (aka. bravehound)

2008-10-18T14:03:00.006-05:00

Andrew is a hot geek, cell phone freak who also happens to be a great DJ. Head to his site and download the mixes. Make that Nokia hum with cool beats. To download directly to your phone, just scan the QR code.

digg story

Pussy versus Printer

2008-09-11T15:57:00.001-05:00

Normally I'm not too crazy about cats but this one made me laugh. It's not really cell phone related but it's funny as hell. Watch how pussies interact with the technology

SymbianGear Apps Giveaway Days!

2008-08-06T16:48:00.005-05:00

Ok, so here's the deal:

SymbianGear shop has just started some kind of happy hours, but this time it's not just hours...
All you have to do is go to the SymbianGear's Shop and register. Then you can use a few promotion codes...
The codes are valid until:

Wednesday 6.08 - Advanced Device Locks - redeem voucher: ADL100
Thursday 7.08 - X-plore - redeem voucher: xplore100
Friday 8.08 - EUROPAinfo - redeem voucher: EUinfo100
Saturday 9.08 - Advanced Brain Trainer Edition 1 - redeem voucher: ABT100
Sunday 10.08 - Handy Alarm - redeem voucher: HandyAlarm100

To download the software add selected item to your shopping basket and choose redeem voucher as a payment method.

Porting T9 dictionary

2008-08-05T08:55:00.004-05:00

On his website, Vaibhav Sharma recently posted a nice link to porting S60's dictionary to another device. For the longest time I have been annoyed with the fact that it's impossible to customize your device's dictionary. It would be so nice if S60 gave us, the user, a choice of which T9 dictionaries to install on the device. For example when you launch the setup wizard on your device you should be given an option to choose lets say 3 or 4 T9 languages. You put a check mark and voila...the phone downloads the dictionaries OTA and from there you're all set. W-H-Y do we need to be at the carrier / manufacturer's mercy when it comes to our texting habbits? I text both in English and Polish but disabling T9 just so I can send an sms in Polish is just a plain annoyance. Sure there are the device codes which many have played around with but that works across the same hardware only (as in N95-1 in Poland vs N95-1 released in India...change the product code and the firmware update will install with the desired language pack). This unfortunately puts N95-3 or any N, E or whatever -3 users out of luck since the hardware of the device is completely different.

Now with a little hackery as shown on Vaibhav's blog I opened the ".dat" file in Windows notepad" but it's not just a simple list of words one after another. There are some weird characters (HEX perhaps) which lead me to believe that it may not be as ease to add the words to this file and put it back on the phone. Perhaps someone can figure out how to add more words manually and create a custom T9 dictionary????

OpenAtOwnRisk.com Really driving me mad!

2008-07-30T07:19:00.009-05:00

Today OpenAtOwnRisk.com has finally been opened.

What now? To crack the mystery of any need to go to download! and download files. And what if we live in Poland? Of course, we have no way of downloading files...

Here is the screenshot from my phone:

Good luck at breaking the seals... >:-(

4GB MicroSD HC Deal

2008-07-28T12:33:00.005-05:00

Buy.com has a 4GB Dane Electronic MicroSD HC card for $10 after the rebate with free shipping. A Great Deal...

Click below link to get the deal.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=207498748&adid=17070&dcaid=17070

Sportstracker activity

2008-07-26T00:33:00.002-05:00

Nokia Nseries Widget

Symbiosis60

In order to view the Nokia Nseries Widget you need JavaScript and Flash Player 9+ support

Today I went biking...for the first time a while it was a such a long trip for me. I shall see tomorrow how my bum will feel. Along the way I had my N95 with Sportstracker software running. Unfortunately the phone was not fully charged so it died on my way home (about 10 minutes before reaching the destination.

The phone was in my pocket all the time yet the signal was acquired pretty much 99% of the time. All I can say is that it's a cool program. Now I wish it was paired with some other work out program that I could follow while at the gym. Next thing will be a steering handlebar holder for my N95 so I can look at my phone while biking and a solar powered charger would help too :-)

Nokia BH-604 Review

2008-07-24T19:54:00.008-05:00

Today our shop will take a look at the flagship model of wireless headphones straight from Finalnd; Nokia BH-604. At the first glance the headphones appear to be quite large and heavy. That’s exactly how they are! This is not an equipment for everyone and not everyone will like the style either. I’m one of the people that like such design and that is the reason I picked this model over another one. I had serious doubts in selecting the model (BH-604 vs. BH-501) but finally placed my bet on the newer one..so let’s get to the point.

What’s in the box?

One can say it’s all the usual… Obviously you’ll find BH-604 headphones, mini charger AC-5E, a velvet pouch and an instruction manual.

Handling and Functionality

Thank to its size and ergonomic design the headphones stay put on one’s head quite well. The materials used in production are a hard (strong) quality plastic and leather-like padding which houses an adjustable and flexible metal plate which lays quite well on top of head.

All control buttons are located on the right earpiece. You’ll find the standard music-controlling buttons (FF, REW, Play, Stop, Volume). The same earpiece also houses the microphone and charger port.

It also contains a multicolor LED indicator which changes the color depending on the mode:

Blue (fast blink) – Bluetooth discovery mode
Blue (slow blink) – Bluetooth connection established
Green – Power on
Red short blink – during the power-off

The earpieces twist left and right and slide up and down which makes them very accommodating for „larger heads” such as mine :)

During my few months with the headphones there was only one negative thing I’ve noticed. Placement of the buttons is quite good however the FF / REW buttons should be designed in a different way; something easier to press. Example: To advance to the next song the button has to be press quite hard which can cause the headphones to slide off the head. Instead one has to hold the earpiece with the whole hand while pressing the advance button instead of tapping the button with one finger.

Sound...

...That’s exactly what I was afraid of when I was buying my first A2DP headphones. Luckily Nokia did not disappoint me. Quite opposite…I was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately I can not compare them to any other product but I don’t think it’s possible to improve the sound quality over Bluetooth anyway. Myself, an average “John Doe” did not notice any static, cracking etc. The voice quality is good and loud and the bass is clear. I do not recommend to listen to the music on full volume on these headphones – not everyone likes the same kind of music as the person wearing the headsets – these headphones simply rock and you have to hear the sound to believe it.

Battery and Sturdiness

Nokia claims 18 hours of battery life. Usually these specifications are a stretch in real life conditions. Not in this case. I did not look at my watch exactly but the fact that over the period of a few months that I’ve had them, I had to charge them only a few times – this speaks for itself.
Generally I take good care of my gadgets but in case of headphones it’s hard to do it... with these babies I carry them everywhere and do not really pay the attention to the way I handle them; I carry them in my back pack with books (not always in velvet pouch), biking, excursions etc. They even fell on the ground a few times…yet they stay attached to my head very well – no scratches at all.

To sum it all up...

Judging by the above statements one could say that I over exaggerate these headphones, but I have to tell you that I’m not. I’m really amazed with the quality and can easily recommend this hardware to everyone that is on the hunt for Bluetooth headphones and can not make up their mind. It’s worth the price.

It's been seven hours and sixteen days....

2008-07-22T22:37:00.004-05:00

Like Sinead O'connor's song "Nothing compares to you"...however in this case it's been more like almost two years but our belover N95 is going strong. Today after uploading some pictures to Flickr I started browsing EXIF data and found some interesting news.

Basically after almost 20 months since the original launch date (November 2006) Nokia N95 is still one of the most powerful devices on the market. Sure there's N82 which is a beauty as well (I had a pleasure of testing the device a few months ago thanks to the courtesy of WOM World) but the camera is downgraded to 3.2 MP. If you look at the below chart N95 is the MOST popular device in Nokia line-up of camera phones. There have been a few devices launched after however none of them seem to be as popular. And let's face it with the latest firmware updates on N95 it's one snappy phone. Even the original N95-1 (aka Euro version) which had a POOR battery life and was as speedy as the first digital cameras with shutter lag of 5+ seconds got the update and is now on par with the current N95-3 and N95-8GB due to on-demand paging and in general a better memory management. Sinply said - N95 still rocks despite the fact that by now according to mobile trends it should've been long forgotten (Average user replaces their phone every 18 months) but us geeks..well..we do it more like every 2-3 months. If you look at the chart below; that's another story.

iPhone is one shi**y device in my opinion. Sure - it has a gorgeous design and a nicely polished GUI but that's about it. Under that GUI it can't send an MMS, no copy / paste, still no HSDPA and it's locked tighter than medieval chastity belt.
. After almost two years N95 is on TOP. It may be #2 after iPhone however i highly doubt iPhone will even be listed on this chart in two years. First of all it takes rather BAD pictures unless you hold it absolutely still and second...the obvious..in two years that same iPhone will be DEAD due to the fact that its battery is not user replacable. So Hail to N95. Our Good old friend. Old doesn't mean bad.

Leak: FIRST S60 VGA! Screenshot leaked! (update: landscape screens added)

2008-07-19T04:15:00.008-05:00

It finnally happened. K FLYER have got an screenshot from upcoming Nokia S60 VGA Touch Interface. Screen was made by ICEman_c81 in withdrawn version of Carbide.ui (tool for theme makers). As you can see, there is a few buttons on the top for navigation. I don't know how about you, but I'm speechless :) VGA in S60, finally... :) I can't wait to get my hands on it.

(click on image to zoom in)

update:

New, landscape screenshots added! Again thanks to ICEman_c81!

5 Things You (and I) Didn't know

2008-07-10T08:21:00.001-05:00

Recently I started to hunt for the shortcuts which would allow my to browse the web more efficiently on my N95. Finally some clever soul did my homework...follow the link to learn some trick and shortcuts.

read more | digg story

New to the crew

2008-07-04T10:12:00.005-05:00

Hello everyone!

My name is Matthew and I'm 16 years old. I live in Poland and accurately in Legnica. Together with Maciek here I will wrote reviews and news. Maybe some of you know me by my nickname - rodak69. I do not know too much about what I could say more. Watch for my first articles :-)

Yours,
Mateusz (Matthew) - rodak69 - Rodak

Afterparty...N95-3 edition

2008-06-20T23:07:00.004-05:00

Not too long ago North American users of N95 (aka N95-3) were blessed with the long awaited update to our beloved phone. I wasn't going to be left behind so I jumped on the bandwagon and updated the firmware to v20.something... Not realizing that a few features were removed from the US edition (PTT client and IMPS client were some of them). Overall the firmware seems to be a worthy update HOWEVER...one of the things I've noticed is the slowness of SMS inbox. It takes much longer to open the inbox, then click on the message..wait another 2-3 seconds. This is becoming quite annoying. To the rescue comes a good old forgotten friend called SMS Accelerator. This little piece of software was released originally for N80 to remedy the slow performance of SMS messaging. I decided to give it a try and install it on N95-3 v20. All I can say is GO FOR IT. It doesn't just work...it works like a charm bringing the original speed of SMS imbox. Scan the code to get the application directly to your toy.

Nokia N85 in the wild!..could this be my next N-Series

2008-06-09T11:56:00.001-05:00

Engadget scored some spy shots of N85. I think I could go for it under one condition...it must have WCDMA 1700 as I'm not planning to ditch my fave operator..T-Mob.

read more | digg story